Matt Steinmetz

There’s that old saying about the band getting together. It ain’t that but I’m thinking of starting up the blog again. Not sure why and not sure completely what about but I think I’m going to start putting down some things I’m thinking. Here’s what’s crossing my mind now:

—Great sports night coming up. We’ve got Raiders game, baseball playoff game, Oklahoma City playing the Knicks and then the Lakers-Clippers game. I’m sure I forgot a game. Can’t remember.

The Raiders’ game is huge. They’re 2-4 and were supposed to contend for a Super Bowl. Instead, their offense has been horrible, and people are starting to point the finger at coach Jack Del Rio and offensive coordinator Todd Downing. If Raiders lose tonight against Kansas City, the path to the playoffs is maybe nothing less than a run-of-the-table.

Big night for Del Rio, who will be hard-pressed to downplay the significance of a loss … should it happen.

— I want Dodgers-Yankees.

—Still obsessing about the Colangelo’s getting to run the 76ers these days.

Went on with Joe, Lo and Dibs of 95.7-The Game and talked some Warriors. There were three main topics we hit on. Well, four, actually, but I’ll get to that. Here is a link to the eight-minute interview and below is some of what was said.

LINK TO STEINMETZ INTERVIEW WITH JOE, LO AND DIBS ABOUT WARRIORS.

–Which team would the Warriors rather play — the Jazz or Clippers? I don’t think there’s any doubt at this point, with Blake Griffin done for the remainder of the playoffs, Golden State would rather face L.A. The Warriors have beaten the Clippers 10 straight regular-season games. Draymond Green usually does a pretty good job on Griffin. Nevertheless, Griffin does seem to sometimes gets numbers. They’ll miss those times.

The Jazz, currently up 3-2 in the series, is getting healthier, and Utah has the kind of deliberate offensive system, and sticky enough defense, that there’s certainly some intrigue here. There are legitimate concerns about whether the Jazz will be able to score enough to beat the Warriors — particularly because they can throw multiple long bodies on Utah’s best player: Gordon Hayward.

Continue reading →

–If you want to know why teams don’t just “run their offense” in a game’s final moments or last couple of possessions, watch the end of the Clippers-Jazz Game 1. Both of the game’s biggest buckets — Chris Paul’s little jumper and Joe Johnson’s game-winner — were absolute instances of getting the ball in a guy’s hands and letting him go one-on-one.

This is often referred to as “hero ball,” a term I despise with the intensity of a thousand suns, yet that’s a topic for another time.

The reason it’s not as simple as “running your offense” down the stretch of a game is because when you run your offense you don’t know who’s going to have the ball at the critical juncture that a play needs to be made. You don’t want a non-shooter with the ball late in the shot clock … but that’s the obvious point.

If you run you’re offense, you’re not going to know who’s going to shoot the ball or when. You put the ball into your best player’s hands and allow him to make a decision, then you already know the answer to both of those questions.

Continue reading →