GAME 5 TODAY....
Lakers are drifting apart
By BILL HARRIS -- Toronto Sun
Shaquille O'Neal was too smart to be painted into a verbal corner.
The Los Angeles Lakers centre was asked yesterday if teammate Kobe Bryant's confidence in himself sometimes hurts the club, with Bryant taking multiple outside shots rather than repeatedly feeding the ball to Shaq down low.
"That's sort of a trick question and I don't have a trick answer," Shaq said. "Next question, please."
Then Shaq smiled.
"You're not going to get me with that question today, buddy," Shaq said, prompting laughter. "I'm a veteran at this, buddy. Can't get me with that, not today."
It was a funny exchange. But when you think about it, it's really indicative of a bizarre situation, with the Lakers down 3-1 to the Detroit Pistons heading into Game 5 of the NBA final tonight at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Shaq knows something. The reporters know something. Both sides know that the other side knows something. And yet it isn't talked about openly between the two sides, the communication coming with hints and nudges and winks.
So here's what everyone is aching to say: As great a player as Bryant is, he's selfish. He doesn't defer to Shaq, even when circumstances scream for it.
Early in Game 4 on Sunday, Shaq was an unstoppable, angry monster. But by the end of the night, Bryant had taken 25 shots and made eight, while Shaq had taken only 21 shots, despite making 16. Predictably, the Lakers lost again.
Now, that isn't all Kobe's fault. And quite frankly, Shaq never thinks he gets the ball enough, even when he takes it home and snuggles with it.
"I'd put it more on the rest of us," said the Lakers' Rick Fox, whose club has not had anyone besides Shaq and Kobe score in double figures in this series. "We've had so much success with Kobe being Kobe."
Fair enough, but when Bryant admitted he's trying to "shoot through" his so-called slump, eyebrows were raised.
Of course, if it weren't for Kobe, this series would be over. Bryant's three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left in Game 2 forced overtime, where the Lakers dominated to secure their only win.
But while the philosophical and personal differences among Shaq, Kobe and coach Phil Jackson were minor irritants when the Lakers were winning three titles in a row, now the club literally is drifting apart. All you had to do was watch the Lakers as they arrived at the Palace for practice yesterday to understand that.
Karl Malone walked from the bus to the locker room by himself. Gary Payton sauntered along with a supremely sour look as he yakked on his cell phone. Shaq walked in with his left arm draped around Fox.
Then, at least 15 minutes after his teammates left him alone, Kobe finally vacated his sanctuary on the bus after being informed it was his turn in the interview room.
These Lakers aren't exactly a Band of Brothers, you know?
The thing is, they still have the two most talented players in the final, so it's unwise to write them off entirely.
"I'm telling you right now, we'll win (Game 5)," Bryant said on Sunday. Asked yesterday about that promise, Bryant replied, "I promised? I'll go with that, man."
Shaq knows what has to be done if the Lakers want to send the series back to Los Angeles for Game 6 and, possibly, 7.
"We've been playing a certain style all year, and sometimes I get the ball, sometimes I don't," Shaq said. "But when I'm not double-teamed, I really expect to get the ball a lot.
"It is simple. And if you don't stick to simplicity, you'll die a horrible death."
Unlike Kobe's promise, Shaq's words sounded like a threat
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Arrests Made in 'Half-Life' Game Hacking Case -FBI
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Arrests have been made in the theft last year of source code for Valve Software's highly anticipated PC game "Half-Life 2," an FBI spokesman in Seattle said on Thursday.
Details about the arrests, which were made in several countries, were not made public because they are part of an ongoing investigation, FBI spokesman Ray Lauer said.
Valve officials said the online gaming community tracked down the purported hackers within days of the company's announcement last fall that the release of "Half-Life 2" would be delayed because of the Internet break-in.
The hackers stole the source code and distributed portions online in one of the worst data thefts to hit the video game industry, prompting fans to pledge their help.
"It was extraordinary to watch how quickly and how cleverly gamers were able to unravel what are traditionally unsolvable problems for law enforcement related to this kind of cyber crime," Valve Chief Executive Gabe Newell said in a statement.
Newell said Valve has been working with law enforcement authorities in various nations to prepare cases against the accused code thieves. It was not clear when the arrests were made.
