Will Ben Wallace’s arrival in Cleveland lessen the rivalry between the Pistons and Cavs? The Pistons don’t think so. From the DetNews:
“We still hate Cleveland,” Lindsey Hunter said, with no trace of a smile. “We didn’t like Chicago (when Wallace was there), either. That’s just the way it is.”
Others weren’t quite so sure.
“It’s not going to be that hate relationship,” Antonio McDyess said. “It’s funny. Ben has been on every team in the East that we dislike the most. Every team he’s on, Chicago, Cleveland, is a team we really dislike. Now, if his next move is to Miami, it’s going to be even worse.”
[…]
“It’s just so different, him wearing that Cleveland uniform” McDyess said. “But you can’t hate Ben. He’s a part of us. But you know, they are going to be pumped up just for the fact that he’s on their team — no matter what. And we’re going to be pumped up just as much. So I guess it makes things a little more intense.”
Cleveland scares the hell out of me for the playoffs. That’s about all I have to say on the subject.
They scare me based on past performance, but on paper it looks like we shouldn’t have a problem. Unless they grab the three spot from Orlando, it’s a moot point.
I really had no problem with Ben in Chicago. I didn’t mind when he got traded to Cleveland until this week. First, SportsCenter had a highlight of Fred McLeod calling one of Wallace’s blocks (didn’t seem right in a Cavs game) and then yesterday Ben dunked and the Cavs played the Big Ben bell. That. Is. Not. Theirs.
True. By “Cleveland” I meant “LeBron.” He’s just been a monster closing out games this year. If there’s two minutes left, I’m not comfortable unless we’re up by 15. I could see them getting past Boston - that’s a team that doesn’t worry me at all. KG is the oldest 31 year old in the history of sports, Pierce is a head case, and then there’s gimpy Ray…
Deaf Jam: Chicago absolutely played the bell for him too. The Pistons have always been ahead of the curve in terms of the entertainment aspect in the NBA experience.
Thank god Orlando continues to hold a slim lead over Cleveland. If we get Orlando in the 2nd round, it’s a series that has NO chance of going over 6 games (barring a significant injury on our team). LeBron would push probably push us to the limit, and should certainly do so to Boston. We should be able to handle whoever emerges from the Boston-Cleveland slugfest (albeit, not swiftly). And if all goes as planned, the Lake Show will emerge from the West, and I’ll be at the Staples Center for Game 5 (might we finish them as soon as Game 4, perhaps?) to bask in the Pistons’ 4th NBA Title.
Shinons: I was watching Atlanta-Boston yesterday, and Atlanta had a solid 5 point lead in the 3rd until Ray drilled back-to-back treys. Atlanta looked pretty crushed, and Boston went on to win. He is fragile, but that guy can shoot the proverbial lights out.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to who wants it more.
I agree with Shinons. I want no part of LeBron in the playoffs. Right now I’m estimating that the offense goes through LeBron 65% of the time. When the playoffs come around that should ramp up to 90% of the time in first halves and 99.99% of the time in second halves (and 110% in the final 5 minutes.)
I’m very OK with letting Boston “take care of” the Cleveland LeBrons in the 2nd round.
Wallace can be scary now for Cleveland as soon as Z comes back from injury, since all he will have to do is rebound and hustle(negative aspects of your game tend to get intensified when you are the highest paid player on a team). I think Joe Smith is the key guy in that trade. If he’s hitting midrange jumpers with consistency, and Gibson, Sasha, and Wally are all catching fire, that’s just a very hard team to beat when you’ve got the best late-game closer in the league(sorry Kobe).
Screw being afraid of ANYONE. After two disappointing years it’s time for this team to prove itself. Bring on Cleveland. If we can’t beat that sorry excuse for a one-man team, better to find out now and start rebuilding.
