Game 4 = Stomach punch

I will no longer be surprised if Cleveland wins this series. The Pistons don’t look like a veteran team which knows that the Cavaliers were fighting for their lives the last two games. They didn’t bring any intensity, and it’s absolutely sickening.

If the Cavs get hot shooting the ball on Wednesday………

Never though I’d say this, but Game Five is a must-win for the Pistons. They have to bring it.

It’s ok people… Once again, it’s better to crumble now against CLE (not to belittle the Cavs or anything, but they’re no MIA nor SA or DAL) rather than play this bad on the next round against either MIA or NJ. They’ll be blown out for sure. They were lucky they had a 6pt cushion to start the 4th…

Regardless, it was an ugly, painful to watch game by Detroit. It seemed like they were the team feeling the playoff pressure rather than the tried and tested veteran team.

Now it’s 2 all and like someone else here said i think: WE HAVE A SERIES. damn it, go play some Deeeetroit basket-ballllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!

aRChPoPoY: Thanks for posting that. I needed some optimism after that game.
It’s hard not to feel like Detroit can’t win after watching a game like that but the truth is there are still 3 games left and you have to believe Detroit can pull it out. To be a true fan you have to cheer for the team no matter what. Deeeeetroit Bassssketball

The Cavs are for real kids. Karma’s a bitch Rasheed. This one was for you Larry. Just wanted to make sure you Detroit fans were all WITNESSES.

Go Cavs baby!

I live on the west coast, and couldn’t see the game. I had to keep refreshing the page at work. Every fresh page was a kick to the gut a la the picture. 3 straight HORRID 4th quarters makes me nervous more than anything else. Combine that with the fact that you can’t play a close game with the Cavs or suddenly you’ll be wondering how that was a foul call on Tayshaun against Lebron and how 4 steps isn’t a travel anymore. Just ask any Wiz fans nearby. The Pistons have to come out in Game 5 and step on their throats from tip to 00:00 so they can take some momentum back to Cleveland for game 6.

How bad was Rasheed’s ankle roll?

This team has made it’s legacy out of its 4th Q play, and right now, they are letting scrubs like Anderson Varajeo and Donyel Marshall beat them to the ball. Is Saunders a good enough coach to figure this out?

i thought this series would go 4-1 before it started. now i’m not even sure the pistons can win 2/3. i still think they’ll pull it out, but it’s nowhere close to a lock anymore.

If you believe in karma, Witness, you and your Quicken Loans Arena brethren might want to rethink cheering when an opposing player hobbles into the locker room. Just saying is all.

Great point Jack at post no7! karma is a bitch

Has anyone seen Antonio McDyess? Because there’s someone out on the court wearing his jersey, afraid to shoot the ball.

Or Chauncy, the “MVP Candidate”? Comparing his post-season to the other top-five finalists is depressing.

What about Tayshaun’s jumper? He’s got the runner down pat, now if he could hit an uncontested shot.

Rip has started out hot on both of the last two games, yet the rest of team continues to shoot long jumpers early in the shot clock. What happened to riding the hot guy?

Didn’t Ben used to shoot (and make) jumpers during the championship season? Isn’t the offense supposed to be more wide-open this year under Saunders?

Rasheed? Whatever.

The Pistons better pull their heads out of their collective asses, and soon.

Now you WITNESS the power of referees…

Folks, this is the benefit of home court advantage. Let them win all their games at the Q. It isn’t ideal, but it could happen without much consequence. Take heart, folks. We could be the defending champs.

Ian, you’re absolutely right, home court does mean a lot but I think most Pistons fans were hoping we wouldn’t need to use it until the NBA Finals. My main concern is that even though Detroit was horrible in both victories, Cleveland wasn’t playing that well either. What happens if Flip Murray decides to hit a few triples and Big Z actually shows up and the Cavs steal a game at the Palace.

