I was expecting a closer game in Game 2. Pretty surprised when I turned on TNT and saw that the score was 34-18 after the first quarter.

Excellent recap, again, Matt. Must have been a fun game to be at, especially in the first quarter. Jason Maxiell really impressed me. This kid has a nasty streak to him without crossing the line. He’s straight-up punking the Bulls when he’s in there, and doing it with that same calm, cool demeanor he seems to always have.

Just want to bring a business perspective to this whole Ben Wallace deal. I think Chicago took a gamble and paid a 10-15M premium for Ben Wallace simply because they thought it would severely weaken the focus and chemistry of the Pistons by taking away their ‘leader’. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Like if Golden State found a way to steal S. Marion from the Suns. It would have been a brilliant play if it hadn’t been for the fact that the Pistons have excellent leadership throughout, all the way up to Joe D. The mental toughness of the team is what inspires suffocating defense and wins championships. Joe D. knew that Ben was strong that he was a leader but he wasn’t the cornerstone of our success that everyone thought he was. I hope someone writes a book on this one day.

That being said.. game 3 is really important. Go Pistons!

A lot of people in our circle are bashing Ben – wondering what the Bulls wanted to get from him for $60 million. I actually think they got exactly what they wanted – a Shaq stopper. And he did that. Problem is, now they need almost the opposite – an offensive presence in the post.

I think it is pretty ignorant to look at the number of free throws shot or number of fouls and say the officiating was fair. You have to be biased to think that the Pistons didnt receive the lions share of the close calls. I’ve watched a majority of the Bulls games every season, and the team never complains. In fact, Skiles often benches or scolds his players for arguing with the refs, unless it is a blatant wrongdoing. To see the Bulls players disgusted, you know there is some shadiness going on with the calls. I am still sticking with my prediction of Bulls in 6.

“Hinrich, one of the few Bulls to play well in Game 2”
not sure what that means, hope you meant game 1

“In fact, it’s almost amazing how timid they’ve become on offense — especially Gordon, who adds almost nothing "
wow. remember that during game 3.

“Jason Maxiell really impressed me.”
Because he’s a dirty player? The way he shoved Deng’s head , the NBA’s sportsmanship award winner, well-after the play was over?

“Borderline cocky observation I would’ve never made a week ago: If this series lasts longer than five games, I’m going to be ticked.”
Good Luck with that. The UC is gonna be rocking. Bulls are the best home team in the conference, not to mention leading the league in attendance for the year.

“that helped give the Cavs the confidence to come out and take Game 3, which eventually snowballed into Cleveland jumping ahead to a 3-2 lead.”
Remember that. Thanks.

P.Latch:

— Regarding my opinion on the fouls, I direct your attention to the top of your screen: “A Detroit Pistons blog, with completely fair and unbiased opinions on 29 of the Association’s 30 teams.”

I don’t think think I’m biased on this one, but if I am, you’ve already been warned.

- I did mean that Kirk Hinrich played well in Game 1 - now fixed.

— The rest of the quote was, “especially Gordon, who adds almost nothing when he’s not filling the bucket.” I was referring to his lack of defense, as well as the fact he’s invisible on offense when not scoring. If you want to dispute that, I’d love to hear your arguments.

— As for Maxiell, he’s a baaaaad man, eating babies and all that. And to think he did that to Deng, who just got the Joe Dumars trophy and all …

- I’d expect the UC to be rocking - this IS the second round of the playoffs. (And leading the league in attendance? That’s cute. Detroit did that four years in a row, and still had 100% capacity this year, which is more than Chicago can say. I guess the weather has turned fair in Chicago, though, and the crowds are now flocking to their bigger arena.)

P.Latch- Are you saying the Bulls committed fewer fouls than they were called for? Wait, it that whining? Skiles would bench you for that. I think it’s pretty amazing that you are UPSET with officiating that gave your team the opportunity to score 52 points. That’s more than half your total score. Who is calling who biased? And what should you look at if not free throws and fouls to monitor officiating? Were the refs too strict on traveling? Oh wait they called us on that too.

