NBA '08 Playoff Thread

Well said.

 

Couldn't be more right.

I couldn't believe the way he was acting. It was embarrassing to watch.

Yes, he obviously hurt his knee. Probably sprained it. It felt weird, maybe he'd never felt that before so, like wannabeu said, he didn't know what to expect and something took control of sanity. I wouldn't accuse him of faking an injury.

Bottom line is, you can't be carried off the court like you just went down in a shower of gunfire. Willis Reed had a knee injury. This Pierce thing was mostly theatrics. The knee may continue to be sore, maybe even affect his play the rest of the series.

But you can't act like Pierce did. And for Mark Jackson to compare him to Ali is appalling. Do you think Bird, Parish, McHale, or DJ would have let his teammates human-gurney him off the floor, only to return 1:45 later?

At least he didn't pull a D-Wade and strain a shoulder only to be taken off the floor in a wheel chair.

 

I just think the whole thing was instinct. You hear a pop in the knee and feel the apparent sharp pain that Pierce experienced. He thought something in there was torn and was probably freaking out, considering he's been waiting his entire life to get to this stage of the sport and might never get there again.

The way Sheridan was writing about Pierce after the game (knee wrapped, trouble walking to the car) makes me believe that adrenalin and (foolish?) pride brought Pierce back. Now the question is how will he feel and play in Game 2 and beyond?

 

That was the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen. I still am in disbelief that it really happened.

As for Pierce, I agree with what most have said. I think as soon as it happened it hurt a lot. I don't even know if he tried to put pressure on it, but if he did, it must have felt really weak. I do think it was pretty ridiculous that he had teammates carry him off. Couldn't he just used them as crutches and hobbled?

But I do think it was legit and I do think it's going to affect him going forward. The adrenaline definitely played a huge role last night. It's going to be a much different story Sunday night.

 

As for Jackson, why get worried about what he's saying? That's just what the guy does. Fisher was on PTI and handled the question about any skepticism about Pierce's injury perfectly. He basically said it doesn't matter if it was really hurt all that matters is that he played well and they won. And that is the bottom line. If Pierce played it up maybe that would get under the Lakers skin, but the only thing that really matters is that it's 1-0 Boston right now.

 

Yep. You've gotta think, though, if you were gonna pull a fast one on somebody, it wouldn't be that hard to do it against a team with Pau Gasol, Sasha Vujacic, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Jordan Farmer. None of those guys that experienced, and none of the are gonna split the atom any time soon either.

 

dargan, why do you hate white European players?

 

I thought about that while I was typing it.

(I also misspelled Farmar)

 

I wonder what the reaction would be if Kobe Bryant had done exactly what Paul Pierce had done.
I kind of have the feeling Boston fans wouldn't be so understanding.

 

Not a chance. Though I must say, I wouldn't expect a Lakers fan to be "understanding." I'd just look at it like Fisher and say "who gives a shit we lost the game." Now if the Lakers lose the series and that clip is played for years to come, I'd be legitimately pissed, but for now I think there are bigger fish to fry.

 

lame. the sportscenter i just watched has the lakers blaming their poor game one shooting on the baskets being extended further than normal from the base. there are times to just admit that either you just didn't have it or the defense was good.

 

I could understand this affecting a bunch of guys playing a pickup game, but for professional basketball players to say that is embarrassing.