LB - don’t ever say injured again. you might upset some unknown basketball god who forgot we are having a great season…
About cleveland - i already hated that team before but now that they have even more mindless role players as rebounders and 3 point shooters than i hate them even more. The only guy i liked there was drew gooden and now he’s gone as well. I hope that in case we do meet them come playoff time that we play a much more physicial game than they can handle and show them some bad boy attitudes
LB: (re Palace/entertainment comment) is it my imagination, or is Mason now working in half the arenas in the league? Seems that way lol…
They’re even getting into the act on SportsCenter. Saw a video of Chauncey hitting a three, and the announcer goes, “Ba-ba-ba-ba-billups!!!”
I’m not that worried about Boston either, how many rings on that team? Cleveland will be a tougher challenge, but we match up better since the trade.
What sucks is that, if Cleveland overtakes Orlando, we could be looking at an opening round series against the vastly improved Nets while Cleveland gets yet another easy sweep in Washington.
Ohad - how could you like Gooden?!? He’s the only guy I really hated, especially when he’d talk smack. Saying stuff like “All I know is that we keep beating those guys.” after a preseason game with us. When the real season game came we smacked them back into reality… of course that was the game LeBron hurt his hand stayed out the entire second half.
It irks me when a guy thinks he’s better than what he is, has a teammate that’s all universe and is the only reason they are not a top 3 lottery team, then talks junk. Give me a break.
Oh yeah… plus that stupid beard. Stephenson’s beard looks terrible, but Gooden’s looks down right ridiculous.
I’m actually looking forward to seeing Cleveland in the post season this year. We’ve got two “new” players in our rotation that would never let this happen again: Maxiell and Amir. Last series against Cleveland, I was a damned broken record about getting Maxiell in the rotation… we had ZERO energy in the frontcourt, he was the obvious solution.
I’m glad we’ve got two late season games against Cleveland– this will give us to get our chess match in order.
The last game against them probably won’t amount to much basketball-wise, since it’s the last of the season, but if the team has any chance of screwing them over seeding-wise, I’d be all for a beatdown.
I’d really like the standings to stay celts, pistons, magic, cavs. Cavs will tire out a probably already a bit tired Celts. Take any advantage we can get
I’m tired of trying to dodge bullets in playoffs, I will be happy if we face a challenge in the first round for once, maybe that will prevent us from going into a complacency slump deep in the playoffs (particularly in the ECF). I think this team is already becoming better than the teams we had the past 2 years and I think we are a better team than the Cavs, Celtics, and Bulls and need to start proving it instead of playing down to their level.
We might see Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. Lebron is the only player in the league who can flat out carry a team in a series. Sorry, Kobe. That finals team may have been the worst roster to ever reach a Championship Series. This year the Cavs have been DECIMATED by injuries and they’re still going to make a run at winning 50 games. Maybe it’s just a reflection of the Eastern conference but any team that draws Cleveland will have their hands full with LBJ. The guy is a walking triple double.
It’s pretty likely the Pistons will get to the finals again but I’d rather go through Boston. Free Walter!!!!!
Brad - l’m ignoring his mouth and watching his double-doubles. i might be wrong statistically here but still… he plays better and more stable than Z and got half the recognition for it. plus unlike varejao he doesn’t flip flop every time sheed comes next to him
This is OT, but DAY-UM:
This Chris Webber debacle in the Bay is becoming almost comical. C-Webb started again last night in Golden State’s win over Portland, but disappeared after the first few minutes. Seriously, he only played 8 minutes all night. We’re at a point where Austin Croshere is clearly a better player than Webber, and the team is visibly worse when he’s on the floor. We can’t think of a reason why the Warriors shouldn’t pull the plug …
From Dime Magazine’s Smack today.
Cleveland is a good team.
For me to Poop on.
Fel,
I almost had my bagel come out of my nose when I read your comment. Comedy is all about timing and as I was scrolling down the page, I only saw your first line….bite of bagel….look up and see “for me to poop on”…bagel tries to escape through my nose. Nicely played.
Onto the serious business, I would prefer we beat Cleavland on our way to the Finals. We had to put MJ in his place a few years in a row, I see no reason not to do the same with norBeL. His sense of entitlement for foul calls is only rivaled by Kobe or any of the Spurs or MJ at any point in his career.
I think Hermann will be a valuable defensive presence come playoff time. He is a spaz on defense, but could throw someone off their game for a bit.