Yes, the Pistons very well could be back-to-back defending champs, but it won’t matter if they don’t wake up. They need to treat Game 5 like a fight for their lives, because it is.

Dave: I’m pretty sure Ian meant we could be the Spurs, down 3-1, instead of tied 2-2 with home court advantage still in our favor.

Don’t be afraid, Piston’s fans…
Yes, this one was UGLY, and the effort is rather pathetic, but we’ve been down this road with these guys before. They’ve just had a couple of games where the shots won’t fall and the effort is not top-notch; they really only need one of those two things to beat the Cavaliers.
And they’ll have the effort in Game 5. We can only hope they have it again in Game 6.
Anyway, the result of these last two games has shaken my confidence a little…I was 100% certain we’d beat the Cavs, 99% certain we’d beat Miami, and 80% certain we’d win the title…
Now I’ll adjust my “certainty levels” to 99% certain we’ll beat the Cavs, 80% certain we’ll beat Miami, and 60% certain we’ll win the title. But still not bad huh?
Go Pistons, have no fear Piston’s fans.

I just read the ESPN recap… interesting that the story included nothing about James’ first half buzzer beating three-pointer. Not even Jordan could get away with that. Secondly, it stated nothing about the “Maurice Evans tip out of bounds.” From what I saw (or what TNT didn’t want me to see), it seemed that Evans was not the last person to touch that ball. If you listened to Blaha on the radio, he was sure both were mistakes and thought the James’ three-pointer was not going to count.

On a side note, how about Reggie Miller’s comment about the officials doing a great job of not blowing the whistle in the last minute and allowing the players to determine the outcome of the game. Oh, I get it. The officials get 47 minutes to determine the outcome, but they do allow the players the last minute. How generous of Mr. Stern! A foul with five seconds left is the same as a foul five seconds into the game. If that Rip Hamilton drive had happened with 1:01 remaining and the officials made the call and that basket determined the game, would it be ok then Reggie? Give me a break.

All issues aside, it would be nice to see the Pistons show up and make these non-issues.

“Aint no way in hell they gonna beat us in no damn serious”
-Rasheed Wallace

4 outta 5 is still respectable…..no way cleveland is gonna beat detroit at home. i expect them to roll the momentum into game 6 to take the guarensheed’s up to 5 outta 6

and by “serious” i mean series

Jwalk40,

Did you happen to watch the halftime show of the Spurs-Mavs game? They showed LeBron’s halftime three-pointer many times from many different angles, and he was clearly in bounds. In fact, before the replay Barkley proclaimed that he was out of bounds, but after they showed the replays he immediately retracted his statement.

And Evans was the last person to touch the ball. LeBron tried to catch it, but wasn’t able to. But as it was a tough call to ask a human to make, considering how fast everything was happening, are you really going to complain about something like that?

You should TiVo the games next time so you can watch these plays in slo-mo yourself before you come to conclusions.

If any referee’s miscue cost someone tonight, it was Bowen’s “foul” against Dirk at the end of regulation with the Spurs up 111-109. That was an offensive foul on Dirk, but amazingly they called a foul on Bowen!

Truly unbelieveable. It was obvious because Dirk started near the top of the key and made his way down, i.e. it was a slow-developing situation, unlike the Cavs-Pistons out-of-bounds play, which required a split-second judgment call.

A few observations:

Ben Wallace needs to stop playing like and Inflateable Defender and start challenging drives, going for ’bounds and BY GOD SCORING EVERY SO OFTEN.

Flip needs to beat “Every Minute LeBron” with substitution. Hunter didn’t even sniff the floor and while Dale Davis can’t fly down the floor, he does know how to hang a “Closed” sign on the lane.

Drive the lane, Chauncey.

“I just read the ESPN recap… interesting that the story included nothing about James’ first half buzzer beating three-pointer. Not even Jordan could get away with that.”

TNT show a replay during halftime of the Mavs-Spurs that showed clearly LeBron was inbounds. Sorry.

