The back porch; the back lawn; 1990s NBA

We’ve cleaned up the spacious, shaded, screened-in back porch, and I’ve been trying to spend time on it each day, out of doors but not really out of doors. Samuel is very interested in what he sees outside. Jasper and Ziva also like to explore out on the porch; I must supervise them, however, because Karin keeps a dahlia there, which is poisonous to cats.

On Saturday, we all gathered on the porch with Mary & Martin and Stephen & Edoarda. Each family stayed some ten feet from the others.

Then, on Sunday, I had to mow in the rain.

(It really is a soggy lawn. I understand why on Midsomer Murders the English are always wearing Wellingtons. Everyone says our tree looks like a willow, and then remarks that willows don’t usually grow away from water. I think there’s plenty of water.)

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The outstanding documentary series of the quarantining period isn’t Tiger King; it’s The Last Dance, about the 1990s Chicago Bulls. I haven’t seen a single episode of The Last Dance – we don’t have cable – and yet I know it’s good because every day my Facebook feed is crowded with articles riffing on this or that point it raises. I’ve been inspired to rewatch quite a few old basketball games on YouTube. (Samuel likes them, too.) These are the three conclusions I’ve drawn:

(1) The Chicago Bulls were awesome (pick any year).

(2) The 1994–1995 Houston Rockets were awesome, though they didn’t win many games in the regular season. Hakeem Olajuwon was just tremendous: powerful and very smooth (and a crafty ball stealer).

(3) The 1997–1998 Indiana Pacers were as good as I remembered them (i.e., very good). Would they have beaten the Jazz in the final playoff round? I don’t know.

These impressions are borne out by two fine articles by Sam Quinn: one about the Rockets, and one about the Pacers.

Warriors vs. Cavs

Karin & I have been watching the NBA finals. There’s a lot about basketball that I don’t pretend to understand. But one thing seems clear: the Warriors are better now than last year. (The Cavaliers also seem to have improved, but it’s harder to be sure of this since lately they’ve been getting thrashed.)

The Warriors were excellent last season, but this year their winning percentage may actually turn out to be higher. Which makes sense, because this year, as perceived by my own innocent eyes, the Warriors are playing better.

Let’s count up the Warriors’ victories and defeats from these seasons.

Last year’s regular season: 73 victories, 9 defeats (the best-ever NBA regular season).

Last year’s postseason: 15 victories, 9 defeats.

This year’s regular season: 67 victories, 15 defeats (very good, but well below the all-time summit).

This year’s postseason, so far: 15 victories, 0 defeats. A victory in Game Four of the finals would secure a perfect 16–0 postseason for the Warriors, which would be an NBA record.

Also notable, however, are the Warriors’ combined victory-to-defeat ratios in each of these last two years.

Last year, in total, the Warriors won 88 games and lost 18. That is, they won just above 83% of their games. And this year? If they win Game Four, their combined record will be 83 victories and 15 defeats. They’ll’ve won above 84% of their games. And even if they lose Game Four, they can still finish with a better percentage than last year as long as they win Game Five.

These Warriors still wouldn’t have as good a combined percentage as the 1996 Chicago Bulls, the team whose famed regular season (72–10) the Warriors eclipsed a year ago. That’s because, in the 1996 postseason, the Bulls won 15 games and lost 3. Their combined record that year came to 87 victories and 13 defeats. That is, they won 87 games out of 100.

And those SuperSonics whom the Bulls played in the finals, they weren’t featherweights, either. One of them was a thorn-in-the-flesh perimeter defender, and the other was an all-around beast of a player from Elkhart, Indiana, just down the road from us.