where's our fire?

[Robert Bowman <rbow@mn.mediaone.net>]

I hate the fakers...but read on if you're interested in what the la
papers are saying...

"  "I'm sure Phil has already told them 'The only way you're going to
beat this team is to cut their heads off,' " said Pippen, the Trail
Blazer forward who played for Jackson's Chicago Bulls. "I'm the head and
they need to cut me off. That's his philosophy and that's just how he's
telling them to go out. They've tried it all series and it hasn't
worked. I'm sure tomorrow, they're going to try to come out and
complete their mission, but my mind-set is just go out and play and
stay focused on what I got to do in the game and allow the officials to
take care of all the other stuff that's going on.
"They [the Lakers] have been doing that all series. It wasn't just  what
you saw in yesterday's game. The frustration started to show a  little
bit more, but they've been giving us hard fouls the whole series and
banging guys after the whistle throughout this whole battle.  "Mike
[Dunleavy] doesn't really get too angry. I think he was just   trying to
get the officials to recognize that Rick Fox was out there  just to
disrupt the game. His play hasn't been a factor throughout the whole
playoffs. He's showing frustration not just through this series but what
he's been able to bring to his ballclub."
     Said Dunleavy, the former Laker coach: "As far as I'm concerned, I
felt throughout the game that Rick came in with a purpose, and his
purpose was to try and fight, take hard fouls, put a little bit more
into them. And for them, if he can do it and get away with it and get
some results for them, then it's a success."  "


"We know they're a little bit of a fragile team," Pippen said. "They
don't have the experience. "They don't truly believe in the triangle.
Once you catch guys like that, then the things are working in your
favor."

"I think our idea is that if we're not good enough to keep them from
winning three straight games we're probably not ready to go any
further," assistant coach Tex Winter said. "That's kind of the way I
look at it."I think that Phil looks upon it as the idea where, 'Well,
let's see where we are. Let's see if we're ready to win championships.'
Because it's not an easy process."


With the Bulls, he (jackson) didn't have to worry as much about
motivation since Michael Jordan helped. In his book, "Loose Balls,"
Jayson  Williams writes of New Jersey Net teammate Scott Burrell telling
him how hard he practiced when he played in Chicago."I asked him why he
was killing himself," Williams writes. "He said, 'If I didn't go hard,
Michael Jordan would have busted my [rear  end].'  "I said, 'Scottie,
ain't you a grown man?' He said, 'Yeah, but it was Michael Jordan and I
believed him.' "

<where's our leader who leads by example and kicks butt when needed?>

"Nothing that happens today can change the fact that Jackson has done a
great job here. In between jibes at assorted semi-civilized redneck
jackals, he dared to zing his stars, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant,
into a notion of accountability that helped them take their games up a
level."

<when is pitino going to do this with our guys? or better yet, can he do
this with our guys?>


Q:<Is Shaq ready?>
"How difficult is it facing Sabonis?"He hasn't done anything, he's had
help," O'Neal said. "I don't give him no credit, none. It's Sabonis,
Pippen and Wallace who are playing  me. Don't ask dumb questions." And
how, then, are they playing you? "They're illegal most of the time,"
Shaq said. Speaking of illegal, what about Pippen's charges that the
Lakers were hitting them with cheap fouls? "I don't have to cheap-shot
Scottie. . . . He's not that important to me," Shaq said. "If I want to
cheap-shot him, I'll cheap-shot him in real life, not on the basketball
court. You know, I'll walk up to him man to man." "
 A:<for the WWF? perhaps>


" "Of course, today's winner automatically becomes the favorite for the
title.  However, three of the first five games will be in the Indiana
Pacers'  Conseco Fieldhouse, where they shoot the lights out. Ask the
Lakers  and Trail Blazers, who lost there this season.  Nevertheless,
problems cropped up in the last series, when the  Pacers found
themselves struggling to defend against the New York  Knicks, who don't
generally keep anyone awake at night.Finally, Indiana's Jalen Rose came
out and announced, "We're a slow team."  Said Coach Larry Bird, no one
to pretend: "The only thing we can do is get quicker people."They'd
better move fast because it's only three days until the  finals. They
should pick up some big players, too, because Portland has a lot of them
and O'Neal outscored Rik Smits, 53-16, in their  meetings. Neither the
Lakers or Trail Blazers is that overpowering, but the finals look like
mop-up action." "

On Ewing & the Knicks:

 "I do believe that some of our other players are starting to let the
excuse of him be an excuse for their poor play," Van Gundy said before
Game 6. "And I think there's a real danger in that. . . . It's an easy
out and excuse--'I can't do well because Pat's on the floor.' "  Said
Bird, Ewing's friend from the original Dream Team: "It's terrible how he
gets treated here. Just terrible. After everything he's done for them,
it's not right."

Van Gundy, upset that the New York media got Chris Childs and Ewing to
guarantee victory before Game 6: "It's just like that  Georgetown motto
after every loss. It must be passed down from generation to generation:
'We were the better team.'   <OUCH!> Every Georgetown center says it
after every series they lose. [Dikembe]  Mutombo said it after we beat
Atlanta [in a 4-0 sweep last spring.]  Mourning said it this year.
Patrick said it before. And Othella Harrington, when Vancouver makes it,
he'll say it, too. Now we've got everybody guaranteeing everything."

and finally....

This should make them feel a lot better in Indiana: Referee Jess Kersey,
who counted Larry Johnson's three-point basket because of continuation
in last spring's famous four-point play, told ESPN magazine he blew the
call. . . .Despite speculation the 76ers will trade Allen Iverson, the
odds on  anyone giving up a major star for him seem remote, so he and
Coach Larry Brown will probably go on torturing each other. Said Brown,
pointedly not denying reports that Iverson is being shopped: "There  are
a lot of things over the years that he has done that maybe people think
you might get tired of."


Well, I must admit I've gotten caught up in the whole blazers lakers 7th
game hype.  it's the real deal or as close to it as we're going to get
until...

Come on Paul, sell the team to Larry so the Celtics and their fans can
do more than wish it were us facing the hated fakers in a deciding game
7!!

Final score: LA 103 Blazers 99 (...and it hurts to write it)

Bob