Artest, Pacers
to prevail
over Pistons
But it won't be easy
for Indiana to win
Eastern finals
Marc Serota / REUTERSIndiana star Ron Artest should make the difference for the Pacers against the Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals.
COMMENTARY
By Mike Celizic
NBCSports.com contributor
updated 5:18 p.m. ET May 22, 2004
Do you like the team that beat a young and inexperienced team in six, or the one that beat a veteran and battle-tested former conference champ in seven?
Before watching the massacre in the Palace, I had already decided I was going to take the Pacers over whomever survived Game 7. After watching the Pistons wax the Nets like Beyonce’s bikini line, I found myself wavering in that conviction.
But you can’t let one game affect what you believe to be true. I believe the Pacers are the better team, and I’m staying with that. Unlike the Nets, whom I also would have picked to beat the Pistons, Indiana has a half-court offense. Unlike the Nets, they have a healthy point guard. Unlike the Nets, they have a coach who’s been here before.
It’s going to be a war. The Pistons are one of the few teams you’ll see that actually makes playing defense look exciting instead of like a steel-cage death match like the Knicks and Heat used to make it look. Detroit doesn’t try to beat you to a puree. They just stick like glue, clog the passing lanes, block your runners in the paint and lay-ups, and go after rebounds like starving wolves after lamb chops.
All of the above are reasons to like Detroit’s chances. But, like all teams that win by defense, the Pistons find scoring points as hard as getting good news out of the Middle East.
It is their offensive dysfunction that makes me like Indiana. Okay, I’ve learned my lesson after being so gung-ho on the Nets. I don’t like them enough to bet my house or even your house on them. But I still like them.
The Pacers, it can be argued, played a much less powerful team in the second round than did the Pistons. The Nets, after all, were the two-time defending champions of the East. The Heat were just an upstart team that rode a late-season winning streak into the sixth game of the conference semis.
Ordinarily, you’d say Detroit faced the greater degree of difficulty. But they also darned near gagged after taking a 2-0 lead in the series. And if the Nets hadn’t put up more bricks than the third little pig and if Jason Kidd had played -– I know there was someone on the court wearing his uniform, but that wasn’t the Kidd we know –- the Pistons would have lost Game 6 and the series.
The Heat, on the other hand, had some very good half-court players, led by rookie point guard Dwyane Wade. The Pistons don’t have the firepower of the back-court athleticism that Miami had.
True, they have Ben Wallace in the middle and Rasheed up front, and the Pacers are going to have to find a way to keep both off the offensive boards, a task more easily said than done. But Indiana has home court for a reason. And in the NBA, it’s usually not wise to bet against the best regular-season team, unless the other team is the L.A. Lakers, which Detroit isn’t.
The difference in this series should be Ron Artest. Jermaine O’Neal is a great player, but the Pistons were able to deal with Kenyon Martin; they’ll be able to deal with O’Neal, too. They won’t stop him, but they should be able to control him.
Artest is a different matter. He’s a great defender, one of the best in the game, and if the Pacers put him on Richard Hamilton, forget about Detroit getting its points from that quarter. Artest is also Indiana’s leading postseason scorer. It’s no knock on the Pistons that they don’t have anyone to guard him. No one has anyone to guard him. He’s simply too big and strong and fast and athletic.
Somewhere along the line, Reggie Miller, who isn’t the dominant player he once was, will make a difference. That’s another big plus for Indiana. If he can get hot for just two games, his teammates will be able to find someone to win two more for them.
Again, the Pistons have no one like Miller. Nor do they have anyone like Jeff Foster who can come off the bench and hit two of every three shots he takes, and don’t say Corliss Williamson or Mehmet Okur. They’re both good subs, but not as good as Foster.
I’ve got enormous respect for the Pistons and the way they play the game, and I wouldn’t be shocked if they win. I just think the Pacers have more weapons on offense than the Nets had, and they have people who can defend, too.
Given two teams that play good defense, I’ll take the one that also can put the ball in the basket. That’s the Pacers. I think they’ll win. It’ll take seven games, but they’ll do it.
Mike Celizic is a free-lance writer based in New York and a frequent contributor to NBCSports.com
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