"Where is the glass slipper?"

[JB <JBMetzEA@yahoo.com>]

   There have been very few games, which I have not enjoyed watching. last
night's was one of them. We won and lost that game, several times and I
could feel the trouble coming.
   The refereeing was not the worst this season, but it was very bad. Pierce
pretty much gave up going to the hoop, because we was being held and poked,
but not getting calls. On the last play of the game, before the rash of
technicals, with 3.5 seconds left and the Pistons up by one, Paul was
clearly held, by Stackouse, in fact, he had him by the arm, as he tried to
get to the inbound pass. I know, we shouldn't have been in that position,
but it was just the last straw on the heavy load of injustice and
incompetence (I'm being charitable here, there are worse characterizations
running through my head).
   Walker was really hot (6-6?) from the three point line in the first half,
but curiously did not try very many in the second. Instead he went inside,
on whom, Detroit got many of it's twelve blocked shots.
   We started each half by running and finding open men, with Anderson in
control of the offense. Both halves, we jumped out to leads of 14-16 points.
As soon as Walker took over the offense (even most of his successful threes
came from Anderson passes), this magic ended. You could see the players
walking slowly up the court and standing around, while Walker or Pierce,
tried the one on one moves, that led to lots of scoring, but also to a
stagnant offense (which breeds a stagnant defense), exemplified by numerous
turnovers and the fore mentioned 12 blocks.
   Kedrick Brown started each half and despite the fact that the team had
big leads when he left the game and Williams and McCarty were of little or
no help, was never reinstated, to combat the sluggishness.
   Battie and Potapenko didn't bring much. Vitaly rocked the rim on a
thunderous dunk attempt (not successful), driving from the free throw line.
Needless to say, it won't be featured on "Sports Center."
   This was not a playoff caliber team out there last night. Our rivals in
conference; Indiana, Toronto, New Jersey and Milwaukee are not going away;
Orlando, Miami, Charlotte and Philadelphia are waking up. Our next three
opponents are much tougher than Detroit.
   So far this season, O'Brien, like Cinderella's fairy godmother, has been
able to take bad losses like this one and build constructively on it. Here's
hoping he hasn't run out of magic wands. You can carve a smile in the side
of a pumpkin, but making a coach and horseman out of same and six mice,
maybe more than Jimmy can handle.
   
        JB



                  Unchain My Heart !