Thank you everyone for your thoughts and comments. I'm glad I included the comments code. Feel free to send me any of your thoughts via e-mail (blog@anjalivora.com) and I will post it up here.
I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday, from Trevor. Enjoy.
We’ve been over this. And over this. And over this. Larry Brown blew it. He cost the Pistons, for all intents and purposes, the NBA championship. No team has ever lost the first two games of the finals at home and won the championship. Detroit was 30 seconds away from going home with a 2-0 lead to play three games in Detroit. Perhaps Larry was distracted by Eminem doing his best Axel Rose impersonation at the MTV Music Awards, but no excuses – he blew it.
Let’s review: thirty-seven seconds to play, Pistons up 6, Kobe Bryant misses a jumper. Shaq grabs the rebound, goes up for a lay-up, and for some obscure reason unbeknownst to the majority of the world, the Pistons try to play defense on Shaq’s layup. Basketball 101: if you are up by 5 or more points with under a minute to play, YOU LET THEM SCORE THE TWO POINTS. The last thing you want to do – the LAST THING – is to give the other team a chance to score 3 points. What do the Pistons do? They give the Lakers a chance to score 3 points. Ben Wallace fouls Shaq, Shaq goes to the free throw line with a chance to cut the lead to 3.
What would have happened it the Pistons had just let him score? Detroit would have been up by 4, Hamilton misses his shot, Kobe hits the three – but the Pistons are still up 1 with a few seconds to play. They get fouled, hit some free throws, Lakers miss final tying shot, Detroit goes back home with a 2-0 lead. But such is not to be, as Detroit stupidly played defense. Shaq’s three point play was even bigger than Kobe’s three, because if Shaq doesn’t get fouled/hit the free throw, Kobe is never in the position to tie the game.
And let me say, that I love a good defensive team. I find it much more fun to watch really solid defense being played then really solid offense. But there does come a time when you have to call off the dogs, and Larry Brown never did. He let them play defense the way they always play defense, and it cost them.
Mistake #2: HOW DO YOU NOT FOUL SHAQUILLE O’NEAL WHEN YOU ARE UP BY FOUR WITH TEN SECONDS TO PLAY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! The Pistons were handed a gift – an absolute GIFT – when the ball went into Shaquille O’Neal, before he gave it to Luke Walton, before he gave it to Kobe Bryant, before he hit the game-tying three pointer. Perhaps Larry didn’t think that Phil would be dumb enough to put the ball in Shaq’s hands with 10 seconds to play, but as a player, you have to recognize the situation, you have to realize that the worst free throw shooter on the floor – probably in the arena, shooting around 43% for the playoffs, although he was 9-14 in the game – is holding the ball. You foul him, even if he hits 2 (which isn’t a safe bet by any stretch of the imagination), you’re still up 1 and you have two of the best free throw shooters in the NBA with Hamilton and Billups.
So Brown had two chances to ice the game, two chances to show what a great coach he is, and he dropped the ball. And FYI, Brown is only 82-79 in the playoffs. He is 933-713 in the regular season, but only 3 games above .500 in the playoffs. So he isn’t quite the “great amazing” coach people have hyped him up to be. He is a very good coach – but on the other side, Phil Jackson is 175-66 in the playoffs. Brown can get ‘em there, but he can’t push ‘em through.
All that said, I think the Pistons have a very good chance in this series. I do think they are going to win game 3, I think Brown will make the adjustments necessary to keep the offense flowing, and I think game 2 will motivate them enough to play smarter. The Pistons are a tough defensive matchup for the Lakers, Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton play very good defense on Kobe, slowing him down as much as anyone can slow him down, and they have a lot of bodies to throw at Shaq. I don’t think that the game 2 loss is going to demoralize them, in fact I think it might pump them up a little bit more for game 3. They know they can beat the Lakers, they are not scared of the Lakers, and I think they are going to take this series to 7 games. Before the series started I said Lakers in 6, but after game 1…this Detroit team is not going to roll over and say die. They are going to take this series to a seventh game, and at that point, it’s anyone’s game.
