NBA Playoffs Arrive: Players to Start, You Know, Trying

Another interminably long NBA regular season (eighty two games, to be exact) has ended, and the NBA playoffs have begun. Because of this development, the NBA is worth talking about.

As we say in our header, Drive and Dish is a blog about basketball - with an emphasis on the college game. But with March Madness now a memory, and with the last few spins of the coaching carousel slowing to a stop, we turn our attention to the NBA playoffs (we didn't talk much about the NBA, other than to ridicule its showbiz tendencies, earlier because the NBA regular season is -largely- garbage).

The NBA regular season is so long that players pace themselves, saving their best effort for the playoffs - when things really start to count. Because of this (and other reasons that we'll stay away from), NBA regular season games can be a bit tough to watch. But when the playoffs start, the NBA becomes exciting.

Make no mistake, college basketball and the NBA are two entirely different games. College basketball is played by young student athletes (yeah, we know ... "student athlete" is a bit of a stretch -insert chuckle) typically aged 18-22. The season is about thirty games long with a single elimination, sixty five team tournament deciding the eventual champion. Games are played at a frenetic pace. Teams play in your face defense for all forty minutes. They run continuity offenses, designed to create good shots. On defense, teams trap and press. Momentum shifts are frequent. Games are often won and lost in transition. Every possession counts. College basketball is, in our opinion, the most exciting and most fun sport around.

But the NBA comes alive in the playoffs. Guys start playing tough defense. Offensive sets, while still based on isolation, become crisp. To put it in plain English: after going through the motions during the regular season, NBA players start to play hard in the playoffs.

So, Drive and Dish is now paying attention.


Note:

One thing that we love about college basketball is its passionate fans (okay, truth be told, sometimes I -Trashtalk Superstar- am a bit taken back - if not creeped the hell out- by the fervor of college fans). College basketball fans jump and scream from the tip off until the final buzzer/horn. They dress in crazy get ups and school colors. They make and display funny signs. They storm the court when their team beats a highly ranked team. Fueled by an unyielding allegiance to their school and or state, youthful vigor and a collegiate sense of humor/irony (among other things), college basketball fans can be so boisterous and instrumental that they often affect the outcomes of games. College fans just make the game fun.

NBA fans, by contrast, are a bit more subdued. The people in the good seats are adults (usually urban professionals) who've paid serious money to see (and bee seen at) an NBA game. Sure, they can get loud every now and then (epically in the playoffs), but NBA fans aren't going to do anything to embarrass themselves. Simply, the NBA fan is, for the most part, a fairly well heeled, urban/suburban grown up ... who didn't start drinking at 9;00 am on game day.

Because we do so much material on college basketball, Drive and Dish has, historically, shown some collegiate tendencies. While we focus much of our attention on the mechanics of basketball (strategy, philosophy, X's and O's), we do so with heavy doses of acerbicism, irony and (at times -though I'm loathe to admit it) even snarkiness. Hell, sometimes we descend into trash talking.

But with the advent of the NBA playoffs, and with Drive and Dish changing its focus from college to professional basketball, the editorial staff (after hours of contentious meetings -yeah, we have to work on Saturdays) has decided that it's time for D&D to grow up. So, just as the typical collegian (upon graduating) must eventually leave his/her extended adolescence behind, and get used to the real/professional world (you know the drill: clean up, get a haircut, shave, sober up and learn to wake up before noon), Drive and Dish is moving on to a new chapter in its so called life. We've ditched the face paint, the over sized goofy glasses, the giant foam finger and the crazy afro wig. We're now clean shaven, well scrubbed and adorned in wing tips and a Brooks Brothers suit. We're maturing, or something.

Bring on the NBA playoffs.