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Lover Not A Fighter...
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Silk City, Jersey...
Age: 29
Posts: 5,850
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Can Pacers Turn Into Steelers???
Quote:
April 20, 2006
Bob Kravitz
Can Pacers turn into Steelers?
Can Ben Roethlisberger give the Indiana Pacers some minutes at the point? Does Joey Porter think the New Jersey Nets are soft?
"We've got a new breath of life now,'' Jermaine O'Neal said after the Pacers exhaled, beat the Orlando Magic and earned the sixth seed in the charitable Eastern Conference on Wednesday night. "Look at the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. They were on the verge of not even making the playoffs, then they got hot, played their best football and won the Super Bowl. Sometimes, the hardest thing is just getting in.''
Quick suggestion: Cool it on the Pittsburgh Steelers references.
Granted, it's rare that an ordinary NBA team suddenly becomes extraordinary in the postseason. You have to go back to the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, when the eighth-seeded New York Knicks beat the Pacers and went to the Finals against San Antonio. But it's not completely unimaginable, especially with a first-round matchup that is daunting, but short of overwhelming.
"We're relishing the opportunity to right some wrongs from the regular season,'' Pacers guard Anthony Johnson said. "If we do well in the playoffs, all is forgiven."
Have they shown enough the past two weeks to convince anybody they're ready to shed the yolk of a mediocre regular season?
Not really.
But weird things happen.
Like, Jay Mohr is marrying a supermodel.
Several semi-unlikely things have to happen for the Pacers to make the Nets sweat.
They've got to give minutes and get a coming-out performance from Danny Granger. During this otherwise desultory season, Granger has been one of the few bright spots, emerging in recent weeks as a future cornerstone of this franchise.
"My confidence is way beyond where it was 40 games ago,'' he said. "I'm a lot more aggressive at both ends of the floor.''
My thought is, Super-Glue him to Vince Carter and see what happens. He's the team's best perimeter defender; why not give it a shot? The guy has so much athleticism, so much energy, it would be a waste to leave him rotting on the bench.
They need an un-Peja-like playoff performance from Peja Stojakovic.
The rap on Stojakovic has always been "great regular-season player, disappears during the playoffs.''
A closer inspection of the postseason numbers suggests otherwise; his performances in the playoffs have been a mixed bag. Coming into this season, he averaged 19.5 points per game on 46 percent shooting (40 percent from 3-point range) during the regular season. In 57 playoff games, he averaged 17.3 on 37 percent shooting, 35 on 3s.
Not great, not terrible. Most players' offensive numbers diminish during the postseason. Still, the unfortunate memories that linger are the Game 7 air ball against the Lakers four years ago, and
Sacramento's playoff demise two seasons ago, which prompted Chris Webber to question the drive of several unnamed teammates, one of whom was assumed to be Stojakovic.
While he has said he will opt out of his deal and survey the free agent market, everybody understands that is merely a procedural issue. It doesn't mean Stojakovic wants out; it just means he's going to exercise his right and see what kind of money is out there.
"I'd like to come back,'' he said. "Why not? I've been very comfortable here from the beginning.''
While it's widely assumed the Pacers will want him back, the question is, at what price? That number might be influenced by how well Stojakovic performs in the playoffs.
Anthony Johnson has to be an ironman.
At the beginning of the season, some of us wondered how the Pacers could keep Johnson when Jamaal Tinsley and free agent Sarunas Jasikevicius figured to get most of the minutes at the point.
Instead, here come the playoffs, and Johnson is all the Pacers have at the point for this postseason.
How does 48 minutes a night chasing Jason Kidd sound?
Tinsley didn't play Wednesday night against Orlando, and once again, he's a day-to-day proposition, just the way he was during last year's first-round series against the Celtics.
As for Jasikevicius, after a nightmare of a regular season, it's hard to imagine how he will get minutes against the Nets. He's completely lost confidence in his shot, and his defense has been more of a liability than anybody could have imagined.
They need a signature performance from Jermaine O'Neal.
There's only one area the Nets appear to be vulnerable: the low post. They have Jason Collins, who, to be charitable, is very limited. They have Nenad Krstic, a blossoming young international player with minimal playoff experience.
O'Neal seems to have found his game, which coincides with the improvement in his general health.
Wednesday night, he nearly produced the oddest quadruple-double ever: 24 points, 13 rebounds, six
blocked shots . . . and nine turnovers. If he continues to produce those kinds of numbers -- except the turnovers, of course -- the Pacers have a puncher's chance.
Shoot, the Steelers didn't even have a puncher's chance when they came to the RCA Dome a couple of months ago.
Sorry.
Sore subject.
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Can Pacers Turn Into Steelers???
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