Ian is doing the leg work for the post, coming up with the best analogy I’ve heard yet about this series in the comments of Thursday’s game thread:
You know how — as a kid of the ’80s — sometimes you’d think you pressed pause on the awkward Nintendo controller during Mike Tyson’s Punchout…
and say you were fighting Glass Joe at the time…
But you didn’t really pause the game — it played on. So while you were a) funnelling Kool Aid, b) talking on the phone, or c) destroying a Micro Magic cheeseburger, Glass Joe was having his way with helpless Little Mac?
You know how when you came back to the game, Little Mac had already been knocked down once and his energy level was way down? And maybe he was doing that weird glowing/heaving thing?
You know what I’m talking about?
Well, when you came back to the game, you didn’t press reset, did you? I mean, you were fighting Glass Joe for godsakes. You just grabbed the controller and beat the hell out of him for the remainder of the fight.
And, of course, you probably still won by TKO (or, “eee aaaa uuuu,” in Nintendo refspeak) just as you would have had you succeeded in pressing pause in the first place.
Well the Bulls are obviously Glass Joe (or “Glass Psyche,” in the present case), and the Pistons just beat the hell out of them. My guess is that we’ll still see the TKO.
Mind you, that gem came before Detroit’s comeback was complete, but that makes his point even more poignant — as soon as Detroit started trying, everyone knew the outcome.
If you’re coming into this without any frame of reference, let me fill you in real quick: Detroit was colder than cold in the first half — a combination of poor shooting and good defense by the Bulls resulted in Detroit scoring a pathetic 28 points. Twenty-eight! For the half! Chicago brought a 16-point lead into halftime, perhaps thinking the game was in the bag.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, something happened during halftime. After a little bit of back and forth to start the third quarter, the Pistons started their comeback from what had grown into a 19-point deficit. Tayshaun Prince scored eight points during an impressive 12-0 run by Detroit, and on the heels of a Rasheed Wallace trey at the buzzer, the Pistons entered the final quarter down only one point.
The next 12 minutes were something of a formality because by then it should have been obvious what was about to transpire: the Pistons turned up the heat defensively, and with the Bulls in full-fledged panic mode (they shot just 16% in the final period), Detroit cruised to a seven-point victory.
(Not to be greedy, but I was actually mildly disappointed with the final score: I was rooting for double-digits just for the sheer hilarity of it all, but unfortunately Luol Deng scored three points on a layup and a free three with three seconds left. But hey, I’ll take it.)
There’s nothing too pretty in the box score — Chris Webber was held without a single point and the bench provided all of five points. But for the second night in a row, Tayshaun led the team in scoring with 23 points and 11 boards. Rasheed scored 16 with 11 boards and five blocks, and Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups combined for 37.
Those four carried the Pistons, and it was impressive how evenly the work was distributed: they each attempted between 15 and 18 field goals, and they each played between 40 and 45 minutes.
Collectively, the team shot just 39.5% … but the Bulls managed just 33.7%. Chicago also out-rebounded Detroit 60-43, with four of their five starters grabbing double-digit boards. Luol Deng led the way with 21 points and 14 boards. Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich finished with 16 and 13 points, respectively, but it took a combined 31 shots for it to happen — not exactly the epitome of efficiency. Ben Wallace, who will be fined by Skiles for arriving to the arena 15 minutes late, finished with a pedestrian five points and 12 boards.
This was an ugly game, and it puts Chicago in an 0-3 hole from which no NBA team has ever pulled itself out of to win a series in 81 tries. I keep telling myself that Chicago is better than this, and part of me still believes they are, but at this point it doesn’t really matter: Detroit needs just one win in their next four to advance, and at the going rate, it seems inevitable they’ll close things out on Sunday.
Just for kicks — it’s practically a tradition now — here’s our nightly “watch Andres Nocioni get smoked on a dunk” highlight, this time featuring Tayshaun Prince, who just barely edged out Jason Maxiell (thanks, Tim!):
Pistons 81, Chicago 74 box score [ESPN]
GameFlow [PopcornMachine.net]
Punch Out! [YouTube]
I like the arcade version of this with the announcer:
“Body blow, body blow, left, left, uppercut … KNOCKOUT!”
WTF is the deal with game 4 being on SUNDAY??
Great analogy!
On a side note, the obvious disappointment in Mike Breen’s voice during the Pistons’ comeback was a little hard to swallow. It was like:
(Ben Gordon Makes a Shot)
“Ben Gordon, falling away, BANG! BANG! BEN GORDON NAILS ANOTHER ONE!”
(Chauncey Billups Makes a Shot)
“There’s Chauncey Billups, it’s good.” (sounding like someone had pissed in his vanilla ice cream)
Shame on ESPN. Shame!
