This is how Phil Jackson's post-game press conference began: (THX, True Hoop)
What are you most struck by, your rally at the end or your difficulty scoring points on them the first three quarters?
(Laughing) I'm more struck at the fact that Leon Powe gets more foul shots than our whole team does in 14 minutes of play. That's ridiculous. You can't play from a deficit like that that we had in that half, 19 to 2 in the first half in situations like that. I've never seen a game like that in all these years I've coached in The Finals. Unbelievable. ...
I think my players got fouled. I have no question about the fact that my players got fouled but didn't get to the line. Specifically I can enumerate a few things, but I'm not going to get into that. I don't want to get into dispute with those situations.He won't get fined for that, b/c you could probably argue that he meant his team wasn't aggressive enough. Oh that clever man. We all know exactly what he meant and he's completely correct. Early fouls on Kobe, constant fouls on the Lakers - at both ends - made sure the Celtics would have a nice size cushion for the end of the game. Especially since the refs basically swallowed 'em up for the 4th quarter. They were bad enough for both teams in the final 12 minutes, they allowed Vladimir Radmanovic to take 3, 4 steps, I don't know maybe it was 5 steps in the open on his way to a dunk that made the game far closer than it should have been.
It's the illusion that's created. The referees referee an illusion. Our guys look like maybe the ball was partially stripped when they were getting raked or whatever was happening, but it was in the crowd, so the referees let that type of thing go.
So we have to create the spacing that gives the right impression, and that will have to get accomplished.
When the Lakers were down 20 and getting completely dominated I was thinking to myself - The Lakers are going to smoke the Celtics in game 3 at home, well, because that's the way it works in the NBA. Now they might even believe that they can dominate since they did for nearly an entire quarter. My prediction has not changed - Lakers are my pick for the title.
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Around the Association
- Caught this note as STATS, inc goes inside the NBA Finals - Entering this postseason, Kevin Garnett (20,378), Ray Allen (18,227) and Paul Pierce (16,945) had scored the most career points of any active players who never played for an NBA title. Tracy McGrady (16,744) and Vince Carter (16,592) now head up the list of scoring by active players who’ve yet to play in the Finals.
- D.J. Augustin works out for Suns, has been studying Nash - Arizona Republic
- Stern credits Red for 2-3-2 Finals format, blasts arena fireworks, again - KTAR, AP
- Buck Harvey theorizes why among ex-teammates, Porter was Kerr's choice, not Avery Johnson - SA Express News
- If you've been listening to me since the Bulls vacancy opened up - and I mean long before Doug Collins backed out - Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau is the man for the job. Jay Mariotti must have been listening - Chicago Sun-Times
- From the Yahoo Sports NBA Blog - JVG ripping broadcast partner Mark Jackson and rightfully so (video) - Ball Don't Lie
- $35 million just doesn't go as far as it used to - just ask Jason Caffey (& his 10 kids!!!) - Hugging Harold Reynolds via TMZ
- (Added) Mentioned this on the show tonight, Curt Schilling was courtside last night for Boston's game 2 win in the NBA Finals and he described some of what he saw. Great stuff about how the ref needs to stay out of the game - (38pitches.com)
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