Yesterday’s game was a pretty good vindication of Flip’s benching of Ben in the playoffs. His shooting is a terrible burden at times, and it won’t get better for the Bulls.

PS: How about that Prince block on the Deng breakaway?

I would say that this Bulls team reminded me of the 2k2 and 2k3 Pistons, but then again the Bulls have a lot more talent than “Uncle Spliffy’s” Pistons team from those 2 years. I guess the only comparison is that the Bulls are a “Rasheed Wallace” pick away from dominating the Eastern Conference. They play well as a team, they’ve got a solid point guard with a stud shooting guard and up and coming small forward. They’ve got Ben Wallace down low to help on D… wait a minute, they do remind me of the 2k3 Pistons (Billups who was relatively unknown at the time, Rip Hamilton, Tay, Ben) compare to (Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Deng, Ben…)… Maybe Gasol wasn’t the answer, but they need a low post presence that can play solid D.

As a Pistons’ fan though, I hope that the albatross contract Ben signed restricts their growth from becoming a power while Detroit gradually circles out the old and brings in fresh meat to keep this run going.

Well, that’s how great teams win in any sport — don’t make mistakes and take advantage of the other team’s mistakes. KISS.

Maxey and Tayshaun were the heroes today when it mattered, along with C-Webb being in position to win the game. Lady Luck was on our side today, as Gordon’s open shot could have easily gone down. But a great game; a comeback to savor. Give credit to Flip Saunders as well; he flipped all the right switches today in the 4th.

Detroit shot terribly from the field in the first half, yet still kept themselves within range by being aggressive and getting to the free throw line. When the third quarter started it’s almost as if Detroit never made it out of the tunnel coming out of halftime.

They turned on the defense and cut down the open looks for the Bulls from mid to the end of the 3rd quarter. They kept the run going because they had the Bulls on the run throughout the 4th quarter. Even Hubie said it right around the 7 minute mark of the 3rd quarter… “You can’t let this team get it to within 5 points by the end of the 3rd quarter”… what happened? they cut it to 2 at the end of the 3rd and then they both played pretty equal in the 4th.

It took the energy of Maxiell and Tayshaun in the 4th to “preserve” the win. I hate to say it, but if Sheed had played significant minutes in the 4th, Detroit would have lost the game.

The Bulls lost the game with their 5 technical free throws (I believe 3 illegal d, 1 scott skiles, and 1 ben wallace). The Bulls lost the game when Skiles decided to leave Duhon on Tay. The Bulls lost the game whenever Gordon wasn’t in the game. The Bulls lost the game by Ben Wallace being aggressive on the block about mid-way through the 4th that caused him to go to the line and hit 2-8 from the free throw line.

Detroit won the game because they took advantage of all of the above paragraph’s situations. It’s not Detroit’s fault that the Bulls couldn’t keep their foot on the Pistons’ necks. It’s not Detroit’s fault that Ben Wallaces’ missed free throws down the stretch helped them secure a victory for once…

It was an ugly win, but you can’t win them all pretty. Detroit is something like 14-4 with Webb in the lineup, that’s not bad. All of us here always look at the negative in our boys because they were near perfect last season. They’ve been the toast of the Eastern Conference for the last 6 years… They’ve been on the pedestal for years, and they’re a target for doubters to continue to throw darts at. The reason why San Antonio and Detroit continue to “dissapoint” is because they don’t play superstar basketball. I hope to all hell that Detroit plays either San Antonio or Dallas in the Finals this year… and I hope that when/if Detroit ever does fall back to mediocrity (teal era) that it’s the young Bulls they played today that come together and take over the Eastern Conference just like it was back in the Early ’90s…

It was nice to see Tay play today. He and the Baby Eater with 3 blocks each were awesome! It also seemed he was looking for his shot a lot more, or maybe it was just that the matchup was better? Hope Sheed’s ankle isn’t too gimpy, but since they don’t play until Friday, he’ll have time to get it in shape.

I really like listening to Hubie Brown call a game. He is 102 and still shows excitement like a new fan. Love it.

All in all, we pretty much saw the entire season today: Detroit played horribly at times, and then they went long stretches where they were completely on top of their games. But still, this was one of the more entertaining games we’ve seen all year.

They had a good win over the Wiz the other night, but the Wiz don’t play D.

Good game by both teams, Detroit didn’t play good enough to deserve the win, but they pulled it out. Good veteran teams always pull out wins like this..

At the end of the 1st Half:

They shot 33% to the Bulls 57%
They’ve been out rebounded: 24-16
The Bulls have moved the ball better. 12 ast to 9

The only thing keeping it close is the free throws.

Lets hope the second half the Pistons show up.