Breaking down the finals

whoops..sorry guys. i was taking a ride down memory lane. ( )

 

ding, ding, game 6. see you all in the 4th quarter.

"Rockets red glare" love that part.

 

i was never that complimentary of the pistons first title, but damn have i gained a ton of respect for them. their the best adversity team since the days of clutch city and just always seem to get it done somehow (leaving robert horry wide ass open notwithstanding). i still think they'll lose, but bouncing back from that crushing defeat to win in san antonio is amazing. i'm still not sure how chauncey billups, richard hamilton, and pray for rain gets it done on offense so consistently, but they make it work. their defense doesn't need anything else said about it.


and damn did manu suck down the stetch. back to back turnovers followed by an airball on a terrible shot.

 

Rasheed was the man.

Game SEVEN.

GO PISTONS!

 

There's a special place in my heart for the Pistons after they kept Malone from getting his ring last year. Now, if they put away San Antonio, it'll be icing on the cake.

 

Its funny how his game suffers when the refs don't call a foul against the other team every single time his body hits the floor. Its almost as if he gains confidence from getting away with flops.

Anyways, the Pistons have figured out how to eliminate Manu, slow down Tim, and hold Parker in check for the most part... only wild x-factors like a red-hot Robert Horry can really beat them now.

If the Spurs are to win game 7, Tim Duncan is gonna have to come up HUGE.... not just his ho-hum 29-32 points and 15+ rebounds... but I'm talking 40+ (at least), 20 rebounds, plays 48 minutes. This has to be his SIGNATURE game for his career... in fact, I can't think of one single/moment or game that defines Duncan to this point. All the greats have at least one or two games where their greatness is overwhelmingly on display, and is remembered for all time... Duncan still lacks that.

 

Pretty funny.....late in the 4th Ginobli blindly ran into Duncan, not realizing he was a fellow Spur, and then flopped to the floor. Only after he looked up and saw it was a teammate in white did he get up and start running back down the floor

 

Man, that would have been hilarious. Can just imagine Manu turning to the ref pleading for a foul, pointing at Duncan yelling "He fouled me!"

 

He is one game away of sealing his reputation as a choker. I won't bet on him get 40-15 in game 7. At least he needs to learn how to shoot FTs in clutch time so that the refs can at least have some reason to call phantom fouls on Piston.

 

I give the edge in Game 7 to the Pistons. I've always thought the Spurs were chokers and the only reason they won their championships was because the teams they played in the Finals were very very weak. I think Detroit has a huge mental toughness advantage. Don't be surprised if the final score is not that close.

On the other hand, the Spurs tend to play well when Pop screams at them after a loss. If they come out and play methodical and poised on offense and tough on defense the whole game, they will win. Period! My guess is this won't happen and cracks will start to show in the 2nd half. Hope I'm wrong because I don't like Detroit.

 

Spurs are in trouble.

FIRST - Props to Rasheed Wallace for wearing an Earl Campbell throwback jersey and his championship belt on his interview after the game.

Now, the Pistons will win game SEVEN because they don't have to change much of what they're doing, they just have to repeat it. Four straight good games for them now, while the Spurs have only played one good game since their last blowout win. Everybody knows that Big Ben, Chauncey and Rip will show up, and that a couple of more Pistons will step up as well, maybe Rasheed and Prince again, maybe Prince and McDyess, maybe all of them.

For the Spurs Tim Duncan will have a great game, there's no doubt about that in my mind, but who knows if the rest of the Spurs will show up? Will Manu be there in the fourth quarter? Will Parker show up at all?! Will Will Smith hit some big shots? Will Nazr, Brent Barry, Ulrich and Brown contribute? The two most consistent Spurs have been Duncan and Bowen, not good if you're the Spurs. Parker is probably the key which is big trouble for the Spurs, he's been consistently below AVERAGE this series, his only plus has been his decent scoring but is negated big time by his defense and ball handling mistakes. Who would of thought that his PG responsibilities would be taken away from him? Oh yeah, I did, except I though Ulrich would take them away not Manu.

All this talk about Duncan being a choker is not fair, the fact of the matter is that his play hasn't been the reason for any loss this series, sure he stunk in game 5 but in the end a win is a win no matter how you get it. The dude is like Greg Maddox, nobody will ever say Maddox had the best stuff you've ever seen but Maddox got it done to the tune of 15 straight years with 15+ wins, 300+ career wins, a handful of Cy Youngs etc. Nobody will ever say Tim Duncan had Hakeem's moves, Shaq's power, or even the best game from the PF position, but he gets it done. 2 MVPs and 2 Final's MVPs, 2 rings, and he's everything for a team that wins 7 out of every 10 games they play since he's been there. He's accomplished all of that without playing with an All Star until this season! This season he got to a game seven in the Finals battling against a three headed MONSTER front court basically by himself, Nazr, Rasho, and Massenburg have been complete non factors.