The Pistons playoff games have been on TNT most of the way. I enjoy most every minute of TNT’s coverage - even when Reggie Miller is reminded of Tayshaun’s block, and Reggie STILL claims, on air, that it was a foul (something about off-glass / goaltending this time). Nobody really gets to me on TNT’s broadcasts. One of Orlando Sentinel’s beat writers wrote an article about TNT’s coverage being laughable because they didn’t want to discuss Detroit and Orlando in favor of the upcoming Kobelakers game that night . . . that was kind of funny to read. When Charles Barkley dogs the Pistons, most people who watch enough of Charles realize they’re about entertainment in that studio.
TNT’s coverage . . . I wish they had quality coverage and studio teams like TNT has . . . for the NFL. Nobody comes close for network coverage in the NFL . . . maybe NBC’s fledgling coverage, or CBS’s coverage . . . nothing really comes close. I wish they’d make DVD volumes of the TNT NBA studio sessions. They’re almost always gems, even when Charles would rather be at the de la Hoya / Merriweather fight.
Totally agree on ESPN coverage: just terrible and Mark Jackson as an announcer? He’s garbage - very few intelligent comments to make to the game. And I feel a hate crime coming on every time ESPN switched to the “dangling” courtside camera.
In other news, I did enjoy that little segment with Rip and Chauncey (during the 1st quarter) where the two dish on each other, e.g., Chaucey “politicking” in the crowd, Rip freestylin in the locker room, or Billups eating whatever he wants before the games… cheeseburgers, wings, chocolate chip cookies, etc. No babies, though. Babies are for Maxiell.
And the truly funny thing is — as an astute Deadspin commenter has pointed out — I don’t think you can pause Mike Tyson’s Punchout during a fight; you’d just be using one of your stars.
Anywhoo, I think you got the point of the analogy.
I can’t believe you guys left out the fact that one of the tougher dudes in the arcade version was named Piston Hurricane.
Piston Honda . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Punch-Out!!_boxers#Piston_Honda
Congrats on taking the series. But let’s go back to that Thomas/Maxiell point. The Bulls took control of the game with Thomas in at the 4 and lost it with the combination of Nocioni and Brown. Not a coincidence. Thomas is the real deal. How much better Thomas gets in the off season and how comfortable Skiles gets leaving him in the game are the keys to next season.
Andrew, Thomas was getting his after the game was already at hand. He hasn’t done anything in this series when it actually mattered.
Sauce - like I said, the arcade version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch-Out%21%21
Apologies, LanierFan.
Just in case you may not have known this already but you can play ANY nintendo game ever played. Including Mike Tysons’ Punch Out!! At http://www.everyvideogame.com
What is with this new camera angle, i can’t see half the game
This would be a great analogy…but there was no pause function in that game.
Bulls in 7
I was wondering when I would read “bulls in 7.” HA!
Anyone else here the need4sheed shout out from Blaha early in the game?
Bulls in several years, if they’re lucky.
And yeah, that was a nice Blaha moment. I remember.
fel: I did, and in fact meant to mention that in the recap — that was pretty sweet.
* Beating the Bulls for a third game in a row: Awesome.
* Getting tickets to game four here in chicago: Awesome.
* Seeing some random dude in a bar after game three wearing a “Maxiell Eats Babies” t-shirt: Priceless.
DBB is famous here in Chicago!
Mike P: That’s awesome — you just made my weekend!
Honestly, it was priceless– a buddy of mine (and fellow DBB reader) called me aside: “you MUST see that guy’s shirt”. I walked over, was blown away, and felt like I was running into a long lost friend. Its a small world…
Game 3 will go down as an especially memorable moment in my 20-plus years as a Pistons fan.
See, on Wednesday, my wife gave birth to our first child (a baby boy named Kael) here in Lancaster, Pa. On Thursday night, Kael was with Mom for the dreadful first half of Game 3, but a couple minutes into the second half he began sleeping in my left arm. Lo and behold, it’s like he was a good-luck charm — when I started holding him in that hospital room as I watched the game, the rally began. I didn’t let the nurses take him back to the nursery for the night until the comeback was complete.
Years down the road when the kid has been (hopefully) indoctrinated as a Pistons fan, it’ll be neat to tell him about his “first” Pistons game.
I had to get on here and relay my experience to a group of sports fans who would certainly appreciate it.
That is a really cool story, PAPiston!
i’m assuming his middle name is tay, sheed, chauncey, and rip. especially rip since coatesville isn’t that far from lancaster.
p.s. papiston, keep your newborn far away from jason maxiell. for obvious reasons.