Nate the Great

There hasn’t been much for Nate Robinson to be excited about over the course of his five-year career. He put up some decent numbers with the New York Knicks — but nothing earth-shattering — and he has a few Dunk Contest titles under his belt.

Other than that, Robinson’s stint in the NBA has been largely unspectacular. He has shown flashes of greatness with his solid three-point shooting, inhuman athleticism (especially considering his tiny 5-foot-9 frame), and unflappable fearlessness. But he’s had many problems.

His unpredictable emotions have been just as much a deterrent as they have been a bonus. Robinson has negotiated many issues with coaches, referees, and teammates. In fact, earlier this season, he got in to a tiff with Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, who subsequently confined Robinson to a bench role on one of the worst teams in basketball — and not because he lacked talent.

Then Robinson caught a lucky break. Shortly before this year’s trade deadline, the Boston Celtics sprung Robinson from his negligible role in New York, giving him a new opportunity to play in New England on a team headed for the playoffs. Then again, at that time, the Celtics looked like they were limping to a first-round exit against whomever they drew.

During the regular season, Robinson’s playing time with Boston was, once again, fairly limited, as he served as the backup to blossoming star Rajon Rondo. He managed only 14.1 minutes per game and was relegated to basically a spot-up shooting role, taking over half his field-goal attempts from three-point range with only 2 assists per contest. It wasn’t much of an improvement from his days playing in MSG.

Nevertheless, he got his first shot at the playoffs. Apparently out of the rotation for the Celtics, Robinson was a nonfactor in the team’s first two series against the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Doc Rivers remained confident that his midseason acquistion would play some sort of role in a run to the championships.

“There will be a game where we’re flat, and we’re going to need somebody to come in and make something happen … He’s going to win us a playoff game,” he said.

Then, in this current series against the Magic that time when they were flat arrived. In Game 5, the Celtics were struggling with many injuries, and Robinson got some time toward the end of the game. While his contributions were, for the most part, pedestrian, he clearly showed Rivers something with a nice three-pointer and some athletic blocks against the Orlando bigs.

So when Rondo hit the floor in the first half of Game 6 and had to sit down, Robinson got the call. In limited action in the first half, Robinson was magnificent: he contributed 13 of the team’s 55 points at the break. He completely reversed the negative sentiment amid the crowd after Rondo went down hurt, and his emotion energized everyone in the building.

So Robinson may not have been in the rotation at the beginning of the playoffs, but as Rivers predicted, he is helping the Celtics win this potentially deciding Game 6. Not only that, he has shown he can play when it matters, so he could be a factor in the NBA finals.

How’s that for a guy who was riding the pine for the Knicks just a few months ago?

NBA Today: May 28

• The Lakers take a 3-2 series advantage over the Suns on a buzzer-beating layup by Ron Artest.

• Rod Thorn, president of the New Jersey Nets, is ready to begin interviewing coaching candidates. He says he has about six in mind.

• Al Jefferson will receive two years’ probation after pleading guilty to a DUI.

NBA Summit 2010

On Thursday, impending free agent Dwyane Wade announced that before he makes any decision about where he’s going to play next season, he’s going to consult his partners in crime (Yeah, it’s a crime how much they’re going to yank from their teams next year) LeBron James, Joe Johnson, and Chris Bosh.

The nature of this conference is, and will remain, largely confidential, for the most part, but let’s call this what it is: a conspiracy to take all the power away from the GMs and reserve it for themselves.

They’re going to say that they will debate the merits and drawbacks of each team (the prospects of winning, the market, etc.), but the purpose of this meeting — and, more accurately, the announcement of this meeting — is to stir the pot, develop baseless “conditions” for signing one of these stars, and give the notion that there’s some semblance of a super team under construction.

Hey, maybe we’ll even hear that one of them will be willing to sign for one dollar under the maximum!

