Cool As A Cucumber Stuckey Playing Like A Playoff Veteran

I'm beginning to think that if you slice Rodney Stuckey open, you could use the contents that spills out as a refreshing drink. Ice water.

Stuckey was fearless yesterday in the Pistons' series-squaring 103-97 win over the Celtics in Boston in the NBA's Final Four. Never was it more apparent than in the fourth quarter.


The Pistons' Ice Cube: Rodney Stuckey


Stuckey stuck jumpers -- tossing well-aimed daggers into the belly of the playoff beast -- with the calm and confidence of a ten-year veteran. And they were big jumpers -- the kind that muzzle crowds and keep that 400-pound gorilla, aka momentum, from shifting into the other direction. Tape over the jersey number and you'd have thought No. 1, Chauncey Billups, was draining those shots. You know, Mr. Big Shot himself.

But it was Stuckey, and the axiom that says a rookie isn't really a rookie by this point of the season has never been more true when it comes to the, ahem, rookie guard from someplace called Eastern Washington. In fact, I'd say Stuckey has not only shed the traditional rookie label, he's somewhere in the middle of his third season, the way he's been playing in this year's playoffs. Never before -- not even during the title run of 2004 -- have the Pistons had the luxury of entrusting crucial playoff minutes at point guard in the hands of anyone other than Billups, Lindsey Hunter excepted. Yet Stuckey has thrived this post-season, competently running the team and deftly seeking his shot when it's appropriate. Oh, and sticking those 18-to-20 foot jumpers when it's needed, too.

Rodney Stuckey is not why the Pistons beat the Celtics last night, stealing home court into the Boston night. But his on-court presence has yet to be why they've lost -- which is just as good.

Lemieux The Reason We Don't Say "Kansas City Penguins"

There wasn't much to like about the Pittsburgh Penguins, much less love, when Mario Lemieux joined them in 1984. They were a 17-year-old franchise with a history that mirrored that of a 17-year-old kid: growing pains, some Terrible Twos, a period of petulance, followed by maddening apathy. Its parents wondered when it was going to quit being lazy and do something with its life. Once, the team was even given a 3-0 series lead in the playoffs and managed to fritter it away like an allowance.

Then along came Lemieux, and the Penguins were relevant again. They grew up, and married the Stanley Cup in 1991, at the age of 24. Pretty much on schedule. They had a second honeymoon with the Cup a year later.

Lemieux saved the Penguins franchise back then, and he saved it again, nine years ago, when there were whispers that the Pens, having cash flow problems and deep in debt, would relocate. But Mario Lemieux, cancer survivor and Mr. Pittsburgh Hockey, would have none of it. He wasn't going to allow his franchise to move after already once bringing it back from the brink. So he did what most of us would do, if we had the dough: he bought the team.


Pittsburgh hockey -- past, present and future; Lemieux is both of the first two; Crosby is both of the second two


Lemieux, into his first retirement as a player, became owner in the fall of 1999, only after insisting that all the creditors to which the Penguins owed cash, were paid in full. He also vowed that the team would never leave Pittsburgh.

Then he came back a couple years later and played some more, hanging on until halfway thru Sidney Crosby's rookie season -- retiring for good in January 2006. And by that time those Penguins-to-relocate winds had started to blow again. And again Lemieux rode to the rescue.

In 2003, the team was back to its pre-Lemieux ways of losing in bunches, and attendance was plummeting. It was said that the good folks of the midwest, in Kansas City, were ready to welcome the Penguins with open arms -- should there be a breakup in Pittsburgh. But Lemieux again ensured that the Penguins would never leave. He acknowledged putting the team up for sale, but only with the proviso that it remain in Pennsylvania. There was no way Mario Lemieux would let his hockey team move to Missouri, to a town that had tried and failed once already as an NHL entity.

Should the Penguins somehow upset the Red Wings in the Finals, Lemieux will have pulled off quite a trifecta: winning the Cup as a player, buying the team, and then winning the Cup as its owner.

Mario Lemieux is why there's hockey in Pittsburgh. It was true in 1984, and it's even more so today.

