"You and your crew is only known as good tryers."

-Chuck D

Every season, a surprise team wins more games than it's expected to because of pure effort.  After losing to this 'hustle' team, opponents usually say things like "they just played harder than we did" or "they just wanted it more."

This year's Good Tryer Award goes to Scotty Skiles' Bucks and Jerry Sloan's Jazz.  Playing against these teams, you better be ready to throw elbows and dive on the floor for loose balls because their entire gameplan is to outwork and frustrate you, by any means necessary.

One problem with 'hustle' teams, though- their advantage is completely negated once the postseason starts.  Why?  Because everyone plays hard in the postseason.

Remember Pat Riley's Heat?  Every year, they'd go balls to the wall for the entire regular season, getting in fights, playing dirty, scrapping for every single possession.  Then the playoffs started and they folded like a cheap tent because their intensity advantage wasn't there anymore.  I can still picture the normally mild-mannered Allan Houston sprinting the length of the floor and pumping his fist like a madman after nailing this runner in the lane to oust the top-seeded Heat.  If it were possible to read Houston's mind in that instant, I bet he was thinking something along the lines of "That's right, you grabbing, holding, elbowing, dirty motherlovers!  Allan Houston just got gangster on your butts!"  I omitted the profanity because, you know, it's Allan Houston.  Dude probably orders milk in a whiskey bar.

So what causes this disparity in effort?  The obvious problem is that the NBA season is way too long.  And half the league is usually eliminated from contention by the All-Star break.  So if you're suiting up for the Wizards, Wolves or Kings these days and you're making a stop in Utah or Milwaukee at the end of a long road trip, you might be tempted to just phone it in.  When Carlos Boozer targets your surgically repaired shoulder, you might just roll over and quit.  Why bother, right?  You're tired, the games are basically meaningless, you just want the season to be over so you can see your family for the first time in six months, and this roid-munching douche is trying to injure you to win a game you care nothing about.

And fouling?  Ridiculous.  Utah actively fouls early and often so they can get away with more fouling later.  They dictate a rough game to the refs, basically daring them to blow the whistle on every possession and then complaining about it vociferously if they do.  That famous home court advantage in Salt Lake?  It all hinges on this principle.  Refs don't want twelve thousand angry white people booing them for stopping the game every thirty seconds.

Personally, I looooove seeing these scrappy teams bite the dust.  Basketball's a game of talent, speed, coordination and grace.  The league implemented rules (no hand checking, no holding the ball forever in the post) specifically to free the game up and stop this drudgery and for the most part, it's worked.  But then you've got the 'hustle' teams, always trying to slow the game down, take the air out of the ball.  And it's horrible to watch.  Boring as hell.  A parade to the FT line.

Now I'm not saying every team should play Nellie Ball where defense is a bad word and the shot clock is useless but the grab/hold/flop thing is tired.  Clean up the game, coaches.  Nobody wants to see that shit.

Pictured: Boozer's idea of making a play on the ball

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