On Boston’s (over)reaction

hadn’t the pistons beat the celtics 9 straight times? i think probably that was what pierce was reacting to: a lot of pent-up losing. as far as posey, he’s a roster spot worth of nothing, so who cares what he says? might as well be bill simmons popping his bird jersey from two time zones away.

Let us not overreact to their (over)reaction.

As pistons fans we should know as well or better than any fan that these up and coming teams make up to much meaning for the reg season games. If we are going to let that bother us I think we are the ones misplaced.

If anything our team and fans should be flattered to get such a reaction from the “best team” in the league during just the regular season.

I know this is a little immature, especially with how touchy the refs seem to be this season with the Ts but next time either Mr pierce or posey go to the basket they should find themselves flat on their face with a couple of pistons standing over them. You don’t shout half as loud with your face eating the floor.
In my mind i can see sheed standing over him and telling him “no THIS is Deeeeeetroit basketball”

Great article, Matt. Class of the league.

As a pistons fan wouldnt you be a little uneasy with the arrogance? The past two seasons they’ve been outplayed by inferior teams because they think they can care when they want and turn it on and off when they want. I know its a regular season game but this has been a trend with this uber talented detroit team. maybe they should care? maybe it should light a fire under them? and they wont get bounced by inferior teams who want it more? just a thought

Don’t flatter yourself Pistons fans. For one, what does it say about the Pistons and their fans if you guys are still talking about it THREE DAYS AFTER the game? And if you saw KG’s reaction to hitting a game clinching jump shot against the McGrady-less Rockets, you’d know that he, and the team, play each game with the same intensity. That’s why they’re 29-3. They haven’t had any letdowns. They don’t look past anyone(despite what Rasheed Wallace might want to believe).

I like your post in general. But you make it seems as if Pierce is uneasy about what’s happened this season and sees it as a blow to his ego. Um, a year ago the team he was on lost 18 games in a row. You think he’s unhappy to be on a team with a 29-3 record? You think being the star player on a team that loses 18 games in a row is nice and comforting to a player’s ego? Really?

Last season, I distinctly remember the Detroit Pistons beating the Celtics @ the TD Banknorth Garden on a last second shot by Hamilton. The Pistons were definitely celebrating the win like they won a very significant game. Now tell me … did they over-react with this win?

Matt’s post is entirely sensible. Still, there’s something to be said for allowing yourself to get a little worked up over this, even if it’s with a knowing wink. Let’s face it: heated rivalries are fun, and the NBA hasn’t had as many good ones in the past few years. In the Bad Boys era, Detroit and Boston fans, and then Chicago fans, convinced themselves that the other side really was evil (I think my wife still has her “I hate Danny Ainge” t-shirt). More recently, Detroit was almost getting a good rivalry with the Heat, until they collapsed last year, and it’s still a bit early to say there’s a big rivalry with the Cavs (they would need at least one more heated finals). Heck, there’s not even a good Lakers-Kings rivalry in the NBA today.

So if Detroit fans can half-talk themselves into the idea that Boston’s players and/or fans are arrogant, maybe there’s more entertainment value there. Of course we shouldn’t take it too seriously. During the 2004 playoffs against the Nets, Richard Jefferson was asked if there was any bad blood with the Pistons. He replied something like, “Oh yeah, there’s been talking, and we’ve been TP’ing each others’ houses.” It was pretty funny.

How about the Pistons ‘underreaction’ That to me is one of theirmain problems since they seem content with losing in the ECF because they wona title a few years ago. Which I think is an even worse reaction. Nothing worse then being content imo.

Rasheed apparently left the arena without changing into his street clothes, then wasn’t available for the media on Monday. That’s not an under-reaction. McDyess had a similar reaction to a playoff loss last year, I think.

This got picked up by a couple of Celtics blogs, so I’m going to respond to some of the Boston fans here …

Nick: “For one, what does it say about the Pistons and their fans if you guys are still talking about it THREE DAYS AFTER the game?”

It says that the NBA gave the Pistons three days between games, leaving their fans with nothing to do but over-analyze the most recent one. I’ll definitely admit to this. The main point of my entire post, though, was that it really wasn’t a big deal and probably not something that should command our attention.

Trieu: “I like your post in general. But you make it seems as if Pierce is uneasy about what’s happened this season and sees it as a blow to his ego.”