This whole deal stinks of corruption and misplaced sense of power. The closest comparison I can draw is Elaine, George, and Kramer’s collective demand for $1 million per episode for Seinfeld’s final season. Unfortunately, this is a lot more fishy.

The NBA has all kinds of strict rules about when and how teams can engage and discuss potential free agents in anticipation that a wheeling-and-dealing GM might secure a top player before anyone else has a chance. In effect, it is to protect the players.

Why, then, is this sort of meeting acceptable? Sure, you can say it’s simply freedom of speech for them to talk to one another, but if the league is going to go out of its way to ensure protection of the players, shouldn’t it do the same for the teams? The free agents have a lot more impact on this offseason frenzy than a lot of people would expect, so why the league allow them to wield even more in this de facto manipulation of teams in pursuit?

To put it simply, the league shouldn’t. But they’ll never change anything. This process has become way too much of a publicity stunt, and the NBA doesn’t want to see that dissolve.

Already we have the mere speculation that LeBron might leave, and its headlines dominate the press landscape on a daily basis. Hello? There are two competitive playoff series going on right now, and all most people care about is where “The Chosen One” will land next season. Granted, it could have implications far greater than one NBA title, but let’s save the analysis for when things are little more concrete, huh?

This meeting is going to boil down to just this: “Hey, guys. How can we get these teams to sweat a bit more and brighten the spotlight on us? I don’t even care about winning, just give me the fame!”

Well, that’s just great.

NBA Today: May 27

• Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Joe Johnson are going to discuss their free-agency plans before making any decisions.

• Could the Celtics be in trouble with all their injuries and Kendrick Perkins’s technical fouls?

• The Atlanta Hawks talk to Dallas assistant Dwane Casey about their coaching job again.

Suns win on the strength of fundamentals

The Phoenix Suns played picture-perfect basketball in Game 4.

The Phoenix Suns have made the Western Conference Finals a lot more interesting than most could have hoped for after the Los Angeles Lakers took a commanding 2-0 lead in the series.

Behind the support of its home crowd, Phoenix took Games 3 and 4 against the defending champions after looking weak, uninspired, and apathetic.

I’ve already written about coach Alvin Gentry’s timely decision to have his squad try a zone defense on the Lakers, but in Game 4 on Tuesday night, that defensive scheme wasn’t what won the game for the Suns.

No, it was a return to fundamentals, instead, that sparked the Suns to a series-squaring victory.

When you think about Phoenix Suns basketball, fundamentalism isn’t the first thing that comes to mind for most. They run, they shoot a lot of threes, they have no back-to-the-basket post scorer, and they tend to “relax” on defense. But Tuesday’s game was a good illustration of how an unconventional team like Phoenix can win by embracing the basics of basketball.

This approach to the game manifested itself if three primary ways: (1) a balanced scoring effort; (2) superb bench production; and (3) exceptional shooting discipline leading to streaks.

In the usual Suns game, the offensive production is funneled through Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire, as they effortlessly run the pick-and-roll play for easy points. Throw in the occasional outburst from Jason Richardson, Grant Hill, or Leandro Barbosa, and that’s the typical makeup.

On Tuesday night, though, that wasn’t the case. The team’s leading scorer was Stoudemire, but he put up a modest 21 points. Steve Nash contributed only 15. More importantly, though, the Suns had six scorers in double figures, and everyone who played in the game posted no fewer than 6 points.

Spreading the wealth with that kind of ball distribution allows the whole team to get in to a groove, preventing the Lakers from keying in on anyone in particular on defense. Usually, Phil Jackson can sit back and expect his team will defend Nash and Stoudemire while not having to worry about anyone else. In Game 4, everyone was hitting shots, so it spread the Lakers’ defense thin to the point that it couldn’t keep up.

In a similar vein, the Suns’ bench played brilliant basketball against the Lakers. Led by a gritty performance in relief of Nash by Goran “Enter the” Dragic (8 points, 8 dimes), the Suns drilled the Lakers with 54 bench points and were absolutely on fire from the perimeter. At one point in the game, Channing Frye, Leandro Barbosa, and Jared Dudley hit consecutive threes to ignite the crowd and knock LA back on its heels — it was a meaningful turning point for the game.