This series reminds me of the 92-93 Knicks-Bulls series. The knicks took the first 2 games at home and the fans thought it was over, but the bulls came back and took the next four. It was a great series. Man I’m old!

Wow! I never saw our boys play like this before. The bad passes. The open shots being missed. The silly fouls. However Boys and girls it will be ok. No one said it was going to be easy. If we look at the playoffs for the last 3 years we have been here before. We need to win the next 2 games so we can end it in 6. The Heat should win their next game and we don’t want them to get to much rest. Both of these game we should have won and I know our boys know this. The only thing I did not like is when Flip played Evans at the end. I know the Cavs went small but Dice would have done a better job seeing that it was half court game. We need to get on this team early and dont let them hang around. James will start missing more and more the next two games. He will be working on one days rest and he has played ever minute the last two games.

Carey,
LBJ is the chosen one.
If he is tired the referees will massage his feet.
The NBA wants to see LBJ beats Pistons like Jordan did.
This drama looks really bad but I guess this is what real champions need to go through.

Blurrz,

Trust me, if I had the means, I would be Tivo-ing the games. Until I do however, I depend on the replays of the broadcaster. I admit I was not wanting to watch much basketball after being forced to watch whatever it was the Pistons were doing out there on the court, so I didn’t keep the Spurs-Mavs game on. I was just surprised of the lack of replays of both incidents during the game. (This is something I have noticed in NBA games over the past year. Does the NBA want to avoid a NFL/NCAA replay fiasco with the referees? Could it be possible that game producers are asked to choose wisely what kinds of plays they replay? I could understand them not wanting to put them on the spot so much, they are afterall only human. Or maybe because of Tivo, producers don’t feel the need to replay the same play over and over again?) I have to think that if this would have involved Kobe, the conspiracy theories would be flying everywhere already. Also, if it had been Rasheed with the close three and the Pistons would have been given the ball on the last out of bounds call, I just feel the incidents would have made the post-game recap.

Still, like I said, these should be non-issues. The Pistons can’t allow the Cavs to hang around and allow LeTravel to make a difference in the fourth. Forget closing out games, the Pistons have to make sure they are opening them up first.

We played 2 of our worst games of the year and almost won. Milwaukee would have beat us by 30 points playing as poorly as we did.

For some reason we feel like playing an isolation offense when that hasn’t worked for us all year. Notice when Rip worked hard through screens he got layups. I don’t know if Flip or Chauncey is calling the ‘wait until 12 seconds left in the shot clock to run the play, and just pass once and shoot a contested jumper’ style of play, but it needs to stop.

The other odd thing is McDyess. He’s gone timid for some reason, taking extra pivots and nearly traveling instead of just putting up his money shot which is unguardable, as if he’s scared to shoot. We look like the Cavs in the sense that no one wants to shoot the ball.

In any case, people forget that the Cavs won 50 games and aren’t pushovers. The Pistons were as arrogant as the fans (whether we want to admit it or not), so hopefully they take care of business and end this in 6 games. Hopefully New Jersey steals one on the road, takes care of home, and forces a Game 7. I was looking forward to Dick Bavetta for Game 5 but it looks like he has to go take care of the Spurs at home for their Game 5 and make that a series. :)

I like this site, its interesting to see how two cities view the same series.

Surprising that ‘sheed keeps talkin’ even after two straight losses. This guys amazing.

As far as the Cleveland fans booing ‘sheed after he rolled his ankle, if he would of kept his mouth shut, that wouldn’t of happened.

It’s not like we threw a beer at him from the stand and then rushed the court and tried to pick a fight with him…

Lebron was inbounds and Evans did touch that ball last, sorry guys.

I can’t argue the fact the Pistons had the better team and the better record in the off-season, but if you don’t show up in the playoffs, the regular season doesn’t mean jack.

Rip and Chauncey better tell ’sheed to keep quite or this thing is just gonna get worse for you guys.