I probably overstated that a bit — you might be more right than I.

Chay-Li: “Last season, I distinctly remember the Detroit Pistons beating the Celtics @ the TD Banknorth Garden on a last second shot by Hamilton. The Pistons were definitely celebrating the win like they won a very significant game.”

That was two years and he hit a 20-footer with 0.8 seconds left. I’ll never look down on any team for celebrating a last-second shot, no matter who the opponent — those are just plain exciting.

Nora: "How about the Pistons ‘underreaction’ "

The Pistons were definitely disappointed with the win — like Toledo Joe said, Rasheed left the arena without even showering.

A few comments, Matt. James Posey is hardly a player put onb a pedestal etc.. etc… he is a terrific bench player who can defend very well at three positions, shoot the three superbly, and has a knack for making the big plays. Pierce is what? Insecure. What does that supposed to mean and who cares? Pierce was overcelebrating because he has been on losing teams yeat after year. I am sure Rivers is happy with neither Pierce or Posey. Yet, the Pistons for them was a huge measuring stick. They lost the first game to them., and as said already this team is dying to win it all.

yeah, i’m not worried about the underreaction or that this is a sign of our complacency or anything. we wanted to win that game and we wanted it bad. the starters played big minutes because flip got tentative about playing the bench and two of our non-bitchingest players got techs called on them.

i think some people are taking chauncey’s declaration that this was just another game is an indication that we’re not going to look at the game and try to improv. I certainly hope this is not the case.

we NEED to find out what to do when chauncey get’s pressured. we NEED to find a way to make up for tay’s lost scoring when he has to defend someone like pierce or lebron. we NEED to get better at stopping penetration. these are the reasons this team loses. it seems to happen whenever we face a serious, top-tier team. after two years of the same old story, why aren’t we getting better in these areas?

Let’s face it, Pistons fans at home games have a horrendous history, from the Palace Brawl to the idots who mercilessly taunted Atoine Walker and Pieice when the Cs dispatched the Pistons in the 02 playoffs. Can anyone be surprised at James Posey giving them a little bit of their own medicine?

If you can dish it out, you have to be able to take it. If it wasn’t for Danny Ainge facilitating the Sheed trade, these Pistons would be nothing more than a bunch of one or two time lower level all stars.

I don’t see the Pistons getting any better this season, while the Celtics are just getting to know each other. Considering that they are winning over 90% of their games already, that must be sobering to the rest of the league and its fans.

So go ahead and hate on James Posey (one of the most unselfish and team oriented players in the NBA) and Paul Pierce, while your beloved Pistons bicker with each other and whine at the refs when things go bad. And get used to it.

Uh… I wouldn’t call Posey unselfish and team oriented. Didn’t he risk a suspension in the playoffs by tackling Kirk Hinrich. And wasn’t he out of shape last year with the Heat?

Celtics fans, you’re confusing a bunch of bloggers making a big deal out of this with Pistons players making a big deal out of this. Yes, we’re still talking about it. That’s because there hasn’t been another game to talk about.

I’m not sure what they showed on League Pass, but during the local Detroit broadcast you could see Billups and Garnett fooling around after the game. Then Billups threw a fake punch at him.

Celtics fans are really just delusional 05-06 Pistons fans in disguise.

Without McHale facilitating the Garnett trade, the Celtics would be nothing but one or two lower-level All Stars.
What does this have to do with anything? I don’t know, I’m using TripleOT’s logic. I thought it might work for me.

Let’s have more fun with logic: The Celtics have won 90% without even really knowing each other. So, once they really know each other, they should win 97% of their games? In TripleOT’s world, fatigue, scheduling, depth, and playoff inexperience are all factors that are dwarfed by the Celtics getting to know one another.

James Posey is a good role player. He can score some, rebounds well, and pushes people down really, really hard. So he’s unselfish and team-oriented like…the Pistons’ entire rotation? That’s probably not what you meant

“your beloved Pistons bicker with each other and whine at the refs when things go bad. And get used to it.”

Guess what buddy? We ARE used to it!

I think everyone’s pretty much said everything I’d like to say in response to these Celtics fans, and I especially agree about them being like the 05-06 Pistons. If I were a Celtic fan (thank heaven I’m not!), my overwhelming fear would be winning too much and burning out come playoff time, like Dallas last year and us the year before. The Mavericks’ losing to Golden State was in a way no surprise to me—we’d seen that story before. The only difference to me was that our guys have the heart of a champion and were able to make it to the conference finals, while Dallas flamed out in the first round. Boston had better be a true championship-caliber team in order to handle that kind of regular season and also win a championship. Maybe they are, but only time will tell.

