Just Like Last Year: Cavs Beat Pistons, Tie Series at 2-2
Anyone who expected the Detroit Pistons to make short work of the Cleveland Cavaliers was seriously mistaken. The Cavaliers' 91-87 Game Four victory tied the Eastern Conference Finals at 2-2. Last year's second round matchup between these teams also was tied after four games, with each team "protecting" its home court. Detroit is the deeper and more experienced team but Cleveland has far and away the best player on either squad, LeBron James, and he was fantastic on Tuesday night, finishing with 25 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. He did much of his damage in the fourth quarter with the game up for grabs, producing 13 points, four rebounds and three assists while shooting 4-6 from the field and 5-5 from the free throw line. Daniel Gibson picked up the slack for a hobbled Larry Hughes, scoring a career-high 21 points while making all 12 of his free throws. Drew Gooden added 19 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Chauncey Billups led Detroit with 23 points and nine rebounds but this was not a good performance for "Mr. Big Shot," who shot 6-16 from the field, committed five turnovers and passed for just two assists. He exercised questionable judgment on several occasions, alternately forcing shots and then trying to make ill-timed or poorly thrown passes. The cliche says that "once is an accident, twice is a trend and three times is a problem," so after four subpar games it is fair to say that Billups is having significant problems versus the Cavs. Richard Hamilton had 19 points and eight rebounds but he only shot 9-21 from the field. Detroit's starting frontcourt was largely silent: Rasheed Wallace and Chris Webber combined to score 11 points on 5-13 shooting, though Tayshaun Prince was solid with 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists. The Pistons' most productive big was Antonio McDyess, who came off of the bench to contribute 12 points and five rebounds in 24 minutes.Cleveland got off to a good start in the first quarter, led by Gooden's 10 points. Billups countered with 13 points for Detroit but the Pistons trailed 26-22 heading into the second quarter. James had just five points--a three pointer and a dunk--but passed for four assists.
The Pistons hit the Cavs with a 7-0 run to open the second quarter: a jumper by Wallace followed by a three pointer and two free throws by Billups. Cleveland responded very well, building a 12 point lead before Detroit cut the margin to seven by halftime. Gibson took center stage with 11 points, many of them scored while James took a brief rest.
I don't know what the Cavaliers eat, drink or do at halftime but they should consider changing their entire routine. No matter how well they play in the first half, they seem to start the third quarter running like they are carrying pianos on their backs (to borrow a great line Jeff Van Gundy likes to use). Put it this way: if you went to the concession stand at halftime and did not make it back to your seat until the 7:00 mark of the third quarter you did not miss a single Cavaliers' point. James shot 0-6 during the quarter and after the game he said that he told his teammates to carry him to the fourth quarter and keep it close so that he could win the game then. Gibson did just that, scoring nine of Cleveland's 15 third quarter points, which was enough to keep Cleveland right in the game, down just 67-65 with 12 minutes to play.
Sure enough, James took over the fourth quarter; maybe the Cavaliers should just rename the third quarter the fourth quarter, like some buildings superstitiously don't refer to a 13th floor. James led both teams in scoring, rebounds and assists in the decisive period and he showed great interest in the one part of the game that to this point has kept him from becoming the very best player in the game: defense. James took on the challenge of guarding Billups, the Piston who had played the best in the first 36 minutes, and basically shut him down, though of course he received defensive help from his teammates, including Gibson, who drew a key charging call on Billups with just 2:28 left and Cleveland leading 87-81. Billups shot 0-3 from the field and had three turnovers and one assist in the fourth quarter. In addition to the charge, Billups threw the ball away to end one possession and badly misfired on an off balance three pointer with :44.9 left and the Pistons only down three, 88-85. James sealed the win by making two free throws at :04 to put the Cavs up 91-87. In the ensuing timeout, he reminded his teammates to simply raise their arms up and not even jump because the Pistons were sure to try to make a three pointer and draw a foul for a potential four point play.
