Pivot pivoted, prospective pivot to pivot
Love a pivot, a fork in the road, a turning point, a Game 5. Or a Game 3, back when these things were five games.
Reminded recently of the way the No. 8-seeded Houston Rockets dragged the Finals-bound 1998 Utah Jazz to five games in the first round before prevailing. The Rockets were up ten points on the Jazz in Game 4's second quarter when Charles Barkley went up for a strong move and score. A dozen-point lead, but Barkley tore his triceps and the Jazz rolled from there, won the series. Gross.
Houston won that series' pivotal Game 3 but in a five-game and 2-2-1 series, the pivotal Game 3 takes place at the lower-seeded team's building. Can a game be "pivotal" if placed in the usurper's home?
It was this paradox, and not TV and gate receipts, that led the NBA to move to a seven-game series in whatever year Tracy McGrady says that was.
The Spurs won the pivotal Game 5 on Tuesday and the Pistons expect to do the same in Detroit on Wednesday night. The Western pairing we've seen before, the second and third-best teams bashing heads while the top seed lounges at home. The Eastern matchup is a classic, cannot-turn-a-corner, stalemate.
Cleveland can't win on the road if the other team is too good, Detroit only wins on the road if it is threatened with not being able to play anymore, as was the case in Game 6 in Orlando.
Each are 1-0 in pivotal performances through these 2026 playoffs. Either could drop Game 5, move to 1-1 in pivotal games, still win the Eastern semis.
The only way either earn a chance to move back over .500 in pivotals is if the New York Knicks forget how to shoot basketballs over what should be an eight-day lounge-off, and the Pistons or Cavs somehow split the first four contests of the 2026 Eastern finals with New York.
