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.
Derek Fisher has just provided the postseason's most heart-warming moment so far. A cancerous tumor was found between the eye and brain of his infant daughter before game 1 of this series. According to Derek, the little girl had successful surgery and everything appears to be fine.
After flying back into town (and not having touched a basketball in days), D-Fish made a dramatic entrance into the game and the building nearly exploded. Incredible moment. There wasn't a dry eye in the place, and I nearly reached for the kleenex myself. OK, not really, but it was great nevertheless.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan smartly inserted Fish into the game as soon as he emerged from the locker room, and he made the brilliant decision of sticking the defensively-minded Fisher on Baron Davis (who was torching anyone who tried to guard him through the first 3 quarters). Derek forced Baron into a crucial turnover late in the game by picking him up in the back court, and he made life very difficult for The Beard at crunch time.
With the Basketball Gods smiling upon him, Fisher hit a baseline three late in overtime. It was the game's signature shot, and it gave the Utah Jazz a 2-0 series lead. A professional screenwriter couldn't have come up with a better script.
Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.
You can make a legitimate case that coming into last night's Jazz/Warriors series opener, Deron Williams was facing more pressure than any other player on the floor. He was going up against a guy who's had the best post-season so far (Baron Davis), and if he doesn't play big in game 1 (and for the rest of the series), Davis will have his way. Unlike Jason Terry and Devin Harris (who crapped the bed in the previous series), it appears that Deron Williams has to come play.
Leading his team to a thrilling game 1 victory, Williams poured in 31 points, handed out 8 assists, and grabbed 5 boards. The stats, however, don't tell the whole story: What was most impressive about Williams's performance was his demeanor. Even when Baron Davis went crazy in the second quarter - scoring 17 points and giving his team the lead going into the second half - Williams never put his head down and he never stopped believing in himself or his team. For a young guy (dealing with foul trouble late in the game), he showed a lot of poise, and the Jazz wouldn't have been able to storm back without it.
I believe that the Deron Williams-Baron Davis matchup is the best one-on-one battle of these Playoffs (yes, even better than the Nash-Parker tilt). It could end up being the determining factor in the series. Last night, Deron Williams was the man.
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.
He has been, without a doubt, the most controversial player in these Playoffs. He has also been one of the key players in the postseason's greatest and most shocking series so far. Tonight, in game 6 of the historic Mavs/Warriors series, Stephen Jackson broke out offensively and led the Warriors to what has to be considered the greatest Playoff upset in NBA history.
Sure, Baron Davis will get all of the publicity for his inspiring performance (20 points, 10 boards, 6 assists) after having left game 6 early in the first half with a pulled hamstring. However, anyone who watched this game and followed the series closely will tell you that the Warriors could not have pulled off the stunning upset without the play of S-Jax. He set the tone early on in the series by not backing down from the MVP (???) Dirk Nowitzki, and going right at him on the offensive end. Following Jackson's and Baron's lead, the Warriors never looked back.
In the epic game 6, Jackson was unconscious from the land of beyond. He hit a career Playoff high seven threes and ended up with 33 points. He also snatched 5 boards and handed out 3 assists. For a guy who has had his name and reputation dragged through the mud (by everyone from the media, fans, and even the refs) since The Brawl in Detroit, it's great to see him emerge a hero on the League's biggest stage.
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 know we usually reserve these Playoff Revelations posts for non-stars, players such as Jose Calderon, Mickael Pietrus and Bostjan Nachbar. I'm going to make an exception in this case and add Dirk Nowitzki's name to the list.
After playing piss-poor basketball through the first four games (and hearing about it from just about everyone) of the über exciting Warriors/Mavs first round series, the would-be MVP finally showed up in game 5 and saved his team from being eliminated on their home floor.
With the Warriors leading by 9 with about 3 minutes to go, Dirk decided that he wasn't going go out like a punk: After the great Baron Davis hit an impossible lunging three pointer to give his Warriors a seemingly insurmountable lead, Dirk Nowitzki responded by hitting back-to-back bombs to kick start a 15-0 Mavs run that Dallas would not look back from. Dirk also added an ENORMOUS block on a driving Matt Barnes, forced Barnes to tip the ball out of bounds after a missed free throw by Josh Howard, and knocked down 6 crucial free throws to seal the deal. In the six-point Mavs win, Nowitzki ended up with 30 points (on 7-15 shooting) and 12 boards.
Bottom line: Dirk Nowitzki needed to be the best player on the floor in game 5 if the Mavs hoped to play another game this season, and even though it took him about 45 minutes of game time to get there, he did it. And for that, you have to give him his respect. Game 6 can't come soon enough.
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.
Playoff Revelations
Playoff Revelations
