Oh, wait a second.

No. In all seriousness, the Knicks and Heat are the only true rivalry the NBA has, and it's impossible not to love watching them do battle. The Knicks almost never have any open shots, and that's due to the insanely high level of defense Miami is playing. The Heat, thanks to a few matchup advantages (and defensive mistakes made by the Knicks), do find themselves with open shots, and they tend to make them.

I'd like to present a conspiracy theory. Perhaps the NBA is trying to start a new soccer league, and to get fans accustomed to games with almost no scoring - and with most goals coming as a result of a slight defensive error and not a mere individual matchup going back and forth - they instructed the Knicks and Heat to play as focused a team defense as the NBA has seen in as many years as we can remember.

Ok, maybe not.

The point is, fast break basketball is fun to watch, and when a squad plays lousy team defense it allows for more dunks and flashy moves when one guy beats his defense, but as for team defense and gritty, hard-nosed, hard-fouling, fight-for-every-shot basketball, it's a joy to watch.

And the effort to which New York had to put out to claw back into Game 6 was greater than the effort the non-playoff Western conference teams (excluding Dallas) combined to put out all year.

In game 6, the Knicks were very lucky that a reach-in foul was called in Dan Majerle late in the game put Allan Houston on the foul line. There was barely any (if any) contact on that play.

After game 1 of the Lakers - Blazers series, we expected to see Shaq being fouled during post-game interviews and on the way to the team bus.

The Portland playbook page with the "Hack-A-Shaq" strategy must be entertaining. It's probably a stick-figure drawing of Shaq, surrounded by about 18 Blazers all hitting him in the head.

Well, it didn't work in game 1.

We suggest they start hitting him early - perhaps during pre-game warmups and while he stretches.

The Blazers need one guy guarding Shaq, one defender providing constant help at all times, and the other guys to rotate quickly enough so that the Lakers don't wind up with a wide open shot every time as a result. Then, they can compete. If Portland has to leave someone open when double-teaming and rotating, it needs to be Ron Harper or A.C. Green.

Sabonis needs to shoot well enough to force Shaq to pay constant attention to him - hurting Shaq's ability to play the terrific team defense he magically learned how to play when Phil Jackson became the team's coach.

Brian Grant needs to pound the hell out of the boards. And help push Shaq away from them.

Pippen needs to make Kobe's life difficult.

Bonzi!

We just like yelling his name, sorry.

Rasheed Wallace needs to go silly on AC Green and Robert Horry. He can do this if Shaq is distracted by Sabonis and can't help out defensively as much as he'd like to.

We wish the Knicks vs. Heat series was best of 20.
 

InsideHoops
5/21/2000

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Here: A fan speaks out:
"All I've heard about all throughout the playoffs is how "The Commish" David 
Stern is masterminding a conspiracy via the referees to get the Lakers into 
the finals. Enough is enough! If the refs are in fact plotting to ensure one 
of the largest media market's entry into the finals, there should be an 
investigation, firings and a general rolling of some very large heads. But 
all this jibber jabber is hurting the collective ears of A.M. talk show fans 
nationwide. Talk about the content of the game, Shaq's stupid nick names or 
Kobe's enormous ego, but please, no more about something as hearsay as 
Tupac's latest sighting."

Nathan Andrew
Sacramento, CA

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