It's An Art to Live With Pain

Longtime Denver Nuggets fans were not shaken by last night's turn of events; indeed, a seasoned observer could have called the game's turning point as it happened.

The Pistons and Heat were locked in a not-quite-epic struggle for supremacy of the East and the proverbial ticket to the NBA Finals when Nuggets history came into play.

I refer, of course, to former Nugget Antonio McDyess, now of the Pistons, and his anti-clutch abilities.

Over a one-minute stretch in the fourth quarter McDyess contributed two missed buckets and a turnover as the Heat lead rose to 73-68. Predictably, he also managed a knee injury scare in that time.

At 7:39 left in the quarter Ben Wallace came in for McDyess with the Heat lead still at five. From then on the absence of McDyess was key, as the Pistons closed out the game with a 20-9 run for the win.

Of course, I've oversimplified. Hawks fans are probably saying the same thing about the four seconds Steve Smith spent on the floor.

The game came down to balance, which the Pistons have, and the Heat, last night at least, didn't.

Neither team got a particularly special contribution from its bench. But Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade combined for more than half of the Heat's shot attempts, while the Pistons starters each had between nine and sixteen tries. And they were nearly all good attempts, save for an unconscionable late three from the pride of Colorado, Chauncey Billups.

That's not to say that the Heat are, in general, too reliant on Wade and Shaq. Injuries were obviously a factor. If Richard Hamilton and Big Ben had been hampered with similar pain, the Pistons would have been in just as much trouble.

Shaq had an effective game, with 27 points and nine rebounds. He's capable of rebounding better but, under the circumstances, he did fine. And he hit half of his free throws (three of six). I think we're all way past sick of hearing about his free throw troubles, but I look at it this way: in his career, Shaq has attempted more than nine thousand free throws in the regular season alone. Nine thousand. Shouldn't he be a lot better just from the practice he's had during games?

Dwyane Wade wasn't great, and wasn't awful, though he was probably more bad than good considering what the Heat expect from him. He did have a stellar third quarter, hitting five shots in a row to lift Miami back into the game.

Naturally, this prompted the astute Steve Kerr to share the beautiful, "I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, he's got it," with us. I don't know a more meaningless cliche, but whatever it is, I haven't heard it. I can think of a lot of things "it" could be that are easily expressed in a few words: passion, competitiveness, talent, clutch ability. You would have to tweak the wording, though. ("I don't know what talent is, but whatever talent is, he's got talent.")

Despite the Clinton-esque mystery of "it", it wasn't kicking in for Wade down the stretch. He missed a few shots and committed an offensive foul as the Pistons took over. He was taking pretty solid shots, just not making them.

And the Willis Reed comparisons are pretty ridiculous, too. I know it's required to mention Reed whenever an NBA star is injured but plays anyway in a big game, but the situations couldn't have been less alike. Wade made a bigger contribution than Reed in the last game of the 1970 Finals (Reed hit two early baskets and never scored again), and Wade's injury was far less severe (Reed's thigh muscle was torn off the bone, for heaven's sake).

I love the Willis Reed game, if only because the real hero was Walt Frazier (36 points, 19 assists), who became the only New York athlete in history to have a big postseason game and not end up the center of attention for decades to come. (Has anyone ever heard about that World Series game when Reggie Jackson hit three home runs? Gather 'round, children...)

A final broadcasting highlight came when the boys showed a chart of how games one, two, and three in the series had been tied in the fourth quarter before the winning team went on a run to finish the game. And the talking heads talked about how important it was to take control. I might not have been a math major, but what kind of point is that? You'll find it's a trend in the NBA that whichever team finishes with the higher score generally wins the game. Because, you see, the team that scores more points after a tie is going to have more points for the whole...you know what, never mind.

Anyway, even if I was wrong about the Pistons' season being over, at least I was right about the job status of Larry Brown, whose glasses last night suggested he'd be better suited for travelling through time with Mr. Peabody, not being a distraction.

Congratulations to the Pistons, thanks for messing up my Finals pick, and let's go San Antonio in the next round. (A comprehensive Finals preview is forthcoming.)

(Pugs, I know you might want to hear about the ramifications of Clint Barmes' injury, but what can I say? The guy's really good, the Rockies are really bad, and expect the second of those to continue in his absence. The only good news is that he's not paid much by MLB standards. Which is not to say that the Rockies will go get a good replacement, but if his grocery-hauling story turns out to be like Jeff Kent washing his truck, at least we won't get rid of him.)