duncan228
05-16-2008, 01:20 PM
http://www.oxfordpress.com/sports/content/shared/sports/stories/2008/05/0516golden_fn.html
Spurs now need to be road team series has lacked
By CEDRIC GOLDEN
SAN ANTONIO — Will a real road team please stand up?
Or maybe we're going to have to dust off Gene Hackman and bring him to Game 7. Yeah, just to be sure everything is above board, let's fly in the former Hoosiers coach and his tape measure to make sure the baskets at New Orleans Arena each measure 10 feet in height.
Something tells me all is compliant with James Naismith's specs.
That still doesn't explain why supposed road warriors in these playoffs are playing like road dogs. As a result, the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Hornets are going the distance in this best-of-seven series, and the next time a road team lands a serious blow will be the first time.
After the Spurs ran Chris Paul's Hornets off the floor at the AT&T Center, any fan of road basketball had to throw up his or her hands in disgust. Can we get some drama? One close game, please? You can't have a buzzer-beater if the game is over with eight minutes left. There's more nail filing than nail biting in the stands.
San Antonio's 11-point win in Game 3 doesn't even count as close, but it seems like a triple-overtime teeth clatterer compared with the other six blowouts. Watching San Antonio's 99-80 victory Thursday in Game 6 would lead one to believe the Spurs will find a way to beat the young Hornets in Game 7, even in New Orleans.
That would be absolutely true in most postseasons, but road teams in the second round of these 2008 playoffs have a 1-20 away record and probably stand a better chance of surviving cocktails at Hannibal Lecter's than they do of winning a single basketball game away from home.
"For whatever reason, home teams are playing with confidence and the road teams are playing like crap,'' said New Orleans coach Byron Scott. "I'm just glad we're playing Game 7 at our place."
Only one team — the resting Detroit Pistons — has won a road game in the conference semis, and that's one more road win than the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (an 0-14 team). You can't blame it on a disparity in talent because these teams are exchanging blowouts. It's a real head-scratcher league-wide, though you have to figure a road team is bound to break through sometime.
And one word of advice to All-Star point guard Chris Paul: Never use your off hand to push off when you're dribbling in the open court. Especially when you're saddled with three fouls and your team is losing in a road game.
Paul's foul trouble didn't factor into this loss, and it didn't really matter that he and teammate David West combined for five fouls and one technical foul in less than three minutes in the third quarter. The Hornets weren't going to win, not with Manu Ginobili knocking down six triples and Tim Duncan putting up 20 points and 15 rebounds.
Besides, there's no comfort zone for the Hornets in San Antonio. No Bourbon Street. No French Quarter. In short, New Orleans was outplayed, outmuscled, outwilled by the Spurs, who ran their postseason home winning streak to 11 games.
Remember that old adage that says an NBA playoff series doesn't start until a road team wins a game? If that was really the case, we would never make it out of this round.
Who knows why these home playoff teams have been about as hospitable as Jeffrey Dahmer, but sooner or later, a road team is going to win on enemy soil, uh, wood. I wouldn't bet $400,000 on the Spurs to emerge victorious in the series finale, but with all due respect to blackjack player Charles Barkley, San Antonio could hit the jackpot because they have actually paid their dues over the years, and playoff experience will come into play down the stretch Monday. If there is a stretch.
And if ever there was team that's due for a clunker at the house, it's the young Hornets, who have never played a game of this magnitude. To add to the pressure that's weighing down their inexperienced playoff shoulders, the Hornets have to be concerned about the bad back of power forward David West, who crumpled to the floor in the fourth quarter after running into a back screen set by Robert Horry.
And they said Rob couldn't deliver a big shot anymore.
The Spurs have never won a series after trailing 3-2, and they looked nearly noncompetitive in the fourth quarter of their last trip to the Big Easy. But things are looking up. Coach Gregg Popovich needs one more playoff win for 100 in his career. Duncan's back to playing like Duncan, and Ginobili is on fire. I give the Spurs a great chance to make the Western Conference finals.
