Pistons are less physical, but more slick
Game Time: Pistons 96, Cavaliers 89
Whereas both the Bad Boys and Ben Wallace's championship gang would just as soon knock an opponent on his keister, Jason Maxiell is the only current Piston who delights in banging and bruising.
Charley's NBA tour
FOXSports.com's Charley Rosen has been watching every team closely this season. Now he has a scouting report on each one.
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Whereas Rip Hamilton found his shots by perpetually weaving and darting through and around multiple screens, these days he'll post, isolate, and perhaps take advantage of a single screen.
Whereas Rasheed Wallace once was a dynamic low-post scorer, he only ventured down there twice against the Cavs — missing a jumper and later getting fouled. Indeed, the latest incarnation of Rasheed would rather hoist up triples than wrestle in the lane. And when he's dropping his 3-pointers — like he did three times against the Cavs — then the middle opens wide and invites penetration by Detroit's shifty wings and guards.
Whereas Tayshaun Prince used to be an integral part of the Pistons' endgame strategies, he rode the pine for most of the fourth quarter when Detroit put the Cavs to sleep.
Whereas the ever-patient Chauncey Billups excelled in grind-it-out half-court offense, Allen Iverson is always moving and grooving.
Whereas the Pistons' defense used to rely on chest-to-chest and bone-on-bone confrontations, these guys play slick, ball-hawking defense — ambushing passing lanes and challenging entry passes. Still, the Cavs were repeatedly able to split double teams, killed the Pistons with screen/fades and created a multitude of open shots with weak-side combo-screens.
And whereas Flip Saunders was often criticized for overplaying his starters, the Pistons took over the game with A.I. and Rasheed teamed with Maxiell, Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo.
Here's a quick scouting report on the Pistons' old and new cast of characters:
Hamilton has to work harder for his shots, but seems comfortable. For much of the game, he was assigned to guard LeBron James, which meant he worked even harder on defense. After navigating the Cavs' various screens, whoever wound up defending LBJ executed Mike Curry's game plan to perfection — playing James soft and letting him shoot as many perimeter shots as he desired. LeBron was 2-12 from mid-range and beyond, which is a major reason why the Pistons prevailed.
Wallace rebounded efficiently but no longer possesses the spring and the timing to be a dangerous shot-blocker.
NBA roundup
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Friday's action
- LeBron, Cavs crush fading Celtics
- Magic make quick work of Hawks
- Miller, Sixers surge past Bobcats
- Bosh, Raptors too good for Grizz
- Butler heats up for Hornets vs. Clips
- T-Mac, Rockets hold off Thunder
- Bulls beat up on Wizards
- Nets at Bucks
- Pistons at Nuggets
- Heat at Kings
- Pacers at Lakers
- Mavericks at Suns
FOXSports.com analysis
- Rosen: Hawks can't hang with Magic
- Hill: The importance of home court
- Rosen: Rose an impressive rookie
- Galinsky: NBA Power Rankings
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Iverson forced a total of eight shots and was frequently guilty of over-handling, but he converted a trio of ultra-clutch drives when the game was on the line. As ever, his defense depends on his quickness into passing lanes — but whenever he was presented with a screen, A.I. lacked the appropriate answer and generally gave ground.
Prince did some yeoman work on isos, but otherwise wasn't much of a factor. Indeed, he already looks a bit weary. A hangover from the Olympic Games?
Stuckey can pull left and shoot, and drive right with power and quickness. However, his education is a continuing ordeal as he forced a total of five shots, dribbles and/or passes.
Maxiell rumbled in the paint and even hit a pair of jumpers. He's not as experienced nor as versatile as Antonio McDyess, but he ain't chopped liver either.
Afflalo almost single-handedly upped the tempo in the fourth quarter. He also hit a couple of jumpers (including a trey), and threw several bull's-eye passes. His overall defense, though, still needs improvement.
Amir Johnson makes too many mistakes.
Kwame Brown is all thumbs and can't adequately defend guys who can face-up.
Curry is in the process of tweaking his game plan to accommodate Iverson's special skills. On several possessions, Prince carried the ball across the time-line and Iverson functioned as the shooting guard, running quick curls around staggered screens and snake patterns along the baseline.
