Re: Pervis Out of Service

[jmc@ptc.com (Jonathan McIntyre)]

>     Pervis was out of service for the Pistons game. Williams had a field
> day. 31 points and 15 rebounds. Give me a break he's not that good.  We
> would have had a decent shot of winning with Knight. We had no shot with
> him out. But that's the way it goes with injuries. Williams opened the 4th
> quarter I believe w/2quick dunks and a free throw, Pervis's dreadlocks
> didn't even move.  I know he has bad legs but he's not a paraplegic. 

  Williams did have a field day, and having Knight around would have 
helped.  However, my opinion on Pervis' "absence" was that he truly 
was "absent" for most of the second half when the Pistons opened up 
their lead.  In other words, he was on the bench in foul trouble, and 
what bothered me was how he got those fouls.  He was our only guy who 
had the strength and quickness to defend against Williams, but early 
in the 3rd quarter he drew his 4th foul when he lightly touched the side 
of Williams' jersey as Williams went up for an uncontested dunk.  Pervis 
came right out of the game, then shortly after coming back in the 4th 
quarter, he made an outstanding clean block on a reverse layup, but they 
called a foul, his 5th.  Out he came for most of the rest of the game.  
Those 2 "non-foul" foul calls did the Celtics in for the game.  Williams 
was free to do whatever he wanted with both Travis and Pervis out. 

  Detroit probably would have won anyway, but I think the game would have 
been much closer and more entertaining had those phantom fouls not been 
called on Pervis, so I blame the officials not for the loss, but for 
taking the entertainment value out of the game. 

>     Cousy's pre-game show sounded like a rehearsal for a funeral. Many
> negatives about Billups. I thought he played well the last few games? Cous
> was stuttering on, he must have lost his notes. 

  I actually thought that Cousy was being very positive about Billups. 
A week ago Cousy was completely disgusted with Billups, but last night 
the tone seemed to be, "he's getting better, and working hard, and he may 
just have a future if he continues to work on these things:..."  and 
then he went on to list Chauncy's flaws.  So you could take it as being 
negative in focus, but I sensed much more optimism in Cousy about Billups 
than I've ever seen before.  Besides, Pitino has told Billups to listen to 
Cousy, so I think Bob is just using the TV to give instruction to Chauncy. 
I'm actually glad to see this happening, as for years I've listened to 
Cousy point out what the players need to do differently on each failed 
fast break or assist opportunity, and wondered if the players ever got to 
hear these insights from one of the greatest point guards ever to play the 
game, or if the coaches encouraged them to listen. 

Jon Mc