0305210416
DETROIT FREE PRESS
030521
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
METRO FINAL
1A
Photo KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/Detroit Free Press. Photo JULIAN H.
GONZALEZ/Detroit Free Press.
With 1.8 seconds left, the Pistons trailed, 88-86. The inbounds pass
went to Chauncey Billups near the three-point line. He tried to shoot over
Jason Kidd. They collided. The shot fell far short. The officials didn't call
a foul -- and the Palace crowd booed and chanted a vulgarity. MORE IN SPORTS,
1F.
Point guard Chauncey Billups drives to the basket past New Jersey's Kenyon
Martin. Billups had 15 points but made only 4 of 13 shots.
(the following photograph appeared on page 1A of the Metro Final 1 dot
edition)
Not in my house! Pistons rookie Mehmet Okur rejects a shot by New Jersey's
Rodney Rogers. Okur, though, struggled in Game 2, playing only 15 minutes. In
Game 1, he missed two shots in the final 1.4 seconds that would have forced
overtime in a Pistons loss.
MITCH ALBOM FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
GAME 2 | EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: NETS 88, PISTONS, 86
Copyright (c) 2003, Detroit Free Press
ANOTHER HEARTBREAKER
It was coming down like hot wax, drip, drip, another fourth-quarter lead,
another wild crowd, all melting away in concert with the clock, as if the
whole thing had been orchestrated ahead of time. An 11-point lead whittled
away like a stick on the wrong end of a penknife. Turnovers. Missed shots.
Missed free throws. Booing the refs.
And finally, on Tuesday, as it did on Sunday, the final Pistons shot missed
the mark -- this time a long jumper by Chauncey Billups into the outstretched
body of Jason Kidd -- and even the margin of defeat was the same.
Two points down.
Two games down.
Two bad. You can't win if you can't hold a lead at home. It's a combination of
New Jersey attitude and Detroit self-destruction. But it has put the Pistons
in a hole that looks awfully deep this morning. This series is no longer about
the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but about surviving the storm to
glimpse the rainbow at all.
"It seems like they turn our negatives into their positives awful fast," said
Tayshaun Prince, after the spirit-crushing 88-86 defeat in Game 2 of the
Eastern Conference finals.
Didn't we already see this script? The Nets look beaten. The Pistons look
confident. And then a series of little things, little slips, a botched play
here, a missed free throw there, and New Jersey is grinning on the far end of
the court like the hole in the pinball machine that knows the ball is coming,
it's a matter of gravity.
Kenyon Martin scored easily over Mehmet Okur, drew a foul, then did the whole
drill again, en route to 16 points in the final period. Kidd drove around and
under Ben Wallace for a lay-up. Richard Jefferson hit three free throws.
Meanwhile, on the other end, Jon Barry tried to drive and draw a foul -- no
dice -- and he tried it again and got stripped -- no foul again, but a
technical on Barry. Wallace took a jump shot, which is often a sign that
things have clanked to a halt. Corliss Williamson missed. Cliff Robinson
missed. And before you knew it, the Pistons were out of chances and out of
time.
"Forget the last play," coach Rick Carlisle said. "It shouldn't come down to
the last play when you have a lead at home. Turnovers. Technical fouls. Things
you can't do when you're at this level of the playoffs."
Two points. Two games. Two losses.
Two bad.
No margin for error
"We're not glamour team," Nets coach Byron Scott said after this one was over.
"We play defense just like they do. Hopefully we'll get some credit for that
now."
Forgive us, Byron, if the Pistons don't spend time this morning giving credit.
When you give up 30 points in the fourth quarter after giving up no more than
20 in any of the first three, credit isn't what you have in mind. Kicking
yourself is more like it.
And there's plenty of boots to go around.
Robinson can kick himself for numerous drops and misses and defensive lapses
in crucial situations. Williamson can kick himself for missing free throws and
a key basket at the end. Billups can kick himself for several lazy passes that
he'd want back, stolen by Kidd. Wallace can kick himself for missing two more
key free throws in the closing minutes. And Barry, with that technical foul --
well, no point in telling Barry. He's probably ripped his own head off by now.
Here's the simple truth, folks: There are teams that use a cushion and teams
that are threadbare, and the Pistons are the latter when it comes to points.
There are simply none to spare. The cupboard is always down to its last can of
soup. The refrigerator is always a leftover sandwich and a box of baking soda.
In such dire straits, there is little room for charity. So when the Pistons
start giving points away they are in trouble.
But here they were Tuesday night at the Palace, handing it over. Lazy passes.
A terrible rebounding differential. (Jersey had 19 offensive rebounds, giving
the Nets all kinds of second chances.) And some bad shooting -- with the
exception of Richard Hamilton, who almost single-handedly kept the Pistons in
this thing.
These are lapses that are fine for the Dallas Mavericks. They are expected of
the Dallas Mavericks. But the Dallas Mavericks come down court after their
faux pas and launch three-pointer after three-pointer and hit them all. The
Pistons have to make an appointment for that kind of offense.
Did they lose by much? No. Just two points.
That only makes it worse.
Two bad.
Bad time for a road trip
"We got ourselves into this," said backup guard Chucky Atkins, "and we have to
get ourselves out."
The sad part was, the Pistons held Jersey much of the night to a terrible
shooting percentage, but couldn't pull ahead. And they didn't capitalize when
the lineups suggested they could. At the start of the second quarter, for
example, the Nets had this lineup: Lucious Harris, Anthony Johnson, Rodney
Rogers, Brian Scalabrine and Aaron Williams. I wanted security to check their
passports.
But in more than four minutes against this less-than-second-string, the
Pistons -- using strong players like Wallace, Okur and Atkins -- could manage
only a two-point differential. You don't strike when the iron is hot, you get
hit with it on the head. And that's what happened.
So the second-guessing begins. Carlisle will be second-guessed for the lineup
he used most of the fourth quarter. He took Hamilton out when he was the only
hot shooter. He kept in Robinson, who has just been a disaster in crucial
moments. And Barry added little. Prince started the game instead of Michael
Curry, but he wasn't there for most of the finish, playing only one minute in
the fourth quarter.
Of course, had the Pistons won, Carlisle would be hailed for his adjustments.
Two points make that kind of difference. Besides, Carlisle also needs no help
in introspection. He knows how beatable Jersey is, how close the Pistons came,
and how deadly giving away games at home can be.
So now they hit the road, where they have been none too good in the playoffs.
There is no point in criticizing them any further. This is not about winning
the series anymore. It's about proving you can beat this team once. It's about
shaking up the Nets' eight-playoff-games-in-a-row confidence. It's about
turning Two Bad into One In the Pocket. Twice in these playoffs, the Pistons
have won road games that no one expected them to win. Thursday night, they'll
have to do it again. Coming back from adversity is always a test of character.
When it's adversity you created yourself, it's even tougher.
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com. Catch "The Mitch
Albom Show" 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760).
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