NBA Blogging: Special Effects

The Pistons won last night although it was much more of a squeaker. I'm kicking myself for revising out that section of last night's post where I said I thought the series was going to grow increasingly tight especially as it headed into Orlando (Home court advantage is a big deal. Just look at Atlanta. And it's where underdogs start to make series look competitive.) but that, ultimately, the Magic just wouldn't have enough to get past the Pistons. Of course, I thought that heading into the Philly series so I just tucked it away. Still, last night Orlando played about as well as they could, dropping threes like rain and Howard was much improved, but they still lost.

Now, I'm sure Orlando fans will say that it was a magical Michigan clock that let the Pistons get that win. That three at the end of the 3rd does not pass the smell test, after all, and I'll freely admit it. But the thing is I've always thought that if the game was close enough that you can complain about getting screwed out of it by the refs then you really didn't deserve to win anyways. If you can beat another team, then do so. If you're better then them than it doesn't matter if the odds are tilted slightly against your favor, you should still beat them. Don't leave a doubt. Don't let the chance that a ruling or some other fluke of luck will go against you. It's not fair, it sucks, but it happens and if you don't like it then make sure it doesn't by playing better or shut up about it. Because if the only difference between winning and losing was the split-second decision of a trained professional - who's still human and, therefore, prone to error - then it was a coin-flip anyway. Could have gone either way and been decided at any number of crisis points along the timeline of what actually happened. Disasters, errors, mishaps, they all happen and you just have to play through them.

In this case, those three points at the end of the 3rd weren't the decisive ones. There was still plenty of game left and a swing of a few points could easily have been overcome. But, instead, the Magic let themselves get angry, get deflated, and lose whatever elusive momentum they'd gain by getting worked up over getting screwed over.