Ric Bucher has always liked nothing more than breaking down guards, whether it be on a
playground or on paper. Here he does it for ESPN.com. We call it "On Guards" for obvious reasons. Look for this feature each Monday. Better yet, be on guard for it.
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| Eisley |
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| Francis |
This week's feature guards: Houston's Steve Francis and Dallas' Howard Eisley.
Time to look in on Texas, where outside of San Antonio perimeter players
rule. Bereft of quality big men in the post to feed and playing for coaches
with wide-open-throttle styles, both Francis and Eisley have the freedom (and
responsibility) to impact their teams as few point guards can. And so they
have -- only in different ways.
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RIC'S GUARD RANKINGS
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THE WEEK'S TOP 10
1. Kobe Bryant - Making concerted effort to get Shaq the ball - at least in
the early going
2. Allen Iverson - 40 vs. the Spurs while shooting 58.6 percent
3. Gary Payton - Led Sonics to four consecutive wins
4. Steve Francis - See mainbar
5. Stephon Marbury - FG pct. (45.4) and scoring average (24.4) still at
career highs despite Nets' woes
6. John Stockton - Aggressiveness (23 FTs in last two games) pulled Jazz out
of slump
7. Jason Kidd - Dismantled by GP in loss to Sonics
8. Andre Miller - Getting a taste of Marbury's life as Cavs have lost 11 of 13
9. Jerry Stackhouse - 21 TOs in last four games but scored 41 and 35 while
shooting 66 percent
10. Derek Anderson - Averaged 24 points while shooting 58 percent over last
three games
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On the rise: Francis
(19.2 ppg, 6.3 apg, 6.6 rpg, 2.1 stls, .447 FG, .884 FT)
As magnificent as he can sometimes appear in a boxscore or a highlight
clip, they could not do Stevie Franchise justice on his recent tear. Over the
Rockets' last six games he has flirted with a triple-double every night,
averaging 22 points, 8.1 assists and 8.3 rebounds over that stretch. He
out-dunked the
Vinsanity one night and matched Vlade Divac and Chris Webber combined for
blocked shots (4 to their 2 a piece) on another.
But what the numbers and
highlights don't capture are the stretches his will to win simply overwhelms
the opposition. Case in point: Rockets' 84-81 loss to the Kings. Houston was
down by 15 in the third quarter and shouldn't have been that close,
considering Sacramento had Divac and CWebb vs. Kenny Thomas and Maurice
Taylor. Taking a page from John Stockton's book of help defense, Francis
harassed every member of the Kings' front line into a fourth-quarter turnover
and disrupted their offense enough to limit them to one field goal in the
first 11-plus minutes of the period. At the other end, he repeatedly sliced
through the Kings' defense and soared for right-handed finger rolls and
left-handed banked layups.
Don't be put off by his season 2-1
assist/turnover ratio, either. First of all, without a proven post scorer
there are no easy assists to be had. Taylor and Cuttino Mobley do him little
good as well -- they need so many dribbles to set up their shot no
self-respecting official scorer could award a dime for getting them the ball.
Competition for All-Star spots will be stiff among Western Conference guards,
but Francis deserves to be there.
On the slide: Eisley
(10.3 ppg, 3.8 apg, 2.6 rpg, 1.3 stls, .413 FG, .815 FT)
If Eisley doesn't miss Salt Lake City, he certainly has to miss the style
of basketball they play around the Wasatch Mountains. Afforded a chance to
start and play significant minutes with Steve Nash hampered by the flu and
hamstring problems, Eisley did nothing to threaten Nash's hold on the job. As
of Monday morning he had a streak of eight games shooting under 39 percent
and a turnover/assist ratio of 1.8-1. This, despite playing against some of
the league's weaker backcourts -- Wizards, Bulls -- during that stretch.
It
appears as if Eisley simply isn't comfortable in the Mavericks'
free-wheeling, perimeter-oriented style after five seasons as a cog in the
Jazz's clockwork attack. His three-point shooting remains decent (39.4
percent on the season, although that has suffered of late, too), but he's
neither attacking the basket nor finding fast-break dimes. In the
aforementioned stretch of eight games he didn't take a single free throw in
six, including five games in which he played 30 or more minutes. Eisley is
still a quality point guard, but as of now he looks like a bad fit with the
Mavs.
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| Allen |
This week's guard to watch: Ray Allen
Finding the balance of outside marksmanship and
slashing drives that make him so lethal, he has shot better than 50 percent (13
of 24) from beyond the arc in the last five games and made 36 of his last 38
free throws.
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ALSO SEE
On Guards (McKie and N. Anderson), Jan. 7
On Guards (Rose and McGrady), Dec. 28
On Guards (Bibby and Jackson), Dec. 18
On Guards (Stockton, Blaylock), Nov. 27
On Guards (Nash, A.Miller), Nov. 20
On Guards (Anderson, Billups), Nov. 13
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