Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990 TAG: 9004260144
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SAM GOLDAPER THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Only two franchises ever have won consecutive titles, the Boston Celtics several times and the Lakers, twice in Minneapolis and once in Los Angeles. Will the Detroit Pistons make it three?
As expected, the Pistons and Lakers finished with the best conference records, which would indicate another championship meeting between them.
But these playoffs, which begin tonight and end in mid-June, carry an aura of mystery, much of it caused by a schedule that has been diluted by two straight years of expansion.
Are the Lakers, who finished with a 63-19 record, really six games better than last year's team? Are the Pistons, who won 63 games, four games worse than last year's team?
"The numbers don't mean anything," said Chuck Daly, the Pistons' coach. "This a strange year. We're still a good basketball team, but we're only one of six or seven teams that have a chance to win it all this year. Expansion has opened things up and there may be some false records around."
The final NBA standings would bear out Daly's thinking. Never before had there been nine teams - five in the Western Conference - with 50 or more victories, nor had 18 teams ever finished with .500 or better records.
Why? One need only look at the records of the four expansion teams (plus the New Jersey Nets, who were the worst of all at 17-65) and see how easy it was for teams to fatten up their records.
Pat Riley, the Lakers coach, is just happy to be where he is.
"There were a lot of skeptics about us in October," said Riley. "We showed them that,led by the league's MVP, we finished with the best record in the league." Riley was referring to Magic Johnson who is one of the candidates for most valuable player honors.
So which are the teams with a chance to challenge the Pistons and Lakers?
Coaches and general managers in recent weeks have tossed around the names of the Portland Trail Blazers, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs and the Utah Jazz.
Michael Jordan even promised to hang a championship banner in Chicago Stadium.
\ BOSTON (53-29) VS. KNICKS (45-37): The home-court advantage belongs to the Celtics, which means the Knicks must win in Boston Garden, something they have not done since Feb. 29, 1984, 18 regular season and six playoff games ago.
Moreover, the Celtics had a 9-1 finish, and the Knicks were 12-21 over their last 33 games. The key to an upset by the Knicks is the club's ability to run and rebound against the big - but aged - front line of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Reggie Lewis has scored 31 and 34 points against New York in the teams' last two meetings.
How well Charles Oakley rebounds from a hand injury and helps Patrick Ewing are important factors for the Knicks. Ewing averaged 33 points in the five games against the Celtics. Boston won the season series, 4-1.
\ PHILADELPHIA (53-29) VS. CLEVELAND (42-40): The teams are similar in that they both have big men who can score inside and outside. Both started slowly for different reasons. While waiting for newcomers Rick Mahorn and Johnny Dawkins to jell, the 76ers had a 16-12 start, then went on 12- and eight-game winning streaks en route to their first Atlantic Division title since 1982.
The Cavaliers, the league's best 3-point shooting team, were without Brad Daugherty at center for 41 games and Larry Nance at power forward for 17 games. They won 17 of their final 23 games, including the last six. The teams split their four regular-season games, each winning once on the road. The 76ers need to contain Mark Price, who had two 30-point games against them. Charles Barkley and Hersey Hawkins have been most troublesome for Cleveland.
\ DETROIT (59-23) VS. INDIANA (42-40): An interesting aspect to the series is the coaches. Until the middle of last season, Dick Versace, now the Pacers' coach, was an assistant under Chuck Daly in Detroit. It figures to be an easy series for the Pistons, who try for a second straight NBA title.
The Pistons had the best record in the conference and beat the Pacers in four of their five regular-season meetings. Indiana will look to its running game in an effort to pull an upset. The Pacers must avoid getting into a halfcourt game with the Pistons, one of the league's best defensive teams.
\ CHICAGO (55-27) VS. MILWAUKEE (44-38): The Bucks discount the fact they have lost 15 of their last 17 games to the Bulls, including four of five this season. The thinking in Milwaukee is that the playoffs are a new day. Maybe so, especially since the Bucks have endured 26 roster changes and their players have missed 233 games through injuries, tops in the NBA.
The Bucks supposedly are healthy, but they still must contend with Michael Jordan, who averaged 35.6 points during the season and gets better at playoff time.
\ LA LAKERS (63-19) VS. HOUSTON (41-41): Of all their possible Western Conference opponents, the team the Lakers least wanted to play was the Rockets. The reason is Akeem Olajuwon, Houston's dominating center, who, besides averaging 24.3 points, led the league in rebounding and blocked shots.
Otis Thorpe and Larry Smith, off the bench, are good rebounders and physical players. The Lakers, who have won nine straight Pacific Division titles, will rely on Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Byron Scott. Johnson averaged almost 27 points and 10 assists against Rockets. The teams split their season series with all victories at home.
\ PORTLAND (59-23) VS. DALLAS (47-35): The Trail Blazers were 4-0 against the Mavericks, the only opening-round matchup in which one team swept the other. Portland is one of the NBA's deepest teams but has lost in the opening round nine of the last 11 seasons.
Portland's biggest plusses are the scoring of Clyde Drexler (23.3 points a game) and the rebounding of Buck Williams, who has averaged almost 10 rebounds and 13.6 points a game. The Mavericks are led by the backourt of Rolando Blackman (19.4) and Derek Harper (18.0) and by Sam Perkins (15.9) at forward. In the 45 games, Roy Tarpley has played since his drug rehabilitation, he has averaged 15.9 points.
\ UTAH (55-27) VS. PHOENIX (54-28): This is the first opening-round matchup between two 50-game winners since the Bulls and Pistons met in 1974. The Suns, who finished with three losses in their last five games, won the season series, 3-1.
One of those victories ended Utah's 19-game home winning streak. The Jazz, too, had a poor (4-6) finish. The two key matchups are likely to be John Stockton, the Utah playmaker who won a third straight assist title, against Kevin Johnson, and Karl Malone against Tom Chambers.
\ SAN ANTONIO (56-23) VS. DENVER (43-39): Everything would point to a Spurs victory, but coach Larry Brown would prefer not playing against a team coached by Doug Moe, his close friend and former college teammate at North Carolina, whom he regards highly.
The Spurs, who won the season series, 3-1, finished with seven straight victories and 35 more than last season, an NBA record for improvement. David Robinson (24.3 points a game and everybody's choice for rookie of the year) and Terry Cummings (22.4) pace the Spurs. Lafayette "Fat" Lever is the Nuggets' key player.
by CNB