Meanwhile, I’d rather lose with these guys than win with anybody else. I loved the comment someone had last time we played Boston about a classic car being more fun when you rebuilt it yourself than if you went out and bought it. That just sums up my feelings exactly.

and the idea about us not getting better is silly, even if the starters are at their apex the bench is going to get better and better the more flip lets them play. we could theoretically have nine or ten aggressive, high percentage scorers capable of getting hot on any given night. i hope herrmann gets a chance. stuckey, rip, herrman, max and sheed would be brutal.

Trader Jac, I’m glad you brought up the classic car comparison. It really does work well here.

Something these Celtic fans don’t seem to realize is that even if they win the title this year, they’ll still pale in comparison to Detroit.

Make it back to the finals the next year, then proceed to two more conference finals, and lastly of course, still show yourself to be an elite franchise, then you can say something.

Face it Boston, your championship window is small, 2-3 at best.

What do I have to do, bring a six-year old girl to Boston to have her sing that, “Anything you can do we can do better” song?

Bottomline: San Antonio and Detroit have built the blueprint for winning in the NBA over the last half decade in their respective conferences.

When did this whole “don’t fatigue your players during the regular season” philosophy start?

I think the whole “don’t fatigue your players during the regular season philosophy” started around here after the ‘05-’06 season, when Detroit got off to that great 35-5 (or was it 37-5?) start, but faded in the ECF; it was also used as an excuse/reason last year. The funny thing is that the supposed lesson of the ‘04-’05 season was that the Pistons needed to have the best record possible, because that year they lost to the Spurs in the finals with game 7 in San Antonio. So, one year it was “win as much as you can to get the #1 seed,” the next year it was, “you played your starters too much.”

“Don’t fatigue your starters” is, IMHO, really just code for “a weak bench,” and that’s been a problem on a lot of contenders. The Bad Boy Pistons got by the Bird-McHale-Parrish Celtics because that team had a terrible bench, and Detroit had a great one. We’ll see how that all plays out this year.

Ummm. Are we talking about over-reaction in DETROIT????? The town that gets burnt down everytime one of their clubs wins a division championship. You really must be kidding.

Yeah, it always irks me to hear people talk about not trying as hard during the regualr season. Do the extra minutes REALLY make that much of a difference? Like, if Tayshaun Prince plays 37 minutes per game for 82 games, instead of 33 minutes per game for 82 games, does that seriously mean his legs are going to whither up during his 87th game? It just seems like a weird excuse for grown men who work out for a living. I’d rather see the Pistons play hard to win every game.

TripleOT, of course you don’t see the Pistons getting any better. You know why? Because the team you like is winning for the first time in years. It’s not a sobering thought that the Celtics have lost 3 games while “learning to gel”, especially considering one of them was at home to the Pistons. So all you Celtics fans can pipe up about how it was a 2 point loss with 0.1 on the game clock and all us Pistons’ fans will remind you that it still took 2 ridiculous 3s with less than a minute to go with the Pistons up 8 with 1 minute to go (after a Doc timeout).

Neither team is going to blow out the other. For us to sit here and go back and forth talking about how “oh the Celtics aren’t done gelling yet” is absolutely ridiculous… this Pistons’ bench is a group of guys that didn’t play together last year (save Maxiell and the occasional Flip Murray sighting). you don’t think these guys are going to gel? With the 2nd unit on the floor the other night against Toronto, they were able to hold a double digit lead against a team that won their division last year. Sure, it’s Toronto, but it’s the same Toronto where it took a fallaway 3 by Ray Allen for the Celts to beat earlier in the season…

Personally, I’m not jealous that the Pistons have 8 losses or whatever because Stuckey, Afflalo, Maxiell, and Hayes are only going to get better. Throw in the experience of Hunter in the playoffs (you forget that Hunter singlehandedly shut down Eddie House, Tony Allen and Paul Pierce in the earlier game this season… you also forget that Lindsey has pestered the shit out of LeBron the last 2 years as well) and this team is prepped for a run.