"Half-Life," one of the most popular games ever, stars hunky scientist Gordon Freeman as he battles against aliens. Its sequel was to be published by Vivendi Universal Games, the video game arm of Vivendi Universal V.N EAUG.PA .
A Valve spokeswoman said no release date has been set but the firm expected to complete the game this summer.
Details about the arrests, which were made in several countries, were not made public because they are part of an ongoing investigation, FBI spokesman Ray Lauer said.
Valve officials said the online gaming community tracked down the purported hackers within days of the company's announcement last fall that the release of "Half-Life 2" would be delayed because of the Internet break-in.
The hackers stole the source code and distributed portions online in one of the worst data thefts to hit the video game industry, prompting fans to pledge their help.
"It was extraordinary to watch how quickly and how cleverly gamers were able to unravel what are traditionally unsolvable problems for law enforcement related to this kind of cyber crime," Valve Chief Executive Gabe Newell said in a statement.
Newell said Valve has been working with law enforcement authorities in various nations to prepare cases against the accused code thieves. It was not clear when the arrests were made.
"Half-Life," one of the most popular games ever, stars hunky scientist Gordon Freeman as he battles against aliens. Its sequel was to be published by Vivendi Universal Games, the video game arm of Vivendi Universal V.N EAUG.PA .
A Valve spokeswoman said no release date has been set but the firm expected to complete the game this summer.
Music legend Ray Charles dies at 73
LOS ANGELES — Ray Charles, the great singer and musician who transformed American music with soulful tunes such as "Georgia on My Mind" and "I Can't Stop Loving You," died at his Beverly Hills home in California on Thursday. He was 73.
Charles died of acute liver diseasee at 11:35 a.m., surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.
Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, the gifted pianist and saxophonist spent his life shattering any notion of musical categories and defying easy definition. One of the first artists to record the "blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them," as legendary producer Jerry Wexler once said, Charles' music spanned soul, rock 'n' roll, R&B, country, jazz, big band and blues.
He put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South. Smiling and swaying behind the piano, grunts and moans peppering his songs, Charles' appeal spanned generations.
His health deteriorated rapidly over the past year, after he had hip replacement surgery and was diagnosed with a failing liver. The Grammy winner's last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago, as a historic landmark.
"Ray Charles was a man we particularly admired both as a friend and as an artist. We had a great time recently reminiscing together and we will all miss him very much," Eastwood said Thursday. He filmed Charles extensively for a segment in the 2003 documentary "The Blues."
Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Busted").
His versions of other songs are also well known, including "Makin' Whoopee" and a stirring "America the Beautiful." Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote "Georgia on My Mind" in 1931, but it didn't become Georgia's official state song until 1979, long after Charles turned it into an American standard.
"I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of," Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, "Brother Ray." "Music was one of my parts ... Like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water."
Charles considered Martin Luther King Jr a friend and once refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa. But politics didn't take.
He was happiest playing music, teaming with such disparate musicians as Willie Nelson, Chaka Khan and Eric Clapton. Pepsi tapped him for TV spots around a powerfully simple "uh huh" theme, and he appeared in movies including "The Blues Brothers."
"The way I see it, we're actors, but musical ones," he once said. "We're doing it with notes, and lyrics with notes, telling a story. I can take an audience and get 'em into a frenzy so they'll almost riot, and yet I can sit there so you can almost hear a pin drop."
Charles was no angel. His womanizing was legendary, and he struggled with a heroin addiction for nearly 20 years before quitting cold turkey in 1965 after an arrest at the Boston airport. Yet there was a sense of humor about even that — he released both "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Let's Go Get Stoned" in 1966.
He later became reluctant to talk about the drug use, fearing it would taint how people thought of his work.
"I've known times where I've felt terrible, but once I get to the stage and the band starts with the music, I don't know why but it's like you have pain and take an aspirin, and you don't feel it no more," he once said.
Ray Charles Robinson was born Sept 23, 1930, in Albany, Ga. His father, Bailey Robinson, was a mechanic and a handyman, and his mother, Aretha, stacked boards in a sawmill. His family moved to Greenville, Fla, when Charles was an infant.
