The cool factor

Late in Friday night's Game 2 of the NBA Finals, Allen Iverson had a chance to cut a five-point Laker lead down to three at the foul line. With his 76er teammates once again withstanding a Shaq and Kobe barrage and lurking within striking distance in the final minutes, Iverson positively bubbled over with all the excitement of a schoolboy after the last day of class.

Iverson knew he had a chance to help his team mount a late rally that, if successful, would have put the Sixers up two games to none.

Admittedly, such a thought would make just about anybody go wild with delight and excitement. Then again, Allen Iverson isn't just about anybody. He is the star, the man, even while Philadelphia's tremendous effort and team defense have done much to get the Sixers where they are.

As the newly mature focal point of the Sixers, Iverson knows that Philly's chances in the Finals, while in need of big shots from role players, ultimately begin and end with him. For this reason, Iverson should have reined in his excitement at the free throw line in the Staples Center and, like all great players, channeled it into a more effective performance.

Instead, the keyed-up Iverson missed both free throws, giving him a baffling and befuddling o-fer at the free throw line in four attempts. When the Sixers trimmed the Laker lead to three points one sequence later, it could have been said -- although such a rationalization sometimes rings hollow -- that if Iverson had nailed all of his free throws, the Sixers would have led. To be fairer to Iverson, this much could have been said: if Iverson had made the two free throws in the final minutes, the Sixers would have been down by just one, putting an extra amount of pressure on every Laker shooter.

In Game 2 on Friday, the whole Sixer team -- and Iverson in particular -- left a lot of points at the free throw line, just as Shaq did in the Lakers' Game 1 loss. It can never be repeated too much that championship basketball, after all the Xs and Os fade away, is simply about making clutch shots. Such an exercise requires confidence tempered by calmness.

Unchecked confidence, not accompanied by any kind of discernment process, leads to bad shots and can often be a detriment to team goals. On the other hand, confident shooters who are still able to pick their spots become that much more effective because they are thinking not of the successful result itself, but of the things they have to do to achieve it. And so it is with free throw shooting as well as jump shooting. Just being confident won't do it all; sound mechanics and an attention to detail will result in made foul attempts.

Fast forward to Sunday's Game 3 of the Finals. With a chance to tie the game at the line in the final minutes, there was Iverson, as excited as one could possibly be in front of a raucous home crowd.

Once again, Iverson missed, and the Sixers, who had been nipping at the Lakers' heels throughout the fourth quarter, could never tie the game. If they had, the pressure would have tightened a little more on the Lakers, perhaps enough to give Philly a subtle psychological edge.

While Iverson couldn't keep himself calm, L.A.'s Robert Horry certainly did. Displaying the inside-outside balance and shooting consistency that defined his years with the world champion Houston Rockets in 1994 and '95, Horry became the difference in the crucial swing game of the series. While Kobe Bryant soared for 32 points, most of them in a breakout second quarter, it was Horry who carried the day for the Lakers in the fourth quarter, and especially after Shaquille O'Neal fouled out with 2:21 left.

Left open for a left-corner three with 47 seconds left, Horry nailed the very shot that Philly's Aaron McKie couldn't hit at the other end a few sequences earlier (and with the Sixers trailing by just two, 84-82). Horry's bomb gave the Lakers a 92-88 lead and guided L.A. into the somewhat safer territory of a free-throw shooting contest; in other words, the Sixers couldn't just play defense, get a stop, and try to win the game. L.A. had to miss, and with cool customers like Horry, the Lakers didn't.

As a postscript to his lack of calm in clutch situations, Iverson -- subdued after the Lakers took a four-point lead in the final minute -- made all three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt with 27.6 seconds left. Philly fans can only hope that the next time Iverson shoots free throws with a chance to tie or go ahead (and when Aaron McKie shoots a three with his team trailing by two, as was the case with his left-corner launch on Sunday), he'll calm himself down and do what it takes to achieve a better result.

It's a time-worn truism, but its value won't soon decrease: the mark of a championship team is that it hits threes when down two, not four; that it hits two-pointers when down one, not three. If the Sixers don't add some cool to their admirably fiery effort, their title hopes will get doused, and the Lakers might not even need to clinch the series back in sunny California.