To proponents of Zeek...

[Guest]

how's a more or less completely healthy Indy team doing? Zeek leading them to the promised land? I thought he was a very solid/good coach...how can such a deep, all round talented team with pieces at each position be beaten knocked out in the first round? They're by far the most talented team in the East on paper...probably fourth in the L behind Portland, SAC, and Dallas (and maybe not the latter).

[cyman3]

has been the story for the last few years...

Reggie Miller needs to step up and go back to being REGGIE or else this team is screwed... i dont care if they have the 2nd best defensive player (artest), an above average starting center (this year allstar Brad Miller), and an allstar PF.

Until Reggie gets his old form back, Pacers arent going anywhere.

[Guest]

then Isiah should put him on the court in the fourth quarter...unlike the other night, when, after losing, Isiah stated that he kept Reggie out of the close 4th for "defensive reasons," that he wanted his best defenders on the floor...depsite the fact that, without Reggie, the team lacks (or has failed to establish) a go-to guy. JO can be that at times, but has not been the focal point consistently late in games, which is what the regular season is for. Instead, Isiah tried to turn his team into a more offensively gifted version of the Pistons (this year's)...and you can see how well they're working things out in the playoffs after garnering the East's best record...

[Diesel]

INdy is being beat by a 2 superstar team. It's not unusual. Usually, good TEAMS have problems with a 1 or 2 Superstar team.

Look at Detroit. Orlando is scorching them.

Remember when we had Nique. Nique would go into the playoffs and beat up on the Bucks. Beat up on the Pistons (at first). Give the Celtics problems.

Reason being is that team play hardly ever can adjust to 1 superstar. Especially if he has good role players. IN Boston, 2 superstars is difficult to stop because basically, your defense is to let them shot the low percentage shot... Well, Pierce and Walker play the whole season shooting the low percentage shot. SO Now, your defense changes to MAN on MAN and trying to stop them. Well, Pierce can't be stopped Man on man. SO Indy plays it's best defender on Pierce, double with the SG, and use everybody else to cover the passing lanes. If Reggie can't rotate on that Double, Isiah needs somebody in there who can. You trade out Reggie for Harrington, put Artest as SG now you can cover Pierce well... But offensively, you suck. You have:

Tinsley, Artest, Harrington, Oneal, Miller. You don't suck because you have Harrington instead of Miller, you suck because you don't have a long range shooter in the bunch. So now you have to replace Tinsley with Old man Hardaway and then you have some offense.

Last night Indy's defense stepped up. McCarthy, Walker, and Pierce comprimised on the longrange shot with a hand in their face and it didn't go. However, Indy will have to figure out how to get better defense out of their offensive players or better offense from their defensive players.

BTW, If Indy had SAR instead of Oneal, this series would be over. INdy wins. ONeal cannot create for himself offensively and that's killing them. He's a top tier PF but he's not offensively gifted.