Reggie declares Retro Night with his shooting touch
Bob Kravitz
May 9, 2004
http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/144980-8108-039.html
又是讓人感動的一篇，這個 Bob Kravitz 好過分呦...我們又要哭了拉。:)
The Indiana Pacers' public relations and marketing people blew this one. It was
Reggie Miller Retro Night at Conseco Fieldhouse on Saturday night, and the onl
y person who was in on the promotion was Uncle Reggie himself.
How often does he do this?
Just when you're ready to roll out the now-annual column on how an old Reggie h
as replaced the old Reggie, here he comes again, taking over a playoff game lik
e he's still got that Grace Jones 'do. Knocking down those little runners. Drop
ping in bloodless 3-pointers. Changing the course of a playoff game that easily
could have gotten away.
"He's got a lot left in the tank," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
Good thing, too, because on another night, the Indiana Pacers might have blown
Game 2 against the Miami Heat. Jeff Foster was hurt. Jermaine O'Neal was suffer
ing through a second straight bad shooting game. And they still weren't dominat
ing the boards or the paint the way they knew they should.
But here came Reggie, from 1995, or maybe it was 1998. Here he came, right out
of the archive, turning a playoff game upside down with his 19 points. Just whe
n they needed him.
"It's almost more fun watching him now, the way he picks his spots," said Austi
n Croshere, who's been with Miller longer than anybody on the roster. "You know
he's looking to get Jermaine the ball, get Al (Harrington) the ball, get Ron (
Artest) the ball. But you know, in the back of his mind, he's thinking, 'I'm se
tting my guy up, and when I get the chance, I'm going to make him pay.' "
Before this series, almost everybody drew up the head-to-head matchups and conc
luded that Miami's young backcourt, Dwyane Wade and Eddie Jones, trumped Miller
and Jamaal Tinsley. And it was a fair assessment.
Miller was a complementary piece most of the regular season.
He scored just 9.8 points per game during the first-round series against the Bo
ston Celtics.
His best scoring night of the regular season was a 31-point outburst Nov. 15 ag
ainst New York.
More and more these past two seasons, we've talked about Reggie Miller in the p
ast tense. The big story surrounding Miller now? It was how he stepped aside in
2000 to let his younger teammates grow. It was how his younger teammates, whos
e respect for Miller is boundless, want to win an NBA title for themselves and
for Reggie.
It was all very sweet and sentimental, but there was an unmistakable undertone
to all the conversation. Was Reggie Miller just saving himself, continuing to s
tep aside in favor of his teammates? Or was he now incapable of being Indiana's
best player on a night when he was most needed?
We didn't really know.
Until Saturday night.
"The game was Reggie Miller," Miami coach Stan Van Gundy said.
Retro Reggie Night.
There's something left in those spindly legs. Not enough to carry the Pacers th
rough the Eastern Conference finals. Those days are gone. Clearly, O'Neal and f
riends will have to find their game sometime in the next week or so. But Miller
, who was more assertive than at any time the past two postseasons, showed he i
s still capable of these kinds of evenings.
"A lot of people say a lot of things because he's not putting up Reggie Miller
moments," O'Neal said. ". . . But he's still our leader."
Don't look now, but the Indiana Pacers are playing the best basketball in the N
BA this side of the San Antonio Spurs -- even if nobody outside of Indianapolis
seems to know or care.
While everybody talks about the Western Conference and makes Detroit the fashio
nable choice out of the East, the Pacers are not only winning, but rolling. Yet
they continue to fly under the radar, the quietest 61-victory regular season i
n history.
Maybe it's the way they play, utilizing a relentless, pounding style that is mo
re effective than it is exciting.
Maybe it's the competition: While the Spurs were toying with pretty good teams,
the Pacers have blown away one team that had no desire and another that has no
legs.
Whatever.
What matters now is, the Pacers are two games away from an Eastern Conference s
howdown with (we expect) the Detroit Pistons. And they have a new contributor o
n the roster. Or better yet, an old one.
This was throwback night, but it was one worth saving.
--
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※ 編輯: evilchilaya 來自: 210.244.1.157 (05/09 16:33)