Ugly is Compelling For San Antonio, Boston

The Celtics and Spurs jostle this morning in Boston, two teams with excellent defenses and only slightly above-average offenses. As you’d expect, there aren’t too many beautiful fast breaks or stunning ball-movement sets. It’s ugly, stuttering basketball. Everyone knows it’s effective, and that old cliche that “defense wins championships” will never die. As such, games like this are considered bores, a relic of the early ‘90s East Coast Basketball everyone ran from.
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↵But this is actually much different than the defensive basketball of yesterday. There is little banging, few hard fouls, and no “no lay-up” rules. This is skilled defensive basketball. The same precision and art Chris Paul brings to the high pick-and-roll and Steve Nash brings to the open court, the Spurs and Celtics offer that on defense. Every rotation looks perfect, every shot challenge repeatable and structured. When we think of athleticism on defense, we imagine steals and blocks. But the way in which Kevin Garnett uses his length and quickness to pin the opponent on the baseline, the method Tim Duncan employs to convince his attacker to settle away from the basket -- it’s as beautiful as Seven Seconds or Less.
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↵You just have to get past the lack of makes, the frequent stoppages, the deflections leading to broken plays, the slow pace bringing the ball up the court, the lack of exciting putback attempts, the screen slips, the pindowns, the face-up jumpers, the 20-foot post-ups. Once you get over all of that, it’s a really beautiful match-up.↵