|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Reactions: Miller goes flat Users blame officiating, Reggie Miller
Posted: Sunday June 11, 2000 07:40 PM
CNNSI.com asked users what strategy the Pacers should use to get back in their quickly fading series against the Lakers, and most of the blame for their current situation was focused on one player: Reggie Miller. If he doesn't step up, most users said, it's all over. A sampling of the responses we received follows:
I think Reggie is a big disappointment. I mean, it's just not like him
to disappear in games that matter most. Austin is great, and they should
exploit that much up more often. What they did to Shaq is good, fouling him,
but they forgot that Shaq has four other teammates in there.
This is going to be the most boring SERIES in the history of the NBA. New
York or even Miami would have been a better foe for the Lakers. The Pacers
are really nothing but air!
All you can do is let Shaq score his points and concentrate on the other four
players on the floor. He will get his points, so why bother trying to cover
someone you can't? Even if he scored 50 points, he would still need help from
other players, and if you disrupt their game, you stand a much better chance
of beating them.
Game 2 was the perfect microcosm for the entire season, wrapped up in one
game. You had an injury to Kobe -- like the beginning of the season. You
had a dominant Shaquille O'Neal, like you had while Kobe missed those 15
games. You had Rice, Harp, Horry, Fish and Fox stepping up to take up the
slack. You had horrible -- I mean just awful -- foul shooting and then,
when it counted, you had clutch free throws to keep the game out of reach
when the opponents threatened to pull even. And finally, you had the W!
Face it, the Pacers can't hang with this team. They're not the Blazers, and
when push came to shove, even they couldn't hang.
Shaq-a-hack is more like it. Shaq should be fouled out in the first half,
but the NBA refs allow him to throw people around, rebound over someone's
back, etc. NO team could win when all the breaks are given to the Lakers.
It's a forgone conclusion. The Lakers shouldn't even be in the finals, but the
same shaft job was Portland's fate as well.
I thought the Lakers were completely in charge, despite the refs! How
can a 340-pound man be tackled, with no flagrant foul? Then a little guard
drives the lane, Shaq gets all ball and is called for the flagrant.
Ridiculous.
This is without a doubt the most boring Finals in NBA history. Indiana is
not able to compete at the same level as the Lakers, a team I might add
will be the worst team to win a championship in the past 20 years.
Reggie Miller, where art thou? Will the real Reggie Miller please stand up.
1-for-16 in the opportunity of a lifetime is shameful, but 2 points in the
3rd quarter when All-defensive player KB is MIA is pitiful. Reggie's tragic
flaw is his big ego, and it's starting to lead to his downfall. He had the
guts to tell LA if they kept on leaving him open, he would make them pay!
Did anyone see the big payoff, please let me know! I hate RM with an
intensity that he has yet to show in the first two games of the Finals. The
Knicks won when they had tons of injuries in Games 4 & 5 at home, so we
shouldn't be surprised that Indiana lost to LA without their no.2 hitman. I'm
proud of Ron Harper and all the rest for their fine performance in game 2.
Our dreams will be realized on Wednesday!
Pacers just do not have anyone to slow down Shaq. With the big mouth Miller
showed after their victory over NY Knicks, he could not deliver in the
finals. Only after some more maturity, Miller and Pacers will have a better
opportunity to win the NBA Championship, not this time around.
The Lakers' style of play is dull, which explains why no one's watching.
Seeing Shaq knock people over for buckets and rebounds isn't very exciting.
Now, without Kobe, the Lakers will be even more boring. They need to either
enforce the 3-second rule against Shaq or widen the lane again, like
they did against Wilt. Otherwise, who'll want to watch him either bowling
over people or bricking free throws again and again?
Rsistance is futile; the only reason for the Pacers to keep playing is for
the ton of money that each game represents. Go Lakers!!!
I really enjoyed the game Friday night. I really didn't think the Lakers had
a lot to worry about when Kobe was injured because they have good players on
the bench and also I knew Rice and Harper would step up and do what needed
to be done. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Pacers get their butts whooped.
By employing the Hack-a-Shaq, Larry Bird, like Mike Dunleavy, has told his team they cannot compete straight up with the Lakers. But in reality, when you just lost to a team that missed 25 free throws, there is no other answer. If you watch the quarter scores, the Lakers were more consistent without Kobe and they executed better. To win, the Pacers should do nothing but shoot the basketball in practice, no defense, no offense, just shoot the ball. Thousands of shots every practice, maybe then they will hit one or two in the game. In the game, go to Best and Jackson at Guards and pressure Kobe and Harper full court to wear them down, play Rose, Croshere, and Miller at the forwards and attack Rice/Horry/Green on the offensive end, especially from the 3-point line. Alternate Davis and Smits on Shaq and front him in the low post, which will force him out higher to get the basketball. Rose, Croshere and Miller are quick enough to rotate if the Lakers try to lob over the defender.
Lastly, Bird should tell his team he had a brain drain going to
Hack-a-Shaq and promise to never do it again. This will go far to convince
his team they can win. Do the Hack-a-Shaq again and the Pacers will be
worthless.
Basically, Indiana is outclassed and doomed. There is no answer to Shaq, and
now the Lakers will pull closer together as they take up the slack of living
one more game with out Kobe. Miller time is the offseason, to reflect that
long shots alone do not win championships. If I were Bird, I would speed up
the game with multiple substitutions, and I would full-court press till my
team dropped from exhaustion. I would sit Smits and Davis and
play small expendable bench warmers psyched up that this is their moment to
start and now play their hearts out and tell them to gamble on steals and
swarm over Shaq. Yes, he would get his points anyway, but the idea is to lull
the Lakers into a set pattern of defense and offense. Then I would let
loose the starters after working on their egos while they sat on the bench.
But the best tactic is for Bird to write his consolation speech and plan his
retreat someplace where the wheat grows tall and the cows graze quietly.
The situation is hopeless for Indiana, and while they go out, it is the time
of the Lakers to dominate the new millennium.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
