Santoro: Former Pack star Caleb Martin shines in NBA playoffs

The Nevada Wolf Pack is playing an important role in this year’s NBA playoffs. Former Wolf Pack player Caleb Martin has been instrumental in the Miami Heat’s 3-0 series edge (Game 4 is Tuesday night) over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals. Martin has come off the bench in all three games, scoring 15, 25 and 18 points, making 24-of-38 shots (10-of-21 threes) with 11 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and two blocks. His 25 points in Game 2 are a record for a Wolf Pack player in an NBA playoff game. He also has the second most for a former Pack player at 22 (set earlier in this year’s playoffs against New York). JaVale McGee had 21 against the Lakers for the Denver Nuggets in 2012 while Edgar Jones had 19 for San Antonio against Denver in 1983. Martin is on the verge of becoming just the second Pack player to ever play in the NBA Finals, behind only McGee. McGee played in two Finals with the Golden State Warriors and won two rings. He also got a ring with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020 but never stepped on the floor in the Finals.

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McGee, who played with the Dallas Mavericks this year, owns almost all of the NBA playoff career records for former Pack players with 74 games, 416 points, 74 blocks and 295 rebounds. Martin, though, is currently putting together the greatest single-season playoff performance by any Pack player. Martin has played in 14 playoff games with the Heat this year and is averaging 12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steals. His 23 career playoff steals are already a record for a former Pack player (McGee had 21). Martin also has 253 points and 106 rebounds in 31 playoff games. Ramon Sessions owns the record for the most career NBA playoff assists for a former Pack player with 66 (Martin and McGee are tied for second at 30, with Johnny High at 29).

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Martin was motivated going into the Heat’s series against Boston because of the way the Celtics defended him last year in the playoffs. The Celtics basically allowed Martin to shoot unguarded while double-teaming other Heat players. “The thing Caleb told me was ‘this is not last year,’ Heat center Bam Adebayo recently told The Athletic. “They did the same thing to him last year. He felt like it was disrespectful.” Martin was ready this year. “I just triggered my brain to last year and knew exactly how they were going to guard me,” Martin said. “I started trying to re-circuit my brain to the looks I would get and how guys were going to help (on defense) off me and I prepared myself to be ready and confident and assertive.” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra added, “He’s had 12 months to prepare for this. He has a lot of pride. He doesn’t like being dis- … whatever, you know.”

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Martin has clearly beaten the odds to become a valuable sixth man for the Heat. He wasn’t even drafted out of Nevada in 2019 while his twin bother Cody was picked in the second round by the Charlotte Hornets. The Hornets quickly signed Caleb as a free agent after the draft and the two brothers spent their first two years in the NBA together in Charlotte. Caleb is now in his second season in Miami while Cody, who missed all but seven games this year because of a knee injury, has played all four of his seasons in Charlotte. He has yet to play in a playoff game. And now Hornets fans are making fun of team owner Michael Jordan for getting rid of the wrong twin. Arkansas coach Eric Musselman, who coached the Martin twins at Nevada, never doubted they would succeed in the NBA. “The Martin twins won’t back down from anybody,” Musselman said a year ago.

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Over the last two or three decades, whenever the Oakland Athletics have threatened to move out of Oakland, the media scurries off to the Oakland Coliseum (or whatever it was called at the time) to interview some lonely A’s fans about how much the team means to them. The same thing, now that the A’s have already planted a foot in Las Vegas, is happening again. Talk about fake news. The real problem is that there just are not enough A’s fans to matter. The A’s are last in the major leagues this year in attendance, at 8,695 fans a game. Most games, the Coliseum is about as filled as Greater Nevada Field in downtown Reno. The A’s have attracted 217,378 fans in their first 25 home games. The Los Angeles Dodgers, by comparison, average nearly 48,000 fans for each game. Last year the A’s were last at 9,973 a game. The year before (2021) they were second to last (ahead of Miami) at 8,767. A’s fans simply never returned to the stadium after the 2020 pandemic season. We get it. There are, of course, enough diseases at the Coliseum that not even a vaccine can offer protection.

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Who would win an NBA Finals between the Heat and the Denver Nuggets? Would anybody even care? The last time anybody paid attention to a Denver-Miami matchup was when Dan Marino faced John Elway in the 1980s and 90s. This NBA Finals will be Miami’s Jimmy Butler trying to outplay Denver’s Nikola Jokic. Denver beat Miami twice this season, though both games were close. Jokic scored 46 points in the two games while Butler had 41. Bam Adebayo also had 41 for Miami. But it doesn’t really matter. The nation will forget who wins a Nuggets-Heat Finals about 48 hours after it ends.

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LeBron James said after getting swept by the Nuggets that he is thinking of retiring. That, of course, is just LeBron trying to steal the media spotlight and also to divert attention away from the fact that he just got swept out of the playoffs. LeBron isn’t retiring anytime soon. He’s got sons (Bronny, Bryce) waiting in the wings to play with him. He will play at least two more years (after Bronny plays at USC this coming season and jumps to the NBA in 2024-25). Expect the Lakers to go out and get some superstar this offseason, giving LeBron one final chance at a ring. Don’t be shocked if the Lakers win the title next year and name LeBron head coach (and part-time player) after the parade so he can coach Bronny and Byce in the NBA for a dozen years or so. Whatever LeBron wants, after all, LeBron gets. It’s his league, no matter who wins the title next month.

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The Wolf Pack baseball team recently completed its 2023 season as the worst team in the Mountain West at 20-33 overall and 10-20 in league play. The four-team Mountain West tournament begins this Thursday in Fresno without the Pack. The Pack was an embarrassing 11-14 at home this year, just the fifth time since Peccole Park opened in 1988 that the Pack finished with a losing record at home. One of those losing years barely counted (2-5 at home in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season). The Pack, which has won 66 percent of its home games at Peccole since 1988, should never have a losing record at home. The one guy who knew that better than anyone was former head coach Gary Powers. Powers’ name, by the way, needs to be put on the stadium. That utter lack of respect for one of the greatest coaches in school history is a disgrace. Right now, the park is Don Weir Field at Peccole Park, named after two guys who simply gave money to Nevada to benefit the baseball program. Powers, though, gave his blood, sweat and tears to the program for three decades. He didn’t simply write a check. He devoted his life to Wolf Pack baseball. Weir and Peccole have gotten their time in the sun. It’s now time to permanently name the place Powers Park.