Scott Machado spent the past summer playing for Brazil at the World University Games, his senior season as the big man on campus at Iona winning the Haggerty Award as the New York Metropolitan Player of the Year, and is currently training for the NBA Draft.

Machado led the NCAA in assists at just under 10 per game while averaging 13.6 points and five rebounds.

Machado thrives in the open court on the fastbreak thanks to his speed, but can also run a team in halfcourt sets thanks to his superior court vision and ability to penetrate and locate open teammates. Machado has also improved his conditioning level and now has a leaner physique at 6’1” and 195 lbs.

The rise of Machado began this past summer as he played for Brazil at the World University Games, an experience he described as a “privilege”.

Once his time with Brazil was over, Machado gained a new perspective on basketball and life.

“Basketball was on a whole different level," said Machado. "At that point it made me realize that basketball could be so much bigger not only for my life, but it could help me branch off in a lot of things."

An increased competition level against top professional players in Brazil also shaped Machado’s game on the court.

“Learning the game, watching other players. I think that was the biggest thing, learning the game and staying focused every time I stepped on the court,” said Machado.

Upon a return to the U.S., Machado took his new perspective on basketball and life and channeled them together for a new outlook.

“Basketball can relate to life in many ways,” said Machado. “If you’re not working hard on the court getting your game better year-by-year you don’t build the work ethic to work hard in life.”

Machado played the best basketball of his Iona career in his senior season and dominated the MAAC.

Despite putting up career-high numbers across the board, Machado felt overlooked and underrated while at Iona and wants NBA executives to know he has an NBA game and can play well against top competition.

“I did a little bit. It’s been like that my whole life. I’m kind of used to it. I feel like I’m capable of playing at any level,” said Machado. “Being a leader, being able to be vocal on the court and letting people know that you know how to play basketball.”

In a draft that is as deep as we’ve seen in recent years, Machado points out key differences between himself and other top point guard prospects like Kendall Marshall, Marquis Teague, and Damian Lillard.

“I feel like I’m an all around point guard," said Machado. "I feel like I know when to pick and choose my spots at the right time. I know how to run a team very well. I know how to speak to my teammates, how to speak to each teammate directly. I feel like I have more experience than the other guards coming out with me. I feel like I’ll be able to step in right onto a team and help them win some games and be another vocal leader."

When compared to other guards in the draft, scouts questioned Machado’s size after the season, but he has worked hard to improve his strength, quickness, and consistency on his three-point shot.

“My weight is 195 right now. I feel like I’m capable of playing at this size and weight that I am. I use my body and my strength to my advantage. I’ve been working on my speed and athleticism so that I can be quicker with the ball, jump higher, and be more explosive so I can finish at the basket. I’m still working on my range every year just getting my jump shot better so that it gets to a point that when I’m wide open I’m never missing."

In a point guard driven league, Machado is one of the top playmakers in the draft and feels it’s the best skill he can bring to a NBA team, but he can also score depending on the situation.

“I’m just smart with the shots I take. I don’t like to take bad shots,” said Machado. “If I can’t take a good shot I’ve got to be able to make somebody else on my team have a good shot.”

With individual team workouts on the horizon, Machado will attempt to secure a first round selection in the draft and has a warning for those that compete against him on the court.

“I want to beat out whoever comes out there to play against me. To show them that I’m a point guard that they should want or be highly interested in me. Just to show them that I play exactly how I’ve been showing them all year,” said Machado.

During the draft process Machado also wants teams to know that he can make the transition from a college star that was used to having the ball in his hands to a role player that can make be a playmaker off the bench for the better of his future team.

“I would have to make adjustments. It wouldn’t be something that’s new to me. I’ve always grown up as an underrated player and played behind some good players in my past and I always do what I have to do to help the team win. I’d be willing to do that,” said Machado.

Lastly, Machado has a message for NBA scouts and executives that will be evaluating him in the upcoming weeks and determining the future of his basketball career.

“I just want everyone to know that I’m a hard working individual that just wants to get better and help a NBA team become a great team and a contending team,” said Machado.

They say basketball is a game of runs and while it certainly is, it’s also a game of makes and misses.

On Sunday afternoon in Game 4, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade didn’t miss often in the second half as the Miami Heat beat the Indiana Pacers 101-93 to even their semifinal series at two games apiece.