"Talk about poor," Charles once said. "We were on the bottom of the ladder."
Charles saw his brother drown in the tub his mother used to do laundry when he was about 5 as the family struggled through poverty at the height of the Depression. His sight was gone two years later. Glaucoma is often mentioned as a cause, though Charles said nothing was ever diagnosed.
Charles began dabbling in music at 3, encouraged by a cafe owner who played the piano. The knowledge was basic, but it made him more prepared for music classes when he was sent away, heartbroken, to the state-supported St Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind.
Charles learned to read and write music in Braille, score for big bands and play instruments — lots of them, including trumpet, clarinet, organ, alto sax and the piano.
"Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory," Charles said. "I can sit at my desk and write a whole arrangement in my head and never touch the piano. There's no reason for it to come out any different than the way it sounds in my head."
His early influences were myriad: Chopin and Sibelius, country and western stars he heard on the Grand Ole Opry, the powerhouse big bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, jazz greats Art Tatum and Artie Shaw.
By the time he was 15 his parents were dead and Charles had graduated from St Augustine. He wound up playing gigs in black dance halls — the so-called chitlin' circuit — and exposed himself to a variety of music, including hillbilly (he learned to yodel) before moving to Seattle.
He dropped his last name in deference to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, patterned himself for a time after Nat "King" Cole and formed a group that backed rhythm 'n' blues singer Ruth Brown. It was in Seattle's red light district were he met a young Quincy Jones, showing the future producer and composer how to write music. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
Charles developed quickly in those early days. Atlantic Records purchased his contract from Swingtime Records in 1952, and two years later he recorded "I Got a Woman," a raw mixture of gospel and rhythm 'n' blues, pioneering what was later called soul. Soon, he was being called "The Genius" and was playing at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival.
His first big hit was 1959's "What'd I Say," a song built off a simple piano riff with suggestive moaning from the Raeletts. Some U.S. radio stations banned the song, but Charles was on his way to stardom.
Producer Wexler, who recorded "What'd I Say," said he has worked with only three geniuses in the music business: Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Charles.
"In each case they brought something new to the table," Wexler told the San Jose Mercury News in 1994. Charles "had this blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them."
Charles was one of the legends receiving Kennedy Center Honors in 1986, cited as "one of the most respected singers of his generation ... the pioneer who broke down barriers between secular and sacred styles, between black and white pop."
His last Grammy came in 1993 for "A Song for You," but he never dropped out of the music scene. He continued to tour and long treasured time for chess. He once told the Los Angeles Times: "I'm not Spassky, but I'll make it interesting for you."
"Music's been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead," he told The Washington Post in 1983. "I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal." (Wire reports)
Charles died of acute liver diseasee at 11:35 a.m., surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.
Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, the gifted pianist and saxophonist spent his life shattering any notion of musical categories and defying easy definition. One of the first artists to record the "blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them," as legendary producer Jerry Wexler once said, Charles' music spanned soul, rock 'n' roll, R&B, country, jazz, big band and blues.
He put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South. Smiling and swaying behind the piano, grunts and moans peppering his songs, Charles' appeal spanned generations.
His health deteriorated rapidly over the past year, after he had hip replacement surgery and was diagnosed with a failing liver. The Grammy winner's last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago, as a historic landmark.
"Ray Charles was a man we particularly admired both as a friend and as an artist. We had a great time recently reminiscing together and we will all miss him very much," Eastwood said Thursday. He filmed Charles extensively for a segment in the 2003 documentary "The Blues."
Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Busted").
His versions of other songs are also well known, including "Makin' Whoopee" and a stirring "America the Beautiful." Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote "Georgia on My Mind" in 1931, but it didn't become Georgia's official state song until 1979, long after Charles turned it into an American standard.
"I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of," Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, "Brother Ray." "Music was one of my parts ... Like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water."
Charles considered Martin Luther King Jr a friend and once refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa. But politics didn't take.
He was happiest playing music, teaming with such disparate musicians as Willie Nelson, Chaka Khan and Eric Clapton. Pepsi tapped him for TV spots around a powerfully simple "uh huh" theme, and he appeared in movies including "The Blues Brothers."