I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday, from Trevor. Enjoy.
We’ve been over this. And over this. And over this. Larry Brown blew it. He cost the Pistons, for all intents and purposes, the NBA championship. No team has ever lost the first two games of the finals at home and won the championship. Detroit was 30 seconds away from going home with a 2-0 lead to play three games in Detroit. Perhaps Larry was distracted by Eminem doing his best Axel Rose impersonation at the MTV Music Awards, but no excuses – he blew it.
Let’s review: thirty-seven seconds to play, Pistons up 6, Kobe Bryant misses a jumper. Shaq grabs the rebound, goes up for a lay-up, and for some obscure reason unbeknownst to the majority of the world, the Pistons try to play defense on Shaq’s layup. Basketball 101: if you are up by 5 or more points with under a minute to play, YOU LET THEM SCORE THE TWO POINTS. The last thing you want to do – the LAST THING – is to give the other team a chance to score 3 points. What do the Pistons do? They give the Lakers a chance to score 3 points. Ben Wallace fouls Shaq, Shaq goes to the free throw line with a chance to cut the lead to 3.
What would have happened it the Pistons had just let him score? Detroit would have been up by 4, Hamilton misses his shot, Kobe hits the three – but the Pistons are still up 1 with a few seconds to play. They get fouled, hit some free throws, Lakers miss final tying shot, Detroit goes back home with a 2-0 lead. But such is not to be, as Detroit stupidly played defense. Shaq’s three point play was even bigger than Kobe’s three, because if Shaq doesn’t get fouled/hit the free throw, Kobe is never in the position to tie the game.
And let me say, that I love a good defensive team. I find it much more fun to watch really solid defense being played then really solid offense. But there does come a time when you have to call off the dogs, and Larry Brown never did. He let them play defense the way they always play defense, and it cost them.
Mistake #2: HOW DO YOU NOT FOUL SHAQUILLE O’NEAL WHEN YOU ARE UP BY FOUR WITH TEN SECONDS TO PLAY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! The Pistons were handed a gift – an absolute GIFT – when the ball went into Shaquille O’Neal, before he gave it to Luke Walton, before he gave it to Kobe Bryant, before he hit the game-tying three pointer. Perhaps Larry didn’t think that Phil would be dumb enough to put the ball in Shaq’s hands with 10 seconds to play, but as a player, you have to recognize the situation, you have to realize that the worst free throw shooter on the floor – probably in the arena, shooting around 43% for the playoffs, although he was 9-14 in the game – is holding the ball. You foul him, even if he hits 2 (which isn’t a safe bet by any stretch of the imagination), you’re still up 1 and you have two of the best free throw shooters in the NBA with Hamilton and Billups.
So Brown had two chances to ice the game, two chances to show what a great coach he is, and he dropped the ball. And FYI, Brown is only 82-79 in the playoffs. He is 933-713 in the regular season, but only 3 games above .500 in the playoffs. So he isn’t quite the “great amazing” coach people have hyped him up to be. He is a very good coach – but on the other side, Phil Jackson is 175-66 in the playoffs. Brown can get ‘em there, but he can’t push ‘em through.
All that said, I think the Pistons have a very good chance in this series. I do think they are going to win game 3, I think Brown will make the adjustments necessary to keep the offense flowing, and I think game 2 will motivate them enough to play smarter. The Pistons are a tough defensive matchup for the Lakers, Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton play very good defense on Kobe, slowing him down as much as anyone can slow him down, and they have a lot of bodies to throw at Shaq. I don’t think that the game 2 loss is going to demoralize them, in fact I think it might pump them up a little bit more for game 3. They know they can beat the Lakers, they are not scared of the Lakers, and I think they are going to take this series to 7 games. Before the series started I said Lakers in 6, but after game 1…this Detroit team is not going to roll over and say die. They are going to take this series to a seventh game, and at that point, it’s anyone’s game.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home