The Pistons are going for the knockout punch tonight in Philly. Ball tips in just a few (TV20 and TNT) — leave your thoughts in the comments.
A Detroit Pistons blog
The Pistons are going for the knockout punch tonight in Philly. Ball tips in just a few (TV20 and TNT) — leave your thoughts in the comments.
Let’s do it. Keep your foot on their neck and don’t let up, Detroit.
That’s a good start. Dalembert looks ridiculous. By God, I hope the Pistons don’t resort to that to feel good about themselves.
RIP TAKING IT TO BONEY!!!!
Hell YES. You can’t ask for a better start than that.
I love that we’re letting Willie Green get whatever he wants. And the Philly fans have already turned on their guys.
O snap sheed.
we’re really tearing up the nets. I hope this continues so we can build a big lead and let the bench get some burn.
“thats an assist for chauncey right there”…. thanks marv
Good call Mo, Jason Smith will solve your problems.
Get gameplan coaches. If said it before and ill say it again–Before its all said and done Flip will be an all time great. The mans a genius!
I’m afraid to “blog” because I don’t want to contribute to a negative and spiteful atmosphere.
good god. i just saw the score. fast start would be putting it mildly.
RIP IN THE FACE OF SMITH AND BONEY!!!
garrett, you such a ************ ******* ****************!
Am I wrong for wanting it to always be like this?
This is beautiful. Philly has more TOs than FG’s! 5:3
JackDutch: The only thing that would have made that comment better is if your name was BallzD33p.
I’m trying to get SOPCast to work but no go! Anyone have a working link to the game?
Awww yeah! Just got it to work! Channel 50662!
3 more like that, boys. Don’t let ‘em get a single breath of air.
I wonder… Do the masks have to be clear? Or can you paint it with some cool take on the logo like in hockey? Opening day next year everyone on the team wears a mask for a quarter. Mask give away night, RIP sweat included!
McDyess with the beautiful non-defense!
Billups and Rip with 2 fouls each. Stuckey and Afflalo will have to hold the fort.
I love Afflalo’s defense!
garrett: hahahaha. i think the fact that the dude’s name was ballzd33p might have short-circuited buzz’s brain.
I nominate Afflalo for the 2003 Tayshaun Prince award.
I cant believe no one helped Tay on that double.
any online feeds for this one? Stuck at work
Don’t get careless boys
Ugh come on Zoo Crew…
Am I lagging on the SOPCast feed? I’ve got 8 minutes left, and the score is 34-22.
Stuckey!
interesting lineup
Stuckey can hit 3’s! That makes him dangerous.
It must be because im wearing my stuckey jersey… ill have to wear it every game.
What SOPcast channel are you on Garrett?
We are really active and making smart decisions on D tonight.
Nevermind, it’s just about 45-90 seconds behind live tv. I was testing it out compared to my live TNT HD here.
Steve: 50662!
Ball don’t lie.
Sheed needs a hug
o shnikies… chauncey
Buh-Buh-Buh-Billups
this cougar stuff is pretty funny
This performance pleases us. We are pleased with JMax and Rip. Continue playing well, Detroit.
Haha! The Rob G Collective is pleased. Well done, Pistons.
Oh, God yes. Oh, yes. Maxiell is good at “dunking” the basketball.
Great Basketball tonight, lets not lose this lead and smash them the rest of the way.
If anyone has ever seen a good dogfight (and I have, believe you me), there’s a long time where the outcome is uncertain. Ears get nipped off, throats slashed, and legs crippled on both sides. But there comes a moment when you just see the spirit leave one dog, and the other dog stands tall. This game is that moment, and the Sixers is that whimpering dog.
Get out the burlap sack.
Bring on Orlando!
(I’m kidding about all this; dogfighting is amoral. However, I am relieved that we won this series.)
I’m so sorry I didn’t go to this game. I should have, I have no excuses.
“Wesley Snipes in ‘Blade Runner’”?
What the hell is Doug Collins talking about?
Where is everybody? Sure is quiet up in here considering we just advanced to round 2!
Keegan - I think he meant “Blade,” the vampire movie. And that crack about $15 million in back taxes was hi-larious!
There isn’t enough to complain about right now.
Boney! Rip is KILLING you!
He had a mowhawk ‘Demolition Man,’ right?
BEAUTIFUL pump fake and step-in for the jumper by Rip.
This is clearly our game. Dice’s mask falls off, we get late in the shot clock, and we still nail the J. Bad-arse.
Awesome toughness. I like these Pistons.