"The way I see it, we're actors, but musical ones," he once said. "We're doing it with notes, and lyrics with notes, telling a story. I can take an audience and get 'em into a frenzy so they'll almost riot, and yet I can sit there so you can almost hear a pin drop."
Charles was no angel. His womanizing was legendary, and he struggled with a heroin addiction for nearly 20 years before quitting cold turkey in 1965 after an arrest at the Boston airport. Yet there was a sense of humor about even that — he released both "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Let's Go Get Stoned" in 1966.
He later became reluctant to talk about the drug use, fearing it would taint how people thought of his work.
"I've known times where I've felt terrible, but once I get to the stage and the band starts with the music, I don't know why but it's like you have pain and take an aspirin, and you don't feel it no more," he once said.
Ray Charles Robinson was born Sept 23, 1930, in Albany, Ga. His father, Bailey Robinson, was a mechanic and a handyman, and his mother, Aretha, stacked boards in a sawmill. His family moved to Greenville, Fla, when Charles was an infant.
"Talk about poor," Charles once said. "We were on the bottom of the ladder."
Charles saw his brother drown in the tub his mother used to do laundry when he was about 5 as the family struggled through poverty at the height of the Depression. His sight was gone two years later. Glaucoma is often mentioned as a cause, though Charles said nothing was ever diagnosed.
Charles began dabbling in music at 3, encouraged by a cafe owner who played the piano. The knowledge was basic, but it made him more prepared for music classes when he was sent away, heartbroken, to the state-supported St Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind.
Charles learned to read and write music in Braille, score for big bands and play instruments — lots of them, including trumpet, clarinet, organ, alto sax and the piano.
"Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory," Charles said. "I can sit at my desk and write a whole arrangement in my head and never touch the piano. There's no reason for it to come out any different than the way it sounds in my head."
His early influences were myriad: Chopin and Sibelius, country and western stars he heard on the Grand Ole Opry, the powerhouse big bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, jazz greats Art Tatum and Artie Shaw.
By the time he was 15 his parents were dead and Charles had graduated from St Augustine. He wound up playing gigs in black dance halls — the so-called chitlin' circuit — and exposed himself to a variety of music, including hillbilly (he learned to yodel) before moving to Seattle.
He dropped his last name in deference to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, patterned himself for a time after Nat "King" Cole and formed a group that backed rhythm 'n' blues singer Ruth Brown. It was in Seattle's red light district were he met a young Quincy Jones, showing the future producer and composer how to write music. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
Charles developed quickly in those early days. Atlantic Records purchased his contract from Swingtime Records in 1952, and two years later he recorded "I Got a Woman," a raw mixture of gospel and rhythm 'n' blues, pioneering what was later called soul. Soon, he was being called "The Genius" and was playing at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival.
His first big hit was 1959's "What'd I Say," a song built off a simple piano riff with suggestive moaning from the Raeletts. Some U.S. radio stations banned the song, but Charles was on his way to stardom.
Producer Wexler, who recorded "What'd I Say," said he has worked with only three geniuses in the music business: Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Charles.
"In each case they brought something new to the table," Wexler told the San Jose Mercury News in 1994. Charles "had this blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them."
Charles was one of the legends receiving Kennedy Center Honors in 1986, cited as "one of the most respected singers of his generation ... the pioneer who broke down barriers between secular and sacred styles, between black and white pop."
His last Grammy came in 1993 for "A Song for You," but he never dropped out of the music scene. He continued to tour and long treasured time for chess. He once told the Los Angeles Times: "I'm not Spassky, but I'll make it interesting for you."
"Music's been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead," he told The Washington Post in 1983. "I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal." (Wire reports)
New Power Mac uses liquid cooling on high-end model
Apple Computer Inc. launched new Power Mac systems featuring the 64-bit G5 processor Wednesday, including a model that uses liquid cooling technology.One of the new Power Mac G5 systems is Apple's first Power Mac with IBM Corp.'s new 90-nanometer PowerPC 970FX chip, which runs at 2.5GHz and features a 1.25GHz front-side bus. A total of three dual-processor configurations are available for order through Apple's Web site or the company's retail stores; the other two configurations use older PowerPC processors.
