FanHouse Playoff Revelations

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

Before the start of the Pistons-Bulls series, Henry Abbott predicted the following on TrueHoop:

Chicago over Detroit. I have a feeling that by the end of this series people will be saying that the Pistons look a little old. If the Pistons win? It'll be because Tayshaun Prince is amazing.

Well, he didn't pick the right winner, but at least he hedged in the right direction. Tayshaun Prince is hardly an unknown player, but he's often overshadowed on a team full of current and former All-Stars. Still, he was one of Detroit's most consistent players against the Bulls, which was absolutely huge for the team considering he was going up against Luol Deng, the most consistent guy from Chicago. Rarely does a play start with Prince as the No. 1 option, but there he was in the fourth quarter last night scoring eight of his 17 points to keep the Bulls at bay.

Prince is usually content to linger in the background -- both in the flow of the offense and after the game with the media -- but I think anyone who's seen him play will appreciate the spotlight Abbott put on him today in a post simply but accurately titled, "Tayshaun Prince Wins Games." Abbott speaks mostly about Prince's on-court performance and demeanor, but it reminded me of similar praise lavished upon Prince by Joe Dumars this past October:

"First of all, he's the smartest guy on this team. He has the highest basketball IQ. The second thing I always say is that if there's a guy on this team who could make the transition to the seat I'm sitting in right now, it's him. He has that perspective. He has that kind of depth to him. And discipline. He has the type of discipline it takes to sit here."

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

Jason Maxiell is a second-year player out of Cincinnati, and he saw very little action last year as a rookie. All that practice time banging with Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess and Dale Davis paid off, though, as he's seized advantage of every chance to play this year.

Maxiell stands just 6-foot-7, but with a hefty frame and a 7-foot-2 wingspan, he plays much, much bigger -- imagine a poor man's Charles Barkley. He doesn't have Barkley's handle, but he certainly has his intensity as he tries to rip down the rim every time he's in the paint. He's sometimes a little rough around the edges defensively, but he can erase mistakes with his impressive shot-blocking. Seriously, he's a baaaad man. How bad? The man eats babies.

Maxiell put his ferocity on display in Game 1 against the Bulls, dunking in the video above on Tyrus Thomas. He finished the game with 12 points and six boards, scoring three times in a row on Ben Wallace, his former teacher. Maxiell spoke yesterday about what he learned in his one year as Wallace's teammate:

''He told me, 'When a door's open, run through it,''' Maxiell said. ''When the opportunity is open, just run. Don't walk through it.''

If you've seen him play this year, it's obvious he's taken that to heart.

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

It's not so much that Blake was outstanding in the Nuggets series against the Spurs ... his performance was perfectly acceptable, but not that of a difference-maker. Which is fine, because when you have Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, you shouldn't need your point guard to be a difference maker.

No matter how you feel about his performance, though, he did make himself some money in the playoffs. He wasn't terrible, and there won't be a lot of point guards on the market ... something like 6 years, $33 million is coming his way. But from who?

I think it's going to have to be the Nuggets. They're capped out to the point where they'll probably be cutting salary from other areas ... who else are they going to get on a budget?

What they need from their point guard is to bring the ball up the floor, initiate the offense, defend, and hit the open threes. He's not a point guard you expect to be making the decisions on the floor and quarterbacking the offense, but that's part of the dilemma you bring upon yourself when you put Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony on the same roster.

For the most part, Steve Blake can do the things the Nuggets need to be done. He's too small to be much of a defender, but for what the Nuggets need, and the amount of money they have to spend, Steve Blake is as close as they're going to get.

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

There was a time when Michael Finley would've rightfully insulted to be included in the Playoff Revelations ... he was once too big a star to be included with the likes of Thabo Sefolosha, Michael Pietrus, and Dirk Nowitzki Matt Barnes.

These days, though, he's a role player ... and last night, he was the world's greatest role player. Shooting 8-of-9 from three-point land can do that for a guy. The cool thing about Finley is that he's aware of his role, and embraces it.

"I'm blessed to be playing with some tremendous basketball players, guys like Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. Those guys attract a lot of attention and I'm just out there doing my job and knocking down shots off of things they create for me."

Yeah, pretty much. I say that with no disrespect to Michael Finley ... for a guy who was once a star, it's no small thing to make the mental adjustment to being a role player.

And here's the most important aspect of a player like Finley ... if a team doesn't have someone in that role, the work of the stars can often be wasted. Stars can always create, but the defense can do things to make it difficult to finish ... and in that case, you need someone else to do the finishing for you. Ask Denver. They know all about that.

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

I was afraid the Raptors would be mauled this evening by the Nets, because that would've made the timing of this post a little awkward. But the Raptors were able to cling to their lead and earn a victory, due in large part to backup point guard Jose Calderon.

I like TJ Ford, too, but when he left the game after Vince Carter sat on his head, the Raptors didn't lose much ... no disrespect to Ford (and given his history, obviously, everyone hopes he's fine), but I think the Raptors are a slightly better team with Calderon in.

