I feel much better now.
i’m just glad we don’t have to watch them play the pacers anymore. that was quite possibly the worst conference finals series ever.
after watching the pacers play a tough defensive team 6 times in a row, it’s obvious they have some HUGE holes in their lineup. playing assorted creampuffs in the eastern conference during the regular season hid those weaknesses pretty well, but now they’re pretty obvious.
the loss of brad miller was huge, even though no one seems to mention it anymore. another big guy next to jermaine to take some defensive pressure off would have really helped against the wallaces.
if the pacers had a serious shooter they would have won the series easily. reggie is officially useless, as much as i hate to say it. they need to get someone in the off season to help fill that gap. thing is, trades are pretty much out of the question for them. they wouldn’t deal any of the starters. harrington, even though he pretty much disappeared this series, is probably untouchable. they’ve spent so much time with bender, even though he looks lost on the court, i don’t think they’d part with him. croshere makes 7 mil a year, i think. no one wants that contract from a guy who averages 4 points a game. that doesn’t leave much. anthony johnson? kenny anderson? primoz brezec? scot pollard? please, these guys are waiver wire fodder. they were called the deepest team in the league during the regular season, but you couldn’t tell in the playoffs.
There were some very dramatic games, but neither team had enough offense to get anything done against good defense.
If the pistons don’t figure out how to score, the Finals are going to be even uglier.
I loathe the Lakers, and ordinarily, I wouldn’t root for them under any circumstances.
But a Pistons championship would be a disaster for the NBA. Coaches are copycats, and if the Pistons could win a championship by scores of 63-60, EVERYONE would start playing like that… and the NBA would be about as entertaining as the WNBA.
Sigh… go Kobe! Rah, Shaq!
The Pistons aren’t the NBA equivalent of the Devils in hockey- they don’t play a style that deliberately avoids offense. They just play great defense and don’t score.
Brad Miller is a total creampuff, look he he played for the Kings in the playoffs.
How about Bender or Harrington?
What? Reggie is far from useless. During the playoffs he averaged 10.1 points a game, made 24 three pointers, and shot 47 out of 51 from the freethrow line. I’ll live with what.
O’neal was injured, Tinsley was a cripple, and Artest was broken as well. If they were all healthy I think they would have taken the pistons.
Of course most of the credit goes to the Pistons, they played a hell of a series.
Everybody sing now:
“I have Piston shorts
I have Piston beer mugs
Sometimes people don’t even notice
…”