It is said that success has many parents but failure is an orphan but in Detroit's case the "father" of this victory was pretty evident. As Hamilton said, "We can't turn the ball over, we have to put it on the backboard, where our bigs can get tip-ins." Detroit did not commit an outlandish number of turnovers--12--but eight came in the second half and Billups' two most costly ones happened in the final three minutes of a very close game.
Cleveland won Game Five in Detroit last year and it could certainly be argued that they are "due" a road victory in this series considering how competitive the first two games in Detroit were, so this year's Game Five should be very interesting. For the first time in this series, there is a lot of pressure on Detroit, because if Cleveland does win Game Five I don't think that James will let Game Six slip away this year the way it did in 2006. The winner of Thursday's game will probably represent the Eastern Conference in the 2007 NBA Finals.
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Notes From Courtside:
While I waited in the press conference room for Coaches Brown and Saunders to make their pregame remarks, I struck up a conversation with Toni Christy, a stenographer who works for ASAP Sports, a company that the NBA hired to produce press conference transcripts during the NBA playoffs. Christy uses the exact same device at the press conferences that she uses when she works as a court stenographer; it looks like a typewriter but has fewer keys and none of them are labelled. The smaller keyboard helps stenographers to type faster--Christy types 230 words per minute--but also requires them to memorize which combinations of keys to hit in which order to bang out complete words or phrases. Christy has a digital dictionary that she plugs into the top of the device that provides the template for each particular event. In other words, for a court case a certain combination of keys may mean "lawyer" or "judge" or other common legal terms but when Christy unplugs that dictionary and puts in the basketball dictionary that same combination of keys now might mean "rebound" or "blocked shot." Christy also has dictionaries for golf and baseball, her favorite sport. In addition to her court duties and transcript work, Christy also does closed captioning for various events, including televised major league baseball games. I always wondered where the closed captioners were located and Christy answered that question: generally, they are sitting at home, dressed comfortably and watching the broadcast on regular television; she also listens to a separate audio feed through headphones, so if her TV goes on the fritz or bad weather strikes her area she can still provide the closed captioning. Christy is very interested in sports and enthusiastically described her experience doing the closed captioning for a very inspirational speech that Dick Vitale gave to University of Florida athletes (as usual when she does captioning work, she listened in the comfort of her own home). She mentioned that he speaks very quickly, which makes the captioning work challenging, but she added that his speech alternately had her laughing at his wit and then in tears as he spoke about Jim Valvano, the former North Carolina State basketball coach who died of cancer. Christy was so enthralled by Vitale's message that she taped the speech for her teenaged son.
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During his pregame press conference, Brown downplayed his team's success against Billups and Hamilton, obviously not wanting to provide bulletin board material; Brown has clearly patterned himself after Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich in several ways and this is one of them: you never hear the Spurs saying anything that will get their opponents fired up or feeling disrespected. Brown said, "Those are two great players. There is no way we can stop either one of those guys. They're veterans that have won a championship before...They're going to come out and attack tonight, it's as simple as that." That turned out to be prophetic, particularly regarding Billups, but Cleveland withstood the initial onslaught, made adjustments and won anyway.
As for the offensive end of the court, Brown reiterated that he has emphasized to his players that the way to attack a shotblocker (such as Wallace or McDyess) is to take the ball straight into the player's chest and "put the onus on the referees to make them make the call." There is a great book called Stuff Good Players Should Know in which author and former Duke player Dick DeVenzio calls that "nostril time": you don't double clutch or fade away from a shotblocker; you attack his body and put the ball right past his face so that he cannot create any distance to use his length and jumping ability to swat at the ball, kind of like the way a smaller boxer dives inside to nullify a tall boxer's reach advantage.
