Blinebury: After Good Teams Fall Behind, The Great Teams Get Going

[duncan228]

After good teams fall behind, the great teams get going
By Fran Blinebury, for NBA.com

Talk about change we can believe in.

On Saturday night, the Boston Celtics were getting credit for having survived their seven-game, seven-overtime instant classic series with the Chicago Bulls. Forty-eight hours later, on the very same parquet floor, the defending champions were getting their heads handed to them by Orlando in Game 1 of the second round.

Out west, the Los Angeles Lakers were practically able to float on their backs while sipping umbrella drinks in a no-sweat first-round blowout of the Utah Jazz. Then Kobe Bryant and his teammates took the court at the Staples Center and were hole-punched by the Houston Rockets in the opener of their second-round series.

Just like that, the two participants in last year's NBA Finals were staring up out of a pair of 0-1 ditches and a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world was breaking out the shovels for the burials. "The teams that are left are the top four teams in their conferences," said Boston's Paul Pierce. "Every series is going to be compe ive. Whatever you did in the regular season, it's a whole new ballgame. We lost Game 1 last series, but we don't want to practice getting down."

"I think last year we had a cakewalk to the NBA Finals," said the Lakers' Bryant. "It feels good to be tested a little bit. If you're going to be a champion, you've got to be tested. You've got to answer those bells. You've got to answer the call."

Despite the stack of numbers that show the team that wins Game 1 in any best-of-seven set has gone on to win the series nearly 80 percent of the time, recent NBA history shows that five of the past six champions (from 2003 to 2007) all dropped the opener of at least one series on their way to winning the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

2003: The San Antonio Spurs lost Game 1 at home in their first-round series against the Phoenix Suns, 96-95, in overtime. The Spurs also lost Game 5 in San Antonio but bounced back to close out the series in Phoenix for a 4-2 victory. Two rounds later, in the Western Conference finals, the Spurs were upended at home by the Dallas Mavericks in the opener. But San Antonio again closed out the series by winning Game 6 on the road. David Robinson eventually got to ride into the sunset with a le when the Spurs beat New Jersey in The Finals.

2004: The Detroit Pistons lost a classic low-scoring 78-74 opener to the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals at Conseco Fieldhouse. But Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and the gang broke through in Indianapolis with an 83-65 win in Game 6 and closed out the series in six games before shocking the Lakers 4-1 in The Finals.

2005: Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets did their Santa Ana impersonation, rolling to San Antonio to take Game 1 of their first-round series. But that definitely got the attention of Tim Duncan and friends, who bounced back to win four straight games and eventually outlasted the Pistons in a gripping seven-game Finals.

2006: Dwayne Wade, Shaquille O'Neal and the Miami Heat weren't on fire in a 100-88 home loss to the Nets in Game 1 of their second-round series. But Miami took care of New Jersey by winning the next four games, then outwrestled Detroit 4-2 and, most dramatically, spotted Dallas a 2-0 lead in The Finals before sweeping four in a row and the crown.

2007: The Spurs were up to their slow-starting tricks again, dropping the playoff opener once more to the Denver Nuggets. But just like the last time, San Antonio responded with four straight wins and never trailed in another series the rest of the way, capping it off with a four-game sweep of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in The Finals.

In the previous 62 years of the NBA Playoffs, the eventual champion has lost the first game of an earlier-round series 19 times. One lost game, then, is not insurmountable. But teams that have lost the first two games of a series have come back to win only 14 times in 217 series. And only three of the teams to climb out of an 0-2 hole in the early rounds have become champions.

1993: Pat Riley's rough and tumble New York Knicks had Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls down 0-2 in the Eastern Conference finals after taking the first two games at Madison Square Garden. But as everyone ultimately learned, it was never over til it's over with MJ and the Bulls, who won four in a row and then took out Phoenix in The Finals.

1994: The Houston Rockets dropped the first two games on their home floor to the Suns and even blew a 20-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 2 --- the infamous "Choke City" game. But they turned right around to take the next two games in Phoenix and rallied to win Game 7 in Houston, later claiming their first championship by beating the Knicks.

1995: The Rockets jumped right back into the 0-2 hole against the Suns, only this time they didn't have home-court. Nevertheless, Hakeem Olajuwon led the comeback, Mario Elie nailed his "kiss of death" 3-pointer from out of the left corner and the Rockets won Game 7 in Phoenix and made it back-to-back les when they swept Orlando in The Finals.

It was about an hour before Game 4 of the 1994 series in Phoenix when I asked Olajuwon if the Rockets were in a tough spot.

"Take a seat," he told me, pulling up a folding chair near his locker. "Let me explain it to you. This is a 'must' game for Phoenix. They have all the pressure. If they lose Game 4, they have lost their advantage and the series is tied 2-2. They know they will lose Game 5 in Houston and, even if they take Game 6, they know we will beat them in Game 7 in Houston. They know we will not blow our home-court again. It means everything in Game 7. So you see, it's all on them. We just play."

A year later, when the Rockets dropped the first two games once more to the Suns and were trailing 3-1 heading into Game 5 --- this time without home-court advantage --- I stopped by Hakeem's locker again.

"Let me get your chair," Olajuwon said with a knowing grin. "The pressure is all on the Suns. They must win Game 5 and close us out tonight. Because they know they do not have a chance to win Game 6 in Houston. Then, if it comes down to Game 7, they will be the nervous team and they will be playing with all the pressure."

I listened and then said, "But you told me last year, right here in this same room, that the situation was entirely reversed and home-court means everything in Game 7. 0-1, 0-2, 1-3. When are you worried?"

Oljauwon shook his head and chuckled as he laced up his sneakers.

"You know," said Hakeem the Dream, "when you're still good enough, none of that matters."

[mingus]

guess Kobe doesn't remember game 1 and game 4 against the Spurs last year ... in a series where two games were decided by one play it seems dumb to say they had a cake walk last year ...

had Manu's shot went in and the infamous no-call been called the Spurs would've been up in the series at that point ...