SQ14 #64 Body Blows of Basketball II--Spirit Breakers

About three weeks ago I wrote about the Body Blows of Basketball.  In it I highlighted the effects of the running game, pressure defense, and exhaustion; and how I saw this current Celtics team well positioned to make full use of such an approach.  Today I’d like to delve into some other body blows that sap the spirit of opponents.  Some are individual actions, others are full team applications, but all are tide-turners after which you can literally see the opposition deflate and their focus and energy ebb away.

These are what I call the Spirit Breakers--dunks, blocks, fast breaks, steals, 24-sec violations, charges, and inbounds violations.  Now for me personally dunks and to a lesser extent blocks are the most over rated plays in basketball.  These darlings of ESPN, so aptly suited to the 5-second coverage of a two-hour game, are tiny slices dissected from the context of a four act play, never yielding more than a one-basket swing, but drawing a crescendo hoots and chest-thumps.  Their added value, however, comes exactly from the derivative emotional displays and surges.  Their ability to engage teammates and the crowd often becomes a palpable contribution, a plus for the perpetrators and negative for the victims, that can raise the level of one team’s play while eroding the other’s.  Enough of these body blows and the spirit is broken such that it seems hardly worth going on.

The rest of the list can also provide similar lifts/suppressions, and are to my mind much more exciting examples of basketball acumen.  There is no debate that fast breaks, 24-second shot clock violations, and 5-second in-bounds violations are earned by the entire team; and my feeling is that these type of shared benefits are the strongest inducement to furthering team effort.  Most of the time a steal is due to the effort of more contributors than just the player gaining control of the ball.  Even a charge is often due to teammates funneling the driver into a narrow channel with the charge-taker plugging the end of the chute.  All of these actions leave the opposition feeling as if even their best efforts are for nought; and the resulting swing in emotion makes reversing the effect ever more difficult.

Basketball is a physical game, played, at its best, with the mind fully engaged.  Kevin Garnett, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and all the way back to Bill Russell played mind tricks on their opponents.  If the opposition wasn’t already beaten coming out of the locker room, their games were frequently thrown completely out of kilter by half-time, and the final result was just running out the string.  In a game lauded for the excesses of athleticism, it is noteworthy to consider that it is also a battle of the wills; and it is the body blows that often lead to “ling chi,” that death by a thousand cuts.  I’m sure you could come up with your own favorite examples--perhaps Bird’s step-back three, or a made basket after a hard foul (to make sure they don’t make the basket), or an ankle-breaking stop-and-go, or Rondo’s behind-the-back-oops-not-really lay-ups.  The defining characteristic is not just a change on the scoreboard, but the change in your opponents’ countenance.

There are no more days until training camp--Media Day tomorrow![Discuss on CG Forums!]