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The Pistons have a champion's swagger, even though they are three seasons removed from winning the title and no longer have the same head coach or starting center. Before the game, Saunders did not seem too concerned about his team's prospects. One reporter asked him an elaborate question about how well James played in Game Three compared to Games One and Two and whether the Pistons could beat the Cavaliers if James played at the Game Three level the rest of the way. Without missing a beat, Saunders simply said, "Yeah" and turned his attention to the next question. Unfortunately for Saunders and his Pistons, James is a lot easier to dismiss in a press conference than he is on the court and it is far from clear that the Pistons can in fact beat the Cavaliers if James plays at a high level. So far, Detroit is 0-2 in such situations--and barely made it to 2-0 even in the games when James played far below his normal capabilities.
Someone else asked Saunders what Billups' message was to his coach about his subpar play and Saunders replied that Billups told him, "I'll be ready." Again, this is an instance where talk and posturing are cheap. This series is more than half over and we have yet to see anything remotely resembling the best of Chauncey Billups. Frankly, it is not enough to make some shots in the fourth quarter (in Games One and Two) when one of the big reasons that the game was so close in the first place is that you stunk up the joint for the first three quarters of the game. The Pistons are very fortunate that their casual approach to this series did not lead to a Cleveland sweep, which probably would have been the result if Cleveland had made just one more shot at the end of games one and two.
posted by David Friedman @ 7:59 AM
22 Comments:
OFFTOPIC: Has Commissioner David Stern made further comments on the potential expansion of NBA interest in China?
I am not aware of any further comments by Commissioner Stern regarding that subject.
I have noticed that you keep mentioning the fact that the Pistons have just been a 3 and a jumper from being swept. This is all true, but is it not possible to look at it from the other angle? The Cavs were just a 3 pointer and a stop away from being 3-1 up. All the games have been really close and it is weird trying to justify that the Pistons have been the luckier team.
Also, I do not like the All-star treatment that Lebron is getting and i do not like Chris Webber (choker).
Pistons in 6
I don't mean to suggest that the Pistons are "lucky." I'm saying that they are too confident and too complacent; they don't play every game like the series depends on it.
Detroit was widely considered the favorite, so it is more significant that they could easily have been swept than the fact that Detroit could be up 3-1 now.
Like I wrote in the post, I think that the Game Five winner this year will win the series. I picked Cleveland before the series began and think that the Cavs have a very good chance to win Game Five. If you look at this series quarter by quarter, Cleveland has outplayed Detroit for large stretches of time but lost because of last minute collapses. I think that LeBron will take care of that in the next game--or draw so much attention that someone else will get a wide open shot.
kobe demanded a trade. http://cbs.sportsline.com/nba/story/10203238
your entire analysis of Lakers/Kobe relationship is now 100% discredited
try and blame this one on Shaq's toe now
Actually, both Kobe and Shaq just stated their their relationship had nothing to do with Shaq's trade (which I don't fully believe but that's beyond the case).
I think that taking these statements at face value when they are obviously a part of a big fight over control of the Lakers is a mistake.
cavs played great all 4 games detroit is lucky they won the first 2 cavs got a real chance to win this series lebron just has to play well in the 4th quarter in detroit if it's close again. and it wont hurt to do something in the 3rd quarter which they have not all 4 games.
kobe aint going nowhere becuase of his contract the lakers is not going to trade him he's trying to use his power in the organization. and he feels betrayed by the laker insider who in his opioin sold him out.
kobe just trying to get a major free agent there he's not going to wait anymore
alternaviews,
You Suns fans are funny. Since you have nothing to do, you spend more time on the players of other teams instead of your own. Must be a nice habit.
Btw, what does that link have to do with Shaq not wanting to be resigned by the Lakers?
Nothing.
In other words, it's more hot air from you.
anonymous,
I hope you're right.
It'd be borderline stupid to trade Kobe just because they don't want to move any of their projects.