Who cares if Danny Ainge facilitated a trade for Rasheed Wallace? Do you honestly think that Joe Dumars wouldn’t have made any other moves by now? C’mon… this isn’t Boston. Detroit doesn’t tank a season for lottery picks. The only way Detroit is in the lottery is if they trade Otis Thorpe for a pick

Jim: Talk about an out-dated cliche. Besides, I don’t think Boston fans have much room to talk when it comes to peaceful celebrations …

Toledo Joe, the minutes don’t make a difference necessarily to the starters. It obviously makes a big difference to the reserves who only get run if the starters run heavy minutes if there’s foul trouble. To put Stuckey in position to see minutes against the Celtics early in the season gets him time against guys he will see in the playoffs. Flip can see if Stuckey can match up with other guards in the league and gauge his ability based on the results of the matchup.

It’s like playing Amir Johnson in the playoffs this season after he’s only averaged 4 minutes per game against the dregs of the other team during blowouts. He has not gotten the exposure to pressure situations, so how does Flip know what this kid can or can not do?

Matt, for all the talk of how the Boston fans hate the Yankees and how they bring up their 25 or 26 championships.. we Piston fans hear an awful lot about how their rafters are full, even though they haven’t hung a new banner up there since I was 6 years old.

their glory year greats will all be dead by the time the team hangs another…

Here’s the deal: when the Celts celebrate a regular season W like they did, it doesn’t bode well for them in the playoffs, it tells me they have a long way to go about learning to be champions. It’s that simple, and it doesn’t matter who the opponent was. Especially since Doc Rivers has never reminded anyone of, say, Red Auerbach.

The Celts get another gift tonight after 3 days off, they play at Charlotte who has injuries, and essentially played 7 players last night.

Boney, how did that high lottery pick work out?

I’m certainly a casual observer of the Pistons this year, seeing them in person in Boston, and catching them on TV a handful of time, but I’d be playing Amir Johnson for sure. Maxiel’s been great, and another athletic, high energy big for a dozen minutes a night would really help this team.

I like Stuckey a lot, but rookies in the playoffs are always iffy. I wouldn’t expect a lot out of Afflalo and Hayes in the playoffs. In fact, I’d be stunned if the snakebit Hayes can make it through the season healthy.

Anyone who follows basketball muct realize that the Cs can only get better as the players play more games together. Obviously, they can’t improve a whole lot percentagewise, but they can play better basketball as they win a ton of games.

As far as bragging about your team’s recent run of success, I respect the one title, but have to bring up the fact that they have had some big playoff disappointments. Here’s a quick synopsis of the Piston’s playoffa from 2002 on, when they started this 50+ win streak.
2002 – knocked out in the second round by the Celtics (that was fun to type)
2003 – swept out of the ECF by the Nets
2004 – Championship
2005 – Conveniently scuttled the season of the rival Pacers with the help of instigator Ben Wallace, his brother and other assorted lowlifes in the stands. Lost tough seven game finals to the Spurs, who didn’t need a brawl to knock out their rival in the West.
2006 – After winning 64 games, and barely squeaking by Lebron and the Cavs, losing the ECF to the Heat.
2007 – lost EFC to a One Man Band.

To the poster who compared the Pistons to the Spurs, they have three shampionships over this time period. If I’m a Pistons fan, I see one championship and a lot of playoff disappointment.

I think I’d rather be disappointed in not making the NBA finals/winning a championship than be disappointed in not getting the #1 pick and instead getting the #5 pick in the draft.

TripleOT: “If it wasn’t for Danny Ainge facilitating the Sheed trade, these Pistons would be nothing more than a bunch of one or two time lower level all stars.”

Haha, let me see if I can find you a metal to go along with the world’s smallest violin.

The Celtics acted like that guy at the frat party who thinks that any given game of beirut is for a super bowl ring. That’s all this is.

Boney:

I basically agree. Again, “too many minutes” really means “weak bench.” The problem in the past couple of years wasn’t that, say, Tayshaun was “tired” because he had played 39 minutes instead of 33 consistently in the regular season; the problem was that in the 9 minutes he would come out of the game, Detroit would have no good sub for him and would lose ground. Heck, Detroit had pretty much the lowest-scoring bench in the whole NBA the past two years. Secondarily, in playoff games, playing all the starters for 43 minutes or more will lead to some fatigue, but the issue is you only do that if you don’t trust your bench. This year — knock on wood — seems better.

