If I’m honest, I don’t love beautiful basketball nearly as much as the rest of my adult years. What registers as Beautiful Although subjective, this is how I see the fluidity of off ball movement offered by a team such as the Golden State WarriorsIt can seem as if every player is an instrument in an orchestra. They weave in and out of narrow windows of space, racing for a larger one.
Even though he has been widely maligned since, Luka Doncic His crew was sent packing to return to the valley’s dry heat. There is beauty along the way. Chris Paul He has, at his best, perfected patience and vision to be a point guard who has the best interests for his teammates. Young beauty. Darius GarlandThe ball will often be thrown by, who can sometimes wander along the baseline, or from one wing to the other. This is because the best point guards understand the difference between what you can and what you must do, and it’s worth waiting for, if you have the patience.
I can appreciate the beauty and subtleties of the game. Some might call them poetic. Basketball, especially playoff basketball, is not often praised for its poetics of brutality. A series that drags on is characterized by two teams with players who are exhausted of each other. However, both sides must continue pushing against the same exit. Some nights with more ferocity then others.
Enter Miami Heat vs. Boston Celtics The Eastern Conference finals. The entire series of playoff games has not been exciting. Although I agree that this year’s playoff games have been mostly dull, it should be noted that many of us who watched them in the past few years might have been more spoiled. Haphazard and chaotic as they were, the bubble playoffs were teeming with excitement — in part, I’m sure, because they offered a brief respite from the ever-growing cracks in the façade of empire. There was also real excitement in this series.
Donovan Mitchell vs. Jamal Murray! Doncic vs. … well, All the Clippers The Clippers fall against the Nuggets! Jimmy Butler drags Miami as far as possible, half-collapsed And The process left you exhausted.
The Trae Young Playoff Race and the Ben Simmons Downfall made last season’s playoffs a satisfying experience for any narrative-driven sports fan. The Finals had plenty of signatures, even beyond those. Giannis moments.
At the moment, Celtics Heat is the only remaining competitive series. We’ve got the fun, but not always entertaining series with two young team. Now we have the series in which one or both of the older teams won’t let go of the more skilled veterans. There have been enough coaches complaining about fouls, and asking questions about the intentions of their opponents. The Mavericks were one of the best stories in the playoffs. They won Game 4, but they have spent the majority of the series looking completely bewildered against the Warriors.
There is an East series that is both unattractive and engaging, but it is not attractive. Both the Heat and Celtics have traded moments of dominance, but they have not always been sustained for four quarters. There are times when long periods of not scoring are interrupted by a frenetic rush of sloppy scores near the end. These are the games that are easiest to tune out, especially with an East Coast start time of 8:30 p.m. and those of us in the Elderly Millennial or beyond, yawning and looking at our watches.
This series was messy and plodding, but I loved it all. It helps that Boston and Miami are both very well-equipped for this type of battle. A lot is made about Miami’s strength and ability to fight if given the chance. However, that is not the point. Miami is a team that survives partially by outlasting its opponent. This is where the Celtics come in. They are difficult to beat. This, I think is why the series has moved so much from game-to-game, almost like a full round in a boxing match, where one fighter is exhausted from previous rounds and trying to stay standing.
I don’t think I get excited to watch the Heat score one point for several minutes or the Celtics make a series costly mistakes. I like. Bam Adebayo It is a lot for him, and it is why watching him struggle through extremely uneven play is so painful. Normally reliable shooters are often off, fouls can be hard, and injuries pile up during the game. Players then go to their locker rooms and emerge. All of the games felt almost infinite, regardless of their length. However, I am excited by the progress of this series. It seems to be destined for Game 7, full of haymakers.
I was raised to love ugly Eastern Conference basketball. But that doesn’t mean I have a passion for bad basketball. Bad basketball doesn’t always have to be ugly, and ugly basketball certainly isn’t always bad. Timberwolves I am a huge basketball fan and have seen a lot of the good and bad sides of the game. People often romanticize the ’80s or ’90s NBA. They talk about a more violent game where guards would get into the lane and suffer a bloody or bruised price. That is what I enjoyed most about that era. It was less about on-court play than it was about two teams who didn’t like each other (even during the regular season), and figuring out how to win and leave no one behind. Patrick Ewing looked exhausted in games with sweaty eyes, which I loved. This is a failure my young imagination. Penny Hardaway is an exception. I have never liked players who make the game seem easy.
Partly because I am new to root for the Celtics, Jayson Tatum For me, Tatum is the only player who can make the work seem both simple and difficult at the same time. To guard Tatum one on one is to be caught in a seemingly endless tunnel, with many moves, some more efficient than others but all appearing simultaneously effortless and extremely laborious. He is impossible when he is on and equally impossible when he is off. I gravitate towards players like Tatum who are less appealing on offense in the middle. A “pretty great” Tatum game is not something I care about. I prefer the ones that he seems to be in orbit, complete solar systems beyond anyone who dares test him. The ones where he is far away, confused by his own struggles, but still firing away are my favorites.
I also like the Celtics because they have worked so hard against the ridiculously constructed narratives that fill the airspace of the networks. This includes the narrative that suggests that if two young talented players are on a team, then those players should be separated. This narrative is particularly confusing to me as it doesn’t seem to be grounded in much. This is the Tatum’s most successful on-court version of the Celtics.Jaylen Brown It is a different era. However, it is this way because the pair have spent time together. They have gone through many versions of Celtics Basketball and are now at the forefront. Two talented players cannot be separated because they perceive themselves as failing in one way. However, it does not take into account the fact that their failures are necessary to achieve whatever successes may lie on the other side. This was especially evident during the Celtics’ playoff run. In this series, Tatum and Brown have in most cases figured out how they can provide for their teammates when they are down.
But, there is still so much to be said.
This series is both exhausting and great because it has virtually no sustained momentum. Of course, there are occasional in-game bursts. However, nothing seems to transfer from one game to another. Every tipoff is like a wipe of their collective memories. They spend the first part of each game trying to learn how to play again. This has probably led to the unbalanced first quarter performances in all subsequent games, beyond Game 1.
Although I expect this series to end with a flourish I must admit that it will be hard to watch the last part. It is the part that looks mostly like a lot of ugly, hard work with small sprigs of beauty decorating the heavy wall both sides are trying to erect. I confess that I love a good story. Although a story doesn’t always have to be beautiful, it does need to be engaging enough to keep my interest and promise a reward. This series is not the same as those days of brawling and intense matches that felt like you were walking through slow-accumulating quicksand. It still looks great in the costume. Even though it’s not always entertaining, it looks hard at least. It’s enough to keep my interest until it gets really great.