It was a TRIP to see how Bryant's three-pointer crumpled the Pistons. You could see it in a closeup of Wallace's face when they were playing in OT: He was shaking his head. By then, the Lakers had built up a six-point lead. Bryant and O'Neal were gettin' to the hoop in ways that were amazing, and Detroit just looked stunned, as if they were replaying that three-pointer in their minds instead of trying to win the game.

Kobe Bryant is a baaaaad man. And, that's coming from someone who hates the way L.A. gets hyped every year.

NWF said:

Yeah...our boys SHOULD be watching out for their asses while Kobe is on the court....

DETROIT

even against a couple of all stars

why is this a sticky thread

Supernova said:

langebleu said:

Come here Langebleu

I'd have you on my 'Rest of the World All-Stars' team

against America any day!

Still cracking the foo'k up.... Nice one bruv

not to pee in y'alls holly bushes, but if i posted this summer's chicago cubs game schedule, will that become a sticky too?

or are we just making all sports-related threads sticky across the board?

i'm not trying to be a smart ass (the fact is, i can't help that), but i'm sincerely confused.

Go Detroit.

I don't want those LA egomaniacs to win another title.

Anxiety said:

Overanalyzing. Ask June7.
He made it a Sticky.

It's the NBA Championship.

senik said:

Oh well.

Bryant thrives at crunch time

By David DuPree, USA TODAY

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The legend of Kobe Bryant keeps growing. Bryant's uncanny ability to come through in the toughest situations has come to be expected and almost taken for granted.

His performance in the NBA Finals on Tuesday just furthered his legend.

Bryant's 28-foot three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left that sent Game 2 into overtime was replayed Wednesday on television networks and was the main fodder of radio sports talk shows.

"One of the greatest winning players in the game made a shot that he does on a regular basis, so we can't hold our heads down about this one even though we should have won," Tayshaun Prince, the Pistons' primary defender against Bryant, said.

Bryant lives for those moments.

"The key for me in those situations is just to make sure I have good balance, get a good look, those are the two most important things," Bryant says of his ability to make game-winning shots.

After the shot, Bryant had a hand in eight of the 10 points the Lakers scored in the extra period, with four points and assists on two of Shaquille O'Neal's three baskets. Los Angeles evened the series 1-1 with a 99-91 victory against the Detroit Pistons, though no other Laker even took a shot in overtime.

It's performances like this, with Bryant and O'Neal dominating, that makes one wonder why Bryant would consider leaving the Lakers. Bryant said he will exercise an option in his contract and become a free agent after the playoffs.

As teammates, he and O'Neal have won three titles in the last four years and continue their quest for another tonight in Game 3.

O'Neal may have been the most dominant player in the Finals the three times he and Bryant have won the championship, but Bryant is a close second. In his four NBA Finals, 17 games in all, he is averaging 22.5 points a game. In his last three NBA Finals, 11 games overall, he is averaging 26.2 points.

Bryant was 0-for-4 on three-pointers until his big shot, but never hesitated.

"That's why he's so special," said an admiring Pistons coach Larry Brown. "He's a great, great young man and the way he conducts himself on the court and the way he plays this game makes me feel kind of good I'm a part of it."

Pistons aren't dwelling on what didn't happen

By Skip Wood, USA TODAY

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Well, chipper they weren't. But still crushed? Still devastated? Nah. The Detroit Pistons were still bummed about the previous evening's proceedings in Los Angeles, but they also were more or less of a mind that, hey, stuff happens.

Or, as Pistons guard Rip Hamilton pointed out during a light workout early Wednesday night at the team's practice complex, the Los Angeles Lakers happen; Kobe Bryant happens.

"They're the Lakers," he said with a rhetorical shrug. "They've been there before. Kobe makes big shots, (and) he made a big shot. So we understand that."

Added frontliner Ben Wallace: "That game is in the past."

Never mind that Detroit on Tuesday was looking at a 2-0 series lead in the NBA Finals — and awaiting a three-game homestand that begins tonight — before Bryant's three-pointer with two seconds left forced overtime and, ultimately, a Pistons loss that Tayshaun Prince said was "devastating" and coach Larry Brown said left the players "crushed."

