Empty the Bench

You just won Games 1 and 2 on your home court. Cheers. Job well done. Unfortunately in the NBA playoffs, however, you have to be able to carry that winning effort into your opponent’s home building, and until that happens you haven’t really accomplished anything of note. Last night, two of three teams suiting up for their first away game of the 2007 NBA Playoffs failed to deliver the death blow before the knockout punch, while the other effectively guaranteed their first-round series would end Saturday afternoon, or Tuesday night at the very latest.

Detroit 93, Orlando 77: Giving up quarter-ending buzzer beaters, at home, isn’t great for confidence after your opponent has already handily beaten you twice with their B-game. Chauncey Billups (21 points, 3 assists, 2 steals, 8-13 FG) hit a demoralizing three-pointer as the first half expired, Tayshaun Prince (23 points, 7 boards, 5 assists, 8-16 FG) nailed his own three in the waning moments of the third, and the visiting Pistons cruised to 16-point win in Orlando. No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit, and there’s a 100% chance the Magic don’t break that precedent.

As could be expected, Orlando jumped out of the gates early behind a revved-up home crowd, some sweet-shooting from Jameer Nelson, and some typically monster dunks from Dwight Howard. But as equally expected, the veteran Pistons quickly weathered the storm and brought the Magic back down to earth, tying the game up at the end of the first and never really looking back. Besides being overmatched in terms of coaching, depth, talent, playoff experience, etc, Orlando doesn’t understand the concept of ball movement on the offensive end. How many times did you see them swing the ball all the way around and back again, giving all five or even just four players a chance for possession? Maybe once, twice? Orlando will put in a sporting effort tomorrow afternoon, but their season will likely end.

Utah 81, Houston 67: Here’s an NBA playoffs record the Houston Rockets set last night, but want no part of: four players–FOUR–scored all of the team’s points. Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Shane Battier, and Rafer Alston (6 points) were the only ones to put the ball through the hoop. The Rockets also set a franchise low for points in a playoff game. The sad thing is, the Jazz weren’t much better until late in the fourth quarter, when they finally pulled away in a game Houston was practically begging them to win.

This has been an ugly, ugly series so far between two defensively minded squads, and certainly has now taken on the look of a six- to seven-game marathon. The Rockets have been built for the playoffs and are a better team from top to bottom, but they’re not yet good enough to put away a team in Utah that’s very talented and certainly on its way up, but probably not quite ready.

Obviously, for Houston, they’ll have to get much better performances from the supporting cast (Luther Head, Juwan Howard, Chuck Hayes), and Utah is still waiting for All-Star Mehmet Okur to regain his shooting touch (6-35 FG, 2-15 three-pointers, 17 points combined). Kirilenko finally made some hustle-play contributions last night, but you might as well forget about any offensive boosts from the rattled Russian. That’s fine–Jerry Sloan will be happy if he can just make an impact on defense.

Los Angeles 95, Phoenix 89: You knew Kobe was good for at least one. After jumping out to a 11-0 lead before the Lakers realized the game had started, the Suns cooled off considerably and their defensive liabilities were, eventually, exposed by a desperate team led by Kobe’s 45 points on 15-26 shooting and 13-13 at the free-throw line. Of all people, Kwame Brown–a guy weren’t not totally convinced fully understands the game of basketball–was the second-tier Laker who stepped his game up, notching a career playoff-high of 19 points to go with 6 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.

We’re still waiting for Luke Walton to show up, as he turned in another poor performance with 5 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists. Even though I’m sure he was only answering a direct question, he recently said that, as a free agent this summer, he hopes NBA GMs don’t look at his playoff performance so far and instead look at what he accomplished in the regular season. Stop me if I’m wrong, but he shouldn’t be voicing those concerns at this point to the press. He’s just making himself look selfish, and his team needs his undivided attention right now. The Suns are obviously the better team, but if they lose again on Sunday, it’s anybody’s series as long as #24 is on the floor for LA.