The Pacers had this one. They had gotten a 30 foot three pointer, three free throws on a questionable foul, and a Ray Allen miss at the line. All they needed was 2.2 seconds of defense.


They didn't get those 2.2 seconds. What can I say about this play that hasn't already been drunkenly suggested at a bus station? About everything that could go wrong went wrong. West's defense on the inbounds pass was terrible (watch him literally turn his body away so Battier can get a passing angle to LeBron). Paul George, a typically great defender, made a terrible choice to assumably go for a steal, letting LeBron get right by him with his miscalculation. Absolutely nobody rotated or protected the basket.

Then there's the whole Roy Hibbert controversy. Why wasn't he in the game? Who can say. I've heard it theorized that they wanted a smaller, more agile defender on Chris Bosh. LeBron had just gotten to the hoop on a play where he was guarded by George Hill, with Hibbert watching from the bench. Still, this wasn't taken as a sign to have the team's best (and possibly the NBA's best) rim protector in the game.

What do you think of the decision, Roy Hibbert?



Frank Vogel had this to say afterwards:
I know everybody's saying I screwed the pooch on this one, but you gotta understand it from my perspective. Yeah, my defense might've let the greatest player in the world waltz to the front of the rim for a layup, but I personally succeeded in my ambition not to let Chris Bosh beat us. I really hate that guy. I dunno, maybe it's his face or something. Anyway, the point is, it's not whether you win or lose, it's just whether or not you thwart Chris Bosh's attempts to feel good about himself or look good, and I did that. I stand by my choices 100 percent.
The real question I have is for Roy Hibbert: which hurt more, watching that game winner from the bench, or Battier kneeing you in the nuts?


The people demand to know, Roy. The people demand to know.
8 Comments:
Blogger Wormboy said...
Meh, I think Vogel was right not to play Hibbert in that. It's not like he'd be at the rim - he'd be out on the perimeter with bosh, and no way to rotate quickly enough.

Paul George blew it. First, he went for the steal, when he could have just let Bron catch and turn for a contested J. Second, he didn't bear hug LeBron for a foul (make him earn it at the line). Though for the latter, maybe Bron was already too far past him.

That's OK. George is young, he played a great game, and he'll do better in the future. No use in tossing blame around. The guy messed up. There were tons of bad plays other times in the game where, if done right, it wouldn't even have gone to overtime.

As for Battier's foul, why the hell doesn't the league do something about that shit? All the hand wringing about letting people play, and then they do nothing about a clearly intentional dirty play? Fuckin David Stern. I really hate that guy. And I'm nowhere near being a Pacers fan.

Anonymous Stockton said...
Ryu Battier is awesome!
I love how the Heat just go there to "play basketball". Then I google Miami+flop and I get those cool videos and images like this

http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/lebron-james-flop.jpg

Ahhhhh

That defense were utterly awful. It was like the Mike D'Antoni was controlling the players with some device from his xbox.

By the way... was that a travel by the Crab King?

Blogger Wormboy said...
Fer crissakes, can we get a Wade suspension for that nonsense on Stephenson? That was grotesue. Freakin Wade, dirties player in the NBA.

Blogger Raza said...
My dream is to have a Spurs/Pacers finals.

Great, gutsy win by the Pacers. LOL LeBron in the last few minutes of Game 2.

Really anxious about Game 3 for the Spurs. If they can just get a split, this series is over in 5.

Blogger Nathan Wright said...
Wormboy yeah, good luck with that. I just loved how Reggie Miller was all, "it clearly looked inadvertent, there was nothing intentional about it". Because Wade clearly deserves the benefit of the doubt given his history, right? (Rondo's inadvertently broken arm, Kobe's inadvertently broken nose ...)

Blogger Baldwinternet said...
Stockton: that pic of yours would look great on the banner

Anonymous Stockton said...
Battier and Cole are rehearsing for the nutcracker

Blogger Wormboy said...
Yeah, Reggie the corporate toady. Inadvertent my hairy ass. Of course, most of the basketball side announcers keep their opinions under wraps. They don't want to anger their corporate masters or besmirch the product. There's a reasons Bill Walton isn't announcing anymore.

Wade just has a streak of psycho in him. Like a wife beater. The league had better do something. That was just ridiculously bad. Gotta be a suspension. An action like that should be nothing else. Head shot? Sheesh.

IMO David West deserves a big fine, retroactive flagrant, whatever. Not enough to warrant a suspension, but still dirty. But head shots from behind (running and jumping into it) are beyond the pale. If Artest did that in the playoffs, he'd get more than one game suspension.