Dude, we look good. After game one, I was one urging caution and saying we needed to wait and see and not over-react and panic. Then I jumped on the Fire Flip bandwagon with both feet at halftime of game 4. So, yeah, that worked out well for me. I’ll now take my medicine from the Flip Apologists (sarcasm)
Are we talking about this: http://www.movieactors.com/freezes1/DemolitionMan38.jpeg
Im going to have to agree that its sad that there are so few posters tonight. My guess is that most pistons fans are like the pistons… they new they were going to win so didnt bother to show up. Seriously… im not really sure why… maybee because many people are only motivated to write when they need to vent.
What are the odds on the Sixers making a lot of noise next year?
I would say about the same as this year. Det. Clev. Boston and even orlando are all still gonna be there.
On the lack of posters: I have stayed away from DBB during the bad games because it gets a bit repetitive (fire Flip! trade Rip!), but understandable given our high expectations.
I’m hoping we can hold them under 70, make this game a REAL statement.
Never have I been so happy to be wrong. Lets hope they prove me wrong against Orlando. That is a tougher matchup than people may think.
Yeah - the stones handled Orlando well initially, but the Magic did beat ‘em in some well-fought games. Plus there’s this Superman guy…
Can we just establish now and forevermore that the words “trade rip” equate to “I am a freaking moron” ?
g - no. There’s a point to it, which is valid. He has high trade value and it would not surprise me if he is traded next year.
Whoa, I walked away for a minute and now we’re up 28.
Also, nice fade from Rasheed back in the day. That is a bitchin haircut.
EMPTY THE BENCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rob. Im sorry man im that guy. not on the rip front but I am a flip hater. The last two games have made me like him a little more… but I think he got a lot of help when Igoudala broke Dice’s nose. He got a rallying cry and a reason to start Jmax. I don’t think ill start to really warm to flip until he out coaches Doc rivers out of the proverbial wet paper sack. Or a title. I mean flip’s not toatally awful but as a pistons fan I’ve come to have really high expectations.
I always like reading the good and the bad. Everyone here is articulate enough to keep things fun and interesting, even if it does get a bit repetitive. This is why blogs rule and newspapers can eat it — community.
Garrett - hear, hear! This blog gets my custom for that reason. That said, it doesn’t hurt to walk away once in a while.
Is Amir the first bionic pogostick-leg man? Did you see him jump over that dude?
I went to one of those orlando games…. don’t for a second think they can’t beat us. That said I think we should smoke them five, but realistically I would guess in six.
I don’t think rip has a really high trade value. Seems to me when you trade away a guy like rip you tend to get hosed. We don’t have a SG in waiting either.
I guess because I’m not able to be here all the time I get spared some of the monotony.
Imagine what amir, stuckey, and afflalo will be able to do after another year of seasoning…. makes me drool.
All depends on the focus…. Im really hoping that Game 4 Halftime talk was a turning point for this team.
Can the 76ers score 10 points in less than 7 minutes? -ponders the situation-
speaking of development… any news on the guy who is pouring weight gain 10,000 down sambs throat?
Jason: I’m just sayin’, Rip is the most likely to go if there’s a big move, hence the “trade rip” talk. It’s not irrational.
That arena is empty…such a shame.
Jason, I really think we could play Stuckey major minutes at the 2 about halfway through next season. The problem is that there’s nobody to run the second unit if he’s starting unless Joe D has something up his sleeve. I also think Rip has a high trade value, and that’s the only reason I’d want to part with him.
Anyway, let’s hope all this talk is unnecessary.
The Pistons= Uncle Phil
The Sixers= Jazzy Jeff
It is a shame, Diablo. They have a great team - why so fickle?
+1 for the Fresh Prince reference.
PP! Awesome! - http://youtube.com/watch?v=h8iHcJwiJys&feature=related
I had to keep it old school Philly since everyone else in the media was during the series
NO! They have 69 points with 4 minutes left!
And Amir with the slam!
Tay this series: 44-67 (66%)
Past 4 games including tonight: 32-41 (78%)
MVP of the series!
Amir is quietly playing really well here in mop up duty.
Agreed. Great to see Compton Slim put together a dominant series.
McDyess was the MVP………of heart. *tear*
*starts a slow clap*
^ I almost put something just like that after my MVP comment.
Seriously, I don’t want to think where we would be right now without that broken nose.
here here on tay being the MVP of the series!
Man, this series felt like it took forever to finish. I give much respect to the 76ers for fighting with all they had and thankful, they gave the Pistons a wake-up call that will hopefully give us a boost the rest of the way in the playoffs.
