Rasheed's albatross
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – You'd think Robert Horry would be public enemy No. 1 after shooting down the Detroit Pistons in the San Antonio Spurs' 96-95 overtime victory at The Palace on Sunday night.
Thanks to Horry, the defending champs must accomplish the most impossible of missions to repeat: win two games in San Antonio, where the Spurs have lost just five times all year.
But on the morning after the Pistons' most devastating defeat under Larry Brown, the local media and Detroit fans vented their frustration mostly on one person.
The sports talk radio shows here can be – how can we put this kindly – straightforward with their criticism. 'Sheed was the target of Monday morning's firing line, taking shots from callers for choosing to leave Horry open for the eventual game-winning three-pointer and trying to call a timeout late in the game when the Pistons didn't have one.
The latter gaffe prompted one irate fan to refer to Wallace as "Rasheed Webber."
After a sleepless night, Brown stood by his power forward, saying the loss couldn't be blamed on one play or one player.
"Ultimately, it's the coach," said Brown, the Pistons' lone representative to face the media on Monday. "You go things over and over again. But you've got to be relentless in making people understand.
"I think he [Wallace] is trying to make the right play. It just happened. But Horry still had to make the shot. And we still had an opportunity with 5.8 seconds left to get a shot."
The Piston who took that last-second shot – Richard Hamilton – received his share of criticism on the radio as well.
On the last possession, Hamilton opted to drive and try to get a foul call against Tony Parker instead of passing to an open Tayshaun Prince under the basket. The other beef was Hamilton not sacrificing his body to take a charge on Horry's flying dunk in overtime.
"Rip got his hands on the ball 15 feet from the goal and they defended it well and he had a look," Brown said. "But that's over. There's nothing we can do about that now. The only thing we can do is figure out what we need to do to make this series go a little bit further."
Hamilton continued to struggle against Bruce Bowen's defense, failing to break the 20-point barrier again with 15 points on 7-of-15 shooting. He also committed five turnovers in looking more agitated than ever against Bowen.
But no Piston has underachieved in this series as much as Wallace. Even though his defense was responsible for holding Tim Duncan to sub-par efforts in Games 3 and 4, Wallace has rarely made his presence felt offensively in the Finals, averaging just 10.2 points and 11.2 field-goal attempts a game.
Wallace has fallen so much out of favor with Pistons fans – at least those angry enough to call in to the local radio stations – that his popularity is probably hovering just above disappointing Lions quarterback Joey Harrington. Largely perceived as the last piece of Detroit's championship puzzle last year, 'Sheed is now being seen as the reason why the Pistons might not repeat because of his costly lapse on defense.
"I don't know what goes through a player's mind, but the guys I put out there are trying to win the game," Brown said. "I think we got caught up in trying to make a good basketball play. Maybe we didn't say [not to leave your man] enough. But that's coaching."
"We lost as a team," he added. "I don't want one guy to take it personally. This is not track and field, tennis or golf. This is basketball. It's a team sport. We'd never be in this position without all these guys making contributions."
