The idea behind Wallace, Okur, Campbell > Nesterovic, Duncan, Rose, Willis is a simple one: with the Spurs line-up of big men, you're getting ONE LOOK - low-post to midrange. You're not seeing good pick-and-roll type players in San An. You're not seeing 3-point threats at center in San An. The idea here is to make Shaq work at doing different things rather than allowing him to settle in and play one style of game. Historically, Shaq has never been one of the most adaptable players.
Likewise, no team has ever really said, "We want to go strong directly at Shaq." Most teams avoid O'Neal rather than taking the game directly at him.
Face it - there are only two times when Shaq is ineffective: 1) when he's on the bench instead of in the game, and 2) when he's playing half-@$$ed. The only ways to get Jackson to bench Shaq is to get Shaq in foul trouble - which means you have to attack him, or get him ejected for doing something stupid - which means you have to attack him. And the only ways you can get Shaq to play half-@$$ed are 1) make him upset with his teammates, or 2) make the series uncompetitive. Since doing the 2nd would cause you to lose the series, that's probably a good one to rule out as a strategy.
If I'm Shaq's opponent, I want Shaq running his mouth about how bad those teammates that get him the ball are, and how he's the man and the other players are just kids on the playground. I want Shaq concentrating on feeding his ego rather than on beating my team. And when I'm on the court, I'm going to prod Shaq about it - "When are they gonna swing it to you? How long has it been since they've run a play for you?"
If Shaq goes for 30 and 15, this series is over. And Detroit doesn't have anyone that can keep Shaq from going for 30 and 15. So you have to make sure that LA doesn't go to Shaq, because he won't work himself into someone else's game, but rely on them to come to him. In this case, if Mohammad doesn't go to the mountain, the mountain is going to whine about it instead of going to Mohammad.
I want to see Shaq try to step in and draw a charge. Oh, sure, it's going to hurt me...but if winning isn't worth some pain, why play?
You don't attack Shaq for what he isn't - we've seen over and over that that doesn't work, and I see no reason to believe it would work this time; you attack him with what he *IS*. No one has tried that. It won't work in the regular season, because you play a team one night and you're gone the next.
And this strategy won't work in Game 1...you've got to let the damage be done in the Laker locker room, and that's going to take a game.
Think of it this way: the Pistons, in my opinion, have only one advantage over the Lakers' key players: DISCIPLINE. The Laker role players have discipline...and Karl Malone has significant discipline. But Shaq, Payton, and Kobe aren't disciplined players. Therefore, the only way Detroit can win is to play the game so that the more displined team has the most advantages.
Don't play the game - play the human factor.
Joe
