NBA '08 Playoff Thread

That's been Boston's mantra I think all season. It sees Pierce as its "closer." Either that or Pierce sees himself as the team's closer. In any event, if it's a tie game with about three to go -- I'm going to lean toward the bench opposite Boston's.

 

Yes you do. And don't leave Vujacic or Fisher to do it.

 

Precisely.

 

I understand all of that, but at some point you have to say as a player, "I don't have it tonight. I'm going to create for my teammate who is on fire." Rather than continuing to force it.

 

Exactly. I have no idea what the locker room politics are like, but for all the credit Allen gets for ceding to Pierce and Garnett for the good of the time, he can't always be happy about it. I'm thinking tonight would be one of those times. He's on fire, looking like the No. 1 option he's been for the past 10 years. I think you keep him going at the end of the game rather than trying to get Pierce started.

 

Could someone tell me why Eddie House was the go-to guy tonight?

I know he hit that one triple, but then they run a set play for him out of a timeout? Then Allen can't find a shot and passes to House, only for an illegal screen call?

I know KG/Pierce were 8-for-35, but the so-called Big 3 were tossed to the side for Eddie House. I don't understand this.

 

Say what we want about James Posey -- but whenever he goes to the pine, Kobe seems to get his flow back pretty quickly. Wonder why.
I've had an unfair dislike for Posey (probably because he was a member of the biggest joke in the history of the league, the '06 Heat), but I think it's high time I get over that. He's the one guy on the team -- and that includes Pierce -- that can check Kobe effectively and at least give him some trouble. A fantastic man-up defender.

 

Eh, whatever.

Barring a major change - as in, Gasol and Odom rediscover the guts they left in the Western playoffs, and the Lakers finally find a strategy to counter Boston's interior defense and consistently slow Pierce OR Allen offensively (hell, I'll take either one) - that was a last gasp. Garnett and Pierce will not play that poorly again. Gasol and Odom likely will.

Yay for a non-sweep.

 

Oh I totally agree -- I don't get it either, I haven't all season. But for whatever reason, Pierce simply seems to have a set mind that he's going to jack shit up with less than five to go, no matter how cold he is or how bad the shot is. It makes literally no sense to me and hasn't all year.

 

He's the closest thing Boston has to Bruce Bowen.

 

He's actually a carbon copy -- just younger. A great defender, hits open 3's, doesn't make any major fuck ups to cost the team a game.

 

Why couldn't John Starks have figured that out? [/bitterknicksfanboylooser]