James put together a dominant performance, totaling 40 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists in what turned into a must-win for the Heat when the Pacers took an eight-point lead at halftime.

Wade, who struggled mightily through the first three-plus games, exploded in the second half. He made 11 consecutive shots after a slow start aided once again by the tough defense of Paul George. Wade had far-and-away his best game of the series, notching 30 points, nine boards and six assists after scoring just five points last Thursday night.

The Pacers had a chance to put their foot on the throat of the favored Heat, but the wheels came off for a few reasons.

West and Hibbert Go Missing

Joel Anthony has played very well, but the Pacers should own the paint against the Heat because of their size advantage with the absence of Chris Bosh. Roy Hibbert, the star of Indiana’s dominant Game 3 victory, was almost nonexistent on offense.

Hibbert attempted nine shots, making four of them. Miami has taken to fronting Hibbert in the paint, taking away the easy post entry pass. There were a few instances in which he appeared to be the first option, but the Pacers quickly looked in another direction when they were unable to feed him in the post.

He’s 7-foot-2; there are ways to get him the ball.

Hibbert wasn’t the only post player ignored in Game 4. David West, the team’s emotional leader, was 3-for-8 from the field. He dealt with foul trouble, picking up two quick ones in the first quarter, but should have more than eight attempts in 28 minutes.

The Heat went to what worked -- feeding James and Wade. The Pacers, powered all season by the post play of Hibbert and West, tried to win the game on the perimeter.

Haslem Seizes the Day

The Pacers have been content to allow James and Wade to accumulate their points as long as they don’t explode and a third option doesn’t hit big shots. On Sunday, all three things came together for Erik Spoelstra. James and Wade scored 70 combined points and they got several big-time jumpers from an unlikely source.

Udonis Haslem, who has played his entire career with Miami, hit four huge shots in the fourth quarter with the Pacers hanging around and threatening to pull to within a possession or two. After recently losing his jumper, he finished with 14 much-needed points in 25 minutes.

To put it simply, if James and Wade are going to dominate, the Pacers can’t allow a third player to hit meaningful shots. Mario Chalmers was hot in Game 3, but that was fine because Wade was nonexistent.

If Frank Vogel is going to take anything positive out of the loss, he can rest knowing that his team was alive until the final seconds despite Miami’s exceptional second half. The Heat finished the game shooting 47.5% from the field, marking the first time an opponent has topped 44% against the Pacers this postseason.

It didn’t help that Indiana hit just 41.8% of their own shots and grabbed a mind-numbingly low eight offensive rebounds.

The Third Quarter

After being outscored 54-26 in the third quarter in their two losses, the Heat put it to the Pacers after halftime in Game 4. Not only did Miami put up a 30-point quarter, but they also held Indiana to 16 points on 6-for-18 shooting. The Pacers only managed 18 shots because they committed seven turnovers. That means they attempted a shot on just 70% of their trips down the floor. 

The third period also saw the Heat rip off a 17-2 run that allowed James and Wade to assert themselves as the dictators of the game.

The First Quarter That Wasn’t

The Pacers held a 25-18 lead after a strong first quarter, but the gap between the two teams should have been much larger.

They went 8-for-23 (34.7%) from the field and settled for a number of long jumpers when they had the Heat backpedaling in the first five minutes. Indiana attempted eight threes in the quarter alone.

‘Championship-Level Passing’

One of Vogel’s many catch-phrases; the Pacers have looked to beat Miami’s tough defense with superior ball movement in the series. The trick? Move the ball enough to force the Heat to rotate at least twice, therefore getting a better shot attempt.

As I did in Game 3, I charted each offensive possession and characterized each by the number of passes made and the outcome.

Overall, I analyzed 86 possessions, not including two putbacks and anything that I deemed a fast break (which the Pacers were dreadful on).

Pacers Passing:

Passes (% of POS), FG%, TO%, FT%*

Zero (10.5), 42.9, 11.1, 11.1

One (39.5), 40.7, 11.7, 8.8

Two (20.9), 42.9, 5.5, 16.7

Three (15.1), 30, 15.4, 7.7

Four-Plus (14), 50, 16.7, N/A

*Percentage of possessions that ended in free throws

The Pacers had their highest shooting percentage on possessions that featured the most passes, but there were a number of instances in which they overpassed. This was especially so on penetration when higher-percentage shots were passed on in favor of a dish to the perimeter. That is the reason for Miami’s 50-32 edge in the paint and Indiana’s 7-for-22 performance from deep.