The Cavs did win 50 games guys, Lebron is the real deal, like it or not. E-Snow, Gooden, Larry Hughes, D-Jones, Z, Flip Murray, they didn’t just start playing yesterday. There’s a lot of experience here.

The Cavs problem is that they just aren’t has fine tuned as the Pistons as a team.

Since game 2, we have owned the 4th quarter.

Hell, Lebron hasn’t even broken out in this series yet, and when that happens, game over.

You’re all WITNESSES.

Witness,

Yes Cavs own the 4th quarter in this playoff.
But didn’t you see how they did it?
It’s the referees helping them — ignore the Cavs’ fouls but put Pistons in foul trouble.
LBJ can use his elbow against the defensive players and won’t get an offensive foul call.
On one occasion, Prince was called for offensive foul when LBJ was stll moving.

Yes we are all witness, but not to the greatness as you guys imagined.

The Pistons took 23 trips to the line last night compared to the Cavs 17. Yes, they got home cooking on the last play, but how are the Almighty Pistons even in a situation like that? The Cleveland fans cheered for ’Sheed’s turned ankle because he’s a loud mouth. If you really want to invoke the name of Michael Jordan on your site, imagine MJ letting a turned ankle keep him out of a game that he had guaranteed. Wrap it, tighten your shoe laces and be a man. ‘Sheed has a long history of guaranteeing games and then leaving it up to his teammates to do all the work. (Check the box scores.) Last night, that wasn’t enough.
Please remember the Cavs and their fans are playing with house money. We’re not supposed to be in this series. Now we are, and we’re gonna enjoy it.

Good call on the fouls TVBrain.

The Cavs had 22 PF to Det. 19

Did the referees hold Detroit to 13 points in the 4th Stern?

Depending on what city you live in the fouls are bad both ways.

Lebron’s a 6’8 240 PG, too big for guards, too quick for big men, a tough match-up. He’s gonna make a lot of guys look silly drivin’ to the lane. The Pistons have done well double teaming him and not lettin him control a game yet.

As far as the NBA promoting Lebron, why not? He’s a well spoken 21 year old who is a great role model for the and is more mature than most of the league, including guys on his own team.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a basketball winner in Cleveland. No matter what happens Wed, the Q on Friday will be loud and out of control, thirsty for another Cleveland playoff game and win, which will just be another tough game for Detroit. The Cavs aren’t going out without a fight. We’re not the Bucks.

If you Pistons fans wanna bitch about the bad calls, Game 2 might have had a different outcome when the Cavs cut it to 5 with about 1:30 left and Rip Hamilton used his arm to shield Larry Hughes while he was going to the rim, Hughes lets him go knowing that he has 5 fouls, the ref calls a foul on Hughes, fouling him out of the game, Hamilton hits the bucket and the free throw to put it back to an 8 point lead…what a joke.

Hey Pistons fans, LeBron has taken it easy on you guys so far, when he explodes, prepare to reap the whirlwind.

WE ARE ALL WITNESSES.

How does one “reap the whirlwind”? Why would LeBron take it easy on the Pistons?

Bottom line: Detroit has had ZERO intensity in the last 2 1/4 games. Flip has lost confidence in the bench, and if the starters play mid-40s minutes every night, Detroit will continue to fade in every fourth quarter.

They can’t shoot 33%-39% forever, can they?

Why don’t we play zone during important stretches in the game? Like when LeBron is walking right past us?

If Ben makes the first bucket in Game 5, it’s over for the Cavs. Guaranteed. Whenever Ben is involved in the offense I think we’re unbeatable. Pistons in 6.

Be prepared to reap the whirlwind of LeBron knocking your team out of the playoffs…

Also, I’m not sure why he “would” take it easy on the Pistons, maybe he feels sorry for your joke of a city.

I went to one of the Indians/Tigers games at Comerica Park…talk about a joke…Canal Park in Akron, the Tribe’s Double A team’s park is better than that piece of crap. Nice joke of a scoreboard…makes you realize how awesome Jacobs Field is.

