ℝ3

To: Tyronn Lue
From: Benjamin "Hoops" Harris
Subject: Guess

I have always liked Kyrie Irving. Good job playing him and bringing Love off the bench. Almost worked. Almost.

I have been thinking this afternoon about what advice to give you. I have been thinking about this at the "macro" level which is Bay Area-speak for I didn't watch the game. I studied the box score, read a couple articles and I got a Flash, now it may have been lightening but I think rather thunder and I am taking it as a Eureka! moment. And Lue, it is going to rock your world.

OKC had a lot of success against Golden State, no? Not four games worth of success, I allow, but three and that is two more than you have right now. 

Lue, this is no time for "adjustments," okay? Reconfiguring the seating on the Titanic would have been making an "adjustment," Lue, it wouldn't have plugged the hole, the boat still would have sunk and you will too and to the bottom of Lake Erie unless you rock the world. 

The boat has to sink the water. 

You must start Kevin Love Monday night. And that big dopey Russian guy, too. 

That is my Eureka! Flash. No, no, no! No need to thank me. Just do it.

I make explain. I started by asking myself "Why did Oklahoma City have three games of success against Golden State?" I don't know all the reasons but I remember reading, oh so long ago, that one big reason was space. Space: The Finals Frawn-teer. 

Golden State's Eureka! flash, last year, one borne of necessity not Inspiration, was to go with their "Death Lineup," oh! Just take me out and shoot me, a quick, dead-eyed shooting, long-distance dialing lineup of munchkins on accounta munchkins is all they had. 

The "Death Lineup" causes "matchup" problems, "matchup" is another one of those Bay Area terms. Their "Death Lineup" is their boat that sunk the water: counter-intuitive, small guys having a matchup advantage over big guys in BASKETBALL?!, get outta town, but that's what it is; quickness not only negates opponents' height, it turns it into an advantage for the height-challenged.

The concept is almost identical to what Howard Schnellenberger realized with his first great Miam-uh team of munchkin, gridiron scholars back in the day. "Size only matters if you let it lean on you," Schnellenberger said. If you are too quick for the Nebraska oafs, you don't get crushed. Which itself is derivative (ultimately (sort of)) from a play Coach Einstein drew up on the ol' chalkboard way back in the day, E=MC2. Stay with me here, Lue. Mass, size, gets vaporized at the speed of light squared-which is the speed the "Dubya's" play at.

Now what did those wiley "Thunders" do? 

Those wiley "Thunders" realized that the "Death Lineup" matchup only works in space, the "Dubya's" have to dart around and under the oafs to get "open," in space. And the "Thunders" realized that there are three dimensions to space. Stay with me here, Lue.

You have your "X," length of court, space. You have your "Z," width of court space. Those are the only dimensions on your chalkboard, Lue, which sucks because the plays you draw up on your chalkboard represent three dimensions in only two, dos, as we say in America, dimensions.

If you think in chalkboard dimensions or frigging Power Point dimensions or whatever you are thinking in two dimensions, not three. Those wiley "Thunders" realized that they were cheating themselves, and coaches Schnellenberger, Einstein and Euclid, in ignoring the third dimension, "Y," or height. If you crowd the "Dubya's" out of space they ain't gettin' open, not for their long-distance shots, not for any distance shots and you can crowd them out of space by the length of the court, the width of the court, or by the space above the court, the "Y" dimension. 

"Oaf" is a term of art only used when referring to Nebraska tackle football players but their equivalent in basketball, Lue, what did we used to call those guys, do you remember? 

"Space eaters."

Like him.

(It is the state-of-the-art to have a space eater who bears familiar resemblance to Charles Manson.)

See how the space eater is crowding the elf magician's space there, Lue? The elf magician is like, "Get outta my way you big space eater, you're crowding my space!"

OKC went big with guys like Steven Adams against the "Death Lineup" and they almost killed it dead. The "Dubya's" were seriously, seriously bothered by it.  Look how far out Adams is! And look who he's guarding. Look at the difficulty on Curry's face. What do you think would have happened if Curry had pulled up for a shot right there? You don't have to wonder:

Steph Curry tossed the rock up in expectation of another Splash. Steven Adams, Space Eater, became one of only two players to block a Curry shot this entire season. And he did it out at the three-point line. Adams blocked that shot by eating the space along the "Y" dimension above the elf magician.

Lue, you got guys like Adams. The dopey Russian. The dopey Lovey-Dovey. Probably some other dopes. Start those two guys Monday night and put them on the Splash Brothers!

Call me if you want.