tlongII
07-16-2012, 02:42 PM
http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-120715/daily-dime
LAS VEGAS -- Sunday night's marquee matchup at the Thomas & Mack Center offered a stark contrast in pedigree and portfolio.
Austin Rivers grew up in basketball royalty and played a single season at Duke, one of college basketball's most storied institutions.
Damian Lillard, overlooked by the big programs, drifted under the radar at Weber State in Ogden, Utah, for nearly four years, during which he sat out most of the 2010-11 season with a broken foot.
Both Rivers and Lillard are gifted performers who are creative and aggressive with the ball, but when it came time for the Portland Trail Blazers to select their point guard of the future, they opted for the more polished Lillard at No. 6. A few minutes later, Rivers stepped to the podium as the New Orleans Hornets' pick at No. 10.
After a jittery first half for both rookies, Lillard scored 21 of his 25 points after intermission and rallied Portland from a 17-point deficit to an 85-82 win over New Orleans.
"The first half there were some butterflies," Lillard said, "I was just getting used to it -- the speed. There was a lot of athleticism out there. But I think once I calmed down and got comfortable, that's when I started to play better."
Lillard started the evening by executing a perfectly choreographed pick-and-roll with fellow first-round draftee Meyers Leonard, who dived down the gut of the lane for an easy 2. For Lillard, whose primary collegiate competition came against the Big Sky Conference, this was slick, NBA-quality stuff.
After that, things got a little bumpy. He'd split a couple of defenders on his way to the hole, but the ball wouldn't go down. He'd create space for open jumpers, but the shots didn't fall. Overall, Lillard missed eight of his 10 shot attempts in the first half without a single free throw attempt.
That last fact gnawed at him at halftime.
"When I came out, a lot of my shots were jumpers," Lillard said. "I felt like I needed to get in rhythm, which meant I needed to get to the free throw line, and I needed to get to the rim and draw contact."
Those in Lillard's camp will commonly praise him for his ability to read the game and, subsequently, control it. In the third quarter, he promptly exerted those skills as he single-handedly reversed the Trail Blazers' fortunes.
Determined to force the issue inside, Lillard patiently planned his attacks, waiting on screens at the top of the floor, then bursting ahead to absorb contact. Twice in the third quarter he converted old-fashioned three-point plays with finishes in traffic -- once with an acrobatic chuck with his right hand, the other with a nasty crossover followed by an off-balance left-handed launch.
"It all came back to me," Lillard said. "I was being patient. My shots weren't falling, but I stuck with it."
Lillard is far from your ball-dominating point guard. Even when he started lighting it up from the outside, he never stopped looking for his big men. He went back to Leonard for another pick-and-roll in the third quarter, this one resulting in a thunderous alley-oop.
In the closing minutes, Lillard delivered an uncanny lookaway pass to Leonard on a basket dive. The big man got fouled and drained two big free throws in a tight game.
"I really wanted to show people I can make plays and get guys involved," Lillard said. "I thought I got a lot of guys shots. Any time you can come in and make the guys around you better and get them easy shots, I feel like you're doing your job and you're playing well and just making the right plays, and I thought I did that."
The question surrounding Lillard's counterpart Sunday night was whether he could perform a similar function with his new team. Rivers is a dynamic, confident guard who can find his way to the rim, but his capacity to hold down the point guard position is still up for debate.
Like Lillard, Rivers took plenty of lumps in the first half. He'd explode off a high screen to draw a backpedaling big man on the switch -- only to step out of bounds on the baseline drive.
And like Lillard, he appeared far more comfortable in the second half. Rivers finished with 14 points on 3-for-13 shooting from the field and 7-for-10 from the stripe. Those aren't attractive numbers, but Rivers' stat line shouldn't serve as an indictment. The Trail Blazers had a tough time staying in front of Rivers, who got to the rim with regularity off high picks.
Will Rivers' ability to penetrate ultimately allow him to play the point in New Orleans?
"Listen, it's a challenge," Rivers said. "I know I'm up to it. I'm going to work. I'll be ready. Tonight was the first time I've ever done it in my life, so you learn, but I know I can do it. I've got four more games, a million more practices. I'll be ready."
That's the gambit for Rivers and the Hornets. Can a talented player with formidable tools as a scorer parlay those skills to become a championship-quality playmaker?
Are point guards born or can they be engineered?
The Trail Blazers feel they have a natural, while the Hornets are banking that the latter is possible.