After their four-hour flight home from Los Angeles that dropped them in Detroit at 5:45 a.m., the Pistons sacked out for a while, returned to work in the late afternoon to watch film and did their best to reclaim the mind-set that got them here.

"The hangover," Brown said, "was last night. So that's over."

So, as far as he was concerned, was the need for further discussion why he didn't instruct his team to immediately foul before Bryant's pivotal shot, thereby possibly giving the Lakers but two free-throw attempts.

Also tired of the topic was Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace.

"We should have grabbed a couple more rebounds before that play even happened. We should have made the shot before that play even happened," he said, "so that's a whole lotta shoulda, coulda, woulda and ifs."

If anything, the Pistons were a little miffed, if not a whole lotta miffed, that the series' buzz has shifted to the Lakers and away from a team that surprised many with a solid Game 1 win and would have become an unlikely huge favorite had Bryant's shot not been good.

As it is, a familiar theme has returned.

"Granted, they're a good team, but we ain't scared of them," Rasheed Wallace said. "I don't know why you cats think we're scared of the Lakers or like the Lakers are this 'dominant force.' You know, we ain't scared of them cats."

Game 1 proved as much. So did much of Game 2.

"I hope it told (the public) something about this team," Ben Wallace said. "I already knew it. I've been there every day. Seen it. Lived with it. Eaten with it. Walked with it. Talked with it. I know what we can do."

Game 3 TONIGHT!

NBA Preview from The Sports Network
Thursday, June 10th

(Sports Network) - The NBA Finals shifts to Detroit for the next three contests, as the Pistons welcome the Los Angeles Lakers to The Palace of Auburn Hills for Game 3 of the best-of-seven series.

After the Pistons won the opener 87-75, Kobe Bryant hit a game-tying three- pointer with 2.1 seconds left in regulation and scored four points in overtime, as the Lakers escaped with a 99-91 victory over Detroit on Tuesday in Game 2 of the finals to knot the series at one game apiece.

Bryant finished with 33 points and Shaquille O'Neal added 29 for the Lakers, who needed Game 2's win as team in history has ever dropped the first two NBA Finals games at home and gone on to win the championship. O'Neal has scored at least 25 points in an NBA Finals record 21 straight games.

Chauncey Billups led Detroit with 27 points, including 20 after halftime. Richard Hamilton added 26 points for the Pistons, who scored just two points in the five minute overtime.

Bryant has averaged 29 points, 5.5 assists and three steals in the first two games of the set for LA, while O'Neal has netted 31.5 points and grabbed nine rebounds per game.

Hamilton has struggled from the floor in Games 1 and 2, as he has shot 36.6 percent from the field but is averaging 19 points per contest.

LA forward Karl Malone is a game-time decision tonight with an injured right knee that he suffered in Game 2.

Tonight's contest is the first championship game the Pistons have hosted since June 7, 1990.

The Lakers have won five straight and six of their last seven road contests in the NBA Finals. The last time LA lost a championship game on the road was to the Indiana Pacers on June 16, 2000 in Game 5 of the 2000 finals.

CalhounSq said:

You wuv him. Come, bask in my wisdom.

Anxiety said:

I wondered why it's a sticky too, but obviously it's a mod's decision. Btw, the Cubs and major league baseball suck. Out loud. Don't ever mention them here again.

Well, Detroit coach Larry Brown "CHOKED" himself in making a serious coaching faux paus by not fouling the Lakers during that last possession!

Detroit in 7! is still my prediction!!

Some peeps always gotta ask da shiznit!!


It's a sticky so there won't be a new thread every night regarding the playoffs. When the playoffs are over, it will be too.




(plus - I love the Lakers!! )

What a SHELLACKING.


I don't want to hear how good Gary Payton USED to be: he's a liability, and USELESS. The Lakers got RUN!

Game 3
Lakers 68
Pistons 88
Final

Detroit 88, La Lakers 68

AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (Ticker) -- After taking an untimely brief break at the end of Game Two, the defense of the Detroit Pistons returned with a record-setting vengeance.

With a smothering effort that shut down both Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant , the Pistons shook off a loss and shackled the Los Angeles Lakers , 88-68, moving closer to an improbable NBA championship.