OMG JACK JUST PROPOSED TO KATE WTF
Oh, sorry. Flipped to Lost.
Lesson learned: if I gotta get my nose busted to get my (organization/company/club) fired up, I must do it. Damn. A painful lesson.
Nice 11 minutes by Amir
Its nice to see that Flip now has playing more facing the basket.
5 for 5 for 10 points and 6 boards.
Garrett - you bitch! dude! why blow that? man! I’m Tivoing that and am helplessly addicted to that improbable soap opera! God damn it! Why? Why blow that for me? Jesus Christ in a Chicken Basket! Why? WHY?!?!?!
Rob G: That would be phenomenal if you applied that to a business. Like, if you were an accountant or something, and you had to get your employees stoked for doing taxes before the deadline.
“I BROKE MY GOD DAMN NOSE AND I’M HERE COLLATING DATA! STEP IT UP, FOLKS!”
For the love of God! Don’t spoil it! why don’t you just kick me in the nuts?
Rob G: Did I say proposed? I meant…………shot and killed. Sorry dude.
FYI, Game 1 against the Magic will be Saturday, 7:30 PM on TNT.
Garrett: that’s the best comment of the night.
And our fearless DBB leader weighs in! what preview goodness do you have in store for us for round 2, Matt W?
This will be a difficult series.
We need to shut down their 3 point game or they will take the series.
good thing we’re kinda good at defending the three ball.
We are one of the better teams in the league in defending it.
true
Flip needs to play Amir when Julian Wright comes in.
lol@ Tim Duncan talking about emotions…..
I think as long as we can keep Dwight from getting 20/20’s, the rest of our guys can neutralize theirs and we should be okay.
I’m hoping, praying that Flip just got the message that Amir just sent him: play me over Ratliff.
The two games that they beat us during the year they shot 47% on their three points shots.
Mike P: not so fast. we need a big dude against Dwight, and tho I loves me some Amir, he ain’t the answer.
Dwight Howard is irrelevant.
We aren’t going to stop him.
We need to shut down their outside game. That is all that there is to it.
I’d put Sheed on Dwight and focus on bodying up so he can’t get any rebounds. Either that or Maxiell. Chase Dwight and put a body on him every time the ball leaves someone’s hands. Put Tayshaun on Lewis and Rip on Hedo and let Chauncy abuse Jameer.
“Irrelevant” isn’t quite the word. More like, “Dwight Howard is like a monster living in the woods on the edge of the village, who will eat his fair share of villagers, but as long as you stay out of the woods, you’ll be fine, so worry more about other things.”
Rob G, naturally you put Ratliff on Howard. But in the series you just closed, there should never have been a question. I’m hoping Amir quelled that.
Yeah, I think the key is not letting Turkgolu and Lewis get off from 3. Not that Lewis has been particularly good this year (watch: now he’ll kill us). Offensively Billups has to carry over his performance from the last couple games and we should be good. I’m not particularly concerned with that, he should abuse Nelson.
Also: WOOOOOOOOOOO!! for the Wings. I love watching the Avs get buried like this.
Also, we outplayed Orlando from behind the arc in all four games last season, quite significantly as well. They don’t have grant hill now, and they picked up Lewis– which changes that dynamic. I think we’re still well matched to defend the arc and the paint, across the board.
Wonder what the scouting report is on this Mo Evans guy?
This is random and not relevant, but today’s Amir Johnson’s birthday. Three years in the league and the guy’s finally old enough to buy a beer.
I don’t know about the “let’s let Dwight get his” stuff. I don’t particularly want him scoring 40 on 80% shooting. I think Charles is right that you have to double him some, especially when he puts the ball on the floor. He’s not at the Duncan/Shaq passing out of double teams level yet. And it’s easy to throw it to Rashard when you’re getting doubled on the catch. Different off the bounce.
Should be fun!
And as an aside, how franchise altering was it for Orlando to take Howard instead of Okafor? I remember that not being clear cut, but wow, that would have been more costly than our Darko pick.
Thaddeus Young about Jason Maxiell, pre-game to Hank Abbott:
“He’s a banger. He likes to rebound. As far as trying to box out — he’s harder. He’s crazy. He’s like crazy crazy. He’s good crazy, though. He’s not trying to hurt you. He’s competitive, like we are. He wants to win.”
He’s like crazy crazy (the first crazy was emphasized). I love it.
Crazy crazy. Crazy crazy. I like it.
Jmax with the Flight of the Night! It’s wonderful that we can depend on him for dominating jamz…
We will need a whole lot of crazy come saturday. More importantly we need for billups to continue to dominate nelson.
