Tracy McGrady was surrounded by doom. He tried to lose Michael Curry on a screen, but Chauncey Billups slid over. He tried to lose Billups, but Cliff Robinson slid over. He tried to go past Robinson, but here came Curry again, with Ben Wallace on the way, and McGrady fell, grabbed at the ball and, with no other option, looked desperately to the ref and called time out.
As kids, when we got in trouble, we blamed a sibling. As adults, we blame a disease.A guy gets caught with hookers? He's a sex addict. A guy gets caught shoplifting? He's a kleptomaniac.A college coach gets caught drinking beers with coeds? He's an alcoholic.Naturally.
ORLANDO -- Ben Wallace leapt for a rolling rebound and rammed it through the rim. A minute later, he whacked a Gordan Giricek shot halfway to the Magic Kingdom. Two minutes later, Chauncey Billups, finishing the night of his NBA playoff life, banged home a three-pointer that silenced the crowd. And before you knew it, the Pistons were on their jet, waving good-bye to the city of Mickey and Minnie, with one question on their minds:What are you doing Sunday?
In the end, they were counting down the seconds to the next game. Six. Five. Four. Mehmet Okur, with nothing else to do, threw the ball at the basket.It swished.It was that kind of night.
Before the playoffs began, I asked Pistons coach Rick Carlisle if he could buck the trend and win the Eastern Conference with a no-superstar team in a superstar's league."We're about to find out," he said.Maybe we already have.The honeymoon is nearly over. The good feelings between Detroit fans and the Joe Dumars/Rick Carlisle/goin'-to-work philosophy are on the verge of collapse.
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
