Sharp Cuts, Crisp Passes, Solid Screens

Perhaps animated by the spirit of DJ, the Celtics FINALLY broke through on the road in Texas last night, and came back from 13 down to beat a short-handed Rockets team by a handful. Not that I was watching; I was finally back on the court again myself, tying to play myself back into "game shape" after a two-week lay-off due as much to weather, travel, and lingering winter puniness as any other reason. This was actually my second night back (since I also played last Wednesday), and it really showed on both ends of the floor -- had a tough time moving defensively to stay with my opponent, and my shooting...well, the less said about that the better. I did finally get into enough of a rhythm that I was able to make a few easy jump shots and a couple of lay-ups to finish fast breaks. But even just running the floor was an ordeal, my reactions were all a step slow, and every shot I put up seemed to roll off the side of my index finger rather than cleanly leaving my hand.

But all those personal shortcomings aside, the nice thing about this time of year is that, for the most part, we are ALL starting to play together a lot better. We're setting better screens, and playing good help defense, the cuts are sharper, the passes crisper, and the whole game just seems to flow a lot more smoothly than it did even just a few months ago. Baseball Spring Training has already begun in Florida and Arizona; the All-Star game and the NBA trading deadline have both passed; the High School and College seasons are all but over now, and it's Tournament time: the beginning of March Madness. Good teams are SUPPOSED to be peaking right now, and it's really a joy to watch. Especially at the High School level, where so much of a team's success is generated by their ability to learn and master certain aspects of the game more quickly than their opponents over the course of a season, the maturing of these young ballplayers is a joy to witness. It's like a metamorphosis: these young players come out of their cocoons and suddenly they can fly. They even move differently on the floor, more gracefully, more confidently, like basketball players. You can easily recongnize a well-coached team this time of year: they've mastered the fundamentals of passing, dribbling, shooting, rebounding, and defending; they've learned their offensive and defensive sets, figured out where they belong on the court in any given situation, and what their responsibilities are; they're running the floor, pressing after made shots, easily breaking their opponent's presses and transforming them into easy baskets, communicating effectively with one another and playing together like a single unit, like a TEAM. With all the emphasis on winning and losing in sport, it's easy to overlook the more fundamental teacher/student, master/disciple relationship which transforms losers into winners. Victory is simply one measure of excellence. But it is not necessarily excellence in its own right.

OK, that's enough of a sermon for today. Just one last word of benediction. Forget about the scoreboard, or the win/loss record. If you REALLY want to measure the excellence of a basketball team, watch them practice and try to notice the little things: how sharply they cut, how crisply they pass, how solidly they set their screens. Because these are the things that ultimately distinguish the real winners from the hopeless losers....