Note: Photo courtesy of Basketbawful reader kobefearslebron.
Detroit Pistons: Their defense got shredded -- Orlando shot 54 percent from the field and 46 percent from three-point range -- and their offense was stagnant (40 percent shooting, 2-for-10 in threes, only 12 assists). Mind you, part of that was some spirited "We're home!" play by the Magic, and an even bigger part was the fact that they lost Chauncey Billups less than four minutes into the game due to a strained hamstring. Which could be a big problem going forward if the injury is a serious one, because if last night proved anything, it's that Rodney Stucky does not equal Chauncey Billups
Rip Hamilton: The Phantom led Detroit in scoring (24 points) but he also had a game-high 6 turnovers.
Rasheed Wallace: The line: 11 points, 4-for-15, 4 rebounds and 4 fouls in 28 minutes. That and his +/- score of -30 was by far the worst on his team. Of course, it didn't help that he picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter and had to ride the pine for a while. But it wasn't so much the numbers as his attitude. He didn't seem to have that crazy, cocky fire that the Pistons really feed off of. And they really needed that when Mr. Big Shot went down. You never know when 'Sheed is going to bring that, though.
'Sheedtastic extra: Get yer Rasheed Wallace mask here.
Jason Maxiell: He gave the Pistons a huge boost in both Game 1 (12 points, 5-for-8, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks) and Game 2 (11 points, 5-for-5, 4 rebounds, 3 blocks). But last night, he was almosdt non-existent: Zero points (0-for-2), 2 rebounds, and 1 turnovers in about 19 minutes of lack-tion. Oh, and both of his shot attempts were blocked.
Detroit's bench: Outside of Stuckey -- who got extended minutes because Billups was out -- the Pistons' reserves didn't contribute much: 8 points, 3-for-12 shooting, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and 10 fouls in about 76 minutes.
Adonal Foyle: He was the only player on either team that didn't get any PT. It's pretty bad when your team wins by 25 and you don't get any garbage minutes...not even a mario!
Carlos Boozer: I've been saying this for weeks, and other people are finally starting to realize it too: Boozer is in a slump. He has been, in fact, since the beginning of April. Just check his game log. The biggest problems seem to be that 1) his jump shot is off, 2) he hasn't been getting many easy baskets in Utah's set offense, and 3) it's pretty clear he's aware of the slump, and his confidence is down. You can see it in his eyes. And you could really see it last night when he got tagged with three early fouls. Methinks Carlos could use a good sports psychologist, because I don't think he suddenly forgot how to play basketball. Remember: 50 percent of sports is 90 percent mental. Or something like that.
The freethrow discrepancy: The Lakers once again feasted at the line last night, getting 43 freethrow attempts compared to only 16 for the Jazz. In two games, L.A. has 89 freethrows and Utah has 46. Now, Lakers apologists are quick to point out that the Jazz led the league this season in fouls per game. This is true: They committed an average of 24 fouls each and every game. However, those same people haven't really done their research, because the Lakers committed 20.6 fouls per game. For those of you who enjoy simple math, that's a net difference of 3.4 fouls. So how does that explain a 27-freethrow discrepancy? Especially during a game in which Utah consistently tried to work the ball inside. Trust me, I watched the game. There was plenty of uncalled contact.
Update! Here's a little extra tidbit for those of you who are going to inevitably accuse me of "whining." One, I realize the Jazz were intentionally fouling at the end of the game. That resulted in 10 additional FTAs for the Lakers. But take those away and L.A. still had a 17-FTA advantage, which is pretty significant. Two, the Jazz were awarded 16 freethrows when their stated goal was to work the ball inside. Check out the shot chart. Utah was 19-for-40 on layups. With all due respect to the Lakers' defense, it seems rather improbable for any team to attempt that many layups in a game and hit less than 50 percent of them without contact. Especially a team that finishes as well in the paint as the Jazz do. Sorry, but Utah took it to the basket a lot and received a lot of contact without whistles. On the other end, the Lakers sure seemed to be getting those whistles. Say what you will, but that's what I saw.
C.J. Miles: Tonight's mario is brought to you by Mr. Miles, who logged a mere 14 seconds. Amazingly, he managed to squeeze two missed threes and a foul into his meager PT. That's, um, efficient...or something.
