NBA Playoffs Thread

[naiwf]

I just don't get it when people begin to talk about experince in any sport. Like the first time a QB gets to the Super Bowl, oh he doesn't have experience. The first time this Pistons team makes it to the Finals, oh they don't have experience. What the hell does experience have to do with anything? Because once you get down to it, nothing has changed and you still are playing basketball right?

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The Lakers would have fouled Ben Wallace up 3 with less than 10 on the clock. THAT is the difference experience makes in pressure games. If you've ever watched individual sports you'd see countless times someone choked under the pressure of winning a championship because they'd never been there before.

Numerous basketball players will tell you they needed to experience a demoralizing series loss to come back in the future and win the title, see Magic's Lakers, The Bad Boys, Jordan's Bulls, Shaq, etc.

[Karizma]

I just don't get it when people begin to talk about experince in any sport. Like the first time a QB gets to the Super Bowl, oh he doesn't have experience. The first time this Pistons team makes it to the Finals, oh they don't have experience. What the hell does experience have to do with anything? Because once you get down to it, nothing has changed and you still are playing basketball right?

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Because experience helps you make the big plays, experience helps you win games, experience is a factor in any sport.It's like making a rookie team, and putting them into a Finals Seriers automatically.Sure, they have talent, but they don't know other things, that Shaq, Kobe, Malone, Payton all do.They know all the tricks that'll help win the game, they know when to step it up, etc.

If you have no top level experience, and is thrusted into the spotlight, you'll either live up to your hype(eg: LeBron) or you'll choke, because you aren't used to this sort of level.Finals Series are nothing like Conference Finals, this is all or nothing, and well, the Pistons were lost, when it came to the clutch, and putting away the Lakers, whereas, the experienced heads of the Lakers sides kept their heads and pushed the game into overtime before closing things out.

[Quom]

Experience would have told the Pistons to drive the ball to the rim during the last few minutes of the 4th quater after setting up the half court offence, instead of trying to feed Rip off of screens. Shaq and Kobe were both on 5 fouls.

[Guest ThaRealWun1]

Pistons in 5....

[naiwf]

Pistons in 5....

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I've got $5 saying that this is Pacaveli.

[ACCBiggz]

Pistons in 5....

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Hello, my name is PacaVeli777.

I would have beat you naiwf, but I had to ban him.

[SeanB]

I sort of see all your thoughts and whatnot on the experience factor but I still see that as sort of a mind game type of thing. I can live with Detroit not fouling Shaq, they should have fouled Kobe with under 10 seconds left and just shot free-throws the rest of the way. That's my beef there. And I really don't see how anyone can say the Pistons are done in this series. All the positives are on the Pistons side. They are returning home with more confidence then ever because they've already beaten LA in LA. Without question they will be much more confident playing in their own arena and I expect Rip Hamilton to finally produce the big scoring game everyone knows he is capable of.

Numerous basketball players will tell you they needed to experience a demoralizing series loss to come back in the future and win the title, see Magic's Lakers, The Bad Boys, Jordan's Bulls, Shaq, etc.

You should take Magic's Lakers off that list. Magic Johnson won an NBA Championship in his first season. You being a Lakers fan should know that.

I for one have to say the Pistons are indeed a great team. I find myself rooting for them like crazy even though I wanted the Bucks, Nets, and Pacers all to eliminate them.

[naiwf]

You should take Magic's Lakers off that list. Magic Johnson won an NBA Championship in his first season. You being a Lakers fan should know that.

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They actually had won two before getting swept in '82-'83 and losing in 7 to the Celtics the following year. They then went on to win 3 of the next 4 titles. Magic Johnson HIMSELF said those series losses helped them win the 3rd-5th titles of his career after the Lakers had eliminated Minnesota when explaining why this loss would motivate KG next season.

[SeanB]

Ok now that we've got all that out of the way...

Who wins Game 3? For some reason I'm expecting LA to give one of those lackluster performances we are used to seeing from them and lose in Double Digits. But then I have this feeling LA might actually show some of that effort they have and play well and take Game 3. My final prediction is Detroit over LA in Game 3.

[naiwf]

Ok now that we've got all that out of the way...

Who wins Game 3? For some reason I'm expecting LA to give one of those lackluster performances we are used to seeing from them and lose in Double Digits. But then I have this feeling LA might actually show some of that effort they have and play well and take Game 3. My final prediction is Detroit over LA in Game 3.

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LA just ripped the heart out of the Pistons and can bury them mentally in game 3, and you think they'll lose by double digits? There's no arguing logic with you then.

LA should win game 3, Detroit will win game 4, and LA takes 5 and 6 to end the series in 6.

[SeanB]

LA just ripped the heart out of the Pistons and can bury them mentally in game 3, and you think they'll lose by double digits? There's no arguing logic with you then.

Ok now if it would have been Detroit playing at home for Games 1 and 2, and losing Game 2 like they did you could say they got their hearts ripped out. BUT THEY ARE RETURNING HOME WITH A SPLIT! Do you know what that place is going to be like on Thursday? It's going to be the first NBA Finals Game in Detroit in 14 years. The fans are going to be rocking, Detroit is going to be comfortable, who knows how LA is going to perform. It has the perfect making for a Detroit route.

[Guest NewRulesRFatal0069]

Lakers are overrated, i still say the Pistons in 6....