Even if there isn't an Alamo in New Orleans.
Spurs now need to be road team series has lacked
By CEDRIC GOLDEN
SAN ANTONIO — Will a real road team please stand up?
Or maybe we're going to have to dust off Gene Hackman and bring him to Game 7. Yeah, just to be sure everything is above board, let's fly in the former Hoosiers coach and his tape measure to make sure the baskets at New Orleans Arena each measure 10 feet in height.
Something tells me all is compliant with James Naismith's specs.
That still doesn't explain why supposed road warriors in these playoffs are playing like road dogs. As a result, the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Hornets are going the distance in this best-of-seven series, and the next time a road team lands a serious blow will be the first time.
After the Spurs ran Chris Paul's Hornets off the floor at the AT&T Center, any fan of road basketball had to throw up his or her hands in disgust. Can we get some drama? One close game, please? You can't have a buzzer-beater if the game is over with eight minutes left. There's more nail filing than nail biting in the stands.
San Antonio's 11-point win in Game 3 doesn't even count as close, but it seems like a triple-overtime teeth clatterer compared with the other six blowouts. Watching San Antonio's 99-80 victory Thursday in Game 6 would lead one to believe the Spurs will find a way to beat the young Hornets in Game 7, even in New Orleans.
That would be absolutely true in most postseasons, but road teams in the second round of these 2008 playoffs have a 1-20 away record and probably stand a better chance of surviving cocktails at Hannibal Lecter's than they do of winning a single basketball game away from home.
"For whatever reason, home teams are playing with confidence and the road teams are playing like crap,'' said New Orleans coach Byron Scott. "I'm just glad we're playing Game 7 at our place."
Only one team — the resting Detroit Pistons — has won a road game in the conference semis, and that's one more road win than the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (an 0-14 team). You can't blame it on a disparity in talent because these teams are exchanging blowouts. It's a real head-scratcher league-wide, though you have to figure a road team is bound to break through sometime.
And one word of advice to All-Star point guard Chris Paul: Never use your off hand to push off when you're dribbling in the open court. Especially when you're saddled with three fouls and your team is losing in a road game.
Paul's foul trouble didn't factor into this loss, and it didn't really matter that he and teammate David West combined for five fouls and one technical foul in less than three minutes in the third quarter. The Hornets weren't going to win, not with Manu Ginobili knocking down six triples and Tim Duncan putting up 20 points and 15 rebounds.
Besides, there's no comfort zone for the Hornets in San Antonio. No Bourbon Street. No French Quarter. In short, New Orleans was outplayed, outmuscled, outwilled by the Spurs, who ran their postseason home winning streak to 11 games.
Remember that old adage that says an NBA playoff series doesn't start until a road team wins a game? If that was really the case, we would never make it out of this round.
Who knows why these home playoff teams have been about as hospitable as Jeffrey Dahmer, but sooner or later, a road team is going to win on enemy soil, uh, wood. I wouldn't bet $400,000 on the Spurs to emerge victorious in the series finale, but with all due respect to blackjack player Charles Barkley, San Antonio could hit the jackpot because they have actually paid their dues over the years, and playoff experience will come into play down the stretch Monday. If there is a stretch.
And if ever there was team that's due for a clunker at the house, it's the young Hornets, who have never played a game of this magnitude. To add to the pressure that's weighing down their inexperienced playoff shoulders, the Hornets have to be concerned about the bad back of power forward David West, who crumpled to the floor in the fourth quarter after running into a back screen set by Robert Horry.
And they said Rob couldn't deliver a big shot anymore.
The Spurs have never won a series after trailing 3-2, and they looked nearly noncompetitive in the fourth quarter of their last trip to the Big Easy. But things are looking up. Coach Gregg Popovich needs one more playoff win for 100 in his career. Duncan's back to playing like Duncan, and Ginobili is on fire. I give the Spurs a great chance to make the Western Conference finals.
Even if there isn't an Alamo in New Orleans.