The solid play by the reserves allows Nash and Stoudemire to get their well-deserved and much-needed rest without a cause for concern. In the fourth quarter, Gentry even elected to stay with his second unit a few minutes longer than usual because it was playing so well. That’s a good sign for your team.

Lastly, the Suns used the power of momentum to their full advantage. I mentioned above that streak of back-to-back-to-back three-pointers; those weren’t lucky shots. Phoenix spread the floor very well, creating space for the shooters on the perimeter. Each one of those shots was sufficiently open.

But it takes rare confidence for Barbosa and Dudley to fire off those long-range bombs after Frye’s make. They sensed the opportunity to create some distance between the Lakers and themselves, and they took advantage. They knew they could hit the shots, and they had the power of the crowd behind them as further encouragement.

If the Phoenix Suns can continue to pair this fundamental execution with their effective zone defense, the Lakers have to be careful. Sure, the series is going back to the Staples Center, where the Lakers play much better than they do on the road. That won’t stop the stranglehold that the Suns’ zone has on their paint production, though. If the perimeter players can find their rhythm from the outside like they did in Game 4, the Lakers won’t stand a chance.

It’s the Phoenix offense at its best — with a twist of defensive prowess and fundamental execution.

NBA Today: May 26

• The Phoenix Suns have evened up the Western Conference Finals on the strength of their bench production, balanced scoring, and streaky shooting.

• The New Orleans Hornets have offered their coaching job to Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau.

• Chicago’s Joakim Noah is confident the Bulls will be better next season.

Zone defense against the Lakers

Can Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol handle the Suns' 2-3 zone?

The Phoenix Suns showed the Los Angeles Lakers that they aren’t just going to roll over and allow the defending champs to waltz into the NBA Finals for the third consecutive year.

On Sunday night, the Suns defeated the Lakers on their home court by a score of 118-109 on the strength of a defensive effort absent in Games 1 and 2, in which the Lakers scored 128 points and 124 points, respectively.

But aside from the advantage of playing in front of their fans at home on Sunday, there was another reason the Suns excelled on defense. Noticing the Lakers’ complete obliteration on the front line, coach Alvin Gentry decided to make a change. Deviating from the man-to-man defense he instituted in the first two contests, in Game 3 he had his team playing a 2-3 zone defense.

Continuously discussed before and during the beginning of the series was the Suns’ deficiency in the front court against the trio of Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom off the bench. And that was only magnified by Amar’e Stoudemire’s comment that Odom “got lucky” with his 19 rebounds in Game 1.

The goal of the zone defense, particularly the 2-3, allows the defense to swarm easily on Gasol and the others down low (or deny the entry pass altogether and keep the ball out of the paint), nullifying their advantage and making any shot in the immediate basket area a difficult one.

There are typically drawbacks to such a defensive scheme, though. With a good passer in the post like Gasol for the Lakers, the Suns run the risk of a kick-out pass to an open shooter. With three men left clogging the middle, that leaves only two defenders remaining to close out on three possible jump shooters.

Luckily for the Suns, the Lakers are not a great perimeter-shooting team. Other than Kobe Bryant, who played very well (36 points, 9 rebounds, 11 assists), their other guards aren’t very good three-point shooters. Ron Artest, specifically, has been dreadful from the outside thus far.

If the Suns can continue to execute on defense, the zone should help them deep into this series. But as soon as the Lakers set in to the mindset that they have to attack the zone with drives from the outside, it could wreak some havoc and get Phoenix into early foul trouble.

That said, it’s really their only option right now. In Games 1 and 2, the Suns were lame ducks looking to be blown away by the Lakers. In Game 3, they showed what most were expecting coming off of a series sweep of the San Antonio Spurs. The series should get interesting from here on out.