I have to agree here. This is something that really irritated me during the game. There were times in which Duncan had Horry guarding him one on one and Duncan passed it out! This is what Yao would do sometimes and it would just tick me off. Duncan, YOU are the better player! You are single covered, WHY are you passing the ball AWAY!?!? Take it to your defender! Can anyone ever remember a time when Shaq was single covered by a smaller man and passed the ball away? Exactly! It is one thing if you are being double covered, perhaps passing it away to an open shooter is the smart move, but when you are SINGLE covered? TAKE IT TO THE HOLE! Duncan has to take over games late. He has to be more agressive with his offensive moves against single coverage. And like I said, Yao did this too often in the year as well. If you are the better player then you need to SHOW IT!
You are being too hard on Duncan. He did pass it out a few times but so did Shaq when they had the ball a little too far from the basket. You saw the single coverage at times but you probably overlooked another Laker was ready for the late double team which Tim preempted by moving the ball quick. Tim shot 22 FG and 14 FT vs 20 and 6 for Shaq so it was not like Tim backed away from the challenge. Tim also had 7 ast which was a great stat.
Geez, bashing somebody after having a great game...oh yeah, this is clutchcity.net, so that's pretty much standard protocol... There is a reason Duncan won the MVP his year. He's showing something that most centers only dream of...COURT VISION. Any center can get the obligatory three or four assists by passing it out to the guy standing at the top of the key, but Duncan actually sees guys cutting to the basket and coming off screens. You don't have to take it when you're single covered, because the other team can bring a quick double team from the strong side. If you pass it a few times, you keep the defense honest. You have to wonder if we would have won another title if Hakeem had that kind of court awareness at age 27... Or pehaps Duncan knows that Parker is having a really sh*tty postseason, and is taking over the point guard duties as well?
Breaking News: Devean George OUT for the rest of the playoffs Lakers are running out of options. Kobe at the 3 and give Rush big mins at the 2?
Shaw will play big minutes. Rush too, probably. Shaw is very good at playoffs. But, yeah, Phil Jackson has had his share of luck all his life. It's only fair that he got some bad break. Uh, well, he still has his best two players. So, what's the fuss?
