Finley's misses FT... Boston L!!

[TJastal]

I'll add that the spurs' bench has been pretty good this year (tops in the league) and it would be a shame if Pop decided to tighten the rotation and not utilize it.

[TD 21]

For as clutch as Finley is in making clutch field goals, he's as un-clutch when it comes to making clutch free throws.

[GSH]

The Finley's hate is quite disproportionate.

First, even when you are a good FT shooter like Finley, hitting your 2 FTs isn't automatic. Statically, a FT shooter like Finley will at least miss one of his 2 FT 1 time each 3 trips.

Second, Finley isn't the main reason why Spurs have improved and Celtics have sucked lately. Finley wasn't playing with SA and has been quite good with Celtics (54.6% form the field and 40.9% from 3 point land).

Third, Finley hasn't left Spurs because he wanted to go with a contender. He left SA because he was in the doghouse and wanted more playing time.

The results sure as looked like we were a worse team with Finley. The Spurs were 9-8 before Finley's injury, and then went 15-5 over the next 20 games with him out of the lineup. That was when Parker started to complain about plantar fasciatis, and we hit a mini-slump for a few games. After Finley came back from his injury, we went 5-6, and we have gone 14-5 since he left. I know that he wasn't the sole cause of the problems the team has had, but it's hard to say that he had nothing to do with them.

Let's just say that Finley going to the Celtics made both teams better. It's just unfortunate for the Celtics that his impressive shooting percentages didn't translate into W's for the team. (Does that sound more "fair" to Finley?)

BTW - since Finley has been with the Celtics, he's shot .333 from the FT line. Maybe it's not fair to judge, since he's only taken 6 FT's in a Celtics uniform. But that's because he can't get to the line for anymore. So when he does manage to get fouled, he probably needs to make more than a third of the shots.

And speaking of shooting percentages. Fin's are a lot better when he's had 2 or more days of rest - especially his 3P percentage. That sounds a lot like tired legs. Its' a shame they don't have a stat for how often someone blows past him on the way to the basket. He would be a full-time job for the stat keeper, on the second night of back to backs. I wonder how he ever got into that doghouse?

[spurs10]

Finley will end up being "a man without a country", with no true fans anywhere....it's sad really...a delusional ego can really backfire on you. I don't blame any Spurs fans for thinking he left us when we might have needed him the most.