NBA FanHouse

Big Baby on Being Snubbed by Detroit: 'Things Work in Mysterious Ways'

Matt Watson — Sat, 31 May 2008 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Celtics, Pistons, Eastern, NBA Playoffs, Boston, Detroit, 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."

MW: I was reading a while back when you were talking about your manicures. Did any of the guys give you a hard time about that?

GD: "Nah."

MW: Have you heard anything from the fans about that?

GD: "No, not yet."

MW: So I'm the only one that's paying attention to that?

GD: "Yeah." (Laughter)

MW: Maybe that says something about me.

GD: (More laughter)

If you can't tell, things were getting a little awkward, and it was compounded by the fact that Kendrick Perkins interrupted to tell me I was standing on his towel. Lest I offend and/or annoy anyone further, I thanked Big Baby for his time and got out of there.

Big Baby on Being Snubbed by Detroit: 'Things Work in Mysterious Ways' originally appeared on NBA FanHouse on Sat, 31 May 2008 11:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rashard Lewis: 'They Had to Go Out There and Win the Game, It Wasn't Handed to Them'

Matt Watson — Wed, 14 May 2008 04:30:00 EST

Filed under: Pistons, Magic, Eastern, NBA Playoffs, Detroit, FanHouse Interview

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.

MW: Is this one of the most important games you've played in your basketball career?

RL: Most definitely. Facing elimination, this is most definitely an important game, not just for me but for this team and this organization. And we've got to play like it's an important game. We've got to go out there and scratch, fight and claw our way, try to get this W. We can't go out there and lay down and give up and just basically say the series is over and just hand them the win. I think we have to go out here and fight for it, and there's no telling what could happen. We could go back home with the momentum and have the fans behind us and maybe take this thing to Game 7.

MW: Flip Saunders said that Chauncey Billups probably isn't going to be playing tonight. Does that change anything that you guys are thinking going into the game?

RL: No, it doesn't change anything at all. We know what Chauncey can do. We know he's a great player; he's their leader, one of their main guys they go to in the clutch. We got our scouting report, we got the game plan on everybody, and it doesn't change anything.

MW: A lot of people talk about experience that Detroit has, and coach [Van Gundy] was saying a little bit ago about how if you guys don't win this game, a lot of people are just going to write that you guys didn't have the "character" or "resolve," overlooking the fact that it's been a very competitive series no matter how many games you end up winning or Detroit ends up winning. Do you think that the media puts too much emphasis on experience? Is that a cop-out, just something easy for them to write about?

RL: Yeah, in a way, [but] experience does go a long way, especially in the playoffs around this time. They play a lot of veteran guys because they know what to do out there on the floor, when to do it. But at the same time, every game's been real competitive, with the exception of the very first game ... we've been right there, had a chance to win it. We won one game, but at the same time, the record doesn't say how hard we've been playing, how tough we've been taking a team down to the wire. They've beat us three times, we've only beat them once, but I can guarantee you that every game they had to go out there and win the game, it wasn't handed to them.
___

After the game, Lewis talked a bit about Orlando's season as a whole. "We've just got to learn from this experience," he said. "We've had some good experiences here. We had a great season, won 50 plus games, won our division, did a number of different things nobody expected us to do - finished third in the Eastern Conference. It's just a stepping stone for us, getting beat by a veteran and smarter team than us. I don't want to say they were better than us talent-wise, but they most definitely played smarter than us, and that was the outcome of the series. We've just got to learn from it and be ready for next year and come back for it."

Rashard Lewis: 'They Had to Go Out There and Win the Game, It Wasn't Handed to Them' originally appeared on NBA FanHouse on Wed, 14 May 2008 04:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maxiell Explains His Motor: 'With My Size, I Got to Keep Moving'

Matt Watson — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Pistons, Magic, Eastern, NBA Playoffs, Detroit, FanHouse Interview

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.

MW: Howard obviously had a much better game this time around. Did they make any kind of adjustments or was it just them hitting their three pointers and opening things up a bit for him?

JM: Yeah, it opened up a little bit. Most of his points didn't come off running sets for him, they came off more of offensive rebounds, I think him putting the shot back up and converting free throws. They were pretty decent down there.

MW: You guys really put the clamp down in the second quarter. You only gave up 11 points. What can you attribute that to?

JM: I mean, just pretty much come out and doing our job defensively and knowing what they want to do and take it away.

MW: At the end of the last series, Thaddeus Young had a pretty entertaining quote about you. ... He said, Maxiell is crazy, he's crazy crazy. What do you think about that, that's a sign of respect, wouldn't you say?

JM: Yeah, to a certain degree. I guess with my size, I got to keep moving, going for offensive boards. They don't run plays for me, so the way for myself to score is to get to the board.

MW: Do you think you're catching people off guard?

JM: I really don't know. [Laughing] I don't know what they say about me.

Maxiell Explains His Motor: 'With My Size, I Got to Keep Moving' originally appeared on NBA FanHouse on Tue, 06 May 2008 08:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FanHouse Exclusive: Talking Trash and Strategy With Rashard Lewis

Matt Watson — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:50:00 EST

Filed under: Pistons, Magic, Eastern, NBA Gossip, NBA Playoffs, Detroit, The Word, FanHouse Interview

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.

MW: Do you think part of the reason you guys got away from that last game, is that because you guys saw lanes opening up, or did they throw you out of your rhythm, or was it maybe a combination of both?

RL: Oh, now, we were just playing basketball. Coach, he wanted us to penetrate the ball as much as possible and try to get in the teeth of their defense as well as try to get the ball into Dwight. But I think we were over-penetrating and passing up open shots and not shooting our normal shots that we usually take, and we've got to get the ball down low to Dwight a little bit more.

MW: Earlier this year, when DeShawn Stevenson was talking about LeBron James, LeBron countered with the Jay-Z/Soulja Boy thing, which escalated to Soulja Boy coming to the games and Jay-Z writing the song. Is this little thing between you and Theo, might that escalate?

RL: No, I doubt it very seriously. I'm a basketball player, I go out there to play basketball and not to trash talk. It was just something that he said and I responded to it. It wasn't nothing personal, it was just me being a man and responding to what he said. But at the same time, I'm not that type of player. I go out there to play basketball and try to win for my team and let the trash talk stay on their side.

MW: Are they doing a lot of talking?

RL: No, not necessarily, just the little comment Theo Ratliff made. It's just a part of the game - when you're out there playing in the heat of the moment you may say something to a referee or a player, but it's just a part of the game. Guys got to recognize that sometimes trash talking is a part of the game, it's nothing personal.

MW: What do you think you guys have to do to kind of prove that this last game was just a fluke and get back to what you guys were doing all year long?

RL: We got to come out and play basketball and we got to be in a better rhythm on the offensive end, move the ball around, get it inside to Dwight.

FanHouse Exclusive: Talking Trash and Strategy With Rashard Lewis originally appeared on NBA FanHouse on Mon, 05 May 2008 19:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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