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Monday, February 12, 2001
Rim: D.C. really enjoyed one, finally
By Eric Karabell
ESPN.com
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FROM THE BASELINE
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LINE OF THE NIGHT
PART I
Looks pretty similar to a normal Allen Iverson line, doesn't it? Makes less than half his shots, sprinkles in a few dimes, and comes out with the win. |
Iverson |
| MIN |
FG |
FT |
AST |
PTS |
| 27 |
9-21 | 6-6 |
5 | 25 |
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LINE OF THE NIGHT
PART II
But since we're going ga-ga about how much defense was actually played, we can't ignore Dikembe Mutombo's Herculean efforts. |
Mutombo |
| MIN |
FG |
REB |
BLK |
PTS |
| 28 |
2-2 | 22 |
3 | 6 |
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Number on our mind
Percentage that the East shot in the final quarter to score 41 points. Note that for the game, the East still only shot 43.1 percent. |
57 |
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They said it
"That was just to throw it back in our face, because the media has been talking and we have been telling them the West is the best, and we are going to bring the big test, so to speak. Now I gotta hear Steph's mouth (former teammate Stephon Marbury) every time I talk to him. It's going to be a long summer for me, man."
-- Kevin Garnett discusses the East's reaction to winning
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Garnett |
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WASHINGTON -- The easy joke to make about the memorable 50th All-Star Game is that it's the only good pro basketball this town will see all season.
The truth is that not only is it exceedingly rare to see a contested All-Star Game, but it's also rare to see players who actually care. They played defense. They called timeouts to discuss strategy. They showed big-time emotion. Now this is the way it's supposed to be.
It's not all about one team scoring in excess of 130 points after all.
It's about two of the more memorable plays being blocked shots by, of all people, Vince Carter and Ray Allen. Are you kidding us?
Bottom line, since the East made up a 21-point deficit in the final 9:08 -- the type of rally that's supposed to happen between the Lakers and Blazers, in the playoffs -- and earned a one-point win, this could be called one of the greatest All-Star Games ever. It was only the fourth game decided by a point in the game's 50 years. No team ever had come back to win from more than eight points down after three quarters.
And all of this happened in an arena in which the home team has won a mere eight times in 25 games this season. Juwan Howard and his Wizards teammates don't show this much emotion in a game, and their games theoretically count.
"It was embarrassing there for a minute, when they had us down by 20 points," admitted Tracy McGrady, who did his best work on defense. "But we wanted to win the game so bad. Guys were talking a lot of noise, saying how strong the West is, but the East owned this day."
The East-West thing is another story altogether. Not that we want to say we told you so. Anyway, we couldn't have possibly known how much the players, East especially, wanted to win. Last year the West cruised to a 137-126 win in a game so devoid of defense you would have thought it was Saturday's rookie game/dunkathon. Or the NHL All-Star Game.
In this instant classic, the defenders won. Dikembe Mutombo grabbed 22 rebounds, only five short of the record set by Bob Pettit in 1962. Dunks were contested by people who don't normally do so, including one by Milwaukee's Ray Allen against the towering Kevin Garnett. Allen is known for a lot of things, but certainly not defense. Allen has 13 blocks this season.
"We started playing tough defense, and we kind of limited them to a half-court game because we made shots," said Allan Houston, who had five points. "It looked like our defense picked up because we were getting shots."
Amazing to see the word 'defense' in the same paragraph with Allen and Houston, but it's true. Credit Larry Brown for his smart lineup moves, such as playing Stephon Marbury (for offense) and McGrady (for defense) down the stretch, using Mutombo like he does Theo Ratliff on his own team to such advantage, and preparing his team well in timeouts. And for convincing his team that defense wins games -- even All-Star Games.
"We made it a lot more difficult for them to score," said Anthony Mason, who had his hands full with 7-footers most of the night, but held them in check after halftime. "They didn't get a lot of open looks. We got the rebounds, and also on offense we started running more, using our speed."
The last time an All-Star Game winner scored 111 points was 1975. In the 26 years since, NBA players have gotten bigger, stronger and can hit shot after shot from 25 feet, let alone in close. While scoring isn't up as much as it was last season, there were a number of predictions that the mighty West would have no problem scoring 130 points, which the winner in the previous All-Star Games had done or come close to in the previous eight games.
What a nice change.
Washington's Own
The crowd was clearly loyal to the Eastern Conference, home of their brutal Wizards. Fans cheered more for East players in general, and down the stretch were on their feet for the big shots by Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury. They groaned when Kobe Bryant went on his late spree.
Former Bullets players Chris Webber and Rasheed Wallace -- neither of whom left town on good terms nor have fond memories of their stay here -- were given big ovations when they were announced. Of course the biggest ovation came for Michael Jordan, the team's director of operations, when he was announced during a special halftime show featuring past All-Star MVPs.
It was a bit surprising that Wizards fans actually recognized Jordan, since he's never at MCI Arena. Maybe they recognized him from his Bulls days. But that's another story.
It's refreshing to see a home crowd get into an All-Star Game, and one can imagine the cheers will again turn to boos when the roles of Mutombo and Marbury are filled by Wizards Calvin Booth and Chris Whitney.
Finally
It's time to ramble a bit more on what we just witnessed.
How ironic is it that in a season in which Kobe Bryant emerges as a superstar by hogging the ball that he actually gives up what might have been the winning shot to pass to Tim Duncan? Meanwhile, he and Shaq go back to their version of sharing on Tuesday in New Jersey.
Bryant, by the way, surely would have won the MVP had his team won.
Was Iverson one year too early in having his shining moment on national TV? He did have 50 on the Kings last year on NBC, but not everyone was watching that game. Since the XFL bombed this weekend, we figure NBC's All-Star ratings were high.
Anyway, next year's All-Star weekend will be in Philadelphia. Yes, it's unusual to have back-to-back All-Star Games in the same conference, but the City of Brotherly Love got shanked when the league had its lockout two years back.
With five minutes left in this game, with the emotion starting to get high, the passing of the torch from Wiz owner Abe Pollin to Sixers cheery guy Pat Croce took place. Get ready next year for a fun weekend, which is what Croce is all about.
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