PHILADELPHIA VS. TORONTO MILWAUKEE VS. CHARLOTTE SAN ANTONIO VS. DALLAS L.A. LAKERS VS. SACRAMENTO

Wednesday, May 30 East Final Four remains very up in the air By Jeffrey Denberg Special to ESPN.com To paraphrase C.D. Stengel, circa 1962: Can't anybody play this game -- at least well enough to win the East? Ray Allen has helped the Bucks to a 2-0 series lead, but it's not a safe lead. A few nights into the semifinals, why would you think so. Certainly, the recently "improved" Philadelphia 76ers are not playing like a dominant No. 1 seed. In winning twice at home against Charlotte, Milwaukee has only succeeded in showing itself vulnerable. While the Lakers and Spurs go about their business with no-nonsense resolution, the alleged two best teams in the East only mirror what fans have seen all season -- broad mediocrity. The 76ers gave away the first game of their series with Indiana after rolling up an 18-point lead and losing interest. They gave away the first game of their series with Toronto, entering the game without apparent interest and running out of rally time. To beat the Raptors Wednesday night Allen Iverson had to make 21 of his team's 34 baskets. He scored 54 of 97 points because Lenny Wilkens wouldn't double him. Makes sense. If you never doubled Michael Jordan, why would you put two guys on little Iverson? The Bucks, meanwhile, try to give it away. They squandered a 22-point lead in their opening game with Charlotte and had to step on the gas in Game 1. In Game 2, Milwaukee led by 16 and then went into one of those mysterious slumps that allowed the Hornets to get within a point, 27 seconds to go. That's when the Hornets committed an unpardonable gaffe. They led the Bucks run out the clock. “ It was just a miscommunication. Derrick apparently told the official that he had to go to the locker room, but he didn't indicate that to us, and the trainer didn't know, so we got caught with four men on the floor. ” — Paul Silas on the Coleman incident So that begs the question of how much better the Bucks are, even with a 2-0 series lead. Certainly, nothing that happened on the court in the first games suggests the series will not go back to Milwaukee tied at 2-2. The Bucks are not big enough to control the boards. They are not consistent enough defensively to put down a run. They are too reliant on long shots and there is evidence that Glenn Robinson, shooting .358 in the playoffs, is having problems. "He's hurting a little bit," teammate Sam Cassell said. "He's not talking about it. He shouldn't talk about it. He's been having a little problem with his legs but he's still out there putting forth the effort. People don't see that. I see it." Robinson Cassell, meanwhile, has had a little imbroglio with his coach. How dare George Karl suggest that his point guard shoot less and pass more often. "Tell George to put the uniform on," Cassell said sweetly on Monday. "I'm going to do what I have to do to make this team successful. George is George. Whatever he expects, he can expect. I'm going to be me all day." That final frantic scene on Tuesday -- the ball being batted around at the Hornets' end of the court -- speaks to the futility of this game for Charlotte, but the lingering picture, perhaps the epitaph of a long career of underachievement, evoking memories of Roberto Duran's "no mas," will be of Derrick Coleman walking off the court to the locker room with 8:31 to play, his team down 11 and leaving only four other Hornets in the game. Coleman Coleman was hurt, only there is no hard evidence he told anyone on his own bench he was leaving before he elected to take a hike. "It was just a miscommunication," coach Paul Silas said. "Derrick apparently told the official that he had to go to the locker room, but he didn't indicate that to us, and the trainer didn't know, so we got caught with four men on the floor." Coleman had a hard fall after being fouled with 10:18 left, but he had continued to play. He said later that he told both trainer Terry Kofler and referee Danny Crawford that he could not continue. "It's plain and simple," Coleman said. "When I left the game, Danny Crawford was standing right there and I told him I wasn't able to continue, and then when I got to the locker room I saw Ray Allen shooting the technical foul, so I didn't know what happened. Maybe it was a lack of communication. You've got a veteran official right there. I was sure somebody would stop the game and say, 'You need a sub' or something like that." Asked why he didn't tell anybody on the Hornets' bench, Coleman replied: "I told the trainer. I was never planning to go back in the game. It was just a lack of communication." On whose part? Brown P.J. Brown, who in bounded the ball, vowed, "We'll get to the bottom of this, I'll promise you that. Obviously, I wouldn't have thrown the ball in if I had known he was walking off the court. I guess I'll have to be like a punter and count to make sure everybody's in the game from now on." By the way, Coleman was the only Charlotte player who elected not to wear the team's unity head band. As they have most of the season, the Hornets were better without him. When Brown scored with 27.2 seconds left to make it 91-90, plenty of time left. Plus, they had a foul to give, meaning they had to commit two personals to put the Bucks on the line where a pair of free throws would still leave Charlotte with a chance to tie. Instead, the Hornets, dedicated to getting the ball out of Ray Allen's hands, allowed the Bucks to control the game inside six seconds. Robinson shot and missed. Ervin Johnson batted the rebound. Tic-tic-tic. Game over. Silas in the post-game interview appeared stricken. He claimed his players followed a defensive strategy that would have given them about three seconds to win the game had they recovered the rebound. "We had time I felt," Silas said. But time waited for no one in a teal basketball suit. Still, Charlotte could win. Toronto could win. All we know for certain is this: the team that comes out of the West is the NBA champ. Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories

ALSO SEE Denberg: McGrady thrives while cousin Vince struggles