Carmelo Anthony: Can we please get this guy a chauffeur? Seriously. 'Melo got a speeding ticket for going 60 MPG in a 45-MPH zone. Now, admittedly, I've gone 60 in a 45 zone before. Probably many times. But I probably wouldn't do it three weeks after getting a DUI.
David Aldridge: When you're a sideline reporter, you should at least know whom you're talking too, right? David didn't last night, did he Dero...I mean, Derek? (From Odenized.)
NBA.com's split-face ads: This is from Basketbawful reader sEan, who noticed something was amiss with NBA.com's hype for tonight's Cavs-Celtics game. "The Cavs have needed point guard help for a while...Steve Nash is a good choice mid-series."
Yahoo box scores: There was a lot of random fishiness going on in the world of Yahoo last night, and the people were all over it. Basketbawful reader Anfernee said: "I was checking the live boxscore of the game tonight...and I am totally confused. On the front page it said DET leads the series 2-1 with the Magic ahead 94-77 in the fourth quarter, so this means after tonight's game 3, it will be tied at 2-2? Also, on another page, it said Magic won game 3 by 30-16. Wow, I didn't know I missed the NCAA tournament game a few nights ago!" Thanks also to readers Andrew and Geriandre for the quick alert.
Karl Malone: Oh, Karl. I don't even know what to say. So I'm not going to say anything except this makes me kind of sick to my stomach.
Labels: Detroit Pistons, fan submissions, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA playoffs, Orlando Magic, Utah Jazz, Worst of the Night
34 Comments:
Word of the Day
Previous Posts
Wednesday afternoon man loveWorst of the Night: May 6, 2008
Word of the Day: Mario
Worst of the Night: Cinco de Mayo, 2008
The Many Worsts of the Weekend
Celtics/Hawks Game 7: Thoughtful analysis
Note to NBA Officials: Game 7 my necktie!
Word of the Day: thug
Man love classics: Starring Gary "The Velvet Glove...
Worst of the Nights: Featuring April 30 and May 1,...
Links
Archive
January 2005February 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011
November 2011
December 2011
January 2012
February 2012
March 2012
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
July 2012
August 2012
September 2012
October 2012
November 2012
December 2012
January 2013
February 2013
March 2013
April 2013
May 2013
June 2013
July 2013
August 2013
September 2013
October 2013
November 2013
December 2013
April 2014
May 2014
June 2014
July 2014
August 2014
June 2018
July 2022
contact: basketbawful@yahoo.com
lololol. if they only played him for 40 minutes, he could miss 342 3s and commit 171 fouls.
If you actually know all this, then any complaining about free throws is just whining. If Utah wants the Lakers to shoot less free throws, they should stop instinctively fouling every time the Lakers get in the paint.
Or maybe I'm going blind.
The Jazz lead the league in fouls and it's their philosophy to play aggressive defense using their hands, and they're playing on the road. You should expect there will be a free throw discrepancy. It was even talked about in the first round that the Jazz foul all the time and just make the assumption that the refs won't call it every time down the floor. Maybe that's a poor assumption to make. No other teams make that assumption, far as I know.
Second, foul count and fouls leading to FTs are different things. The Jazz attacked the basket aggressivly all game. And as I pointed out, they were 19-40 on layups. That doesn't include their dunks (they were 6-for-6 on those). Wouldn't you agree that it's unusual that a team that's going to the hole THAT aggressively would miss 21 freethrows AND only go to the line 16 times? I mean, come on. Forget for a second about the number of freethrows the Lakers got. Only consider the Jazz. Do you really think that, as aggressivly as they attacked the basket, that they weren't getting fouled? That they simply missed all 21 of those layups?
As I said, the Lakers are only a few FPG behind the Jazz...whom everybody keeps reminding me lead the league in fouls.
The reality is that the Lakers are just flat outplaying Utah in this series. All the announcers can see it, the Inside the NBA guys can see it, and even the Utah coaches can see it. The Jazz just aren't playing with the belief that they can beat LA, and without that they certainly aren't going to be able to.
for instance, a team can have 4 fouls before going into the penalty. it seems that the jazz were called for bunches at a time whereas the Lakers were called for them evenly throughout the game.
if you look at the TOTAL personal fouls commited (and im not even taking out the end-of-game-fouls)
Game 1: 33 Jazz 27 Lakers
Game 2: 30 Jazz 20 Lakers
now altogether that is a 16 PF differential. you noted that the jazz average 3 fouls more per game. so that means a 10 PF differential if this were the regular season. now if you add up the 6-10 PF at the end of the games, you would see that the PF calls are quite similar.
now i am not going to deny that Kobe probably gets special treatment b/c he is well Kobe, your sworn enemy, but you can't truly base an argument around free throw attempts unless you take the matter of foul penalty into consideration.
btw, i can totally understand why u could have hated Kobe before but you truly can't deny that he is changing before our eyes and becoming more of a team player... can u?