They'll never get another player like him for a long time, if ever, especially with the drafting team having the edge in resigning their own players.
the point is Kobe cannot get along with other human beings
he always blames whoever else is nearest him for his problmes
first it was Shaq -- publicly, Kobe denigrated Shaq, making coexistence impossible
now Kobe pretends he got along w/Shq, after Shaq has been traded to Miami years ago
now it is Buss/Kupchak, the same people who stood by Kobe
Kobe is a fraud -- no respect for teammates, oppoents, business, fans, Lakers or Laker fans
I'm not a Sun fan, I'm a Laker fan. But Kobe is not a true Laker -- his demand to be traded makes that obvious. Steve Nash is more of a true Laker, in that he passes and plays showtime style
Kobe will be booed out of Staples whatever jersey he wears in there next
have fun with those Lakesr #24 jerseys that you all wasted your $ on
kobe looks like he wants out i expected it as i posted earlier now it's conflicting because he said on dan patrick show he wants to be a laker for life, that was after he talked to phil jackson who calmed him down.
ive not really a fan of kobe style of play as i posted on other he's a poor shooting shot jacker. And got admit he's not handling this correctly because basically throwing his team and gm under the boss.
but a part says maybe kobe aint as selfish as i thought he is im a laker fan and always has thought he ran shaq away to score his points but this is showing me that he really somewhere cares about winning. He is a great player and to me not the best but top 5 i think wade james duncan are better than him as complete players.
I don think he will be traded because of his contract and will just have to see what happens chicago has the pieces dirk for kobe dallas tmac for kobe houston ny knicks will try as hard as possible to get him well just have to see.
Actually, I do not recall Kobe "denigrating Shaq in public" - until Shaq did, I mean.
Funny how Shaq backs his story, not bad for a guy who "can't coexist".
Any pointers on the Laker "insider" behind the LA Times story or the running feud over the radio that Jim Buss had with Phil Jackson, Jeannie Buss and Kurt Rambis?
Is it Kobe's fault as well?
Alternaviews:
This Kobe Bryant story has been covered in such an over the top way it is ridiculous. Nobody is getting traded right now, so the media should be focusing on the Conference Finals no matter how many interviews Bryant is giving. Greg Anthony made a couple excellent points when he said that the Lakers have been "disingenuous" in their dealings with Bryant and that Bryant's shifting stance in recent days (or hours) is a product of the "emotional roller coaster" that Bryant is riding because of the state of the team and the way that someone in the organization is wrongly blaming him for Shaq being traded. Dan Patrick added that it is hypocritical of the media to criticize Garnett because he doesn't seem to care enough about how the team is doing to say anything or make any demands and then criticize Kobe for going public because he cares so much.
Lazenby reported what really happened and Buss has confirmed on more than one occasion that he did not re-sign Shaq for monetary reasons--specifically, Buss did not want to go over the salary cap (thus incurring a luxury tax penalty) to sign an aging center who was indifferent to his conditioning. You are free to believe whatever you want but, as Temp said, what does that have to do with Kobe possibly wanting to be traded now? You say it proves that Kobe can't get along with people but many NBA superstars have demanded to be traded. Shaq did it twice--once in Orlando after a newspaper poll of fans indicated that they did not think that he was worth maximum dollars; Shaq also was jealous of all the endorsements Penny got. Does any of that sound familiar? Then Shaq wanted out of L.A. rather than taking a little less money to keep the team together. By your own logic, that proves that he can't get along with people, either. Lazenby and Phil Jackson both wrote in their books that Shaq told respected assistant coach Tex Winter to "shut the F up" during a team meeting.
In my post a while ago about wack analysis, point 3 concerned "heads I win, tails you lose" reasoning. That is what you are doing now. If Kobe just accepted winning scoring titles on a mediocre team then you would say that he is selfish and only cares about scoring--but when he expresses how important it is to him to win immediately you say that he can't get along with anyone. In other words, no matter what Bryant does, you will show up here 1.2 seconds later and say that it proves you were right all along. There is no possible event or no possible logic that will sway your opinion. The funny thing is that you say that I bring up Kobe too much and then you run here to post a comment about Kobe underneath my post about Cavs-Pistons. I have yet to make one post about this current situation with Kobe but here you are initiating the discussion.
