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Turning up the 'D' Carter follows Iverson's lead on defensive end
Updated: Thursday May 10, 2001 12:19 AM
Vince Carter has been called upon to make all the big plays for the Raptors in the playoffs, and he has really responded. Since Charles Oakley called him out, he's also played the best defense of his career. When your top player does that, it picks up everybody else. That's one of the things that's often overlooked in Allen Iverson's game. He gives full effort on every play defensively. He picks up full court, presses full court. Unfortunately for Philly, though, that occasionally takes its toll. While Iverson's 54 points in Game 2 represented an outstanding performance, he tired late in Game 1. He missed a lot of layups, and he didn't seem to have the necessary lift going to the basket. He played 47 minutes, as did Carter, but Carter has a bigger physical body and, although he's playing better defense, he still doesn't expend the kind of energy Iverson does. Carter's size, and the fact that he doesn't take the physical beating that Iverson does every night, may serve him well in this series. Offense, not defense, may win 2001 championshipThere's something a little different about this year's postseason. Defensive-minded teams such as the Miami Heat and New York Knicks are home playing golf, while some of the best offensive teams are still in the playoffs. This time of year, coaches usually tighten up and try to control the tempo, but they're allowing the players to push the basketball, which has made for some exciting games. They're letting the star players perform, and they're running the floor and opening up the game. This is great news for hoops fans. They want to see the stars live up to their billing, and they want to see points instead of holding and grabbing. It's going to be interesting to see if the coaches keep it up, but to this point, it's been terrific. Hard fouls may only get worseJuwan Howard's hard foul on Derek Anderson was an ugly play, but those kinds of fouls have become more prevalent. There are 29 coaches telling their players every night, "No layups. Take the hard foul, and make the guy hit two foul shots." With that philosophy, players are going to take out other players. When I played, in the so-called old days, you could retaliate. No one would have done that 15 or 20 years ago without knowing that something was coming back at them. So hard fouls were really unheard of.
Today, though, players can't fight; they'll be suspended. So something needs to be done, because someone is going to get badly hurt. Anderson's separated shoulder is serious enough, but someone is going to be severely injured. Anything can happen when a player leaves his feet and gets taken out. The only way to possibly stop that kind of play is to suspend the player who causes the injury until the injured player comes back. They could have an unbiased arbitration group that could determine the extent of the injury, instead of having the local teams involved. That kind of suspension might serve as more of a deterrent. Kevin Loughery is a former NBA player and head coach. He appears each Sunday on CNN/SI's This Week in the NBA.
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