Come on, we're modern NBA fans, you should be numb to this kind of injustice and Stern totalitarianism by now.
the title's pretty funny since less than a year ago he was asking to be traded out and complaining about bynum
The Lakers indeed earned many of their FTs. But the Jazz certainly earned more than the 16 they got in Game 2.
I'm not going to deny that Kobe has certainly become more team-oriented this season, which is why I didn't erupt -- which seemingly is what many people expected -- when he won the MVP. Now, frankly, I would have ranked him third behind KG and then CP. But, as I've noted, I realize that KG was disqualified by the voters because 1) his team was too good, I guess and 2) he already won the MVP a few years ago. So that made it Mamba versus CP3, and while I personally would have gone with Paul, I'll admit it was a tossup between them and I didn't throw up in my mouth too much when Kobe got it. I did, however, throw up when I heard that Larry Bird said something along the lines of how he would give up his MVPs if Kobe didn't win it.
The funny thing is, as much as Kobe Fans -- and I mean the crazy kind -- try to target me for hating him, there's been far less anti-Kobe sentiment on Basketbawful this season than ever before. Has anybody noticed that?
anacondahl -- Yes. I really should be delightfully numb by now...
But until that happens, if it ever does, I just don't have much to say against him.
But you can't argue that in Game 1 Kobe didn't draw the whistle a lot with his up move and pull up with a defender's hand reaching in..
Anyways, I guess we have to agree to disagree or something in the middle-- I do think that the Lakers have probably received the benefit of the doubt but just not to the extent that you seem to be showing...
That being said, you are right on the Kobe hate -- it has definitely subsided -- and for good reason. Even I must admit that the Kobe antics at times had been ridiculous and that sometimes he had been a selfish ball-hog.
CP3 for MVP would definitely not have upset me either -- actually I wanted Kobe NOT to win to drive his motivation even higher.
One last thing..
Larry Bird is awesome and his comment was even awesomer. Haha. BTW love the blog. Keep up the good work.
Mind, you weren't the only one who did it. Marty Burns at SI, who can't even deign to get the date correct for the next Magic/Pistons game, felt the need to point out after every accomplishment the Magic had was because Chauncey Billups wasn't playing!! and because the Pistons are better and because the Pistons never do well on game threes, and not because--heaven forbid--the Magic outplayed them, outhustled them, defended well, didn't turn over the ball, had good ball movement, etc.
The Magic played well and the Pistons did not, end of story. Everyone needs to stop making excuses for the Perfect Pistons. As evidenced in the first round, they're not as invulnerable as they make themselves out to be.
TheGiantSquid
Last night for the most part he played pretty great, and from what I saw the only real bad thing he did was attempt one of his lame "go for the knockout punch" 3-pt shots with the Lakers up 12 or so in the 1st quarter. Kobe's much more effective when he just sticks to the offense. That assist he had late in the game where he passed it around Okur's head for a wide open Gasol dunk was one of the better crunch time plays I've ever seen.
"i go hunting little mexican girls"
you sure do, karl.
The Stern Button!
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-simers8-2008may08,0,3590542.column
anonymous -- Yup. Stern Button IN DA HOUSE!
james -- For some reason that analogy made me laugh. Probably because it was funny. Thanks.
yams -- You're exactly right. It was nine straight since T-Mac and the boys went up 3-1 back in the day. It had gotten a lot of press, and I even mentioned it as a reverse stat curse in my game preview on Deadspin yesterday.
Sorry, I didn't get the whole link in my previous post. La Times talking about the Laker-Jazz refereeing debacle.
And for the FT discrepancy... while the Jazz tend to foul a lot, they're also up there in the number of times they are fouled per game (or at least they were in the regular season).
The only reason that this post even got put up was that Chauncey Billups wasn't playing. And it's T-Mac's fault.
http://kmposted.blogspot.com/2008/05/nba-richard-jeffersons-drama-kmps-pov.html
leave a comment.