A few threads ago one of our veteran bloggers put forth the idea that Kwame couldn’t mutitask and that was both his weakness and his strength. He concentrated on running the offense, not handling the ball – hence he kept all the other players moving, but couldn’t function if you threw him the ball. I thought it was a very insightful comment at the time, but no one ele seemed to pick up on it.

When it came down to winning time, Detroit just went to Billups on the block and bullied Rondo. The Celtics did not have an answer. Billups wasn’t scoring every time down, but he was collapsing the d and getting the rest of his team open shots.

Boston had that game, but in the 4th, the Pistons’ experience came through.

Great atmosphere, though in that arena.

Has anyone else noticed that more regular season games are carrying a playoff like intensity. The games are so much more fun when both teams are really intense and want it so bad.

kwame needs to read this story about Zo…
the guy had GUTS, something ol’ Kwame needs to get.

“Fans never fall asleep at our games, because they’re afraid they might get hit by a pass.” -George Raveling

Now that we are doing well we are talking championship. Last summer we were talking ‘trade the whole bunch’.

Mitch is doing ok right now. Hey people! Mitch has been doing ok since 2005 – it is just that his decisions then have not paid out until this year.

Building a team is a process – unless you are Miami or Boston and then it is only a 1-2 year thing – and our process is beginning to show results.

However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If we win this year there will really be some luck involved. Next year is really our year. If we win this year it will be because our youngsters don’t know any better and don’t even feel the pressure.

Center Alonzo Mourning, arguably the most significant player in the franchise’s 20 seasons, was lost in the first quarter with a torn patella tendon in his right knee.

“I went over to help him up and he just said, ‘It’s over. It’s over,’ ” power forward Udonis Haslem said.

It is an injury that could require up to six months of post-surgical recovery, which does not bode well for a 37-year-old kidney-transplant recipient.

“I’ve been through a whole lot worse than this,” Mourning said of beating kidney disease and returning from his transplant. “It’s disappointing to even think my career would end this way.”

After initially being placed on a stretcher, Mourning refused to be wheeled off the court, instead limping off while supported by teammates Wade and Earl Barron.

“That’s not the way I envisioned myself walking off the court for the last time in my career,” Mourning said of the stretcher. “If I had to crawl off that court, I would have.”

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/basketball/heat/sfl-1219heatgame,0,2690789.story

I also agree that having a “team built from scratch” winning a championship has a virgin happiness feel to it. To me watching your home team grow and develop its players will always feel more gratifying b/c we can actually follow the evolution of each player as they go from struggle to success (Farmar, Bynum, Sasha). Contrastly, building a team via the “instant contender” route (ala Celtics) does not resonate as deeply b/c there is still an element of unfamiliarity with the players. Of course, #36 is partially right that it is all about winning…….but there is something to say about winning from scratch. IMO, it makes victory a bit sweeter. Imagine if the Karl Malone and Gary P. Lakers team had won a championship? Although that would have been great…….there is something about Karl Malone winning a championship as a Laker that would have felt weird since I will always view him as a Jazz player.

#36, as for the Shaq analogy, I believe you can make a case that the team was semi-home grown with Fisher, D. George, Kobe all being major players who Lakers drafted that contributed to the 3-peat (ok, maybe not George!). In fact, although Shaq was great before…….it still took him 3 years as a Laker before getting a championship. In fact he came to the Lakers in 1996, after only being in the league since 1992.