The Heat, meanwhile, went 5-for-12 from three-point land after an epic struggle from deep through the first three games of the series.

With eight minutes left in the third quarter, Paul Pierce committed a clear path foul on Andre Iguodala, giving the Philadelphia 76ers two free throws and the ball. At that point, the Boston Celtics trailed 57-53 and the anxious crowd at TD Garden had yet to explode.

Staring at a momentum swing in favor of the 76ers, the Celtics somehow ripped off a 10-0 run and took a six-point lead three minutes later. Philadelphia still had some life left, but before long the pivotal Game 5 belonged to Boston and ‘Gino’ made a rare playoff appearance on the JumboTron at the Garden.

From the moment Pierce fouled Iguodala, clearly the turning point in the game, the Celtics outscored the 76ers 48-28 riding an unlikely playoff hero by the name of Brandon Bass.

“We’ve got a few good players on the team that they had to focus on,” he said. “That left me open, and I was able to take advantage of my opportunity.”

Bass scored 18 in the third quarter alone as he totaled 27 points and six rebounds in 37 incredible minutes. The unassuming forward was 9-for-13 from the field and 9-for-10 from the foul line.

With sweat accumulating on his forehead, Bass admitted after the 101-85 victory that he was making his first trip to a postgame podium.

“Yeah, man,” he said, “This is the first time for a lot of things.”

While Celtics dominated the second half, the 76ers were red-hot in the first two quarters. They came as close as you can to owning a half without actually accumulating an insurmountable lead.

Philadelphia shot 54.8% and grabbed eight offensive rebounds in the first half, but only led 50-47. Part of the reason was their lack of free throw attempts – the 76ers attempted just two against thirteen for the Celtics. It wasn’t that they weren’t attacking the basket. A majority of their early buckets came from the interior and they attempted 24 of their 42 field goals in the paint.

The usually polite and verbose Doug Collins was clearly agitated about something, presumably the loss itself or the perhaps the officiating, when I asked him after the game about Philadelphia’s lack of foul shots in the first half.

“We just didn’t get any of them,” he said when pressed. His initial response was even less insightful, asking me: “What would you like me to say?”

Things didn’t get much better in that department as the game wore on. The 76ers finished 10-for-16 from the line. The Celtics went 26-for-33. I don’t think the officiating was particularly bad, but when you take a look at the box score any potential beef might have some statistical merit.

The Celtics attempted 46.3% of their shots from the paint, but the 76ers went inside more often (54.5%). I’m not saying there is a direct correlation there, but it is food for thought.

Collins likes to address the media when he reaches the podium in favor of immediately fielding questions and he instantly pointed out the clear path foul as the turning point in the game. Doc Rivers, however, wasn’t so sure. You can’t blame him for failing to pinpoint one particular moment given all that went well for the Celtics after the break.

“I don’t know what the turning point was, honestly,” he said. “You could say the foul called on Kevin [Garnett] – I thought from that point on we exploded. You know, it was one of those games; we needed something to ignite us together. And I don’t know if that did it, I don’t know what did, but something did and once we started playing together then we played very well.”

Rivers was referring to an offensive foul called on Garnett less than 20 seconds after Pierce’s foul on Iguodala. Boston scored on five consecutive possessions after the Garnett foul.

Meanwhile, the 76ers struggled given the chance to break the game open.

Not only did Iguodala miss both free throws after the Pierce foul, but Philadelphia committed a turnover on five straight possessions. Two of the miscues came on bad passes, two on lost balls and another on a three-second call on Elton Brand.

Collins lamented all the lazy passes his team tried to make against the Celtics.

“You can’t make careless, one-handed passes against this team,” he said. “They’re too good. We did not meet the tenacity that they played with from the middle of the third quarter on.”

This series has lacked any sort of momentum on a game-by-game basis with neither team stringing together two wins. Doing so on Wednesday would be as good a time as any for the Celtics, who played one of their most complete games of the postseason given the extra rest between Games 4 and 5.

Closing out the series in six would afford the Celtics at least two off-days before the start of the Eastern Conference Finals and as many as four off-days if the Indiana-Miami series goes seven games.

“It would just be nice to win two in a row. That would be terrific,” Rivers said. “It’s not going to be easy. This series has been hard. Every minute, you think we’re leaking oil physically.”