Holy Red Wings… look like we’ve got the complete Trifecta for Detroit sports tonight, everyone.
Franzen has 7, yes SEVEN, goals in this series - and this is only the 4th game!
One thing Abbott brought up, and I’ve been wondering - with all the talk about Curry as a new head coach hire somewhere, why aren’t people talking about Terry Porter? I gotta believe someone is looking to hire him.
Best quote all night: “Here’s a chess analogy: I think one thing you have to deal with, when you play Detroit, is that Tayshaun Prince (let’s call him a bishop) will take your queen. He will pretty much neutralize, all series long, whichever star Detroit wants to neutralize. Andre Iguodala is like Philly’s queen in this series. He can be great, but he is rattled. He isn’t doing much of anything efficiently. That hurts.” - Abbott
I think we can all agree this game was won by the staff. Sure the Pistons are the better team but its clear Flip has used this series to tune up the starters and get them primed for the run. We are truly in the presence of greatness. Thank you Flip, thank you so very much.
Keegan needs a napkin for his mouth after laying his head in Rip Hamilton’s lap all game.
Christ Keegan, I never said the guy was a horrible player. I just said I didn’t like his game, it doesn’t mean I don’t respect the guy. I mean, what’s not to like about a guy who is 6′7 that can barely dunk the basketball?
Just because this team beat a 7 seed (in 6) doesn’t mean that they still don’t have their flaws (Rip dribbling too much, Flip being outcoached by Jim Lynam and he’s not the head coach of the 6ers, etc). When the offense is clicking (Game 5 and 6) this team is nearly unbeatable.
Ugh.
Yet another bad start. Thank God Prince kept us in this. The DNP for Amir was inexcusable. Oh well, let’s hope we can pull out Game 7. Trade RIP!!!!
I just got back from the movies. Keep it up, Detroit, you got a bunch more wins to go.
Go see Iron Man. It was worth the money.
Bring on Orlando. No sweep this year, Orlando’s a team on the rise, but they definately need to upgrade their backcourt. I expect a competitive series, but Orlando’s defense doesn’t worry me. Pistons in 5 or 6.
Blogging is evil, but I must say that those Detroit Stallions are a fine team. Tell me, do you know who Dr Seuss is?
God damn internet! All I wanted was to watch the damn game and my stupid router plays up and the wife makes me go shopping!
Good win for the stones though.
@Didn’t watch the game
You’re a little late, the sarcasm boat left during game 5 for the rest of us DBBers. Its a little late for that, time we all came together to root for Detroit against Orlando. Welcome to DBB though. The nonsense that was spread here during the losses was quite ugly, but there were a few of us Pistons fans that didn’t falter.
Crazy crazy is fantastic. Max should hang that in his locker.
woke up at 3am, watched the game without any shouting since my g/f was sleeping next to me. also meant that i couldn’t comment here…
I think flip is history no matter what happens. It seems the players respect each other more than they do him and that doesn’t fly.
Nice mistake on israeli TV. They showed the 1st and 2nd year players’ names of each team and talked about their impact. It seemed detroit has a player called Chalky Sub (rough translation from hebrew) it took them a while to correct it to chiek samb (spelling….) and figure out who the hell they meant.
The good news is that they are showing game one of detroit-orlando. woohoo. two games in a row.
Last night was the first night in about 6 months where the Pistons looked like they should beat the Celtics. Great focus and intensity. There was a period this year when were just rolling teams… maybe we’ve got that level of play back? Certainly last night we did.
Lets hope Philly awoke the sleeping Giant.
Fantastic win last night. A game that was totally enjoyable from start to finish. Good D, good shots and a real focus on finishing it out. Everything I could have asked for but didn’t get in games 1 and 3. Give Philly a LOT of credit for their energy this series, definitely a young team on the rise.
I didn’t post last night as I was too busy salivating over the devastating ass whoopin’ the Sixers took last night. Howard will be taken care of in the next round, it’ll be a fun series but Detroit will probably pull away in 6. If we keep our devastating D up and our guards stay hot (like in games 5 and 6), we’ll crush Orlando in 5. Big ups to Tay and Sheed for keeping us alive early in the series, and Rip and Chauncey for closing these bitches out.
I also have a strange feeling that Sheed’s gonna have foul trouble this series. Try to keep your trap shut Roscoe!
Bring on the Magic! If our boys come out Sat. night and punch them in the mouth like they did to Philly tonight then Superman and his Justice League are bound to get some flashbacks of last year’s sweep. I really hope Phillip “Flip” Saunders desides not to double Howard and takes away their 3’s. If we can keep Sheed on Howard for 30 minutes then I’ll feel pretty good about the rest of our bigs hacking him the other 12 or so minutes he plays.