LAS VEGAS -- Sunday night's marquee matchup at the Thomas & Mack Center offered a stark contrast in pedigree and portfolio.
Austin Rivers grew up in basketball royalty and played a single season at Duke, one of college basketball's most storied institutions.
Damian Lillard, overlooked by the big programs, drifted under the radar at Weber State in Ogden, Utah, for nearly four years, during which he sat out most of the 2010-11 season with a broken foot.
Both Rivers and Lillard are gifted performers who are creative and aggressive with the ball, but when it came time for the Portland Trail Blazers to select their point guard of the future, they opted for the more polished Lillard at No. 6. A few minutes later, Rivers stepped to the podium as the New Orleans Hornets' pick at No. 10.
After a jittery first half for both rookies, Lillard scored 21 of his 25 points after intermission and rallied Portland from a 17-point deficit to an 85-82 win over New Orleans.
"The first half there were some butterflies," Lillard said, "I was just getting used to it -- the speed. There was a lot of athleticism out there. But I think once I calmed down and got comfortable, that's when I started to play better."
Lillard started the evening by executing a perfectly choreographed pick-and-roll with fellow first-round draftee Meyers Leonard, who dived down the gut of the lane for an easy 2. For Lillard, whose primary collegiate competition came against the Big Sky Conference, this was slick, NBA-quality stuff.
After that, things got a little bumpy. He'd split a couple of defenders on his way to the hole, but the ball wouldn't go down. He'd create space for open jumpers, but the shots didn't fall. Overall, Lillard missed eight of his 10 shot attempts in the first half without a single free throw attempt.
That last fact gnawed at him at halftime.
"When I came out, a lot of my shots were jumpers," Lillard said. "I felt like I needed to get in rhythm, which meant I needed to get to the free throw line, and I needed to get to the rim and draw contact."
Those in Lillard's camp will commonly praise him for his ability to read the game and, subsequently, control it. In the third quarter, he promptly exerted those skills as he single-handedly reversed the Trail Blazers' fortunes.
Determined to force the issue inside, Lillard patiently planned his attacks, waiting on screens at the top of the floor, then bursting ahead to absorb contact. Twice in the third quarter he converted old-fashioned three-point plays with finishes in traffic -- once with an acrobatic chuck with his right hand, the other with a nasty crossover followed by an off-balance left-handed launch.
"It all came back to me," Lillard said. "I was being patient. My shots weren't falling, but I stuck with it."
Lillard is far from your ball-dominating point guard. Even when he started lighting it up from the outside, he never stopped looking for his big men. He went back to Leonard for another pick-and-roll in the third quarter, this one resulting in a thunderous alley-oop.
In the closing minutes, Lillard delivered an uncanny lookaway pass to Leonard on a basket dive. The big man got fouled and drained two big free throws in a tight game.
"I really wanted to show people I can make plays and get guys involved," Lillard said. "I thought I got a lot of guys shots. Any time you can come in and make the guys around you better and get them easy shots, I feel like you're doing your job and you're playing well and just making the right plays, and I thought I did that."
The question surrounding Lillard's counterpart Sunday night was whether he could perform a similar function with his new team. Rivers is a dynamic, confident guard who can find his way to the rim, but his capacity to hold down the point guard position is still up for debate.
Like Lillard, Rivers took plenty of lumps in the first half. He'd explode off a high screen to draw a backpedaling big man on the switch -- only to step out of bounds on the baseline drive.
And like Lillard, he appeared far more comfortable in the second half. Rivers finished with 14 points on 3-for-13 shooting from the field and 7-for-10 from the stripe. Those aren't attractive numbers, but Rivers' stat line shouldn't serve as an indictment. The Trail Blazers had a tough time staying in front of Rivers, who got to the rim with regularity off high picks.
Will Rivers' ability to penetrate ultimately allow him to play the point in New Orleans?
"Listen, it's a challenge," Rivers said. "I know I'm up to it. I'm going to work. I'll be ready. Tonight was the first time I've ever done it in my life, so you learn, but I know I can do it. I've got four more games, a million more practices. I'll be ready."
That's the gambit for Rivers and the Hornets. Can a talented player with formidable tools as a scorer parlay those skills to become a championship-quality playmaker?
Are point guards born or can they be engineered?
The Trail Blazers feel they have a natural, while the Hornets are banking that the latter is possible.