Whereas the Pistons used to suffer through long periods where they had to struggle to find a makeable shot, A.I.'s presence ensures that those dead spots are ancient history.
The adjustments that Curry is making are massive, but the Pistons could definitely evolve into a legitimate championship contender if:
That's a lot of "ifs", but sometimes "ifs" like sweet dreams, do come to pass.
Straight Shooting
Big men were once big children, which meant that they were all subjected to a unique set of problems.
Like taking longer to develop their physical coordination than the normal-sized kids in their age group, which didn't prevent unrelated onlookers to expect more from them than they were able to deliver.
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| Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell, who tutored many of the game's greatest big men, died Monday. He was 93. (Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE / Getty Images) |
Like standing out in any crowd (and classroom) of their peers, which meant that nary a public mistake, misstep or missed layup went unnoticed.
Like being totally self-conscious all the time.
Fortunately, a basketball court became a relatively safe haven for these 3X-sized hooplings. A place where bigness was a virtue.
And once on the court, bigs had to learn a different game than guards and wings. Rebounding, footwork in tight quarters, back-to-the-basket offense and defense, screening and rolling, shot-blocking, bumping and alligator-wrestling — techniques that pint-sized coaches learn only from books and instructional tapes.
That's why retired bigs — like Clifford Ray, Dave Cowens, Herb Williams, et al — usually make the best big-men coaches. It's just as much about psychology as it is about specific techniques.
And that's why Pete Newell was such a treasure. Among his other considerable talents, Newell was also a civilian-sized coach who understood big men.
RIP, Coach. Rest in the pivot.
Vox Populi
It wasn't too long ago that a lot of people were talking about what an effective role player Luke Walton was for the Lakers, and yet he now seems to be stuck at the end of the bench. Why has he declined so rapidly? And what does he need to do to turn his career around? — Lloyd Freeburn, Fargo, ND
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Walton's strength has always been his court awareness and his pass-work, qualities that are highlighted in the triangle offense. However, over the course of the last season-and-a-half, Walton has, for some reason, become more intent on putting the ball on the floor and trying to develop more shot opportunities for himself.
Because Walton is at his best when his teammates are executing the triangle with precision, the Lakers' singular (Kobe Bryant) collective failure to wholeheartedly embrace the offense on a full-time basis may be the historical cause of his egregious over-handling.
In any event, if Walton is not doing what he does best, then his own flaws become more evident — his lack of speed, quickness, and NBA-caliber athleticism, along with his woeful defense. At the same time, the presence of Lamar Odom and the renaissance of Trevor Ariza have naturally reduced Walton's playing time.
What Walton needs to do is embrace his own strengths as well as his own limitations — and be ready to rumble when the inevitable certainties of injuries and foul trouble shorten the Lakers' bench.
Travels with Charley
About 25 years after the fact, I was researching Scandals of '51, an investigation into the several dozen players on many top-ranked college teams (including Kentucky, Toledo, Bradley, Manhattan College, NYU, LIU, and CCNY) who had been in league with gamblers to control point spreads. It was a tale of innocence and guilt, of ruthlessness and broken limbs, of double- and triple-crosses, of money wildly spent and of money hidden in shoeboxes, of hypocrisy and greed, and of religious and political deals that allowed numerous players to escape the consequences of their nefarious deeds.
Perhaps the most tragic of these histories involved six players from the powerhouse CCNY squad that had won both the NIT and the NCAA championships in the spring of 1950. The coach of that history-making team was Nat Holman, who was ably assisted by Bobby Sand. Indeed, it was Sand whose connections in the college's admissions office allowed several players to gain admittance into CCNY despite low high school grades that should have disqualified them.
Naturally, I contacted Sand to try to arrange an interview.
Here's a verbatim account of Sand's portion of our initial phone conversation:
"Hello? ... Yes ... Speaking ... The City College scandals? Hmmm. I don't know. That's still a very touchy subject. ... Yes ... Yes, I know. I was there and I know everything that happened. I can tell you about things you'll never find in the newspapers ... I don't know. It really doesn't sound like a good idea ... I don't think so ... But wait a minute. Let me ask you a question ... What if I tell you everything I know for five hundred dollars ...?"
No wonder point-shaving scandals have become a recurring feature of collegiate sports.
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