| NBA, ABC Could Use A Game 7 Authored by Graham Flashner - June 18, 2005 - 7:41 pm
The TV ratings are abysmal. The star players have underwhelmed. The final scores haven’t been close. But hey, things could be worse – it’s even, and with series now reduced to a best-out-of-three, there’s still time to salvage it – if the Spurs and Pistons can get to Game 7 on Thursday night.
There hasn’t been a Game 7 in the Finals since 1994, when the Houston Rockets came from 3-2 down to beat the New York Knicks in two thrillers in Houston.
This is the longest gap between Game 7s in league history. There have been two six years gaps. After the Washington Bullets beat the Seattle Supersonics in 1978, the next Game 7 wasn’t until 1984, when Larry Bird’s Celtics outlasted Magic Johnson’s Lakers at Boston Garden. The Lakers, who are 0-4 in Game 7’s vs. Boston, found an easy solution to their problems when they faced the Celtics in 1985 and 1987: don’t play one. They beat the Celtics in six games both years, before finally winning their first-ever Game 7 against the Pistons in 1988.
The 1994 series between the Rockets and Knicks was memorable for a number of reasons: it was the high (or low) point of Pat Riley’s bruising, defensive-minded, win-ugly Knicks teams, which were a poor man’s imitation of the Bad Boy Pistons of the late 80s.
Game 5 shared its date with the infamous O.J. Simpson/Al Cowlings freeway pursuit, a chase so riveting that at one point, play stopped at Madison Square Garden while fans and players viewed the pursuit on the scoreboard TV. When the game resumed, many stations across the country elected to split their screens to show both the game and the chase.
And Game 7 will chiefly be remembered for John Starks’ 2-18 shooting performance, and Pat Riley’s dogged loyalty to his floor leader, encouraging him to keep shooting and refusing to take him out of the game.
It was not a series for basketball purists, who hated the low scores and the foul-prone play of the plodding Knicks. The same purists could be equally offended by this year’s series, but for different reasons. If the Spurs lose Game 5 and return home to win the series, they will become the only team, along with the 1955 Syracuse Nationals, to win an NBA Finals without winning on the road. Their play on the road thus far has been embarrassing, and the back-to-back terrible games by their reigning superstar, Tim Duncan, has been disturbing.
While the Pistons have restored their championship luster with two decisive routs at home, their play in San Antonio was so uninspiring that it was hard to believe they were defending champs. As Kostas Bolos already pointed out on this site, Game 5 is a must-win for the Pistons if they have any hope of winning the series. For the Spurs, it’s a game that’s more important for their legacy as deserving champions, should they come back to take the last two.
The league would never say it out loud, of course, but they have to be rooting for a Pistons win tomorrow night, because it would all but guarantee a Game 7. While the Spurs did lose four straight to the Lakers last year after winning the first two games, they had to play Game 6 at Los Angeles. Even though that series didn’t go the distance, it had one of the all-time Fantastic Finishes in Game 5, with the Derek Fisher miracle buzzer-beater.
So far, the most memorable moment of this series has been the basket by Darko Milicic to give Detroit its 100th point in Game 4. If the Spurs and Pistons want to win back the viewers who’ve abandoned this series, they’ll have to go 7. For the NBA, it’s about time already. |
