Personally, agree with Larry Bird, *and* those calling for Pittman and Haslem fines/suspensions. Pittman's shot was really dangerous and stupid.
I agree Granger set the tone early, getting really physical with Lebron and nothing was done. Now the officials have lost control of the series and the NBA will have to suspend some guys to get order in this series. Pittman & Haslem will be watching the next game.
Agreed. People always throw around the word "Mediocre" and some people will say the Celtics are 6ers are 'Mediocre' despite making it to the ECF. You can't compare a Western confence team to an Eastern one. You just can't. They play EC teams only 2 times each and then beat up on each other. The same can be said for the ECF. They don't play every team equally, so you can't judge them equally. As far as seeds, that really doesn't matter if a team proves to have some playoff success...otherwise what is the point of the playoffs? If you aren't going to give a team it's due respect for advancing then you may as well just reward the best regular season team as champs and move on. Also injuries are part of the game. If every player was healthy all through the year then seeding would have looked A LOT different any how. Not that the Pacers and 6ers are Elite teams or even great ones, but they are good solid teams until proven otherwise. If the Pacers can win the next two games then you give them their due respect and it's more about where a team finishes.
Not condoning what Wade and Lebron did, but after Hansbrough fouls wade and he's lying on the floor, Psycho-T and Amundson exchange high fives also.
Anyone have a clip of Lebron/Wade/Miller pounding fists and laughing and also Pittman's wink? Such a cheap, dirty team...
Yup from the highlights, both seem CLEARLY take satisfaction in those hard/dirty fouls. No place for that. Physical play? Fine. Hansborough's play on Wade WAS flagrant. I couldn't believe when I read some of the responses on here. I saw the replay. But Haslem's play on Hansborough was a flagrant 2 and he should have been ejected. Pittman? Dude is useless, so he should be suspended for the rest of the year. What a dirty and dangerous play. Anyways back to the game, this was what I envisioned how the series would play out even without Bosh. There was no way the role players would suck for so long, but they did. It took the role players 5 games before they made their wide open shots. And when they do, Pacers have ZERO chance. And to the people arguing whether Philly/Indy are mediocre. Indy isn't mediocre. They're a very good team. They're very well balanced inside-out; they just lack a superstar. If they had a Drose player on this team, they would be flat out scary. Philly? Now that team is mediocre. People don't understand how bad they were to end the season. Really bad. Miami would beat them without Bosh AND Wade. They're lucky Boston is old, Pierce/Bradley/Allen are injured somewhat.
Wow. Did you start watching basketball yesterday? What you saw tonight is "soft" basketball. What the Pistons/Knicks/most East teams did in the 80s/90s were more brutal than this man. And it wouldn't even be a flagrant. Watch a Kurt Rambis foul v. the Celtics. With today's style, it's "dirty" and shouldn't be condoned, and these players should be reprimanded. But if you think this wasn't what was "great" about the game years ago, you're delusional. EDIT: However, Pittman's play was dirty in any era.
Indiana needs Deron Williams in order to contend for a championship next season. They do have the budget to sign him.
This 'Really bad' team you speak of beat the same Bulls team that was a elite team...Remember Noah played and they were teh very same bulls team for most of the season and Philly still beat that team to take control of the series. They were bad at the end of the regular season, but it's the playoffs now and they have played much better. The regular season becomes largely irrelevant when the post-season starts despite HCA...which really doesn't matter too much if you're team is good any how.
Haslem probably won't be suspended, but his foul will be upgraded to a flagrant 2. Pittman should be suspended for 5-7 games, because that was dirty. James Jones should take all of Mike Miller's minutes in the rotation. Miller isn't healthy and can't hit wide-open jumpers. Miller is a relatively good rebounder, but he can't even do that either. At least Jones has a good chance of hitting wide-open 3s.
I'm sure the "shock" that Rose would NEVER return after game 1 played a part. Did you see the look on the faces of the players in game 1 and how somber the locker room post game? Look, the Bulls were BLOWING OUT PHilly in game 1, and they weren't even playing well. They are as mediocre as you can get. They haven't played better. Their defense was always good. But their offense sucks balls. If Rose played, the Bulls would have swept them in 4. If Boston wasn't so old and injured, this would be a sweep or 5 games. Even Philly players commented on Pierce's injury. Allen can't shoot. And Bradley has an injured shoulder.
You keep bringing up game one but any team in an given series can be blown out in any game. Nearly every playoff series shows this. So that's not really evidence of much. The fact is they beat the Bulls, hurt, injured, whatever. There were 8 teams left in the playoffs. That's not mediocre IMO. We can agree to disagree but really I feel they should get more respect than that. It's just like those people who try to put asterisks on championships because so and so was hurt or so and so decided he wanted to play baseball.
Answer me this. Would it be a "lock" that they make the playoffs next year? That should answer your question.
I for one am happy the Heat finally balled up and got nasty. I'm not sure that younger teams like the Pacers (and Thunder) fully appreciate that its a man's game. You just cant go around talking trash game after game, punking other teams and not expect to get hit in the mouth. If the refs had ejected Granger at least once in the past couple of games, I dont think it would have gotten this physical.
Depends on what the team does? Way too many variables for most teams to just say that with the normal additions, subtractions, and injuries plus any crazy thing that could happen. With that said I think they do, they have made it two years now and Collins seems to get the most out of his players. Not like I can think of a team that can knock them out, the bottom East teams are really really bad. We are talking about this year and this year only though. This year they have proved on the court that they are more than just a mediocre team.
I think most would agree Philly is mediocre. As soon as Rose went down I knew they would beat Chicago. Factor in Noah being out and Deng playing hurt and you get Philly advancing.
The problem is Miami is not that team. They are a finesse team and the Pacers have nothing to lose. The Heat getting physical is just going to lead to them getting beat up and banged up for the next round assuming they get there.
The league is dumber than ever. The heat try and behead a guy for doing the choke symbol? Anyone remember Reggie Miller doing that in front of the world and against the 90s Knicks? Those Knicks had goons and still had the decency not to take a cheap shot like the Heat did tonight.
So... talking trash deserves an elbow to the neck? I'm sure the Pacers would love to send an elbow back at Lebron or Wade's neck while they're airborne a la Andrew Bynum.
