NBA Basketball 2004-2005 thread - Page 14

Ask and ye shall receive, Brandon! OMG, this one's awesome...



Rasheed just got the last word in on Inside the NBA as they were going to break: "I just want to say one thing right now, it's time for y'all to go fishing." Sweet.

Alas, this is the NBA Finals that the NBA and ABC want least. You know both the Spurs and Pistons will revert to their half-court game with strong defense, final scores of 76-74 may be quite common. And given how evenly matched both teams are, it could go on for seven games, too.

You may not like the matchup Ray, but I'm sure the Pistons and Spurs fans here are going to enjoy the next couple of weeks.

That was quite a nail-biter. I didn't like Detroit's chances in the third quarter, but they came through in the end. Whew!

Scott Merryfield, you wrote:


Problem is, the only people now interested in the NBA Finals now are the folks in San Antonio and Detroit. I can just see the TV ratings take a MAJOR nosedive and ABC will end up losing a fortune because they'll be forced to do a lot of make good advertising rates for the next NBA season.

Ray, I really do not care if the rest of the country tunes into the Finals or not. Like Brandon, I doubt I would have watched much of a Spurs - Heat finals, but I'll be watching this series.

Yeah, not sure why we're supposed to care about the ratings ABC gets for the finals. If one doesn't want to watch them for this or that reason, that's cool, but who cares how high the ratings are?

Last night's game was a major roller-coaster ride. The Pistons did NOT look good in the first quarter, so I was relieved that they were only down two when it was over, in spite of Shaq putting up ten points. The second quarter was like Game 1 all over again, with Detroit responding to Miami packing the lane by getting open jumpers on almost every possession, and knocking them down. Wade wasn't a factor at all in the first half, so it was looking good for the Pistons, but then he went nuts in the third quarter and hit all kinds of impossible shots. Detroit's offense really nose-dived at the same time, as everyone just stood around and tried to go one-on-one, so suddenly they were in big trouble. Then the 4th quarter was a thrill ride all on its own, back and forth the whole way through. Very nervous when they were down 5 with about 6 minutes left, but they got a couple of big scores, especially Chauncey tying it up with a 3. And with the Heat up 2, with possession, and just over 2 minutes to go, that wasn't looking good either. But then the last run came at exactly the right time.

Not terribly confident about the Pistons' chances against San Antonio, I'm thinking Spurs in 6, but I'll have fun watching. I'm definitely with Brandon on being OK with facing them, a valiant losing effort against them in the finals wouldn't be such a difficult thing to live with, but losing to Miami really would have been tough to take. Very tired of Shaq getting all this praise with almost no one remembering how unprofessional he was in his last couple of seasons with LA, and I would have rooted for the Spurs like gangbusters if they played Miami, as I did whenever they played the Lakers. Of course, there are things about the Pistons that have to get on people's nerves as well--the nobody-respects-us business is getting old, obviously the Cleveland saga with Larry--but that's OK from where I'm sitting.

Oh no, not a competitive NBA Finals. Please God, anything but that

Maybe the NBA should actually alter their marketing strategy so that they're not up the creek when "undesirable" teams do better than everyone else. I'm no expert but I think that would beat David Stern's current practice of praying for defense to die and for a miraculous resuscitation of the Lakers, Knicks, Celtics, and Bulls.

I just hate the brand of basketball the Pistons play, I hated it when the Bad Boys did it, I hated it when the Sixers did it against the arly Jordan era Bulls. I may be wrong but I think it cheapens the game and looks like crap. Don't get me wrong, the Pistons are a talented team with some of the best players in the game. Rip has elevated his game so much since he left the Wizards, Sheed has always been one of the most versatile players in the game at the SF/PF spot and Chauncey and Big Ben round out the team nicely, I just wished they didn't play such ugly ass basketball. I liked the 80's with Showtime and the Celtics and the 76'ers fighting off young upstart teams like the Cavs and the Bulls with great offense and good hard D but without players getting hurt all the time. Imagine how good the Eastern finals would have been with 2 healthy teams.

When did the Celtics and 76ers fight off the Bulls and the Cavs? Neither of the latter two teams was a serious contender until '89, when both the Sixers and Celtics no longer were. Well, there was the '86 Bulls-Celtics 1st round series with Jordan scoring 63 in the Garden, but that was it. The team that dethroned the '80s Celtics in the East was, of course, Detroit. And what do you mean, without players getting hurt all the time? Nobody ever got injured in the '80s? Kevin McHale didn't play the entire '87 playoffs with a broken foot?

Good defense is never as glamorous as high-powered offenses in any sport (it's more difficult for the casual fan to understand and appreciate), but it wins championships.

Good TEAM Defense cheapens the game???

To me it helps remind us of what good NBA basketball was. Sure it is fun to watch Lebron do his 360's but teams with flashy players like that are not what makes the game great. Great Teams who play like teams are what makes the NBA great to watch. This is the reason I liked to watch the Showtime Lakers play or last years Piston team or for that matter the Spurs.

You guys don't get it but thats ok because it won't last, Stern won't let it and that will be worse.

