We put the "series" in NBA Live Series Center

[Matthew]

In a new idea, Myself and Andrew are playing each other in a best of 7 series online. To determine homecourt, we had a best of 5. I won 3-1. Therefore The Knicks recieved homcourt. The sliders and rosters are default, games are played on EASO, and the qarters are 5 minutes long.

Onto to the game report!


The Knicks and Bulls both came out quite tentative defensively, with Marbury and Gordon getting into the lane with relative ease. The Bulls started to show some signs of dominance with their big men, which forced Coach Damian to bring in Tim Thomas and Rookie Channing Frye to patrol the lanes. The Bulls led 17-12 after one. The second quarter was back and fourth with Marbury continuing to abuse Hinrich. The Bulls began swarming marbury when he pentrated which opened up things for Jamal Crawford and Tim Thomas, but the Bulls still led 32-30 at the half

The Knicks came out strong in the 3rd quarter, but may have exposed their trump card too early. Marbury became a distributer and fed Richardson, Crawford and Thomas for easy baskets all quarter. The Bulls looked rattled and The Knicks took a 5 point lead into the fourth quarter.

The Bulls looked to be on the ropes, until Coach Begley brought in veteran Eric Piakowski who hit two clutch 3's and put New York back on their heels. Tim Thomas and Marbury were desperate to keep the Knicks in the game, but Crawford and Richardson disappeared. Chicago almost blew the game from the free throw line as Kirk Hinrich missed three of his last four attempts from the charity stripe. Thomas cut the deficit to two with a three from the corner but the Bulls were able to clinch the win as Tyson Chandler and Hinrich both split a pair of free throws to extend the lead to the final margin of 68-64.

Eddy Curry was Player of the game. Post game press conferences from both coaches will be comming up soon.

[Scotty]

What was Eddy Curry's end of game stats?

[Matthew]

End of game press conference (questions in red, responses in normal font)

Coach Damian enters the room

How would you rate your team's play in the fourth quarter?

Lack of execution. The team was out there trying and playing hard, but there was no sense of urgancy. To blow a 5 point lead in the fourth quarter was unacceptable. Tim Thomas seemed to be the only player out there to realise the peril we were in. We need to figure out a way to get consistant stops in the fourth quarter, and to execute our offense without Stephon having to go one on one all game.

How do you expect Stephon to respond to this game?

I expect Stephon to play smarter. He seemed out of control at times. He has such an advantage over Hinrich, he can get whatever he wants against him. He needs to learn how to pick and choose his spots.

Can you guys win with Stephon scoring at will?

No. We need Quentin and Jamal to be productive for us to have a chance. We were only in this game thanks to an outstanding performance by Tim

Who impressed you the most on the Bulls tonight?

Ben Gordon played great, but its important to remember Jamal has requested us to not to help out on him, to restrict the rest of the Bulls production. Its important to remember that when comparing Stephon to Gordon. Stephon is taking on the entire Bulls defense, Gordon is taking on single coverage

How important is the home court in this series? Do you think it will be a factor?

Not really. In the regular season we won in Chicago. Tonight you saw the Bulls win here. It's an advantage that we earned, but I dont think it helps either team greatly.

Tonight was a real up and down battle. Do you expect the rest of the series to be the same way?

Absolutely. Both teams are so equal.


Coach Begley now enters the room.

Great game Coach Begley. I think the turning point was the insertion of Pike in the fourth quarter. Was that a planned move, and is it somthing we can expect to happen in this series more often?

I know Pike is capable of great performances after he scored 30 points in the second half of a game against the Rockets last year. I see Pike as more of an energy guy but I think I might have to give him a bit more time after tonight. He really bailed us out.

Do you think the Knicks came out a bit tight tonight? They missed alot of makeable shots, especially down the stretch.

Stephon certainly lost a bit of steam in the second half and they missed a few easy shots, but I feel our defense contributed to some of them. They had us on the ropes for some time, we got a little sloppy as the game wore on so I feel lucky to have pulled out the win, and very proud of the guys for hanging in there and digging deep.

Your team certainly did well in help defense on Marbury. Do you plan on playing him the same way if his teamates start making shots

We'll have to make adjustments. We were fortunate that the rest of the Knicks were a bit quiet. I know we'll have to keep our eyes on Marbury but we won't be forgetting about the rest of the Knicks, especially if Q starts feeling it from the outside. That's the problem with New York, they have a few outside threats so we're going to have to be ready for all of them.

Tyson Chandler and Luol Deng were extremely quiet in the game. Any cuase for concerns there?

A little. I thought Tyson would be more active on the boards. I think we'll need to do more to get the other guys involved, I'd prefer a much more balanced attack. But Ben was awesome for us tonight, he carried the load.

How will you be apporaching game 2?

I expect the Knicks to bring it to us, so we need to be ready. We've drawn first blood which is great, but we need three more so we're just going to take this one game at a time.

can you see you guys sweeping if you win game 2?

I guess it's a possibility, and I have confidence in my guys. But these two teams are too evenly matched to make that kind of guarantee so early in the series...the last thing we need to do at this point is underestimate them. I know Coach Damian too well to think he's going to tell his troops to lay down their arms.

Good luck in game 2, coach.

Thanks

[Drex]

LMAO, that was a great read

[sucram]

lol..look forward to game 2! btw... did you purposely forget the curry/thomas transaction?

[cyanide]

Quite an entertaining read. Did Andrew really make those replies, or did you make it all up, Matthew?

[Andrew]

No no, those are my answers. We both assumed the roles of the reporters and answered each others questions.

[shadowgrin]

Do the Curry trade. This series will be interesting.

[Andrew]

We're playing on EASO, so we have to use the default rosters.

[Jing]

wow this is a sweet idea.

[Randiesel]

EASO supposedly uses the home team's default rosters, so patch yours to default and it will use them online. (havent played in a few days, may have been fixed)

[Scotty]

Bring on game 2

[Raptors2004]

Hey guys - what slider options are available to be tweeked during online or ip to ip games? I notice not all the same game options are available for humanvshuman games compared to human vs pc

[R.J.]

Will another game be played soon? Looking for an update.

[Andrew]

Soon. Time hasn't been my friend lately.

[R.J.]

No rush.

[trecenters]

Anyone get bored but tired of actually playing the game.

Then just put it on simulation and leave the user controller inbetween teams and watch the CPU battle its self?

Its pretty cool at times. I only do it if im listening to music. Pretty boren by its self.

[KingLeBron]

I did when I still had 04.

[Cloudy]

Nahh, I just can't stand the stupidity of the computer. Kobe had Boykins on him, and he's not penetrating to the hoop... He dribbles dribbles dribbles, uh oh... 2 left of shot clock.. A stupid 3 from far behind...

[Jing]

Anyone get bored but tired of actually playing the game.

Then just put it on simulation and leave the user controller inbetween teams and watch the CPU battle its self?

Its pretty cool at times. I only do it if im listening to music. Pretty boren by its self.

yeah did that a couple times during semester. let game play when i do some work

[Maize]

Nahh, I just can't stand the stupidity of the computer. Kobe had Boykins on him, and he's not penetrating to the hoop... He dribbles dribbles dribbles, uh oh... 2 left of shot clock.. A stupid 3 from far behind...

Of course, Kobe in real life does that too sometimes. Fadeaway threes at the buzzer.

[Avrah3]

You forgot to metion he hits them.

[joejam999]

You forgot to metion he hits them.

You forgot to metion he is a ball hog and only wins because the refs bail him out.

[unholypotato]

BULLS, play JANNERO PARGO!