Which brings me to another point, why do teams figure that just because you have a dominant PF or C you don't need a good player at C or PF? Why hasn't Duncan played with a respectable center since David Robinson? Who's helped KG? Jermaine O'neal? Why did it take the Lakers so long to realize that even Shaq needs help up front? Ben Wallace has always been a beast but now with Rasheed Wallace he's capable of sometimes making Duncan and Shaq non-factors as far as the outcome of the game is concerned. Hakeem had most of his success with respectable, sometimes even All Star PFs, so why has Yao played with Kelvin Cato and Juwon Howard?

 

Fair or not, the Spurs can pull off a collapse greater than the Oilers and Duncan still won't have any legacy as a choker. The media doesn't really attack people in that fashion that have multiple championships. I'm not saying it wouldn't necessarily be true... but it won't be the spin we see from this series.

I'll take the Spurs by 10-12 Thursday. The biggest problem I saw last night was the Spurs complete lack of energy on the defensive end, and that tends to happen after you win a game in the fashion they did in Game 5. The Pistons are not a team that will shoot above 45 percent from the field all that often against this caliber of competition. For all the talk about taking Ginobili out of the game, he still had 21 points and 10 boards... he just missed his shots down the stretch of the game. It happens. But he was still able to penetrate and get some decent looks, imo... but he uncharacterically missed a lot of his shots and made some very poor decisions such as the turnover in the last two minutes.

Also, the Spurs are the better three point shooting team in this series, and I think it's incredibly unlikely that you see Detroit shoot 47 percent from behind the arc and San Antonio shoot 28 percent, as both did last night. How many open looks did Barry, Bowen and Udrih have from behind the arc after the Pistons double teamed Duncan and Ginobili? It's not as simple as the Pistons being able to take everyone but Duncan out of the game... the Spurs had good looks. They just didn't drop. The three players I referenced (who had the most open perimeter shots, imo) either shot 40 percent for the season (Bowen, Udrih) or at that mark for their career (Barry). They shot 3-12 combined. They're due for a better performance.

There's no doubt it's a close series, but I can't see the Spurs dropping two straight games at home after going 46-5 there this season. History teaches us that homecourt in game 7 is huge... I think that'll be the case here. Spurs lead by 6-8 after one quarter and hold a slight lead throughout, pushing it out to double digits by the finish. If I'm wrong, well, damn.

 

If 'choking' means leading teams to multiple championships, I'll take it.

 

I agree, calling a guy who has won 2 Championships and maybe a third, a choker is reaching.

 

Tim Duncan isn't a choker, but the Spurs as a team lack something I can't exactly explain. For two time champs (especially when you consider only one key player is missing from their last championship) they lack poise and get tight. Let me try to explain it this way: IMO, Detroit plays with the heart of a champion; the Spurs do not. The Spurs make it hard on themselves and don't play their best in the Finals. Both the Knicks and Nets series should have been sweeps, or undramatic 4-1 bludgeonings. Leave it to the Spurs to slop around and make things interesting.

On the other hand, the Pistons are clearly on a roll. Like the Finals last year, they have stepped up their play from the ECFs. Several of their players are capable of throwing the dagger. Chauncey Billups is every bit as clutch as Horry.

Once again, after a strong start in a series, Tony Parker has wilted away. I don't expect a good game from him tomorrow. The burden is on Duncan & Ginobilli to carry the team on their backs. Maybe Horry & Bowen step up a bit, but you can't count on them. If the game is close at the end, Horry is a great option to have. But therein lies the problem...

If the Pistons start taking control at some point in the 2nd half the Spurs will wilt under their pressure defense and the pressure of the moment. The Pistons will smell blood and could win by 10 or more points. If the Spurs get ahead, instead of smelling blood they will get cautious and nervous, giving Detroit the opportunity to come back if they have it in them.

My bottom line: The Spurs need to have the lead late in the game or they are done. If it's a 6-7 point game with 6-7 minutes left, only Detroit is capable of coming back because they are more mentally tough. I can almost see the deer in the headlights looks in the Spurs' eyes already.

 

If the Pistons get the win tonight, it means the Spurs are still the only team since the 1986 Celtics to win a championship and not defend it. The Lakers, Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, Bulls again, Lakers again, and now Pistons again will have won at least 2 straight titles. That's a big reason why I don't respect them.