ducks
06-22-2005, 06:49 PM
Nerves, pressure part of allure of Game Seven
June 22, 2005
By Chris Bernucca
SportsTicker Pro Basketball Editor
SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) - Eleven years ago, Michael Jordan was a baseball player, O.J. Simpson was a murder suspect and Robert Horry was just another player on the Houston Rockets.
Horry, a reserve forward on the San Antonio Spurs, played in the last Game Seven of the NBA Finals, when the Rockets beat the New York Knicks in 1994.
ADVERTISEMENT
That began a long legacy of winning for Horry, who has evolved into one of the better clutch performers in NBA history. He has played in five championship series - winning them all - and understands the dynamic that will be omnipresent for every player Thursday night.
"Some guys heighten their game," he said. "Some guys kind of fold up and shrivel away. It's going to be a true test of our manhood. I don't want to use that word - you know the word I want to say - but what we've got (inside)."
There is nothing like Game Seven. Other sports such as football and college basketball have one game for the championship, almost always without any reliable history or trends between the teams.
For two weeks, the Spurs and Detroit Pistons have been prodding and poking at each other, trying to exploit their strengths and disguise their weaknesses.
Each team has won two blowouts and a close game. Each team has won once on the road. Each team has experienced the unbridled joy of winning a championship in recent years. Each team knows what must be done to experience that again.
There are no secrets anymore, which means Thursday's game will come down to one burning issue which carries the eternal flame for all Game Sevens in all sports: Which team will better handle the pressure?
Right now, it looks like the Pistons, whose undying determination and grit have brought them to the precipice of the greatest comeback in Finals history. Just two teams have come back from 0-2 deficits to win the title, and no team has done it winning the last two games on the road.
"They are at home and I think the pressure is really on them to win this Game Seven and win it all," said Pistons guard Chauncey Billups, who seems immune to pressure.
"They have been in this situation before," said Spurs forward Tim Duncan, whose steely demeanor has been tarnished at times in this series. "They are defending champs. They have been down in the series and they have always responded very well."
During their reign as champions, the Pistons have won a pair of Game Sevens, beating New Jersey at home in the 2004 Eastern Conference semifinals and Miami on the road in this year's conference finals. In both those series, they erased 3-2 deficits.
That may give them a mental advantage over the Spurs, whose core will be experiencing a Game Seven for the first time.
"They are tough-minded, maybe the most mentally tough team in the league," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who will be in his first Game Seven as the head man. "They just play. They don't care if they are at home, if they are away. That's why they are the NBA champions."
"They won a Game Seven in the East in Miami, so they know what it's like to play on the road in a Game Seven," said Spurs reserve forward Glenn Robinson, who played in two seventh games in 2001 with Milwaukee.
That experience could help the Pistons scatter the butterflies that every player will have during the first few minutes he is on the court.
"I think so many players just get a little too excited - which is understandable, being in a situation like that, to get a little too excited and get a little too impatient," Billups said.
Several Spurs admitted to having their nerves jangled a bit by the possibility of wrapping up the title in Game Six.
"I think we were just jittery and just ready to go," said Duncan, who made just 5-of-10 free throws in Game Six. "That's a good thing to have that energy, but (you have) to channel it the right way, to use it the right way. I think at times we were a little bit too rushed."
"Of course you're nervous, a little anxious," said Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who committed five turnovers in Game Six. "(Now) it comes back to just one game. You win it all or you go home with nothing."
The one member of the Spurs who you may believe to be unaffected by the magnitude of the moment is Horry, who has been playing in - and winning - Game Sevens for so long that he honestly has no memory of what took place 11 years ago in Houston.
Neither does Pistons guard Lindsey Hunter, who had just completed his rookie season.
"I don't remember much about that series," he said. "I was watching O.J.'s Ford Bronco."
While Simpson was driving along the Los Angeles freeway and being followed by a fleet a police cars, Horry was establishing a path of success in Game Seven that not many players have been able to follow.
In addition to a pair in 1994, he also helped Houston win Game Seven at Phoenix in the 1995 conference semifinals. He was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers when they rallied past Portland at home in Game Seven of the 2000 conference finals and defeated Sacramento in overtime on the road in Game Seven of the 2002 conference finals.
But that doesn't mean he enjoys them.
"Personally I don't like being here," said Horry, whose 3-pointer to win Game Five in overtime at Detroit has been the most pressure-packed shot of the series thus far. "You want to end it early."
Since Duncan came aboard in 1997, no team has been better at avoiding the unknown of a Game Seven than the Spurs. En route to the title in 1999, none of their series lasted more than five games. In 2003, they won all four series in six games, including a pair on the road.
But they squandered a chance to do the same against the Pistons. Now, for 48 hours, they must hurry up and wait.
Moreso than the Pistons, the Spurs must endure the churning stomachs, the inability to relax, the irrepressible urge to get back on the court and show that they have the "manhood" to accept the unique challenges that come with a seventh game.