Thursday's Things

(on most Thursdays at OOB, I rant in list fashion. Last week it was Things I Remember Most About The Pistons-Celtics Playoff Rivalry Of The Late-1980s, Early-1990s)

Things I Think Of When I Think Of The Pittsburgh Penguins

1. That their colors used to be blue and white before changing them -- in mid-season -- to black and gold in response to the Steelers and Pirates' championships of 1979

2. That for some reason I know that Gordie Howe scored his 700th goal in Pittsburgh -- even though I was too young to remember it

3. That they are one of the two NHL teams that blew a 3-0 series lead (in 1975 against the Islanders)

4. That they're yet another one of Scotty Bowman's Cup-winning teams (1992); Larry Murphy, too.

5. That not too long ago it looked like they'd be kicked out of Pittsburgh due to poor teams and a stalemate over a new arena

6. That TV analyst Eddie Olcyzk once coached them, B.C. -- Before Crosby

7. That the throwback sweaters they wore in Buffalo for that game played outside were awesome



8. Their TV announcer, Mike Lang, and his colorful calls of goals, i.e. "He beat him like a rented mule!"

9. That the Civic Arena was once known as The Igloo for several years

10. That I have an early-1990s Pens jersey with my name on the back -- because I have a thing for penguins (I collect penguin stuff)

11. Mario Lemieux

12. Ken Schinkel (don't ask me why; I always thought the former Penguin player and coach of the 1970s had a cool name)

Pistons' Goal: Make Celtics Play Their 1st Series Of '08 Playoffs

The Boston Celtics are the first team to reach the conference finals without having played even one series on the way there. Pretty slick, huh?

Oh, I know the record books will show otherwise. There it is, forever captured for posterity: Celtics 4, Hawks 3. Celtics 4, Cavaliers 3. But neither of these were series.

It's been said that a best-of-seven series doesn't really get going until a road team captures a game. Not a bad notion, really. The games definitely seem to ratchet up in pressure when a favorite has to scramble to win home court back. The Celtics have yet to have to do that; then again, they've yet to win on the road. But that's why you go out and win more games than anyone else in the league -- to afford to go winless on the road. As long as you TCB at home. History says, though, that sooner or later the Celtics will have to actually play a playoff series before they entertain thoughts of hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

The Pistons are just the team to force the Celtics into a series.

They didn't do it last night -- didn't really come close, actually -- falling to Boston, 88-79 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. But, with all due disrespect to the Atlanta Hawks and none to the Cleveland LeBrons, the Celtics aren't playing a tune-up any longer. The Pistons, despite last night's hiccup, aren't likely to go 0-for-4 in Boston. Which means the Celtics have to figure out a way to win a road game in the post-season (they're 0-6 so far), and you could pick some easier places to do that than in Detroit.

The Pistons lost at home to Boston way back in the wintertime, but that was mainly due to the out-of-the-blue contribution from rookie Glenn Davis, who has been relegated to spot duty in the playoffs. And, as far as that goes, the Pistons snatched a game in Boston in January.

But the Pistons won't make it a real series with Rasheed Wallace continuing his confounding tendency to go into hiding at the most inopportune moments. Sheed was sheet in Game 1, and it's anybody's guess why. Sometimes I think the world of Rasheed Wallace is a world that none of us have ever inhabited. Which is fine, except that in that world, something obviously grabs his attention more than the task at hand on the basketball court -- you know, in our little place called the real world. I won't regurgitate Wallace's numbers here because I'm sure you'd rather not sneer at your computer, but let's just say that it's also just as likely that Game 2's Wallace numbers will dwarf Game 1's. Because Sheed's World Order rarely allows two sub-par performances in a row. So that's good.

Oh, and Boston's Ray Allen still isn't off the dime yet. He went 3-for-9 last night, his shooting woes continuing. Chasing Rip Hamilton around isn't exactly the tonic to fix that, either -- despite Rip's rather quiet presence last night.

This Eastern final isn't a series yet. Chances are that it may not become one until Game 7. But the Pistons will take 1-for-4 in Beantown, because they're a good bet to go 3-for-3 in Detroit. Even I know that adds up to four.

OOB At The Cup Finals

Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings on their 23rd appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. Out of Bounds will be making its first.

Thanks to my gig at SET Magazine, I'll be attending the Finals games in Detroit. So I'll provide you with some behind-the-scenes stuff. First report will be filed next Sunday or Monday.