The Tigers certainly enjoyed their stay at Jacobs Field last week.

We’ll see where each team is at the end of the year…

What has concerned me all season long as Pistons fan is the lack of points in the paint: 30th in the league, doesn’t look like a championship team to me regardless of their regular season record. Add to that their rebounding problems and the post-season always looked like it would be trouble. I so desperately want them to prove my pessimism unjust and they have done up until half-time of Game 2, where it seems they completely lost their intensity and allowed Cleveland to get back into a game that from then on, seemed more like regular than post-season. Come on Pistons, any team that contains a chosen one and that is playing on their own court is gonna be trouble, you can’t rely on just being able to turn it on when you need it. As for bad calls LeBron is allowed four steps for goodness sakes, as Jordan was and any Cavs fan who says that isn’t the case needs to listen to commentaries from other teams networks, it’s common knowledge. The Pistons will still win this series and let’s wait until LeBron wins his titles before we all start saying how great he is/will be.

I’ve never subscribed to the “refs did us in” theory. That’s for Seahawks fans. Calls slip by refs repeatedly for both sides. It’s part of the game. HOWEVER, from what I WITNESSED from round one against the Wiz, when obvious calls are being flat-out ignored on potential GAME-WINNING possessions, I understand when any team’s fans are a little sensitive to potential referee shenanigans when playing the Cavs.

I have to say I like LeBron, much more than I ever ever ever ever liked MJ. (Though talk to me after this series is over.) And certainly a city with as horrible a sports history as Cleveland deserves some kind of savior like LeBron. However, I can also see a city with as horrible a sports history as Cleveland doing stupid stuff like booing their basketball Jesus off the floor and making him want to ship out when his rookie contract is up next season. We’ll probably all WITNESS that.

1) Agree completely that blaming the refs is the loser’s lament. The Pistons — for all the talk of how better a team they are — shouldn’t be in that close a game to begin with.

2) I’m developing a healthy dislike for Lebron. Healthy, because it is a budding rivalry, and it’s more fun if you don’t like the opposition.

3) As for some of the other comments above: talk all you want of the Pistons’ arrogance, Sheed’s mouthing off, the Cavs dominant play..that’s all fair game in here. But when you start taking shots at the City of Detroit (even while the Pistons play 45 minutes north in Auburn Hills), you reveal yourself as classless. We’re always happy to debate basketball here, but stick with the 14-year olds on message boards if you want a flaming war.

B-O-O H-O-O

Everyone, just relax and remember they have to win in Detroit, which in case you’ve lost your mind…ain’t happening. Witness this, Witness that…it’s not the refs, it’s Rasheed, Chauncey, Ben Wallace, the Bench, Flip Saunders, Tayshaun’s missed bunnies, etc…that is killing this team. LeBron has been great, but name somebody on the Pistons outside of Rip who played well in Cleveland? Huh, waiting…nobody.

We’ll play better at home and finally wake-up, the problem is we just have no respect for the Cavs and they took advantage of it. Until the Cavs win a game in Detroit…we can all remain cool and confident.

Still though being tied with this team is f-ing embarrassing.

What’s gonna be more f’n embarrassing is when the Cavs come up there tomorrow night, beat the Pistons and then win game 6 at home.

This ‘WE ARE ALL WITNESSES’ is getting old.

Let’s face it, they can win all the games they want at homecourt and we’ll end up winning OUR home games at the Palace! And guess who wins the series????

Ain’t no way Queen James and the Bronettes will win in Detroit!!!! LOL

Please Rasheed, open your mouth again and then shoot 3 of 13…that will be awesome…

Hope the Pistons enjoy watching the rest of the playoffs from home.

Just suppose you don’t win this series, I trust you’ll still grace us with your presence.

