Experience Matters?

Like the 1983 Edmonton Oilers lost the Stanley Cup to the New York Islanders and the 1998 Brazil team lost the World Cup to France, it appears that the 2008 Los Angeles Lakes will lose the Association title to the more experienced Boston Celtics. The gifted Oilers and Brazilians won the subsequent championships in fairly dominating fashion; it remains to be seen whether the 2009 Lakers will do likewise.

Thursday’s Game 4 was disastrous for L.A.: the first half the manifestation of every possible lucky bounce followed by the second half which showcased Boston’s outstanding focus. Often, older teams rely on intelligence and intensity more than their athleticism. For example, the San Antonio Spurs will make countless adjustments until they regain the upper hand whilst the Celtics turn up the heat defensively.

Athletic teams, such as the Lakers cope better with opponents that adjust because they possess a natural advantage anyways. When young players meet a squad that is outworking them, they have trouble processing that superior performance. They should be better but they aren’t and the reasons for the discrepancy are highly intangible: fighting through injuries, battling for every rebound and loose ball, not stopping until the ball is through the hoop.

Assistant Coach Tom Thibodeau’s defensive is essentially a match-up Man-to-Man, with plenty of help and rotation. The team may trap screen and rolls or shrink the court with a sagging defence but they don’t make a lot of changes. When behind, they pick up the energy and play harder. Even Head Coach Doc Rivers out-coached his counterpart by picking up a T at the right time and reminding the veterans who play for the team that he coaches to pick up their intensity.

Is Phil Jackson the same person who previously won titles in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles? The fact he has (probably) twice coached a more talented team to defeat against a more passionate defensive team in the Finals raises the question.

The current Lakers squad can still win. I think that it’s a matter of getting their star post Andrew Bynum back, adding a couple more veteran threats to the bench and teaching Pau Gasol and Vladimir Radmanovic how to defend and rebound with their heads and hearts. I thought that they had enough talent to get the job done but apparently I was mistaken.

Kobe, Derrick Fisher, and Jackson had been there before and should have better helped their teammates prepare but they seemingly haven’t. This first hand experience should teach L.A. how to defend, stop the ball, rotate and recover, get to the rim, and rebound as hard as they can throughout the championship series. Like Wayne Gretzky and his young teammates losing to the hardened Islanders dynasty, the Lakers will have the edge when these two teams meet again in the 2009 Association Finals.

Performance under Pressure, Part IV

A C.I.S. observer suggested that the premature defeat of the Carleton Ravens at the Final 8 Tournament was partially due to the absence of tight games on the Ravens’ schedule. I disagree, specifically and generally speaking.

Although Carleton did not execute well during the last possessions of both regulation and overtime, inexperience did not lead to this poor performance. The team was comprised of largely juniors and seniors who had played close games together throughout the previous seasons. During their run of five consecutive championships, the Ravens had defeated Brandon, U.P.E.I., Guelph, St. F.X., and Ottawa by five points or less. Forty percent of the starting line-up belonged to the Canadian National Team Roster, including Aaron Doornekamp who was named National Player of the Year. In 2007, the Ravens won the title with a poor seed and in 2008 without Doornekamp on the court.

The team knew what to do, having played more than enough basketball at the high school, university, and club levels (to say nothing of the pick-up and practice courts). Like the shooter seeing the defender cheating on the curl who flares or the point guard perceiving the hedge who rejects the screen, the Ravens should have recognized what was happening. Since the final shot was taken by a player who was shooting 4 for 23 instead of a teammate playing better at the time, perhaps it was the coaches whose recognition was out of practice.

Any coach cannot and should not rely on the breaks of the game to temper a team. Practices should account for the majority of competitive situations faced by players. Every drill should be a competition against a benchmark, previous personal best, or another squad. The clock is mounted in the gym for a reason. There will be times when the Blues must overcome adversity and beat the buzzer or when the Whites will run their opponents off the court. The majority of these drills, games, and scrimmages will be close enough and all players - not just the starters - will learn how to handle pressure.

Carleton was fortunate that intrinsic motivation enhanced a number of these situations during their practices; the Ravens are tremendously proud and uncompromising. However any coach can create a similar training, practice, and game environment with extrinsic motivation.

Bemoaning the trip back from Lennoxville and blaming the fact that teams only play at Bishop’s once per year is short-sighted and ignores choices and habits. Teams play thirty games per season, a small percentage of the total time players and coaches are together. Which is ourselves, n’est-ce pas?