The reality of the situation is that we will go as far as our starting five is going to take us, especially Sheed and Tayshaun. If Sheed stays focused, doesn’t whine about calls (that applies for all of them, pretty much) and gets a little mad, we can be dangerous. The bench will feed off Sheed. Playing the bench now with a few of the starters mixed in sometimes is the right way to do it.
Ohad - I will say he is better than I gave him credit for. yes, he was probably their second best player. But man there’s such a drop. We’ll see if he can keep up his stats when people aren’t triple or quadruple teaming one of his teammates. I say, at best, he’s an average 3rd option on a good team… or a very bad second option on a bad team.
i would love not seeing the cleveland lebrons in the playoffs at all, because of the fact that nobody on our team can guard this guy.. seriously, i love tayshaun, but lebron is physically to strong for him … who else can guard a sf jarvis hayes? i mean, come on.. walter? we will never know.
that was the reason for all these shawn marion trade rumors
marion and bruce bowen are the only guys capable of guarding him
if we face cleveland, it would be the best to knock the sh** out of him … max, amir and theo should do this
I am a huge fan of the “KTSOOH” defense on LeBron. I was so mad last year in the playoffs when Sheed, Dyess, and Tayshaun wouldn’t challenge his drives because they were scared of being dunked on. I kept begging for Flip to put in Maxiel (or even DD) just to put a hard “KTSOOH” foul on his ass. When I realized Flip wasn’t going to change anything about the failing defense I began praying to the heavens above that I could somehow be subbed in for one play to put LBJ on his ass before being ejected. Bad Boy style. Just typing this and rehashing the memories are making me furious! We should have signed Lambieer instead Ratliff for this reason alone.
I don’t wanna think about last year. I drank whisky for the first time in ages after that game. I got so sick offa booze and tears… Then I had to teach a class where one of the texts was on Jordan… ugh.
I know the sentiment is that we don’t want to face the LeBron’s in the second round, but lets face it, if the stones are to win it all, they will have to beat a western conference team. Take for exapmle the Lakers, they may very well have a series against Denver, one against Dallas, then one against San Antonio. Any team that makes it through the west will be challenged every step of the way.
When we sit around hoping for the path of least resistence we will witness another playoff streak where the team plays with complacency, which has defeated us the past two years.
So, I’ve done a little research and calculated our starting lineups average age and mpg over the last 7 seasons(including this season… which is every season we’ve finished with 50+ wins) I found some interesting facts.
- We won our title with the youngest lineup(26.6) during that stretch.
- presently we have our fielding our oldest starting lineup(30.6) during that stretch
- Our best record(64-18) came when we fielded our 3rd youngest team(28.6), but second highest mpg(35.36)
- Our finals loss(game seven, if you remember) came when we played our highest mpg(36.3)… and fielded our second youngest team(27.6)
I don’t know exactly what this all means, but younger and less mpg seems to be better. Here’s the stats so you guys can examine them:
Year Record Age MPG Final standing
07-08 43-16 30.6 32.54 ????
06-07 53-29 29.8 34.32 ECF loss
05-06 64-18 28.6 35.36 ECF loss
04-05 54-28 27.6 36.30 Finals loss
03-04 54-28 26.6 34.42 Championship
02-03 50-32 29.6 31.54 ECF loss
01-02 50-32 29.8 31.94 ECSF loss
I’m not worried about the Lebrons at all.
Drew Gooden really hurt us with crucial points and kick-backs to bron. Now they have Ben…so, I’ll take his 7 points and 40% free throws against Gooden’s double doubles.
The best pickup for them was Delonte West, and we all know what Chauncey does to undersized PGs…(i.e. Jameer Nelson). Wally is okay, but they still don’t have ONE shooter I’m afraid of.
Last year, we played flat and were out-coached. I sincerely doubt either of those things are going to be repeated.
I can hate Ben!
“Wally is okay, but they still don’t have ONE shooter I’m afraid of.”
Wally shoots better than 40% from three, and has been putting them up since he has joined the LeBrons.