Here is what Kobe wrote on his website about the circumstances surrounding the Shaq trade to Miami:
"I saw an article this AM in the LA Times which said a Lakers' "insider" noted that my wanting to "get away from Shaq" is what created this whole "mess" the Laker's currently find themselves in.
Man, hearing something like that, which is not true, and which comes from the "inside" is totally frustrating. The fact of the matter is that many people don't know what really went down when I was approaching free agency because I have stayed quiet about it this whole time.
The real facts are that Dr. Buss requested a meeting with me during the 04 season long before I opted out of my contract, and he told me he had already decided to not extend Shaq, as he was concerned about Shaq's age, fitness and contract demands. Dr. Buss thought it was best for the Lakers to make a trade to get value for Shaq while they could.
Dr. Buss made it clear that his decision was final, his mind was made up and no matter what I decided to do with free agency he was still going to move Shaq.
I've heard many people say "the Lakers are letting Kobe take the bullet for the Shaq trade" but I always just let that go. But now when I hear "Lakers insider" it makes me feel so unsupported that a Lakers "insider" is tryin to spin Dr Buss' decision about Shaq on me.
Laker fans should know that when I was a free agent Dr. Buss called me from his Vacation in Italy on the eve of my decision and promised me that the Lakers would do everything to build a contender NOW. I told him at that time that my fear was the Lakers waiting to save Cap Room to sign a top notch free agent in 3 or 4 years, so that was why I was leaning towards other teams like the Clips and Bulls, both of who had a cast of good young players.
But Dr. Buss promised me he would rebuild right away, and I believed him. That is why I put my trust in the Lakers. As I said yesterday, I am a die hard Laker fan, so I will keep my trust in them to remain here and play for the team I love.
But, when stuff like this is coming from the "inside" all I can do is hope that someone from the "inside" comes forward to support me and set straight the facts of what really happened.
This is the TRUTH."
Kobe's version of what happened in '04 has been confirmed by Buss more than once but most people in the media ignore or dismiss that because it doesn't fit in with their view of Kobe. That is what Kobe means when he says that people assume that the Lakers "took a bullet" for him on this issue.
Even Shaq has come out recently and said that he believes Kobe's version of what happened in '04.
The real issue moving forward is that the Lakers traded Shaq three years ago and have made absolutely no progress in upgrading the roster during that time. The key players on the '04 team were Shaq, Kobe, Malone, Payton, Devean George and Derek Fisher. Kobe is the only one left from that group and, with the possible exception of Odom at power forward as opposed to the aging Malone, the Lakers have yet to adequately replace those guys. Kobe has every right to be upset at the organization as the clock ticks down on his career and he does not have a single All-Star playing alongside him.
kobe should never take a situation like this public he should keep it in house and go behind doors and tak to the organization but he cant do that he has to whine publicly and take away from the people who really matter the spurs detroit and cleveland.
as jon barry said he is selfish for doing this throwing his gm and teamates under the bus like this.
also make up your mind do you want to get traded or not, he makes it seem like a orchestrated to get publicity because no one cares about the lakers any more because they suck so bad.
even charles barkley said he is part to blame even if jerry buss didnt want to pay shaq, kobe coulda used his star muscle and lobby for shaq he didnt, kobe shoulda saw that the best guy for him was shaq he didnt. Becuase buss wasnt going to lose them both so if kobe put the pressure on buss to keep shaq he woulda.
Also kobe was a little too happy especially after shaq got traded the first couple years to believe that he still wanted to play with him he got what i believe he wanted and now he's running from that or crying about it.
youll of course dismiss what i say because this doesnt fit your view of kobe bryant think he does everything right even when it is been proven he does not do most things right.
I dismiss what you say because it does not fit the facts of the situation as described by Mr. Buss himself. Pretty simple. People are trying to act like Kobe's version of the events of 2004 is something new, but Buss' reason for trading Shaq--not wanting to pay him--was stated clearly back then. It just did not fit how people like YOU want to view Kobe, so the truth was buried.
