Warriors: Possibility (Durant), probability (Cousins) and Steph’s big quarter

in ,

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

OAKLAND, Calif. — These are the Warriors that were supposed to be, baskets by the dozens, points by the hundreds, ignoring the possibility (that Kevin Durant may be leaving), relishing the probability (that DeMarcus Cousins is arriving) and ecstatic that Steph Curry, who scored 23 points in the third quarter alone, is once again, Steph Curry.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019, The Maven 

Saban handles defeat better than his team handled Clemson

in ,

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — He handled the defeat better than his secondary handled the Clemson receivers. This was a momentous defeat for Nick Saban, his worst at Alabama, his second worst as a college football coach, and yet he dealt with it forthright, candidly, if somewhat bewildered by his team’s failings.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019, The Maven

The game was great, but down the stretch the Warriors were not

in ,

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — Kevin Durant studied the final stat sheet and listened to the questions. “I thought both teams played great,” he said, as much to himself as to the media facing him.

That they did. It was just that the Houston Rockets played a little greater.

Give Durant credit. He was out there, in the middle, so to speak, making baskets, missing shots, running, leaping, falling and, with his teammates, losing.

And yet he was moved by more than the final result, the Houston Rockets defeating the Warriors 135-134 on a 3-point basket with one second left by, whom else, James Harden.

Say what you want, that the Dubs, who were up by 20 in the first minute of the third quarter, blew the game; that Harden with yet another triple double (44 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds) is unstoppable; that Golden State will be in trouble in the playoffs.

But if you love basketball, you have to appreciate what took place in the Dubs’ first home appearance of the new year, a meeting of the two teams who battled for seven games in last year’s Western Conference final — the change in momentum, the big baskets down the stretch, the reminder that in sports nothing is certain, even a huge second-half lead by the back-to-back NBA champions.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr was less magnanimous than Durant. “I thought we had control of the game,” said Kerr. “We had a six-point lead with the ball and would have liked to have seen us get better shots.”

And have liked to have seen the Rockets, who now have won both games on the season schedule, get less successful shots.

“They came out swinging,” Kerr said of the Rockets after intermission. “They scored, I think, 18 points in the first four minutes. Our defense was really poor. Our offensive execution was really lacking.” 

And Harden, the bearded wonder who had his fifth straight 40-point game and second triple double of the week, was really, well, being James Harden.

“He just did what he always does,” said Kerr. “He’s the master of isolation, the step-back three and drawing fouls. I thought we did a really good job of keeping him off the line (Harden was 8-of-9 on free throws) for the most part. He made an impossible shot at the end. Just an incredible performance. Give him all the credit he deserves.”

And give the Warriors another loss in a meaningful game at the Oracle, where in some two-plus months they’ve flopped against Oklahoma City, Toronto, Milwaukee, the Lakers and now Houston.

“Down the stretch we were missing shots,” said Durant, who scored 26 points but only two in the third quarter. Steph Curry led the Warriors with 35, while Klay Thompson had 26.

“But I don’t think down the stretch is the reason we lost,” Durant added. “I just felt we let our foot off the gas a little bit in the third quarter. They knocked down some shots. But James shot 23 threes tonight. That’s a lot of three pointers.”

Including the game winner. “James wouldn’t have had to make that shot,” said Thompson, “if we just played the way we were supposed to in the second half. The ball movement got stagnant.”

For the Rockets, the ball moves in Harden’s hands.

“He can get any shot he wants,” Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said. “His threat is getting to the rim any time he wants. I don’t think we’ve seen the likes of this offense and the explosion he has.”

Harden got pummeled in the first quarter and left the game for a few minutes. “I was a little dizzy in the beginning,” he said, “but it’s a big-time game for us.”

During the day, broadcasters at ESPN debated whether the game was more important for the Warriors or for the Rockets, a bit silly but time-filling.

Asked why he’s so difficult to guard, Harden candidly pointed out, “I think it’s the separation I create, and once I create the separation you can’t really recover. You have to let me shoot or hit my elbow. There’s not much you can do about it.”

Except, as did Kevin Durant, contend that you played in a great game.

Urban’s Rose Bowl: A lifetime dream fulfilled

By Art Spander

PASADENA, Calif. — Urban Meyer walked off the field at the Rose Bowl, and presumably away from coaching, with the win he cherished in the game he waited a career in which to take part.

If indeed Ohio State’s rather impressive and mostly one-sided 28-23 win over Washington on Tuesday in the 105th Rose Bowl was his final, last, ultimate game as a college coach, then he departs with considerable glory and one huge question — why did his Buckeyes flop against Purdue in October?

That was the only loss for Ohio State (13-1) in a year of tumult (Meyer was suspended for the team’s first three games) and change (the 54-year Meyer announcing he was retiring when the season game to an end, which it did the opening day of 2019).

Had Ohio State not stumbled, the Buckeyes would have played in one of two College Championship semifinals, probably in place of Oklahoma. Not that Ohio State would have done much better against top-ranked Alabama than the Sooners, who were pummeled, 35-34.

That left Ohio State in the “Granddaddy of Them All,” as the Rose Bowl bills itself in a copyrighted phrase, a game as a kid in Ohio Meyer watched on TV but a game in which as player or coach he never had appeared. Until Tuesday.

So there was a nice bit of closure for Meyer, who won two national championships at Florida (before retiring the first time) and another at Ohio State, where he’s retiring again.

“This has been a bucket list,” said Meyer. “We came so close, and I love all the other bowls, but being a Big Ten guy from Ohio and watching the Rose Bowl in the ‘70s with Archie Griffin playing, it’s everything everybody says it was. It was a great game, and I’ll tell you what, Washington is a hell of a team.”

It didn’t play like one for a long while, looking offensively challenged much like the other bowl teams from the Pac-12 conference, other than Washington State. The Huskies were in a 28-3 hole late in the third quarter, doing little while Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr., who would be named offensive player of the game, was throwing three touchdown passes.

Finally, as the evening chill worked its way down from the San Gabriel Mountains, which rise to more than 5,000 feet only a few miles from the stadium, the Huskies warmed up. They scored three fourth-quarter TDs (although wasting a precious minute earlier in the period), then failed to grab their onside kick with 42 seconds remaining.

Asked what was going through his head as Washington awoke on Myles Gaskin’s running (two TDs) and passing (a touchdown throw to Drew Sample), Meyer said, “Are you kidding me? Until we got the onside kick…”

“All credit to our opponent and the great defense we faced. But we got our 13th win. Time to move on.”
His 84th win against nine losses in his seasons at Ohio State.

Washington coach Chris Peterson was known for his unconventional style while at Boise State — remember that bowl upset of Oklahoma — but the Huskies for three quarters either didn’t do much or couldn’t do much.

“Tough one,” said Peterson. “Very frustrating when you start the first half like we started. I had no idea why. It's on me. It's not these kids. They practiced hard. They're ready to play. But we really didn't play with that edge and that chip that we normally play with, really, just, you know, across the whole squad.

“I don't know, being off that much time, it just didn't seem the same. I'm proud of them. A few adjustments at halftime, but really more than anything, just an attitude adjustment, make a few plays. And that breeds excitement when you make a few plays and kind of feed off each other.”

Too little, too late, but at least it turned tedium into fascination.

Someone said to Meyer that on Wednesday morning, he would no longer be a coach, and so what would he do?

“I have no idea, to be honest with you,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about that a little bit and trying not to think about it because it gets in the way of these players and the team.”

Nothing got in the way of that win in the long-awaited Rose Bowl.