Game 5's Tonight

I've decided not to go to a bar tonight so I can pull the two fisted remote action and flip between the Pistons and Wings games as need and nerves allow. I'm a bit more concerned about the Pistons than I am the Wings even though I think the Pistons should win and the Wings should lose tonight. Although going down 2-1 to the Ducks would be bad and the Pistons would still have two games to close out the series, I think if the Pistons drop this game it doesn't bode well at all. While the Wings losing on the road to the Ducks is far more understandable.

Would be nice if they could get that series lead, though, but I'm thinking it's going to be another tight, nailbiting game and for whatever reason, I can't get worked up about the Wings durign those.

For the Pistons, however, I'm going to be a bundle of nerves until they actually close their series out. I pretty much expected them to have a letdown and lose on Mother's Day so when they came out flat, I wasn't all that surprised. But my problem is this, Chicago's played awful all series partly because they've been crushed under the Detroit heel but also partly because they're a young, inexperienced team. With that win on Sunday they gained some air and they also might have gained some sorely needed confidence – thinking they can actually play with the Pistons. Meanwhile, the Pistons have gone back into sleepwalk mode – that little groove they get into when they expect to win and don't quite play as hard as they can. I mean, working hard and doing all the little things is how they got up in the series in the first place and they've shown that, when they're on their game, they're by far the better team, but I think that Game 3 comeback has given them too much confidence that they can beat the Bulls no matter what. Sure, you can come back from being way down but that doesn't mean you want to keep doing it. So, I'm thinking this game's going to be a close one and not the blowout some of my folks back home are saying. And if the Pistons should drop this one, it's back to Chicago for Game 6 where the Bulls will be playing with tons of confidence in front of their fans for a big advantage. If they pull off the win there, it's on to Game 7 and, having lost three straight, anything can happen there. I know no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit but that just means it hasn't happened yet, not that it can't happen. Sigh, it's going to be a long night.

Although, let me add my voice to those calling bullshit on the Suns/Spurs suspensions. I know, I know, a rule's a rule and all that and if you want to thump the rulebook and cite precedent then, yeah, Diaw and Stoudemire probably deserve to be suspended (Added to that, though, going strictly by the rulebook, Horry's two game suspension is excessive.). But, to me, what matters when applying those rules isn't accuracy but justice. The two Suns players barely left the bench, there was no fight. They just, understandably got upset when Nash was fouled and in the heat of the moment were rising to the defense of their teammate but they were quickly reigned back in by cooler heads. You're going to tell me in the heat of the moment, in the middle of what should be a fierce battle, someone messes with their leader and they have to pay attention to where some painted line is? It would be one thing if they actually rushed into the players pushing and shoving but what they did was the equivalent of going “Hey man, what the fuck?” when someone at the bar starts shoving one of your buddies (Which, as others have pointed out, Duncan and Bowen also managed to do earlier in the game. Yet for some reason they're not going to be punished at all.). I'd be more upset if they didn't show a little emotion and momentarily lose a bit of perspective there. Those are their teammates, they're in the middle of a fierce and physical battle, and you can't expect them not to react. That goes contrary to everything players are taught and how they're expected to behave, even by each other. The rule, as I see it, was put in and strictly enforced to stop bench clearing brawls, not to drain the game of emotion.

So the rule doesn't make sense, in that respect, but from another aspect, the result of Horry's hard foul has been a net positive for the Spurs while the Suns have been penalized. A rule that has that kind of perverse effect and, indeed, seems to reward teams for gooning it up, isn't a good rule. I mean, at this point, it seems like having a player take a run at a superstar is a good move. Either they get roughed up, injured, or you provoke an incident that costs the other team a suspension or three. This isn't a murder trial or something. Whether or not these NBA rules are strictly enforced isn't a life or death matter, so there's plenty of room for common sense and to override the hobgoblins of little minds. A strict interpretation doesn't create as just an outcome as a more flexible one and that's why I think this decision is a crock.