The high-end 2.5GHz Power Mac system features liquid cooling to remove heat from the processor. All PCs use some type of cooling technology, but most use a fan. Liquid cooling technology is generally found in high-end gaming PCs or special systems for high-performance computing or scientific applications.
The new 970FX processor is much smaller than its 0.13-micron predecessor, which means the heat from the CPU (central processing unit) is more concentrated, said Tom Boger, senior director of product marketing for Apple. The new chip is consuming roughly the same amount of power as the older chip, and a more sophisticated system is needed to remove the heat from the processor die.
Apple is using a closed-loop liquid cooling system comprised mostly of water with some propylene glycol, Boger said. It is transparent to the user and maintenance-free, he said.
Apple first used the PowerPC 970FX processor in an update to its XServe servers. It had hoped to ship those systems by the end of February, but didn't get them out of the door until March and blamed IBM for the delay on Apple's first-quarter earnings conference call.
IBM attributed the delays to yield issues during its own earnings conference call.
"Yield is a way of describing other issues. When something doesn't work, the yields are low," said Roger Kay, vice president of client computing at IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Most chip companies find it more difficult to produce reliable chips at higher clock speeds when shifting to a new design. They can usually produce new chips at similar clock speeds to older designs, but the fastest versions of a new processor are generally available in more limited quantities or at later dates than their slower counterparts.
In fact, the dual 2.5GHz Power Macs won't ship until July, Apple said. The dual 1.8GHz and 2.0GHz models are available immediately.
The 2.5GHz system comes with two processors, 512M bytes of PC3200 (400MHz) DDR (double data rate) SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), a 160G-byte hard drive, a Radeon 9600 XT graphics card from ATI Technologies Inc. with 128M bytes of DDR video memory, and a DVD-R/CD-RW optical drive for US$2,999.
The 2.0GHz was formerly the top of Apple's Power Mac line, and now sells for $500 less with a list price of $2,499, Boger said. It comes with dual PowerPC 970 processors, the 0.13-micron version of the G5 processor. It also features 512M bytes of PC3200 DDR SDRAM, a 160G-byte hard drive, a GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics card from Nvidia Corp. with 64M bytes of DDR video memory, and a DVD-R/CD-RW drive.
The 1.8GHz model also features the 0.13-micron PowerPC 970. It comes with dual processors, 256M bytes of PC3200 DDR SDRAM, a 80G-byte hard drive, a GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics card with 64M bytes of video memory, and a DVD-R/CD-RW drive
The high-end 2.5GHz Power Mac system features liquid cooling to remove heat from the processor. All PCs use some type of cooling technology, but most use a fan. Liquid cooling technology is generally found in high-end gaming PCs or special systems for high-performance computing or scientific applications.
The new 970FX processor is much smaller than its 0.13-micron predecessor, which means the heat from the CPU (central processing unit) is more concentrated, said Tom Boger, senior director of product marketing for Apple. The new chip is consuming roughly the same amount of power as the older chip, and a more sophisticated system is needed to remove the heat from the processor die.
Apple is using a closed-loop liquid cooling system comprised mostly of water with some propylene glycol, Boger said. It is transparent to the user and maintenance-free, he said.
Apple first used the PowerPC 970FX processor in an update to its XServe servers. It had hoped to ship those systems by the end of February, but didn't get them out of the door until March and blamed IBM for the delay on Apple's first-quarter earnings conference call.
IBM attributed the delays to yield issues during its own earnings conference call.
"Yield is a way of describing other issues. When something doesn't work, the yields are low," said Roger Kay, vice president of client computing at IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Most chip companies find it more difficult to produce reliable chips at higher clock speeds when shifting to a new design. They can usually produce new chips at similar clock speeds to older designs, but the fastest versions of a new processor are generally available in more limited quantities or at later dates than their slower counterparts.
In fact, the dual 2.5GHz Power Macs won't ship until July, Apple said. The dual 1.8GHz and 2.0GHz models are available immediately.
The 2.5GHz system comes with two processors, 512M bytes of PC3200 (400MHz) DDR (double data rate) SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), a 160G-byte hard drive, a Radeon 9600 XT graphics card from ATI Technologies Inc. with 128M bytes of DDR video memory, and a DVD-R/CD-RW optical drive for US$2,999.