[Quom]

If LA pick up the 1st game in Detroit they will win it in 5. I think the Lakers will win it unless Rasheed guards Shaq and they allow Ben to double, rather than the way they have been playing Shaq so far. 'Sheed is tall enough to get a hand in Shaq's face even if he has been pushed out of the way, as it stands right now Ben is being pushed under the basket and Shaq is either getting an easy score or is given the ability to grab his own board. I am actually surprised by the Lakers starting 5 as I thought Payton would been on the bench after his game 1 performance.

If the Lakers start Fisher and he gets rolling it could be all over in the 1st quarter, he is a much better runner and gets the offence sped up plus offers the chance for the Lakers to use the triangle which could kill Detroit due to having to spread out the D even further than what they are currently forced to do.

Edited June 9, 2004 by Quom

[ACCBiggz]

Lakers are overrated, i still say the Pistons in 6....

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Sorry, forgot to ban you again PacaVeli777, was taking a crap.

[naiwf]

Ok now if it would have been Detroit playing at home for Games 1 and 2, and losing Game 2 like they did you could say they got their hearts ripped out. BUT THEY ARE RETURNING HOME WITH A SPLIT! Do you know what that place is going to be like on Thursday? It's going to be the first NBA Finals Game in Detroit in 14 years. The fans are going to be rocking, Detroit is going to be comfortable, who knows how LA is going to perform. It has the perfect making for a Detroit route.

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Yes Detroit is going home, but they went from going home up 2-0, to wondering what the hell just happened. They were shellshocked in OT, and that could very well carry over if it's a close game at the end on Thursday. Detroit's lost a game at home in every series so far, and I'd be stunned if they broke that trend. The fans were "rocking" in LA, didn't stop them from losing at home. If LA plays with intensity early and Detroit is still sulking, the Pistons will get routed at home, not the other way around.

[SeanB]

Come on you really don't expect Detroit to return home sulking? They are hungry and ready to win an NBA Championship. I can't say the same about the Los Angeles Lakers because if that was the case they would be up 2-0 like everyone expected instead of being deadlocked at 1. The Lakers are sometimes a bad example of what competitiors are supposed to be, because they only pick and choose when they want to compete. The Pistons bring it night in and night out. Detroit knows what happened in OT, they stopped being aggressive. They had post Kobe trauma. That won't be the case come Thursday Night. You'll see and I cannot wait to read what you'll have to say then.

[DMN in the House]

*sigh*

I'm not getting back into this arguement, I just have a few things to say.

~ You don't just jump right back from getting ran out of the gym in the last 5:47.

~ Los Angeles dosen't care if they have to play in Detroit, they won on the road in all of their series, Detroit is no worse then Minnesota or San Antonio. Hell, its miles away from Sacramento, and the core of this Laker team has won there in the playoffs, so....

~ Quom, putting 'Sheed on Shaq is idiotic, because 'Sheed's had foul problems in both games early already. Put him on Shaq and he's on his way to becoming a non factor, and without Rasheed, the Pistons are doner then done.

~ Big ups to Karl Malone, who even though he was hurting, used his experience to hold it together, contribute, and make a huge defensive play at the end to help send it to overtime.

[VerbalPuke]

I think our best bet for guarding Shaq is to continue the rotation of different bodies on him. I think both Mehmet Okur and Elden Cambell did an admirable job of guarding him in game 1 (I missed almost all of game 2, so I can't comment on how those two did, I do know Elden was in early foul trouble, had 3 before the second half correct?). I still like the Pistons chances of winning this series, and I think they should be encouraged that they took one game in L.A., despite this "HEART BREAKING LOSS!!!!" in game 2. It's a shitty loss, but the Pistons have come back from tough losses through this playoff series. This series is about to get interesting, and even if the outcome is another Laker championship win, I'm still proud of my Pistons for a very good season.

As a side note, I'm fucking pissed off that I couldn't get tickets to game 4. They only released 2000 tickets to the fans, 1000 for internet buyers, and 1000 for people going to an actual box office. I love how they kept the rest of tickets for the "important people" as opposed to making every ticket available, for the true fans.

[Guest homerjfry]

Big ups to Luke Walton. I have been screaming to play him more since his shot is looking great and he is a phenomenal passer. I don't know why they play George instead, seeing as George is a worse shooter and bad passer. Probably because of his height and defense is a bit better.

Once again we see what experience can do (yes it does matter). Remember when the Laker's played Utah about 6 years ago?Kobe airballed his last 2-3 shots to tie/win the game. Have you EVER seen that happen again? Nope. Kobe learned from his experience of choking in the playoffs and has never looked back. Now he is easily one of the best clutch shooters of all time. We've seen how experience worked in the favor of the Lakers, since overtime proved that point last night.

Big ups to Malone indeed.

Payton is once again a non factor. He needs to pick it up a bit.

Kobe and Shaq were perfect as usual. Shaq set a record for finals scoring 25+ points I believe they said last night.

I'll look for the Lakers to take 2/3 in Detroit and finish it up in LA.

[sahyder1]

I just watched a replay.......and the Shaq put back (which brought them withing 4) was an offensive foul.

Appearantly they talked about fouling Shaq on that last possession if the ball came inside to him.....no idea why the same wouldn't apply on the outside.