INDIANAPOLIS – A first half like Jalen Rose endured last night could be the end of a beautiful friendship.
See, Rose and Knick Latrell Sprewell are friends, having met through a mutual friend, Chris Webber, a former teammate of both. Sprewell and Webber were teammates at Golden State. Rose and Webber, of course, were part of Michigan’s Fab Five.
“Me and Sprewell are friends,” explained Rose, who finished with 17 points, all in the second half, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. “We’ve been friends since Golden State drafted Chris Webber. I went out there that summer. Me and Chris are the best of friends and we became friends as they became teammates. We have a lot of respect for each other on and off the floor but once we get out there on the floor, none of that will matter.”
Rose probably was wishing Sprewell never left Golden State at the outset of the Pacers’ 102-88 victory at Conseco Fieldhouse here. While Sprewell was so very instrumental in much of the offense the Knicks generated early, scoring 13 points by the break, Rose was the skeleton cousin in Indiana’s offensive closet in the first half. While the Pacers were romping to a 19-point lead (OK, they squandered it away), Rose couldn’t find the basket with an open lane and a road map. He went 0-of-5 before finding redemption in the second half.
Rose hit 4 of 5 shots in the third quarter, then banged home a big 3-pointer early in the fourth, at 10:15, to push the Pacers back ahead 81-72. Moments later, he slipped a pretty pass inside to Dale Davis for a score that made it 85-74. And Rose slipped the dagger into the Knicks’ gut with a little baseline jumper 5:42 from the end to push Indy back up by 16, 90-74.
Yeah, but 0-of-5 in the first half? Especially when Larry Bird stressed repeatedly the importance of a fast – and smart – Rose start?
“The Knicks are a team that does a lot of homework,” explained Rose, who finished the night shooting 7-of-19. “They get great coaching. They like to run me. Obviously, I have to do a better job. I’ve had success in the playoffs and the regular season. I’m going to just go play and not get caught up in, ‘Jalen Rose scores 30 or 40.’ I’m going to get caught up in whether the Pacers win the game.”