The 2.0GHz was formerly the top of Apple's Power Mac line, and now sells for $500 less with a list price of $2,499, Boger said. It comes with dual PowerPC 970 processors, the 0.13-micron version of the G5 processor. It also features 512M bytes of PC3200 DDR SDRAM, a 160G-byte hard drive, a GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics card from Nvidia Corp. with 64M bytes of DDR video memory, and a DVD-R/CD-RW drive.
The 1.8GHz model also features the 0.13-micron PowerPC 970. It comes with dual processors, 256M bytes of PC3200 DDR SDRAM, a 80G-byte hard drive, a GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics card with 64M bytes of video memory, and a DVD-R/CD-RW drive
Pistons Ready to Face Lakers in Game 3
By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The NBA finals move to the Detroit area for Game 3 tonight with the series between the Los Angeles Lakers (news) and the Detroit Pistons (news) tied 1-1.
AP Photo
AP Photo
Slideshow: NBA Finals
While home court hasn't been much of a factor in the first two games of the series, the switch to The Palace of Auburn Hills may have an impact. Either way, the Pistons are not doubting their abilities to rally past their Game 2 collapse.
Just a few years ago, Kobe Bryant's unbelievable 3-pointer in Game 2 pretty much would have wrapped up the NBA Finals (news - web sites) for the Los Angeles Lakers. But the Detroit Pistons believe the team's mystique is fading.
"Granted, they're a good team, but we ain't scared of nobody," Detroit forward Rasheed Wallace said. "I don't know why all you cats think we're scared of the Lakers, or that the Lakers are this dominant force. We ain't scared of those cats, man."
Coach Larry Brown's decision not to foul the Lakers in the final seconds drew tremendous scrutiny from fans and media alike, but he insists he would play the final moments the same way.
A foul would have given the Lakers two free throws — when they needed three points to tie — with less than 10 seconds left. The Pistons had plenty of opportunities to send a bad free-throw shooter to the line before Bryant launched his shot.
"We don't foul in a situation like that," Brown said, explaining he feared a four-point play. "I thought about it. We talked about if they threw it inside, yeah, when Shaq gets it, put him on the line. But I don't want to take a chance like that."
Brown's decision allowed Bryant to complete the Lakers' rally from a six-point deficit in the final minute. The Pistons were eviscerated, scoring just one basket in the overtime period — a historic low in a finals game.
But there's ample reason to believe Bryant's shot won't carry the same dramatic weight as Horry's game-winning 3-pointer against the Kings two years ago. Or even Derek Fisher's game-winning jumper in Game 5 of this season's second round against San Antonio.
The Pistons soundly outplayed the Lakers for nearly all of the first two games in Los Angeles, running their simple pick-and-rolls and post-up plays to perfection, then hounding the Lakers' supporting cast into near-complete ineffectiveness on the other end of the court.
Chauncey Billups has embarrassed Gary Payton and Fisher, the Lakers' struggling point-guard duo — though Fisher is less than full strength with a knee injury. Wallace also has dominated Karl Malone, who re-injured his knee during Game 2 and might not be available in Detroit.
Payton and Malone weren't a part of the Lakers' championship teams, so they've only seen the mystique from the opposing bench. In search of the first titles of their career, they don't subscribe to the laid-back approach of Bryant or Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
"We've got to get the first one, that's the most important thing (in Detroit)," Payton said. "We've got to go into Game 3 thinking we're going to get it. We need three, and we probably ain't going to get three in a row, so we've got to get a good start on it."
The next three games will be played in the Detroit suburbs before a rowdy crowd that will bear no resemblance to the fans at Staples Center, which has been quiet even by its own standards this postseason.
Unless one of the teams wins all three games, something a home team has never done since the NBA switched to a 2-3-2 finals format in 1985, the series returns to Los Angeles on June 17.
As Bryant calmly stated after each game in Los Angeles, both teams expect a long series. Brown probably will have another opportunity to make a game-changing strategic decision — and Bryant probably will get a chance to make Brown regret it.
"The hangover was (Tuesday) night," Brown said. "That's over. We went to L.A. and gave ourselves a chance to win two games against a great team. That's the way we're going to look at it."
