| Tuesday, April 25
By Mitch Lawrence Special to ESPN.com |
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MIAMI -- More than anything else, Grant Hill wanted to be a Knick.
Well, he wanted to be like a Knick, to be more exact. Going into these
playoffs, Hill talked about how he and his Detroit teammates were
"inspired" by what the Knicks had done last spring.
| | Hill was no match for anyone in Game 1, as Alonzo Mourning showed when he dunked over him. |
"You had to be impressed how far they went, when nobody expected them to
get out of the East," he said. "Then to see them go all the way to the
Finals, I was like, that could have been us. That's what I was looking
for this time. I've never had the feeling of what it's like to advance
and keep playing."
It doesn't look like he'll have it this year, either.
Hill, one of the classiest stars in the NBA, stands only two more losses
from his fourth first-round exit in four playoff tries. Actually, he's
more like teetering. After reaggravating his left ankle sprain/bruise in
the Pistons' 10-point loss to the Heat in Game 1, he says he's far less
than 100 percent and won't even try to lead Detroit in scoring when the series
resumes Tuesday night in American Airlines Arena.
"My focus will be different," he said. "I will not try to score 30 to
38 points. I'll try to prevent my man from scoring."
If he can even do that. If Hill can't get 25 points, you know what that
probably means. Another early exit. Another long summer.
"He's got to be healthy for us to win," Jerry Stackhouse said, stating
the obvious. "He's that important to this team. We've got to get offense
and output from Grant. It's tough because he wants to do it. To be
limited now has to be very frustrating for him."
Stackhouse can only imagine.
Hill went into the Miami series thinking he and Stackhouse could copy
what New York did in '99 and lead the Pistons to a first-round upset. He
saw the Pistons with too much quickness on the wings for Pat Riley's
team. He thought Detroit could get out and run. He believed that Miami
would be extremely vulnerable, having to open the series, and play
perhaps the first two or three games, without the injured Tim Hardaway
and with a rookie, Anthony Carter, at the point.
Not that he had visions of winning the title, mind you.
"To win it all and be successful, you have to have awesome personnel,"
he said. "We've had to compensate for that for a while. We've been a
marginal team, an average team, in the regular-season, where we can win
40-to-45 games. But this time, we can win this series. And if we get out
of the first round, look out. We'll be riding high, just like New York
was last year."
But with his ankle preventing him from doing what he normally does -- his
13 points in Game 1 was half his season's average and 16 less than what
Jamal Mashburn went for against him -- the Pistons are on another
postseason downer. When they lost Game 1, their record with Hill in the
postseason fell to 4-10. Of those 10 losses, eight have been by at
least 10 points.
Not even the made-for-TV schedule where they've stretched out the first
round can help him. The ankle probably needs a few weeks of inactivity
to completely heal.
And to think, only a week ago Hill had more confidence than ever about
finally getting out of the first round.
"To keep playing in the playoffs," he said, "that has to be the
ultimate feeling."
Looks like he'll have to wait 'til next year to find out.
Rim Shots I
You've seen how ridiculous the spacing out of first-round
games are. In the Seattle-Utah series, for instance, Game 2 was Monday. But Game 3 isn't until Saturday, giving both teams four days off.
The last time the Jazz had four days off in the first round was in 1992. How far back was that? Their opponent was the Clippers, whose coach was
Larry Brown.
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The last time the Sonics had such a big layoff in the first round? Since
the league went to the current best-of-five setup in 1984, they've never
had more than three days of rest.
"I don't really like all this time off," said Miami's P.J. Brown, who
will have to wait three days to play Game 3 against Detroit after
playing the Pistons Tuesday. "It's too much of a gap. I'd rather
keep playing and keep going. You get too much time off and a team can
become lackadaisical, lose its rhythm and lose its momentum. We're a
team that doesn't want too much time off."
Because who knows what kind of practice torture Pat Riley might come up
with in the extra days off. The Heat's coach is even more vociferous in
his opposition to the schedule.
"We're subject to the gods of television, but to stretch this out over
two weeks is absolutely insane," he said. "It's losing its competitive
edge. It's allowing guys to have more preparation. It's allowing people
to almost get bored.
"Having two or three days off allows a player to become a person," he
added. "During the playoffs, you don't want your players to become
people."
Rim Shots II
One of Michael Jordan's North Carolina cronies says if
Jordan promised Golden State assistant Rod Higgins the Wizards head
coaching job earlier this season, Higgins will get the post. Jordan
wanted Higgins to come in when he took over as team president in January,
only to back off when the Warriors demanded compensation. "Michael's
tremendously loyal," the Carolina connection said. "When he makes a
promise, he keeps it." Jordan's friend also pooh-poohs rumors about
Jordan having interest in St. John's coach Mike Jarvis. "Michael knows
it takes a college guy a year or two to learn the NBA," he said. "I'd
be shocked if he went that way." Jarvis is doing a good job of keeping
his name out there for all available openings, though.
When Gary
Payton and Vernon Maxwell had their infamous locker room battle late in
the season, they weren't merely throwing weights and TV remote controls
at each other. At one point, Payton picked up a TV set and chucked it at
his teammate.
The GM grapevine reports that Eddie Jones would love to
bolt Charlotte for Miami, but knows that a sign-and-trade deal with the
Heat is nearly impossible. Also, latest on Tracy McGrady is that he's
all but out of Toronto, to relocate to Orlando.
Don't be surprised if
Don Nelson returns to the Mavs' bench to coach one more season. As one
of Nellie's friends put it: "(Owner) Mark Cuban talks with money, and
those are the words Nellie loves to hear."
Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com.
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