Long time, no see, hear or read. Along with everyone else, I took a little time to decompress from the NBA finals, as well as throw myself into the World Cup. But good news, WOH is back with a brand new invention. Or really, just a new podcast with Rob, where we spend 90 minutes, first talking about the rumored Kevin Love deals with Golden State, (I get my Klay Thompson hate ON), break down the Spurs victory in the finals, before finishing up with some World Cup talk. We recorded pre-draft and pre USA NUMBER 1's winning-by-losing effort against Germany, so that's why it might sound dated.

Some how in the flurry of podding and previewing, this got missed, but I recorded a pod with Kevin McElroy of KnickerBlogger, Hardwood Paroxysm and The Medium's new The Cauldron site. We talked the Knicks season, the outlook with Phil Jackson in the fold, and how that's gone to this point before finishing with now slightly outdated finals talk.

NBA FINALS! NBA FINALS! NBA FINALS!

Tomorrow, the Finals start. Spurs-Heat. And if you don't like that, you don't like NBA Basketball. I celebration, Rob and I recorded not one but TWO podcasts. In the first one we wrap up the Conference Finals, while in the 2nd when talk about Los Finals.  

A day late in getting this out, but Rob and I recorded our 2nd round preview Sunday night (as should be clear when I say foolish things about the Clippers potentially no-showing Game 1. Oops.) This podcast is literally earth-shaking as we unintentionally recap the first round before moving on to the games still to come. Obviously, we recorded before today's news that Mark Jackson is out in Golden State. Audio & download after the jump.

Since the start of the whole sordid Sterling affair, my friend Jacob Greenberg of The Diss has consistently provided some of the more interesting, provocative and insightful on the incident itself as well as the reaction around the league, media and what he called "basketblogosphere." We talked for about 45 minutes on Wednesday night to sort out some thoughts on the various aspects of the incident. The articles we referred to are from Kevin Draper at The Diss, from Kevin McElroy at Hardwood Paroxysm and here from Bomani Jones on the Dan Le Batard show.  Audio and download after the jump.

Better late than never, Rob and I recorded a podcast before the start of any Game 3's on Thursday. We look far less silly, as we suggested neither Houston-Portland or Chicago-Washington were close to over. In particular, a possible Nene suspension could be a HUGE swing in that series. Indiana though...at a certain point I'm going to have to accept that Pre-ASB Pacers are dead and gone and not coming back.  Audio and download after the jump:

Yesterday, I looked in depth at some of the cleverness that makes San Antonio so deadly in their half court execution.  Today, I want to give the same treatment to the Wizards.  It seems slightly churlish to be critical - they did just have an enormous Game 1 victory over Chicago. But, I don't think it was their offensive execution which paved the way: Nene made a lot of midrange shots - 7/12 from areas where he shot 43.4 % during the regular season, and the Chicago offense (like the Chicago offense does) sputtered.

I've talked before about the difference between physical tools and the ability to "make a play," and have done so specifically in the context of reading the pick-and-roll. The Spurs, despite having a somewhat clunky offensive game by their standards, still put on a master class in pick-and-roll execution. By comparison, despite their victory, the Wizards young guards clearly have things still to learn. In this post, I'll look at what the Spurs guards do well, and in the next, I'll tackle where the young Wizards guards sometimes fail (though not the Professor Andre Miller as if there's one guy who knows how to win without speed...)