Except in this super weirdo Houston vs. Utah series, where they are 0-3.
What's more, for all of this year's great matchups, we haven't had all that many great games. Phoenix vs. San Antonio in Game 1 was magnificent. Philadelphia's surprise in Detroit was loaded with passion.
But for a lot of these games, it has seemed fairly cleary who would win long before the final buzzer (in some cases, days before).
Some random points about last night's crunch time from my notes:
If you're a Rockets fan, I think you can watch Rafer Alston hitting shots, being active, and moving the defense around, and just breathe one, big, fat huge sigh of relief. Everything seems to work better now, doesn't it?
Tracy McGrady was pretty amazing in this one. Everyone loves him today, because the same shots he took last time went in this time. But how about his defense? He has made big plays all series. Down the stretch last night, he had a key block, a big bucket, a rebound, and then another key shot (as Carl Landry was fouled, for a rare team-approach three-point play).
Then it was time for Andrei Kirilenko to work some magic. First he set a whopper of a (moving? grabbing?) screen to free Kyle Korver for a 3. Then he got in McGrady's grill, and convinced McGrady to shove the crap out of him right in front of the referee, for an offensive foul. By the way, if Carl Landry did not go on to block Williams' shot, everyone in Houston would bring up this play as evidence that Tracy McGrady is not a winner.
On Utah's final scoring play, when Mehmet Okur nailed the three, the announcers pointed the finger at McGrady's defense. I'd credit Deron Williams' offense even more (although I thought he did miss an open Carlos Boozer earlier on the play). Luis Scola was guarding Okur, who was doing a nice job on the right wing looking sleepy, disengaged, and not about to hit the big shot. Williams was on the left wing, dribbling, and probing. So scared was Scola of Williams' penetration, that the instant Williams zagged left, towards the middle of the floor, Scola left Okur and leapt into the lane to meet him. Houston had had success jamming the lane like this all night. It may have been the right play. But Williams wasn't even headed to the rim. Instead Okur stepped back to the three-point line, and sank the three as McGrady scrambled over to get a hand in his face.
After Scola made two mistakes -- missing the first free throw, and then making the second -- Utah got to inbound the ball at their end with 0.2 seconds left. In Game 2, Houston had been furious that Scola had been called for grabbing Andrei Kirilenko in crunch time. Things even out in the long run, though, and Rocket fans, be thankful the referees saw things your way this time. Scola and Kirilenko got tangled up again as the ball was inbounded, and my Tivo showed Scola could have been called for another crunch time foul this time around as some kind of manhandling was going on to keep Kirilenko from catching a lob. (Can you imagine? With 0.2 left, in a two-point game? The same two players? People would have freaked out.) Scola has a tendency to use his hands a lot, which works a lot better in Europe than the NBA. Tracy McGrady and Luis Scola's reputations are both much better this morning thanks to the referees swallowing their whistles on that one.
Comments that include profanity, or personal attacks, or antisocial behavior such as "spamming" or "trolling," or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our terms of use. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
