NBA Fanhouse Interview

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

Before last night's win over the Pistons, I talked with the affable Glen "Big Baby" Davis about not holding grudges and getting manicures.

Matt Watson: Back during the draft, you thought that Detroit would be taking you, right?

Glen Davis: "Yeah."

MW: Does it feel good having them on verge of elimination, or is that ancient history?

GD: "Well, I don't think about it, I just play the game. Whatever happens, happens. The draft is a day that most people get disappointed. It's a business and I totally understand it. But things work in mysterious ways. I'm playing in the Eastern Conference Finals with a team that's contending for the [championship], and ... to play against Detroit, you know, things just fall the way they fall."

MW: It's pretty ironic.

GD: "Yeah, it's ironic. But things happen -- you can never be shocked. Things happen."

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

About 45 minutes before Game 5 between the Pistons and Magic tipped off Tuesday night, Rashard Lewis and I had a conversation about his team's string of bad luck, how competitive the series has been and the role Detroit's experience plays in determining the outcome. As you know by now, his hopes of extending the series were dashed, but Lewis did correctly call yet another hard-fought game.

Matt Watson: Coach [Stan Van Gundy] was talking just now about how one or two plays can kind of change the tone of an entire series. Do you kind of feel like you guys have come up on the short end of the stick a couple of times?

Rashard Lewis: Yeah, the ball hasn't been bouncing our way. We feel like we're a better team than what the series says, 3-1. Turnovers, offensive rebounds, just one point away from the series being tied 2-2. Unfortunately, it's 3-1 and hopefully we can try to get this win tonight and take it back to Orlando.

MW: When you factor in the whole plane troubles, it seems like nothing has been going your way this entire time.

RL: Yeah, nothing has been going our way. It's been a little bumpy for us, but at the same time, it's not over yet. Hopefully we can get some luck tonight and throughout the rest of this series, and maybe we can turn this around. We can't get the bad end of the stick every night.

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

The Pistons have won five straight games in the playoffs since Jason Maxiell moved into the starting lineup. Maxiell can't take all of the credit, but as Chauncey Billups described after Monday's win over the Magic, he makes an impact every time he steps onto the court.

"He's so athletic and he just has so much energy out there, he makes plays on both ends," said Billups. "He's blocking shots, [and] if he's not blocking them, he's changing shots. On the other end, he's getting offensive rebounds. ... He's causing them a lot of problems because I'm sure going into this series they knew about Max, of course, but they didn't expect him to have this kind of impact. So he's been a pleasant surprise for us."

I sat down with Maxiell for a few minutes after Monday's game and tried to get him to talk a little about himself. That's easier said than done; for a guy who's downright ferocious on the court, he's one of the most modest and reserved players in the locker room.

Matt Watson: You're doing a lot of what you've doing the entire year, but now you're doing it in front of a national audience. Do you think this is kind of like a little bit of a coming out party?

Jason Maxiell: I wouldn't say nothing like that. I mean, my job tonight and I guess for the series is to beat up on Howard a little bit, get him off the block and just show my ability to guard someone who's bigger than me.

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

When I entered Orlando's locker room before tonight's game, Rashard Lewis and J.J. Redick were watching a couple of ESPN analysts on TV talking about Game 1. The talking heads mentioned Lewis' 553 three-point attempts this year, a figure that shocked Redick.

"Did you lead the league in attempts?" asked Redick.

"No, I was somewhere in the top five," Lewis repiled.

He's selling himself short: he was second only to Jason Richardson (599). In fact, the Magic set an NBA record by making at least five threes in every regular season game this year, and then extended that streak in all five games of the first round only to make just a single shot from long distance in Game 1 against the Pistons. I asked Lewis if we can expect to see more three pointers the rest of the series, as well as whether his back-and-forth with Theo Ratliff might start another rap feud like the LeBron/Jay-Z vs. DeShawn/Soulja Boy.

Matt Watson: JJ was just talking about the number of threes that you guys usually put up. Is that something that you guys want to get back to this game?

Rashard Lewis: It's helped us have the successful season that we've had because Dwight demands so much attention down low he's going to draw double teams and we got to knock down open shots in order to open it up for him.