BTW don't tell me that Barkley's 76'ers didn't fight off the Jordan Bulls in the playoffs, that was the start of "The Jordan Rules" after constant complaints of getting fouled in an effort to stop his game. And McHale playing all season with a busted foot is a hell of a lot different than every starter on the Heat and a few of the Pistons as well as the Pacers all being banged up because now quite a few teams in the league want to play that way.

That's funny because we currently live with the current rules which if you wish are "jordan rules". So you are saying that Stern will change the rules yet again to attempt to change the way defense is played? Obviously teams like the Pistons have adapted their style to whatever Stern wishes to push as rules on the league. Teams will adapt.

If anything all he(Stern) has done is lower the scoring.

Jordan's Bulls dominated Barkley's Sixers a couple of times in the playoffs, but the "Jordan Rules" were the term that Chuck Daly used for Detroit's defense against MJ. As for the injuries, you really think everyone else on the Lakers and Celtics was completely healthy in the mid '80s finals? That having everyone on your team at least a little banged up in the playoffs is unique to the last 5-10 years of NBA history? And that every injury they're sustaining now is because of physical play? Udonis Haslem hurt his finger in practice, just to name one case.

Jermaine O'neal - screwed up shoulder
Shaq - Deep Thigh bruise
D Wade - Strained Rib Muscle

and I forgot Rip's injury, we aren't talking about twisted ankles and dislocated fingers, I'm talking about the real injuries.

...and Willis Reed could barely walk in the Knicks' championship game in the early 70's due to a sprained ankle. I'm sure a close look at any playoff year will reveal injuries. Basketball's always been a physical game -- just ask Bill Russell.

Ouch

And yet all anyone has done is compare singular injuries, of course every year in the playoffs there are injuries..thats not my point, my point is multiple serious injuries. maybe I should put that in bold or something.

Who's to say there weren't multiple serious injuries in years past? As serious as the ones you're pointing to, that is. The '88 Pistons had two starters who could barely walk in Game 7 of the Finals, Isiah and Mahorn. The '89 Lakers had their starting backcourt out after Game 1 of the Finals. I guess you're trying to argue that the current NBA is experiencing a rash of injuries due to physical play that's unprecedented in league history, but without a detailed listing of contending teams' injuries going back several decades, I don't think you can draw any definitive conclusions from this year alone. Who had serious injuries last year in the playoffs, aside from the creaky and now-retired Karl Malone?

What I find very interesting is that both basketball fans and sportswriters have become very polarized over the upcoming Pistons-Spurs NBA Finals.

There are two major points of contention in this polarization:

1. The lack of any standout major stars in the Finals (I'm sorry, but the Spurs' Tim Duncan lacks the personality to be quoteable--they don't call him Mr. Fundamental for nothing), which will hurt casual fan interest in the game.

2. The very fear that both teams will revert to their half-court strong defense game. The result will be games where both teams will score somewhere in the middle 70's to low 80's, and will be considered unwatchable by too many casual fans.

You can flame me all you want, but in my opinion if #2 becomes reality ABC will take a financial bloodbath over the NBA Finals because fans will avoid the series.

If ABC is so concerned over ratings, they would be better off starting the games a little earlier instead of whining about the matchup. A 9pm EST start will have games ending at midnight. Even the two Sunday games are scheduled for this late start, which makes absolutely no sense to me. If the Pistons were not playing, I know I would not be staying up late watching all the Finals games.

Does it seem to anyone else like we're always hearing one of the two following complaints in the national media:

(1) The NBA is boring because nobody has any fundamentals anymore, and there's too much emphasis on flashy stars.

(2) The playoffs are boring because the flashy stars get eliminated.

I can't help thinking that one of these two (diametrically opposite) complaints is constantly being aired. Doesn't seem like anyone ever says, "hey, this is pretty good, our previous complaints don't apply in this case." People just shift between the two positions whenever necessary.

Good Point.

Haggai, the first complaint about the NBA that you have there is 100% true and anyone that doesn't think that has completely forgotten what the NBA used to be like in the early 90's. It's a MUCH lower quality of basketball these days.

I don't know who the "casual fan" is and I don't give a sh*t. I am a Spurs fan, and if they were not in the Finals, I would not watch. There seems to be much anti-Detroit and definitely a lot of anti-Spurs sentiment out there. To the haters, I say kiss my ass. My team is in it, and yours is sittin' at home where they belong.

HAHA, thats great Robert

I do disagree with one point, and that is that it really doesnt matter to me who makes it to the finals, i would watch regardless.

To those that feel a low scoring game is boring or unwatchable, poo poo.

I love great defense and feel its very entertaining.
I watch basketball for the game, not someone scoring 40, 50 points.

I could give a crap what the media says about low profile teams. I could give a rats ass if companies arent making money cuz the lakers arent in the playoffs. Too bad, the fact is that the NBA finals are played between the best two teams in the NBA and i love it.

Have you forgotten which two teams are playing in the finals? Do the Pistons have an over-emphasis on flashy stars? Does Tim Duncan not have fundamentals?

You stack up the best 3-4 teams in the league right now against the best ones of the early '90s, and I don't see much difference, in terms of the quality of basketball they play. Take the mediocre/shitty teams from now and compare them to the mediocre/shitty teams from back then, and I still don't see a whole lot of difference, in terms of quality of play.