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The NBA finals move to the Detroit area for Game 3 tonight with the series between the Los Angeles Lakers (news) and the Detroit Pistons (news) tied 1-1.
AP Photo
AP Photo
Slideshow: NBA Finals
While home court hasn't been much of a factor in the first two games of the series, the switch to The Palace of Auburn Hills may have an impact. Either way, the Pistons are not doubting their abilities to rally past their Game 2 collapse.
Just a few years ago, Kobe Bryant's unbelievable 3-pointer in Game 2 pretty much would have wrapped up the NBA Finals (news - web sites) for the Los Angeles Lakers. But the Detroit Pistons believe the team's mystique is fading.
"Granted, they're a good team, but we ain't scared of nobody," Detroit forward Rasheed Wallace said. "I don't know why all you cats think we're scared of the Lakers, or that the Lakers are this dominant force. We ain't scared of those cats, man."
Coach Larry Brown's decision not to foul the Lakers in the final seconds drew tremendous scrutiny from fans and media alike, but he insists he would play the final moments the same way.
A foul would have given the Lakers two free throws — when they needed three points to tie — with less than 10 seconds left. The Pistons had plenty of opportunities to send a bad free-throw shooter to the line before Bryant launched his shot.
"We don't foul in a situation like that," Brown said, explaining he feared a four-point play. "I thought about it. We talked about if they threw it inside, yeah, when Shaq gets it, put him on the line. But I don't want to take a chance like that."
Brown's decision allowed Bryant to complete the Lakers' rally from a six-point deficit in the final minute. The Pistons were eviscerated, scoring just one basket in the overtime period — a historic low in a finals game.
But there's ample reason to believe Bryant's shot won't carry the same dramatic weight as Horry's game-winning 3-pointer against the Kings two years ago. Or even Derek Fisher's game-winning jumper in Game 5 of this season's second round against San Antonio.
The Pistons soundly outplayed the Lakers for nearly all of the first two games in Los Angeles, running their simple pick-and-rolls and post-up plays to perfection, then hounding the Lakers' supporting cast into near-complete ineffectiveness on the other end of the court.
Chauncey Billups has embarrassed Gary Payton and Fisher, the Lakers' struggling point-guard duo — though Fisher is less than full strength with a knee injury. Wallace also has dominated Karl Malone, who re-injured his knee during Game 2 and might not be available in Detroit.
Payton and Malone weren't a part of the Lakers' championship teams, so they've only seen the mystique from the opposing bench. In search of the first titles of their career, they don't subscribe to the laid-back approach of Bryant or Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
"We've got to get the first one, that's the most important thing (in Detroit)," Payton said. "We've got to go into Game 3 thinking we're going to get it. We need three, and we probably ain't going to get three in a row, so we've got to get a good start on it."
The next three games will be played in the Detroit suburbs before a rowdy crowd that will bear no resemblance to the fans at Staples Center, which has been quiet even by its own standards this postseason.
Unless one of the teams wins all three games, something a home team has never done since the NBA switched to a 2-3-2 finals format in 1985, the series returns to Los Angeles on June 17.
As Bryant calmly stated after each game in Los Angeles, both teams expect a long series. Brown probably will have another opportunity to make a game-changing strategic decision — and Bryant probably will get a chance to make Brown regret it.
"The hangover was (Tuesday) night," Brown said. "That's over. We went to L.A. and gave ourselves a chance to win two games against a great team. That's the way we're going to look at it."
Saturday, June 05, 2004
A SAD DAY FOR ALL AMERICANS
Well if you haven't heard already former president Ronald Regan has died today, a great man that will surely be missed, my condolences to the Regan family. May GOD Bless his soul.
Friday, June 04, 2004
Just another day
Well today it diffently feels like summer time with the temp. being 100 degrees outside. Well I hope everyone had a great holiday this past week, i did i went down to my moms where i found that one of my cousins came out of the closet for the first time and he brought his boyfriend with him which turns out he is a pretty cool guy but i am sure he plays the fem. role in thier releations ship and my cousin plays the man role...lol anyways the la lakers are now on thier way to gaining thier 4th championship rings game 1 of the finals are this sunday against the pistons. Also in the nhl the canadians are 1 win away from bringing the cup back home to canada they are playing tampa bay lightning.
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