After Detroit's Game One win, coach Larry Brown said he didn't think his team could defend better. Back on their home court in front of a manic crowd, the Pistons proved him wrong as they stymied O'Neal and Bryant, the superstars who had combined for better than 60 points per game.

O'Neal, who never had been held below 25 points in 21 career Finals games, was limited to 14 on 7-of-14 shooting as he was harassed by two-time Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace and hampered by foul trouble.

Bryant, whose game-tying 3-pointer in Game Two is the only thing keeping the Lakers in this series, did not make a shot in the first half as he looked confused and distracted on both ends of the floor. Shadowed by Tayshaun Prince , he scored 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

With the rest of the roster providing what it usually does - next to nothing - the Lakers were held to a franchise postseason in low in points in the 50 years of the shot clock era, a span of a staggering 561 games.

Richard Hamilton finally got loose and scored 31 points for the Pistons, who grabbed a 2-1 series lead that seems much bigger. Were it not for Brown's decision not to foul Bryant at the end of Game Two, Detroit would be on the precipice of the biggest upset in NBA Finals history.
[This message was edited Thu Jun 10 21:57:43 2004 by July]

July said:[quote]Game 3
Lakers 68
Pistons 88
Final

Detroit 88, La Lakers 68[quote]


LAKERS in 7!!!!!

Supernova said:

Damn! G.P. isn't representing for the Bay. Atleast Karl has an excuse. To his defense though, they aren't designing plays for him on offense and the big men (i.e. Shaq) aren't showing on those pick and rolls with Billups.

Depending on the way the refs want to call the game Detroit could win this thing. I've been a Laker fan since the early 80's and I still love 'em but I don't respect a team that doesn't play hard. This turning it on and off shit is gonna bite them in the ass. Part of me wants Detroit to go down to L.A. and spank them in front of their home crowd in Game 7. They need a good embarrassment like the one tonight-- but one that they have to think about for ever-- to whip them back into shape.

Oh, and you Laker-haters from Cali should be deported.

whodknee said:

Eh? No excuses. Gary Payton has even said he wasn't gonna try to learn that offense. He takes all this for granted, which is why I say he doesn't deserve a ring if even if they win. He pouts like a child while he's on the bench, he points fingers at his teammates when his own inept play is brought up, and he can't guard anybody one on one anymore.

Malone didn't even play half of the season and he plays better in that offense when healthy - and this is coming from someone who HATED Malone before!

Supernova said:

Hey, I'm from Oakland. If I don't stick up for my boy, who will?

Supernova said:

THAT'S some cold shit!


.
[This message was edited Fri Jun 11 1:15:24 2004 by CalhounSq]

Supernova said:

'Twas sweet, no?

I just love the way they tried to make Oakland sound like a damn jungle It is NOT that bad

I turned that game off in the 2nd Quarter, when LA got down by 11...

I could see which way the refs were gonna call that game.

Believe me, a foul can be called EVERY time down the floor on the Pistons,
That's not good defense, that's thuggery....The NBA needs a good long hard
look at what they are allowing this team to get away with.

Revolution said:

Oh my, are we gonna blame the refs??

CalhounSq said:

I'm saying call the game fairly...but, then, the Pistons wouldn't be in the finals...
Yeah, I'm prejudiced when it comes to the Pistons (HATE'em), but flat out HACKING,
TRAVELLING, PALMING, etc. are overabundant in the NBA. Let's clean the game up so
that the kid that was taught the RIGHT WAY TO PLAY THE GAME has just a good an
opportunity to play in the NBA...it's similar to hockey, when a team needs a bruiser
to take care of thugs getting their star players, they hire another no-skilled thug.
I just described the Pistons...

GARY PAYTON IS A SCRUB!

lakers playin 4 on 5 when he out there....plus his head too big for his body so it throws off his shooting.....and take that damn gum out of his mouth! ....you not suppose to chew gum in class anyway.....cuz he getin schooled by billups.....hopefully next game billups uses vaseline.....cuz he tearin that azz up!

Revolution said:

Excuses for a team that's time has come to step down.

It's sad when dillusions won't let you appreciate a team with good defense.

Not to mention the crowd in Detroit, which is a factor.

Maybe LA should have bought Jack Nicholson a plane ticket