TripleOT:

Sure, Pistons fans have been disappointed in the last two years, especially last year. Heck, what NBA fan in the country didn’t watch the 2007 NBA finals and say, “how did Detroit lose to the Cavs? The Pistons would be giving the Spurs more of a series.”

But two things. First, you seem to imply some sort of weird conspiracy by Detroit players and/or fans and/or relatives of players to provoke the brawl to get an advantage over the Pacers. Do you really believe that? If so, who do you think shot JFK?

Second, despite the disappointing playoff losses and only one championship, Detroit has done better in the past five years than any NBA franchise except the Spurs. Think of the champs in that period: Lakers, Pistons, Spurs (twice), and Heat. The Lakers, like the Pistons, made it to two Finals and won one, but LA didn’t do as well as Detroit in the other years. The Heat won it all, but only got to one finals. The Cavs and Mavs got to the finals once and lost. Other good teams (including but not limited to the Suns) never even made it to the NBA finals.

So, this version of the Pistons isn’t one of the Top Five Dynasties in NBA history, but they have been better than every franchise but one in their day. And if they win it all this year, their stock should rise even more.

TripleOT, do you REALLY want to talk about lottery picks? One bad pick for Detroit among the many that the Celtics have botched since 2002 alone is a pretty bad argument to raise.

It’s not the franchise’s fault that a person in the stands threw a beer at Ron Artest, and had Artest (and stephen jackson) not run into the stands to begin punching a guy who wasn’t even involved in the beer tossing it wouldn’t be an issue now would it? It wasn’t intentionally done to ruin the Pacers’ season, I doubt Dumars held a meeting before the game said “ok, let’s pick some random guy to have him throw a beer”.

2002 makes you smile still? it’s been 5 seasons! 5 LONG seasons for your boys.

It makes me smile to see teams pop their jerseys and jump up and down and bump chests and this and that, but then Detroit goes to their locker room after winning the series in silence. As if they’ve done it before…

The bench will get better for Boston, if they continue to play well. Remember, there are players on that bench that no other team in the league wanted (House, Posey), so it’s not as if their ceiling is all that high.

As a Pistons’ fan, I enjoy seeing teams come up and try to stand up to the big bad boys.

“To the poster who compared the Pistons to the Spurs, they have three shampionships over this time period. If I’m a Pistons fan, I see one championship and a lot of playoff disappointment.”

You’re not a Pistons fan, don’t pretend to take one’s perspective.

Pistons and Spurs are the only two teams I would ever feel comfortable having real money on in this league. These two teams playoff experience over the least five years has given their fans what has been essentially an extra season’s worth of games. Watching the Pistons and Spurs continue to play through May has become so normal that it’s expected. See if Boston can replicate that over the next five seasons.

I don’t even see that team being around for more than three years. They spent a lot of money on Jesus and KG.

What’s funny to me is, none of you Boston fans want to get into talks about your team five years from now. Must be hard knowing the Pistons have a brighter outlook with the young guys they have than do the Celtics. So live it up Boston fans, the clock’s ticking…

First off, I’ve been a Celtics fan since the early 70s, so I certainly know a bit about following a championship team. And from being a Boston sports fan, I cartainly have been experiencing a lot of championships lately.

The “Bad Boy” Pistons, to me, were a third rate champion, who were shown some class and respect when they finally defeated the aging Celtics (McHale and Co. congratulating them and urging them to beat the Lakers), but didn’t have the character to show the same class when MJ and the Bulls finally vanquished them. Joe Dumars is a classy and obviously smart man, but Isiah is a piece of crap, plain and simple.

This current Pistons team certainly have to be lauded as a team oriented bunch, the first “Ensemble Cast” to win a championship in two decades (meaning a team without a dominant, Top 20 of all time player). Despite the antics of the childish Rasheed Wallace, there’s not a lot to dislike on this team (Dice coming back from a devastating injury, Chauncey perserving despite being bounced all over the league, Prince playing team oriented, defensive minded ball). The Hamilton fasemask is a little much, I guess, but if the guy is so much of a pussy that he needs to wear a quasi football helmet to play basketball, so be it. Maybe he should wear some thigh pads for those chicken bones he runs around on. The Pistons play a boring brand of basketball, without any “I’ve gotta watch this guy” players, but all in all they are a very good team.

