Just Quit Whining and Play Basketball

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Auburn Hills, Mich - Although the outcome of their first-round playoff series against Detroit is as inevitable as a $50 fill-up, there are a couple of things the Milwaukee Bucks can do to maintain their dignity and, who knows, maybe even win a game or two.

They've got to stop whining about the officiating.

And if they don't like the Pistons' physical play, then shut up and try to match it.

It was disappointing, really, to hear the Bucks complain about Detroit's clutch-and-grab defensive style after just one game. After all, the Bucks are a playoff team. It is time for them, beginning tonight in Game 2, to can the whine and act the part.

It's been a couple of years since they've been on this elevated stage, but surely the Bucks recall that playoff basketball is different from regular-season basketball. It contracts to the half-court. Referees tend to allow more because it is time to let the players to determine the results. And certainly they know that the Pistons are all about physicality and aggression, anyway.

There is but one solution, and that is to get tougher because these, after all, are the playoffs.

They say that Rip Hamilton is holding Michael Redd, who got off only 15 shots and failed to score from the outside in Game 1, save for a running 12-footer in the beginning of the game? Then it is time for Redd, with the help of his teammates, to fulfill his role as a maximum-contract player and rise above it. It does not help when coach Terry Stotts makes a point of the Pistons' tactics as he did Monday, and again at least three times Tuesday. Because Detroit did not play particularly well Sunday, the Bucks are only poking a metaphorical stick into the figurative hornets' nest.

You can imagine how Stotts' comments played Tuesday at the Pistons' practice facility.

"Rip has become 6-7, 250 pounds," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said.

The Pistons can afford to be, ahem, flip because they're dealing from a serious position of strength. But they also have a point when it comes to the Bucks' complaint about the 34-10 free-throw discrepancy in Game 1. Both teams fouled about as much Sunday night as they did on average during the regular season. The Pistons claim they haven't changed, and to an extent that is true.

"Hey, we're just playing, man," Rasheed Wallace said. "Ain't got nothing to do with being extra physical. That's the way we've been playing all year."

But they did alter their defense against Redd, who averaged 30 points against the Pistons during the season, by running two extra defenders at him.

"Do we play hard? Yeah, we play hard," said Saunders. "Did Rip do a good job? Yeah. But the one thing that was different from the games before was that we gave no weak-side help off of Redd. He wasn't going to have as much breathing room.

"Hey, listen. They played hard, too. They were holding Rip, too. It was not like Rip was open all over the place. That's the way the game is going to be played. What has to happen is players have to adjust to those situations."</div>

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