He's the type of point guard who constantly puts pressure on a defense. You turn your head for half a second, and he's using his phenomenal quickness to get to the rim and lay it in. He's just always looking for the best possible way to attack the defense ... he not only scores, he dissects. His assist/turnover ratio is 4th in the league, and his jumpshot's been deadly this year, too. And on top of all this, he's got a pretty big pair of cebollas. If he's starting, I think he'll be one of the league's better point guards over the next 6-7 years.

He had 25 in the Raptors Game 5 win, brining them back to within a game of New Jersey as the series heads back to Jersey. Calderon did roll his ankle in the game, and the extent of the injury isn't known ... if he's able to go Friday night, and TJ Ford is not, it would not be the worst thing in the world for the Raptors.

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

His line isn't going to blow you away, and at no point did any viewer ever think to themselves, "Andrei Kirlenko's back," but ... as much attention as his crying's gotten, I thought it only fair to point out when Andrei Kirilenko plays a decent game. He was decent last night.

His help defense on Yao (among others) was very valuable. He ended up with three blocks, and helped force a handful of Houston's 16 turnovers. He had five assists on the evening, too, including 2 passes to Carlos Boozer in the 4th quarter that were both aesthetically pleasing and clutch. One got Boozer a lay-up, and the other was a nearly impossible 'oop pass with little margin for error.

He finished with 8 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Six of those points came in a third-quarter burst where Kirilenko hit three straight jumpers. He was approaching, for the first time in quite a while, something that might qualify as a hot streak.

All in all ... 8 points, 5 assists, 3 blocks, 4 rebounds (still quite light in this area). This would qualify as a pretty good game from a role player ... for a guy making $12,000,000, though ... you'd like a little more. Still, he contributed enough that it might be something to build on, get some confidence back, and bring a little more in the crucial Game 6 in Utah.

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

Looking at Matt Barnes' NBA travel log, you'd assume he's not a very good player. He didn't get one minute of playing time the year Philadelphia picked up him along with Chris Webber. (Philly was not exactly good that year). He got cut from a 2005-06 Knicks team that finished with the second-worst record in the league. And upon his return to (still crappy) Philly that year, he logged a whopping 3 points a game.

Barnes didn't have a job in October, openly pleading for training camp invites. Don Nelson bit, Barnes wowed folks with his hustle and range, and ended up starting 23 games for the Warriors. (SAC TOWN'S FINEST!)

Now, he's a seventh man of sorts, providing surprisingly good rebounding and fairly potent scoring as well as the most distinctly frightening mohawk in man's history.

His headsy runout followed by fourth-quarter dagger over Dirk was the perfect example of what Barnes can do for Golden State. A very poor and somewhat thuggish man's Robert Horry, perhaps? The balance of this series will tell us.

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

Kirk Hinrich does a pretty good job defensively against Dwyane Wade ... at least, as good a job as anyone could expect. So when Hinrich went to the bench with foul trouble on Saturday, you might've thought the Bulls were in a little bit of trouble. 'Twas not the case, though.

Thabo Sefolosha (and I'm sorry, TrueHoop, but I can't call him "Swiss Mister" ... it's clever, but it makes me think of hot chocolate and Martina Hingis, and that makes my mind wonder to places from which it doesn't like to come back) stepped in for Chicago, and D'd Wade up even better than Hinrich. Why was he able to do this? Because he's 6'7", has a 7'0" wingspan, has quick feet, and plays for Scott Skiles. Through genetics and circumstance, he doesn't really have a choice.

Of course, some of this was because Wade isn't completely healthy. Regardless, Sefolosha, in the time he spent guarding him, took Wade completely out of the game. Luol Deng turned Wade into Smush Parker on the defensive end, and Sefolosha turned him into Smush Parker on the offensive end. It's gotta be nice for Scott Skiles to know he has this option later in the series.

I don't know if Sefolosha will continue to be a huge factor in this series, mainly because Kirk Hinrich isn't likely to be picking up a bunch of quick fouls every game. Sefolosha got 18 minutes, after averaging just 12.9 on the last month of the season. Even if he doesn't have this kind of an impact again in the series, he deserves some shine for what he did in Game 1.

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

On a night when Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson both went over 30 points, it must have taken something extraordinary for Charles Barkley to call someone else Denver's MVP. And you look at Nene's stat line, and it's good, but not eye-poppingly spectacular: 13 points, 12 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 5 turnovers.

But here's another line you might be interested in ... Tim Duncan's. 14 points on 7-17 shooting. On the year, Duncan averages 20 and shoots over 54% from the floor.

And this was mostly all Nene, too. They rotated Camby over to Duncan some late in the game, but most of the game, it was just Nene. No special game plan, no serious double teams, no special tactics ... just Nene using his feet to stay in front of Duncan, and using his strength to keep him off-balance and frustrated.

And his work on the boards was formidable, too. Of his 12 rebounds, 8 of them were offensive ... the kind that lead directly to points and extra possessions.

So what are the odds of Nene keeping this up for the rest of the series? Well, Duncan will get better ... you're not going to hold him to 14 every night. The Spurs will make some adjustments, Duncan will figure some things out individually, but I think when all is said and done, he'll probably be held under his season scoring average this series.

And even if he does get his average, the Nuggets still come out ahead by being able to play Duncan one-on-one, and not leave themselves too vulnerable to the Spurs outside shooting.