I just don’t think they will be able to beat the Cs in the playoffs, if they meet. It will be interesting to see if they handle their de-thronement with class, or with the same old Pistons lack of class. If they take afteer the behavior of some of the fans that attend their games, the answer will be obvious.

PS: As far as the Celtics’ drafting goes, they had enough good young players to trade for the Big Ticket, and were smart enough to draft a certain gigantic second rounder named Glenn Davis, who single handedly destroyed your beloved team in one quarter of basketball.

BTW: If I rooted for a team who didn’t score ONE point in the paint in the entire second half of the biggest home game of the year against the one team with a better record, I’d be pissed.

You’re ignorance about Detroit sports history is showing. That’s to be expected from a Boston fan, but don’t presume you know as much (let alone more) than anyone here.

Re: the Pistons’ snub to the Bulls:

"The Pistons were upset because they felt the Bulls leaked information about Dennis Rodman’s personal life. Scottie Pippen made reference to it during a stop in action, which angered Rodman. Later in the game Rodman lost his composure and shoved Pippen a few rows into the seats near where Pistons owner Bill Davidson sat.

So, in the final moments of a 115-94 loss in Game 4 the Pistons walked off the court without shaking hands. Most of the Pistons would apologize for the walkout."

And for someone with a supposed sense of Celtics history, you have a selective memory:

Three years earlier, Pontiac Silverdome. The then-young Pistons had a 3-2 lead on the Boston Celtics and needed to put them away. With less than a minute remaining, the Celtics pulled that same "bitch move" that Wiley was talking about. Birdman, DJ, Ainge and the Chief all walked off the court before telling the Pistons, who endured far more heartbreak than the Bulls had. Only man that had the cojones to shake hands with the Pistons was Kevin McHale. Did anyone call the Celtics sore losers? Not to my knowledge. Did the Pistons disrespect the old guard? No record of it.

Not that I want to have to explain everything to you, but Rip’s mask is basically a necessity — he broke his nose 2-3 times in a short period of time one season, and doctors told him to wear the mask or risk “”http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/ripsmask.html" rel="nofollow">significant nasal reconstructive surgery."

As far as the Celtics drafting goes, there’s not a lot to brag about. The group that was sent to the Minnesota T’Wolves had, at best, one potential all-star among them and a bunch of add-ins that were dealt because the salaries had to line up. Gerald Green is nothing spectacular, neither is Bassy Telfair or Ryan Gomes. The true value of that trade came in the form of a fat contract that’s expiring and Al Jefferson. Plain and simple… (if we really want to get down to it, Amir Johnson who doesn’t get much run on this team put up 20 and 10 against Al Jefferson last season… but I won’t go any farther). Telfair has an almost untradeable contract, and if you paid that with Ratliff’s nightmare deal you get the pieces needed to acquire a $20 million dollar player.

I won’t go so far as to club Glen Davis either, because after the 1 great game he had against Detroit, he still hasn’t done anything. There’s a reason why he fell/slipped/ate his way to the 2nd round of the NBA draft, and it’s not because he’s talented. He is an Oliver Miller clone, and as a Celtics’ fan from the 70’s, you have seen a lot of players come and go through that system that have been better than Glen Davis. You do have to give the man credit though, he’s quickly learning how to mean mug like KG, and he sure doesn’t miss layups when the help defense leaves him open 2 ft from the basket… man, those intagibles! You wanted to jump on Dumars for his lottery pick (Darko), but I’ll say that after watching Rodney Stuckey, Amir Johnson, Cheikh Samb, and even an Arron Afflalo, I’d take all 4 of them over a Gerald Green, a Kendrick Perkins, Gabe Pruitt, Big Fatty, Ryan Gomes, Troy Bell, etc…any day of the week. All of the good guys the team has drafted have been included in trades for scrubs except the Garnett deal. I’d be more afraid of this team if you still had Joe Johnson, Ron Mercer, Acie Earl, Randy Foye, Jeff Green… of course I’m kidding about Mercer and Earl…

BTW: Since I guess I root for a team that didn’t score ONE (nice emphasis) point in the paint in the 2nd half of the biggest home game of the year, then I should be pissed right? You know why I’m not pissed? Because I know that out of all the post players on both rosters, Detroit’s big men could easily dominate the post against a soft KG, Big Fatty, Posey, Flopper Pollard, Leon Powe, etc.. It was done in the 1st game at Boston, go back and watch the tape. KG cannot guard Rasheed Wallace, I’ve said it from day one, and until KG contests Rasheed or McDyess, I’ll continue to say it.

