Cleveland has been doing a lot of things well in this series, but does any of it matter as much as stealing Chauncey Billups' confidence? Who saw that coming?
When the Cavaliers were up 7-2, some debris fell from the ceiling and there was an impromptu timeout. During that timeout, the Pistons were intense. Tayshaun Prince lectured a huddle that listened intently. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers were ... hanging out. Before that moment, Cleveland had been in cruise control. From then on, it was a dogfight. (Also, during that timeout, at one point Dick Bavetta barked "Flipper!" to someone on the Detroit bench, and I wish I knew if that was Murray or Saunders.)
One other point about last night's game: so many of the big plays were made by players who have had moments in their careers when they were not seen as very valuable or were traded away: Drew Gooden, Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, Chris Webber ... and it's not like the whole nation was clamoring for Daniel Gibson.
Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon-Journal says Anderson Varejao is attracting attention: "Yesterday, Mike Brown told a story about seeing teenagers around town and, after raving about LeBron, always want him to say hello to Andy. Mike surmised that Andy is pretty popular with the teeny-boppers. Well, let me just say this, over the last three years I've gotten e-mails from members of the gay community who have professed their infatuation with the mop-topped Brazilian as well. Meanwhile, the female members of the media covering this series are all jealous of Andy's hair and have asked him about what products he uses. So I guess the only thing I can say about Varejao is, men want him and women want to be him."
Kevin Pritchard on Sports Business Radio. Pritchard says that he knew Brandon Roy would be the pick last year in an interview, where he gleaned some little "nuggets" of information. He implies similar factors could be at play in his Greg Oden vs. Kevin Durant decision. He also says again and again that "our culture is what we're about."
Greg Oden talks to the Oregonian's Jason Quick: "'Kevin did his thing this year. I'm not even going to try and hate on the guy. I mean, look at his stats and my stats, and there is no comparison. I didn't really produce as well as he did,' Oden said. 'But people are still talking about me being the No. 1 pick. So if you go by the numbers, it should be him. But I know this is not about numbers, this is about who can help somebody win. So you can go by his numbers, or you can go by we made it to the (NCAA) championship game. And I'd like to think that I helped in that . . . just a little.'"
The softer side of Mark Cuban: It says here that Del Harris essentially told Mark Cuban he was retiring, and Cuban told him, instead, to stay on as a well-paid consultant doing whatever he wants. Pretty good gig.
TrueHoop reader Mark e-mails in response to William Rhoden's suggestion that, as a huge-market team, the Knicks deserve special priveleges. "The funny thing about the idea of giving the Knicks special privileges is that it's a pretty old idea, and in fact has been done in the NBA before. In John Feinstein's book about Red Auerbach "Let Me Tell You a Story," this passage can be found (on page 104 for the hard-bound edition). The "Walter" being referred to is none other than Walter Brown, who owned the Auerbach-coached Celtics until he passed away: 'Brown's generosity, especially when it came to other teams in the league, drove Red crazy. 'To his credit, Walter always wanted what was best for the league,' he said. 'I was worried about what was best for the Celtics. Sometimes he went too far. One year, the Knicks were lousy. They'd been lousy for a while. So he goes to the other owners and suggests the Knicks get an extra pick in the first round because it's important for the league that New York have a good team.' The book goes on to say that Red (predictably) opposed the idea and that Brown wouldn't hear any of it. The NBA ended up awarding the Knicks that additional first round pick, as well as one for San Francisco (which was last place in the West) under the guise of parity."
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