Saturday, October 23, 2004
More Xbox Live action! I picked up NBA Live the other day and had a crazy game with Mukund. A brief Lakers rant first: Oh my god the 2004/2005 Lakers suck. They are so bad it's unreal. Lamar Odom is rubbish (seriously, he can't hit a shot). Caron Butler is rubbish. Brian Grant is rubbish-er. Vlade Divac is near useless, which perversely makes him the second best player on the team. And Kobe is pretty damned good and pretty damned clutch (dunno if there's actually a stat for it, but he seems to come up big late). But Kobe is just one guy, and he's not God -- he does miss shots. Which leaves me with a very big problem. I'm a Laker guy. Not being the Lakers hurts me inside. So I had to be them, and I got pasted by Muk (Sacramento Kings) in the first game before he disconnected. I just had no options anywhere except Kobe.
So, I gave in. I picked a team other than the Lakers. And I went with the obvious choice: Shaquille O'Neal and the Miami Heat. And despite giving up almost 10 points in ratings to Muk (the Heat are rated 83, Lakers 88, Kings 92) it was the perfect fit for me. I had the most dominant inside presence possible with Shaq. I had a good outside threat with Eddie Jones. I had a slasher with Dwyane Wade. And I had two decent role players in Christian Laettner and Rasuol Butler. I say again: I'm a Laker fan. I live and breathe the Lakers. It knaws at my conscience to be someone other than the Lakers. But I had to do it, and it worked.
I was down by 6-7 points early, but no panic: I was getting into the groove, Eddie Jones was doing well on the fast break, Shaq was huge inside, and Wade was making some highlight reel plays. But every time I cut the gap down to a point or two, Muk would suddenly reel away and start a scoring binge to get the lead up to 12 points. The main problem was I kept fouling him and he kept making free throws... but when he fouled me, I kept missing mine.
Roll on the fourth quarter. The game's getting tight. And then things start happening. Muk starts missing easy jumpers. He starts making stupid plays (getting called for charging and three-in-the-key). Shaq starts making blocks. Eddie Jones hits a pair of HUGE threes. Wade slashes inside for monster dunks. And Laettner hits some clutch jumpers. While the Kings start choking and frittering away a 12 point lead (I'm starting to think the clutch stat is real, and as in reality the Kings score a solid 0 on it). And what do you know? With two minutes left, it's a one point game. At this point, we're going nuts. Muk is standing up. I'm screaming with every play (it's 4am, remember). We're trading blows. Peja hits a three. Wade gets a layup and foul for a three point play. Shaq rejects Brad Miller. Miller blocks Laettner. It's end to end stuff. And then Muk gets desperate and starts intentionally fouling me. I couldn't believe it -- he's using Hack-a-Shaq not on Shaq himself, but on ANYONE because he knows I can't make a free throw to save my life. Except now I dial up my own clutch meter and I start making free throws, much to my relief and his annoyance.
20 seconds left now and the Heat are up 65-64. Muk calls a time out (as you do to advance past half-court) and inbounds to Miller. I figured he'd use all the time available, but instead Miller finds good position and hits a jumper with 13 seconds left. So I call time and quickly inbound it to Wade. I know I could give it to Shaq, or Eddie, but I was worried about Hack-a-Shaq. So I figured there was only one play to run: Wade driving to the hoop. I waste time, waste time... then a quick crossover and Wade drives hard to the hoop, Miller and Webber move over to block him, Wade goes up, gets contact, throws up the layup and nails it. Miami up 67-66 with 2.6 seconds left. Muk grabs the ball, hits the time out button, and...
TECHNICAL FOUL.
MIAMI BALL.
He had no time outs left. HE HAD NO FREAKING TIME OUTS LEFT! He obviously totally forgot (and in fairness, so did I) and gave up the last possession of the game to me. I kept it, time ran out, and the Heat squeaked it 67-66.
And I still can't believe he used Hack-a-Shaq against me.
Posted at 6:40 AM