I seriously think that making a big deal out of Cleveland winning 2 games on their home court is a little ridiculous. Even if this series goes to 7 games, you have to remember, Cleveland has to win IN Detroit. I don’t see Cleveland beating Detroit in Detroit (or Auburn Hills). Even as a Pistons’ fan I’ll admit that the Cavaliers have played well enough to win the last 2 games…heck, I won’t even say the Pistons beat themselves the last 2 games, even though I’ve said that a lot. LeBron has stepped up in the 4th quarter just like Dwayne Wade did against the Pistons earlier this season…Do I think the Cavs will win the series? No. Detroit, although they’ve been struggling, they’ve pretty much handled anyone other than LeBron from getting clean looks at the basket, and other than game 3, noone has really stepped up to be a solid #2 option behind LeBron. I figured Zydrunas would make a statement this series, but since Ben blocked his (weak) dunk attempt, I figured that’s probably the last we’ll see the 7’3 Lithuanian (or whatever he is…).

Keep hanging your hat on guys like Varejao…I don’t understand how a 6’10 240lb “power” forward falls down so easy when a guard drives the lane…but ok. Sheed will put him on his ass next game.

I can’t believe the Cavs fans actually believe they can win this series!!! LOL!!!!

Second round, 2003: Pistons lose games 3 and 4 pretty badly (the final scores didn’t reflect how much they were outplayed), series is tied 2-2, then they come back to win games 5 and 6 even with Chauncey on a bad ankle

Second round, 2004: Pistons lose games 3, 4, and 5 (and games 3 and 4 were two of their worst losses in recent years) to go down 3-2 against the two-time defending conference champs, then they win games 6 and 7 to take the series

Second round, 2005: Pistons lose games 2 and 3 to go down 2-1 against Jeff “20 Rebounds” Foster and his Pacers, then come back to take the next three games pretty easily

Second round, 2006: Why should we expect this to be any different? Even Lebron Christ isn’t strong enough to drag Damon Jones and co. any further. Time for somebody other than Rip and Tay to step up

is it just me or did anyone else think that chaunceys three pointer from 10 ft from behind the line and barley hit rim was a terrible shot? Chauncey needs to go back to his driving ways and pick up some fouls, get his confidence up, then take the three. I know if he would have made them i wouldnt have had a problem with them but the fact that there was a 1:20 left and 12 seconds left on the shot clock im a little upset with.

Witness Detroit Basketball…..

OOO and all of u better represent tommorow.

anyone think damon jones will wear that leopard print suit into the palace tommorow?

I can’t believe this result while hearing the result from the other side of the globe.Are those the blue boys I know?
I never know anyone can detroy the blues in the last 10 minutes.Please tell me it’s the last time for me to suffer,please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

Hey P, (post number 47) way to live in the past…

Angela, (post number 42) you ARE a witness…witness LeBron coming to Auburn Hills to take game 5, just so they can win the series in Cleveland on Friday night…

Hey, I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow when you guys are all bitching about the Cavs game 5 win and the “bad calls” the refs made and how LeBron “travels”…

“I can’t believe the Cavs fans actually believe they can win this series!!! LOL!!!!”

Two years ago nobody thought the Pistons had a chance against the Lakers. The only question was whether the Lakers would sweep or win in five. How’d that turn out?

THE NBA IS FIXED!!!! There’s NO WAY, NONE THIS HAPPENS! It happened against us in DC, and it’s happening to y’all now. I refuse to watch…..well…the Eastern Conference anyway.

HAHA Angela 42&47!!!

UH OH!!! Sorry Pistons fans, how’d that game 5 work out for you guys??? Hope you guys enjoyed watching the last home game of the season last night.

Way to open your big mouth again, Rasheed…

Chauncey, thanks for playing, you can watch the rest of the game from the bench now…

Where is everyone?? I figured you Pistons fans would be bitching about the refs last night??

Way to step up Z and Donyell, way to own the Pistons on the boards…

Everyone in attendance at the Palace, and everyone watching on TNT, you are all WITNESSES.