Seven-Foot Garnett Locks Down Six-Foot Flash

A minute to go, Celtics ball. Ray Allen drives right, jumps right, and shoots as he's fading right. Dwayne Wade blocks the shot, grabs the ball and drives, uncovered to the left side of the arc on the Celtics end of the court.

The lead is 8, a comfortable margin under similar circumstances in most games, only the Heat have reduced the lead from a 25-point deficiet in the third. The world is at Wade's finger tips.

Will he pull up and shoot a trey or drive to the hole for an easy deuce?

In the moment it took for Wade to make this decision, something happened.

7'1" Kevin Garnett caught up to the 6'3" Wade and made him ponder what to do a little longer. As Wade fiddled, Garnett settled into a defensive position, a good 8 feet from Flash. Wade took a dribble, and Garnett closed in on him.

Yes, your reading that correctly. Garnett, unconcerned that Flash might, well, flash by him, pretty much crawled on top of Wade, stretching out both arms, seemingly from one end of the court to the other.

Of course, Wade realized the opportunity and just blew past the gangly seven-footer, right?

Nope.

Well, then Wade must have took a dribble toward the hoop, got Garnett moving in the wrong direction, and then stepped back and hit a fade-away from international waters, right?

Nope.

Wade, appearing frozen by his defender, attempted to pass the ball.

Garnett deflected it to Posey.

Game over.

There are a lot of definitions of the term "lock-down" defender.

Here's mine.

1. Get in front of your opponent and prevent him from driving.
2. Get in front of your opponent and prevent him from shooting.
3. Get in front of your opponent and prevent him from dribbling or passing.
4. If you fail at any of the above three, recover by blocking opponent's shot attempt.

Garnett didn't get to step 4 because he didn't have to. But that was only because he totally shut down Wade on steps 1-3.

In a later post I will contend there is something significant going on here, something that distinguishes attempts by opponents to erase huge deficits against the 2007-2008 Celtics and similar attempts by opponents against the 1985-1986 Celtics.

But for now, let's just relish in the moment when our seven-foot big man locked down one of the game's premiere six-foot scorers.