Since Buss told Kobe that it didn't matter what he did because he (Buss) had no intention of signing Shaq, lobbying would have been futile. Read the statement: Buss told Kobe that whether Kobe stayed or left that he would not keep Shaq. The truth is simple but no one wants to hear it.
What Kobe wanted--and was promised--was for the Lakers to build a contending team. He has been patient but they have failed him. He is not whining--he is demanding accountability and action from the front office; Kobe does his job very well (All-NBA First Team, All-Defense First Team) and would like for those around him to do their jobs very well.
"Whining" is what the Suns did after they lost. Also, Kobe has no control over how much or in what fashion the media covers this stuff; I blame the media for turning this into a circus instead of focusing on the games. This is not an urgent story, because nothing is going to happen anytime soon. If West is hired or someone in the Lakers' front office is fired, then there is a story. That is why I have kept the focus on my main page squarely on the Conference Finals.
kobe still didnt stand up for shaq in any way he was happy as heck that he has HIS OWN TEAM. Now he got that and he wants to cry like a baby about you promised me this or that, every player gets promised something and sometimes that promise isnt kept stop acting like your 10 and your mom promised you a ice cream and didnt give it to you and now your throwing a tantrum.
shaq only sided with him to pile on buss more kobe snitched on him he dont like that fool. suns didnt whine after game 6 and plus alot of people thought the rule was unfair not just the suns like alot of people thought kobe brought this on himself and he did.
It's the media fault ha ha yeah they told kobe to go on one radio show and say i want to be traded go on another and say I dont and go on another i say maybe i do and go on two other and say something diffrent. cleraly kobe is the one who took it public he knew how the media was going to act so he shoulda of kept it private but of course decent people do that and he is not one of those type of people.
Based on your comments, I assume that you were at the meeting between Buss and Bryant and know exactly what was said, right? Otherwise, how could you possibly contradict what both of them have said about the situation?
That "every player gets promised" stuff is just another line that you stole from an ESPN commentator. Maybe someday you will learn to quote people instead of just stealing their lines--and maybe the day after that you will learn that just because someone says something on TV that does not make it correct.
Why don't we actually stick to the facts? The Lakers have never gone over the salary cap during Buss' reign and he had no intention of doing so to sign an out of shape, aging Shaq. The Lakers told Kobe that they would build around him. I'd be interested to know if you truly think that they have done much successful building in the past three years. Kobe is upset that the Lakers could have traded for or signed Kidd or Baron Davis or other veterans who could help the team win now.
I didn't say it's the media's fault for what Kobe said; it's the media's fault for making a big deal out of it. Who cares about this stuff? It's all just hot air until something happens. These talk shows have to fill time with something but that doesn't mean that it should be the top story on every newscast. Let's see if anything actually comes out of this in terms of someone being hired, fired or traded; then we have a real story.
I think the Lakers have repeatedly gone above the salary cap - I'm not positive, but currently they stand at $77 mil. according to hoopshype when the salary cap is around $55 mil.
I don't think they've ever moved into luxiry tax territory, however.
every player gets promised something and doesnt always get it delivered to them he shoulda kept bit in house he cant do that it's not possible for this malcontent.
he throw mitch kupchak under the bus saying jerry west he completely trust, he basically ganged up on buss dissing him he's not loyal they stood by him during his rape allegation and as soon as it doesnt go his way he cries like a 2 year old makeing something public that should not be and all you got is blame everybody but kobe and switch evrything excuses ala fg % adjusted fg%?
I still find it funny how you Kobe is the only one to throw somebody under the bus.
During a week when a Laker insider has claimed Kobe railroaded Shaq out of town, Jim Buss has claimed youn players struggled to develop under Phil Jackson and Kurt Rambis has claimed Jim Buss was puffing out his chest.
Bad, bad Kobe. Bad.
JN:
I should have said that the Lakers have never gone over the cap to the extent that they would have to pay the luxury tax. Sorry that I was not more clear about that.
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