"The time between now and the game will probably seem interminable," Popovich said.
June 22, 2005
By Chris Bernucca
SportsTicker Pro Basketball Editor
SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) - Eleven years ago, Michael Jordan was a baseball player, O.J. Simpson was a murder suspect and Robert Horry was just another player on the Houston Rockets.
Horry, a reserve forward on the San Antonio Spurs, played in the last Game Seven of the NBA Finals, when the Rockets beat the New York Knicks in 1994.
ADVERTISEMENT
That began a long legacy of winning for Horry, who has evolved into one of the better clutch performers in NBA history. He has played in five championship series - winning them all - and understands the dynamic that will be omnipresent for every player Thursday night.
"Some guys heighten their game," he said. "Some guys kind of fold up and shrivel away. It's going to be a true test of our manhood. I don't want to use that word - you know the word I want to say - but what we've got (inside)."
There is nothing like Game Seven. Other sports such as football and college basketball have one game for the championship, almost always without any reliable history or trends between the teams.
For two weeks, the Spurs and Detroit Pistons have been prodding and poking at each other, trying to exploit their strengths and disguise their weaknesses.
Each team has won two blowouts and a close game. Each team has won once on the road. Each team has experienced the unbridled joy of winning a championship in recent years. Each team knows what must be done to experience that again.
There are no secrets anymore, which means Thursday's game will come down to one burning issue which carries the eternal flame for all Game Sevens in all sports: Which team will better handle the pressure?
Right now, it looks like the Pistons, whose undying determination and grit have brought them to the precipice of the greatest comeback in Finals history. Just two teams have come back from 0-2 deficits to win the title, and no team has done it winning the last two games on the road.
"They are at home and I think the pressure is really on them to win this Game Seven and win it all," said Pistons guard Chauncey Billups, who seems immune to pressure.
"They have been in this situation before," said Spurs forward Tim Duncan, whose steely demeanor has been tarnished at times in this series. "They are defending champs. They have been down in the series and they have always responded very well."
During their reign as champions, the Pistons have won a pair of Game Sevens, beating New Jersey at home in the 2004 Eastern Conference semifinals and Miami on the road in this year's conference finals. In both those series, they erased 3-2 deficits.
That may give them a mental advantage over the Spurs, whose core will be experiencing a Game Seven for the first time.
"They are tough-minded, maybe the most mentally tough team in the league," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who will be in his first Game Seven as the head man. "They just play. They don't care if they are at home, if they are away. That's why they are the NBA champions."
"They won a Game Seven in the East in Miami, so they know what it's like to play on the road in a Game Seven," said Spurs reserve forward Glenn Robinson, who played in two seventh games in 2001 with Milwaukee.
That experience could help the Pistons scatter the butterflies that every player will have during the first few minutes he is on the court.
"I think so many players just get a little too excited - which is understandable, being in a situation like that, to get a little too excited and get a little too impatient," Billups said.
Several Spurs admitted to having their nerves jangled a bit by the possibility of wrapping up the title in Game Six.
"I think we were just jittery and just ready to go," said Duncan, who made just 5-of-10 free throws in Game Six. "That's a good thing to have that energy, but (you have) to channel it the right way, to use it the right way. I think at times we were a little bit too rushed."
"Of course you're nervous, a little anxious," said Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who committed five turnovers in Game Six. "(Now) it comes back to just one game. You win it all or you go home with nothing."
The one member of the Spurs who you may believe to be unaffected by the magnitude of the moment is Horry, who has been playing in - and winning - Game Sevens for so long that he honestly has no memory of what took place 11 years ago in Houston.
Neither does Pistons guard Lindsey Hunter, who had just completed his rookie season.
"I don't remember much about that series," he said. "I was watching O.J.'s Ford Bronco."
While Simpson was driving along the Los Angeles freeway and being followed by a fleet a police cars, Horry was establishing a path of success in Game Seven that not many players have been able to follow.
In addition to a pair in 1994, he also helped Houston win Game Seven at Phoenix in the 1995 conference semifinals. He was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers when they rallied past Portland at home in Game Seven of the 2000 conference finals and defeated Sacramento in overtime on the road in Game Seven of the 2002 conference finals.
But that doesn't mean he enjoys them.
"Personally I don't like being here," said Horry, whose 3-pointer to win Game Five in overtime at Detroit has been the most pressure-packed shot of the series thus far. "You want to end it early."
Since Duncan came aboard in 1997, no team has been better at avoiding the unknown of a Game Seven than the Spurs. En route to the title in 1999, none of their series lasted more than five games. In 2003, they won all four series in six games, including a pair on the road.
But they squandered a chance to do the same against the Pistons. Now, for 48 hours, they must hurry up and wait.
Moreso than the Pistons, the Spurs must endure the churning stomachs, the inability to relax, the irrepressible urge to get back on the court and show that they have the "manhood" to accept the unique challenges that come with a seventh game.
"The time between now and the game will probably seem interminable," Popovich said.