Toronto guard Kyle Lowry squarely planted his feet and braced for contact with Milwaukee Bucks big man Giannis Antetokounmpo barreling down on him.
Lowry, one of the best in basketball at taking a charge, absorbed the punishment and drew a foul against the 2.1m Antetokounmpo, but these days, not everybody is willing to do what Lowry does.
“I think it’s kind of a lost art,” DeMarcus Cousins of the Golden State Warriors said of taking a charge.
Photo: AP
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich would not argue that sentiment.
“It seems so, doesn’t it? You can count on one hand how many charges are taken over the course of five or 10 games, in some situations,” Popovich said. “You see it a lot more in college than you do in the NBA. Maybe they’re protecting their contracts, don’t want to get hurt, I don’t know.”
Successfully taking a charge is difficult and even those who are willing to try will not always do so, but it is a play that can change the momentum of a game.
The 1.85m Lowry went into Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Friday with a league-best 11 charges during these playoffs, a stat the NBA keeps under “hustle plays.”
The Raptors have drawn 16 charges and the Warriors were at 16 going into Thursday night’s Game 2 win in the Western Conference Finals against Portland.
There are several keys to it: Anticipate. Get in position. Solidly square your feet and prepare to be run over, knowing the foul call will not always go your way.
Golden State defensive leader Draymond Green thrives in the middle of the action, but he knows firsthand about calls not going his way.
Green failed to get the favorable whistle in the final minute of an overtime road loss against Houston in the last round.
Green seemed to have position when James Harden drove the lane, but no call was made. Replay showed what appeared to be a textbook charge and the NBA Last-Two Minute Report the next day ruled that a charge should have been issued.
There are players in the league who stand out for consistently doing it well and getting the call — Lowry, Clippers guard Patrick Beverley, Boston’s Marcus Smart and Cousins.
“It’s a big play. All of us can’t be up there and be rim protectors and dunk the ball,” Rockets star Chris Paul said. “It can definitely ignite the crowd. Charges are huge and there’s not a lot of guys in the league who do that.”
Not many teams have elite shot blockers anymore either, so taking a charge has become that much more important.
“It’s funny, I took a lot of charges as a player and I had guys who just would not take charges,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “I don’t think it’s a lost art, though, I think there’s a lot of guys [doing it]... What’s lost is that a lot of the bigs don’t do it anymore.”
Cousins enjoys using his 2.1m, 122kg frame to draw charge calls — despite the pain he knows is part of it.
“It’s fun,” he said. “Not only does it help your guys, but it also puts the opponent in a tough position. It’s a turnover and a foul for them... I don’t feel a lot of guys want to sacrifice their body.”
In the modern NBA, there are often fewer opportunities in games to take charges.
Teams do not drive as much in the half court — layups often come in transition, open space. Charges also are typically taken by the player who helps, not the primary defender.
“You’ve got to be smart to be a charge-taker because you have to be there early,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “You have to anticipate the play that’s coming.”
Golden State’s Klay Thompson, known for drawing a tough defensive assignment, believes the ability to take a charge is underappreciated.
“I think it’s a stat that should be accounted for, charges taken, because that’s just as good as a steal, it’s just as good as a block,” Thompson said.
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
Tennis players are facing an unexpected opponent at the Madrid Open. A stomach virus or food poisoning has affected Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Marin Cilic and others, raising concerns. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka avoided an upset by Naomi Osaka on the court on Monday and said she is trying to avoid illness by sticking to a diet of chicken breasts, rice and salad. The rumor among the players was bad shrimp tacos were to blame. Sabalenka knocked on wood for luck and said, “So far, so good. I heard that I have to avoid those tacos,” she laughed, adding “I stick to the
Some of Clearlake Capital Group’s largest investors are growing increasingly concerned about how much time the company’s co-founders are spending on sports investments as they have struggled to complete the fundraising for the private equity firm’s latest flagship fund. One of Clearlake’s co-founders, Behdad Eghbali, has been spending what some investors described as a disproportionate amount of time on the firm’s investment in Chelsea Football Club in recent months. Now, co-founder Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are nearing a record US$3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres. That personal investment by Feliciano has set off the latest
RSS