Forty-one years ago, then-Lakers coach Pat Riley – long before he became the legend he has since become – unveiled a simple mantra amid one of those knock-down, drag-out meetings with Boston in the NBA Finals: “No rebounds, no rings.”
One year earlier, Moses Malone had proven that when he drove the Sixers to their most recent title. He once summed up his approach thusly: “I turn, and I go to the rack.” And so he did. (There are also those who swear that during the team’s championship parade, some construction workers raised their lunchpails in tribute to Moses – a 21-pail salute, as it were.)
Sure, you can point out that Riley won five titles in the ‘80s because he had Kareem and Magic at his disposal. Or that Moses’ running mate was the elegant Dr. J, Julius Erving. You’ve still got to put on your hard hat. You’ve still got to do the dirty work.
And that remains true today, as we’ve learned from watching Oklahoma City against Indiana in this year’s Finals.
Pardon Thunder coach Mark Daigneault if he outsmarted himself in the first three games by replacing one of his starting bigs, Isaiah Hartenstein, with a wing, Cason Wallace. Charles Barkley, who knows a little something about rebounding, called Daigneault on it during an appearance on NBA TV, after the Pacers opened a 2-1 lead in the series.
Barkley’s reasoning had some merit: The Thunder had gone 68-14 during the regular season, and 12-4 in the playoffs, while typically starting Hartenstine and fellow big Chet Holmgren. Why switch now?
Daigneault went back to Hartenstein in a must-win Game 4 last Friday, and while that wasn’t the biggest reason the Thunder evened the series with a 111-104 victory (with Game 5 Monday night in OKC), it was unquestionably a factor.
The Thunder won the board battle for the third straight game, this time by a 43-33 margin. More significant was the 23-11 advantage they enjoyed on second-chance points, including 8-4 in the fourth quarter, when they erased a seven-point deficit by outscoring Indiana, 31-17.
Shai Gilgeous Alexander was huge down the stretch, scoring 15 of his 35 points in the last 4:38. And a tip of the cap here to Daigneault and his staff for relieving SGA of his ball-handling duties early in the game, thereby enabling the league MVP to have something left in the tank for crunch time. (As noted by NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, Gilgeous-Alexander was also employed as a screener far more often than in the first three games, enabling him to either free up Jalen Williams, who finished with 27 points, or exploit favorable matchups in the event the Pacers switched.)
But the boards were big. Holmgren, who finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds, had two stick-backs early in the fourth, then saw SGA convert another one of his offensive rebounds into a layup. And Hartenstein had a follow of his own in the period, which also saw OKC limit Indiana to 5-for-18 shooting (0-for-8 on 3-pointers).
The Thunder managed to win on a night when they missed 14 of their 17 attempts from the arc, though SGA made a huge one with 2:58 remaining and his team down four. They pulled it out, at least in part, because they adhered to Riley’s long-ago mantra. Because they turned and went to the rack. And that’s always worthy of a salute, whether by lunchpail or some other means.