“I’ve been a Celtics fans since the 70’s…”

I don’t remember asking and could care less.

You typed out that much and couldn’t even respond to my main point; the Pistons have a brighter furture than the Celtics who have a title contention window of about three years.

Joe D has stacked the bench with a group of players that are capable of being a strong core of layers with Maxiell, Stuckey, Afflalo, Johnson, etc…

These are all young guys with a lot of promise. Not to mention they’re being mentored by the best collective starting unit in the game. Keep hating all you want.

I brought up your CURRENT team and its future, all you could do was bring up the old Bad Boys and Bird era Celtics.

If you’re going to provide me with a reasonable rebuttal, at least respond to my criticisms of your CURRENT team. Yoo call Rip a pussy for wearing the mask, then follow that up with how you think the Pistons are a pretty good team.

You start the next paragraph with, " I just don’t think they will be able to beat the Cs in the playoffs, if they meet."

That’s all you needed to say. The shit you wasted our time with above and below that sentence wasn’t thought out and was poorly executed.

Just hope for that title this year or next year, even both, because after that, you won’t have a basketball team in Boston to be excited about for a long time.

Being a Celtics fan since the 70’s, you’d think this guy would understand that this success Boston is having will be very short-lived.

If the Bad Boys were third-rate champions, then this Celtics team will be no better than the mid-90’s Rockets (probably the most forgettable back-to-back title winners ever IMO).
 
***I’ll always love Hakeem though!

While I’m giving you the time of day, thought I might suggest refraining from calling anyone a pussy if you’re going to root for Kevin Garnett.

I guess when you root for the second best team in the East, all you can hope for is that your bench players happen to blossom into something. And if thinking that the Cs only have a three year window, and can’t use the Big Three’s salary slots to reload, you’re delusional.

I’ll check in with you folks again in March, when I’m at the Garden watching your the Cs beat these Pistons again. Enjoy you’re second best team muddle through the rest of the regular season, and keep praying that Stuckey and Co. can bring something to the picnic, because the Pistons are going to need it.

It’s easy to root for the second best team in the East when you and I both know that had Detroit won this last game, you wouldn’t even be here talking smack. You can talk what you want now that your team has 3 “big” names to go up against the competition they’ve been crushed by since 2002.

You may want to go to your fan sites though and read the drivel your kind are saying about your team’s bench before you tell us to pin our hopes on “Stuckey and Co.”.

If muddling through the season means winning 26 out of 34 games, I’ll be perfectly satisfied with that. You just keep hoping Tony Allen and Eddie House can dribble the ball across center court when your 2nd team is in… Let me know if those 2 can beat the press when you’re at the TD Banknorth Arena (not the real Garden) in March.

I love the idea that Boston’s draft picks were good enough to land KG. Only in the world of Kevin McHale, the GM that exists solely to make the Knicks organization look better than somebody.

I almost forgot about the statement about Richard Hamilton’s football helmet…

I don’t remember, so maybe someone can refresh my memory..

he’s broken his nose 2 or 3 times and if he breaks it again it could be a serious problem… so, that leads me to this question: if you were averaging 20 points a game on a title contender, wouldn’t you wear a mask too? just sayin… stick to what you know boston fans…

TripleOT, if what you’ve exhibited here is the best you can behave on other team websites maybe you should just stay off of them. You know good and well that if you baited, provoked and flamed people on CelticsBlog like you are doing over here you would get kicked off in a heartbeat.

We don’t need ambassadors like you giving Celtics fans a bad name around this fine Pistons community. Please clean your act up. Otherwise it may come back to haunt you where you live. As far as I’m concerned you need to operate over here under the same set of rules you do on CB and that starts with respecting others and being civil.

Bob,

If this is as worse as it gets, I’m sure it’s perfectly fine. It’s not perkisabeast type trash talking so…

You guys run a tight ship over at CB, it’s actually pretty cool.

yeah, i never get it when anyone, especially commentators make fun of rip for “still” wearing his mask. to me, it’s like making fun of mourning for all those kidney meds he’s still taking. i mean come on, that surgery was like five years ago, right?