NBA Finals: Game 6 Hangover

• So…wow. I can’t even… No, just forget it. Still speechless, a full day and a half later. There are no words. I’m without words. I am wordless.
• Ah hell, let’s give this recap a try any way. Game 7 is only a few hours away – the shelf life on this is practically up as is…
• So, in attempting to recap Tuesday night, the most challenging part of assessing what happened is to force yourself to not get too wrapped up in the moment. All that will do is lose overall perspective, and lead to even more hyperbole than normal. The game was certainly one of the most special contest we’ve seen in years, maybe even this century, but there was an immediate reaction to want to crown this as “the greatest basketball game ever” that rang a bit false to me. There is no doubt that the storylines and the narrative drama that played out over the fourth quarter and overtime make this one of the most riveting and emotionally compelling games anyone can remember. But it was not necessarily particularly well played – at least not all the way through – and it did not feature good officiating, or sustained stretches of great play for both teams. What we saw instead was pockets of singular moments, or runs, of brilliance, and incredible isolated moments where star players rose to meet the moment they were in. And that was wonderful, and thrilling, and as entertaining as anything I’ve seen on a basketball court since the 1990s. But it was not GREAT basketball – it was great theatre from teams that were fighting tooth-and-nail despite poor execution and exhaustion.
• For me, great theater and great single plays in isolation are important when identifying a game was transcendent, as are the built-in narratives around ‘heart’ and ‘legacy’ and ‘historical significance’. But also important is having prolonged great play on the floor from each team at the same time, and we didn’t get much of that. Just like in every other game this series; we saw one team go on a massive run met by an equally massive response from the opponent, and a seesaw of momentum, but not big plays met with big plays in immediate response.
• So, a day removed to have time to reflect and consider Game 6 of this series for all the memorable, fun, electrifying moments it brought us, I would place it immediately beside Game 7 of the 2010 Finals between LA and Boston as one of the two most entertaining and memorable games I’ve watched this century, but I can’t go higher than that. Perhaps the drama that in inherent in a Game 7 compared to just a Game 6 is what ultimately means the Lakers’ win trumps the wackiness from Tuesday night for me, or maybe (definitely?) it is because I am a Lakers fan and therefore have a considerable personal bias in assessing how special and emotionally taxing that Game 7 was. Either way though, I think what we got the other night is something that we as basketball fans will all remember for years, if not decades, on, and it is a reminder of how much fun it is to be a fan of this game

More thoughts on Game 6, and some on Game 7, after the jump…