1.    Hip Checked:    Robert Horry's clothesline of Steve Nash has caused us to, yet again, reassess the NBA's ironclad rule about leaving the bench during a fight.  This time, the Suns lost Boris Diaw and, more importantly, Amare Stoudemire for yesterday's home game in Phoenix.  This whole incident evokes vivid memories of the ridiculous suspension of most of the Knicks team during the 1997 Playoffs.  We've written about that old several times in the past here so we won't get into it again but the theme is the same:  it doesn't matter who started the fight, if you leave the bench you will be suspended. 

 

Nearly every time large suspensions are meted out (the Artest Riot and the Knicks-Nuggets quasi-brawl) it seems as though the instigator comes out better than the team that suffers the back flip, the shove, the punch, or the hip check.  Without being the dead horse, the NBA has made a judgment that fights, hard fouls will happen but that escalation can, and should, be avoided.  With so much invested in this policy, the NBA is certainly NOT going to change policy now.  Clearly, David Stern was bothered by the melees during the 1994 Playoffs (Miami and Atlanta had a huge brawl as did New York and Chicago) and he won't tolerate even the slightest infractions now.

 

Of course, the results do seem very draconian.  For those who believe that the rule has served as a deterrent, I say that it's hard to know if the threat of suspension has kept players off the court during fights.  The NBA can stick to its strict interpretation of the rule if it wants but a little discretion would go down a little better with the fans.

 

As for Horry, his foul was pretty much a frustration knock down and he deserves the suspension--thought I'm not sure he would've gotten more than one game had the bump not caused a fight.  For those who think that it is out of character for a vet like Horry to drop a hard foul on a player.  I haven't really looked over Horry's whole career but I do recall him giving some pretty hard fouls and losing his cool on occasion.  He's the only player I've ever seen throw a towel in his coach's face (see Danny Ainge during the 1996-97 season).  Here's a list of Horry's incidents over the years, courtesy of Patricia Bender's great NBA page:

 

-3/3/06: Horry Suspended for a fight with Jerry Stackhouse

-4/24/03: Horry fined for shoving a cameraman

-1/6/97: Horry suspended for the Ainge incident

 

I also vividly remember him clothes lining Charles Smith in a game against the Knicks in 1995-96.  That was a run-in-the-mill regular season game that I just happened to be watching but suffice it to say that Horry, while not a headhunter, can lose it on occassion.

 

2.    Bulls-Pistons:    Just watched the end of the Bulls-Pistons series.  On paper the Bulls' return from 3-0 to force a sixth game was interesting but frankly this hasn't been a particularly great series for a non-partisan viewer.  Some quick observations:

 

-Tayshaun Prince is a very good player.  He keyed the Pistons' second half run offensively and defensively.  He score, rebounded, defended, and did not foul much or commit any turnovers.  Four years ago, I thought it was ridiculous that Detroit fired Rick Carlisle because he wouldn't play the rookie Prince.  Well, the Pistons really go that one right.

-While the Pistons did play well, the Bulls' inability to score was, to some degree, self-inflicted.  They had some open shot and just struggled.  Rasheed Wallace admitted as much in the post-game interview when he said they really didn't make any adjustments to stop P.J. Brown (who had 20 points in the first and 0 in the second).

-This is the Pistons' fifth straight year in the Conference Finals.  Just for historical review, here's how the last four appearances went:

 

2002-03:  Nets beat Pistons 4-0:  Man, this actually feels like awhile ago now.  The Pistons had the best record but didn't look quite as good as the Nets.  This was pre-Rasheed, so Carlisle had the following lineup:

 

PG: Chauncey Billups, 16.2 ppg, .421 FG%, 3.7 rpg, 3.9 apg

SG: Rip Hamilton, 19.7 ppg, .443 FG%, 3.9 rpg, 2.5 apg

SF:  Corliss Williamson, 12.0 ppg, .453 FG%, 4.4 rpg, 1.3 apg

PF:  Clifford Robinson, 12.2 ppg, .398 FG%, 3.9 rpg, 3.3 apg

C:    Ben Wallace, 6.9 ppg, .481 FG%, 15.4 rpg, 1.6 apg

 

A good team but Billups was not yet a star and the forward slots were pretty weak (Williamson shared time with the punchless Michael Curry).  To make matters worse, Billups also was playing on a sprained ankle.  The Nets went out and winning the first two games in Detroit, both by two points and took the next two games easily in New Jersey.

 

2003-04:  Pistons beat Pacers 4-2:  The Pacers were the seeming favorites coming into the series, as they had 61-21 record and the Pistons finished only a solid 54-28.  The Pistons surprised the Pacers by winning by stealing Game Two in Indiana with Prince's famous block of Reggie Miller's breakaway lay up.

 

2004-05:  Pistons beat Heat 4-3:  Once again, Detroit came into the series as the underdog.  Miami was 59-23 and Detroit was, again, 54-28.  This time the Pistons won a close Game 7 in Miami in the last minutes.  The Pistons benefited from injury this time when Dwyane Wade injured himself in Game 6 and was not quite up to snuff in the finale (20 points but on 7-20 shooting).

 

2005-06:  Heat beat Pistons 4-2:  Never have the Pistons been such large favorites, as they were 64-18, 12 games better than the Heat.  Even still, the Heat took Game 1 in Detroit and went on to pretty much control the series.  It's weird, the Pistons are 0-2 in Conference Finals when they went in as favorites and 2-0 when they are the underdogs.  This year, Detroit will also be the higher seed.  Not to worry Pistons, I don't think either this year's Cavs or Nets are quite as good as the 2002-03 Nets or last year's Heat.