I turned it on last night, saw 73-68, and thought, “Oh, I wonder how much time is left in the third?”
As it turns out, they were almost halfway through the fourth. I want the Suns back.
Do you think there’s any chance Brown and Pops could have a secret meeting and say to each other, “We both know that our great defense is the best way to make sure we don’t lose to inferior teams on a night to night basis. However, we also both know that each of our teams are stacked and quite capable of playing a wide open, up-tempo game. No shame in losing to the other team here, each of us already has at least one ring… let’s give the fans a ride. Some basketball that’s fun to watch, as opposed to the ongoing root canal experience that was the Eastern Conference Playoffs.”
I didn’t think so either.
Also, with regard to last night, the final free thrown margin was only +9 for Miami, but it was closer to about +16 before the “give Chauncey Billups free points as we lose” campaign began. I didn’t see the whole game - was this a situation where Miami was just doing a lot more of the things that get you to the line, like your average Suns game, or were most of the borderline fouls going Miami’s way, like your average Knicks 90s playoff game or the Boston-Indiana series to start this playoffs?