And I’m guessing he said Jason Maxiell impressed him because he actually CONTRIBUTED to the game.

Hold on to your hope (it seems to inspire some good trash talking), because it’ll get you through the summer. That, and some golf clubs (I think D-Wade might let you borrow his).

with regards to the Bulls messing up the Piston’s chemistry:

I know hindsight is 20/20. But if sabotaging the Pistons chemistry was a factor in the Bulls picking up Wallace, it went awry. At the end of last season, I was pretty worried about the team chemistry to begin with, and that all seemed to stem from Wallace’s frustration in Flip’s system. I think Wallace leaving actually helped team chemistry, and gave the team a bunch of focus.

Now, losing Wallace hurt us at the beginning of the season. However, it also allowed us to pick up Webber mid-season. Webber’s a much better fit in Flip’s system, both offensively and defensively. While Wallace’s man defense skills were covered up in Flip’s zone, Webber’s defensive deficiencies are now covered to an extent. And we’re now no longer playing 4 on 5 on the offensive end.

In short, I sure hope the Bulls weren’t thinking sabotage. Because, if they were, it backfired big time.

Two losses by a combined 47 points and still talking trash? Good on you, P. Latch.

Methinks the Bulls’ blogs and newspapers could use a dose of your optimism.

P. Latch,

Don’t be so sensitive there Sally. It’ll be ok, pretty soon you’ll have one of those pretty fishing poles to play with.

Love,
Boney

I would also say that Jason Maxiell is possibly the farthest thing from a “dirty player”. Your thoughts on the almost non-existent “head shove” are obviously coming from someone looking to find something wrong with the way Games 1 and 2 were played.

Maxiell isn’t a dirty player, if Deng didn’t jump into Maxiell’s body on the jumper/layup attempt, he wouldn’t have come down under Maxiell’s arms.

It should not have been a technical foul, it was a pretty weak call. If you’re going to give a tech to Max, give one to Deng for wanting to retaliate.

‘Weather turned fair’, ouch Matt, what’s with the jab? It’s not even correct:

2003-04 19,736
2002-03 19,617
2001-02 18,934
2000-01 21,674
1999-00 22,124
1998-99 22,400

And those are some BAD BAD teams. I wonder if (suburban) Detroit could get that many people to stick around during some lean times.

http://basketballreference.com/teams/teamatt.htm?tm=chi&lg=n

Matt – gotcha. as long as you admit biasness, I have no problem.

Im not saying the only reason the bulls lost is cause of the refs. I think it boiled down to the fact that we couldn’t make a stinkin shot, or get a rebound. And webber shooting near 100%? every time we made a little run it was stopped short by a turnover, or a whistle, or a lack of a rebound.

As far as fair weather, i think you are mistaken. I along with others have kept our season tix through all the down years. We’ve had the same arena since 1994, and it seats only about 21k, and we are on a sellout streak but anyways.. see this link… http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/attendance?year=2007

OK, I admit my cheap shot (more of a glancing blow, right?) about the Bulls attendance doesn’t hold water — I was actually thinking about how it was sold out during the Tim Floyd years as I wrote it.

I just wanted to compare it to Detroit’s recent streak of leading the league, and point out that the only reason Chicago led the league this year was because the finally started selling out again (and we’re still talking less than a 100 more per game compared to the Palace). But, yes, never dipping (far) below 19K for so many years is impressive.

Impressive attendance stats indeed. But with 9.4 million people living in the Chicago metro area, I’m not surprised. It’s almost expected actually no matter how well the local teams are doing. Even when the Cubs were abysmal last year, my husband made it to three home games at Wrigley.

Of course here in Washington, I’m still wondering where the real fans are whenever I go to a Wizards game. Seems like all the seats are filled with money cats.

Anyhow, as the old adage goes, a series doesn’t truly begin until the road team wins a game. I’m hoping the lopsidedness of Games 1 and 2 won’t come back to bite us in Games 3 and 4.