Bring on Hack-A-Dwight!
of course the logical choice is to put amir on 2 magic players, one being howard. amir is just THAT good.
that said, I did enjoy his hustle and scoring at the end of game 6.
Obviously a great game all ’round — even Hayes gets a couple of 3-pointers.
Although they got stomped the last 2 1/2 games, we should still credit the Sixers for playing hard even when they weren’t always playing well. I was at game 1 live, and many 7 seeds would have completely folded, down 13 at half on the road. Philly obviously needs another piece or two to be a real threat in the playoffs, but they had a successful season. If you had told their fans at the beginning of the year that the Sixers would have gotten into the playoffs and won two games from Detroit, they probably would have been satisfied. And those two games are as many as Miami, Chicago, Golden State, Denver, Phoenix and Dallas COMBINED won this year.
On to Orlando. My main two fears are (1) ‘Sheed gets into foul trouble guarding Howard, and (2) the Pistons under-estimate Hedo T. Both those players are very good and getting better. Having said that, if Detroit can keep up their momentum and playing like they have been playing the last 2 1/2 games, Detroit will win the series comfortably.
The Pistons should/could take them in 5, but we know the home boys will lose focus for at least one game, so I predict Pistons in 6. I pray we don’t let them push us to 7. Lets go Pistons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good to see everyone is moving on from the Philly series without crying themselves to sleep (I believe I called that one). So we lost a couple, big whoop. Orlando is a better match up for us, because their level of speed is far lesser than Philly (speed being the thing that seemed to give Philly good looks at a lot of times and give us problems). That being said, I still say Orlando gives us a six game series (which also doubles as my at the most scenario), but I expect most fans ’round these parts to have fully recovered from their “starters were not playing in games at the end of the season rust”-induced heart attacks. We’ll take Orlando, and hopefully, as fans, we’ll take a more relaxed approach in critcizing the boys.
Ohad, I disagree re: Flip. Joe realizes that Flip is getting the job done (Hasn’t the Boston series against a less cohesive TEAM produced at the very least, two losses for the favored squad?). The complacency story is a bit overblown when you take into consideration that the starters had so much time off the court in the last month and the bench has never shown a problem of complacency. I think it could’ve just as logically been a combination of full-length gameplay rust and a bit of surprise with Philly’s gigantic effort that contributed to Philly outplaying us in a total of three out of twelve halves over the series and serendipitously receiving two wins as a result.
I liked what Amir did in his time on the floor last night, but I still stand by bringing him along slowly (especially considering he is a willing, cooperative pupil).
And can we please leave the criticism of Flip alone until we’ve been eliminated? Thanks. ‘preciate it.
As soon as my computer is officially back (hopefully Monday), I’ll be back in full commenting force. I look forward to basking in the DBB community for the better part of Round Two and the ensuing playoff series that follow).
MP: Thanks for not faltering with me during this series. You’re my boy.
Slappy: All is forgotten for your earlier tirades against me and my apologies for getting chippy at you. Thanks for remembering that we’re fans of the Pistons, a consistently credible organization, not some flash-in-the-pan flavor-of-the-week squad. Bring on Orlando is right, because we WILL dispatch them.
Boney: Apparently Rip has to dominate a series like a Kobe Bryant or Chris Paul can for you to dub him worthy of deserving the spot he has on this team (notice, I didn’t say respect him and his talents). Forget the consistency, the never-ending supply of energy, the Herculean effort to get open on offense and the solid defense (if you want to question the greatness of his defense, that’s fine, but don’t call it anything less than solid), the guy is apparently still garbage.
Rob G: Excellent quote you provided there. Something tells me that Hedo Turkoglu is going to be Orlando’s queen next series. Let’s just hope Howard and Lewis are kept reasonably in check.
LB, good to hear you’re around, my friend. Get that thing fixed, we all miss ya!
I liked what Amir did in his time on the floor last night, but I still stand by bringing him along slowly (especially considering he is a willing, cooperative pupil).>>
Its been 3 years already since we drafted him. How much slower can you bring someone along?
Has Demar Derozan got hops or has he got hops? He makes Amir look like he can’t jump at all. When Derozan lifts off, even NASA is in awe. LOL USC freshman in the fall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I-ywLk3860
Great. Now that we’re all done patting ourselves on the back, let’s remember that they went 1-2 to start against Philly and played 14 drifty quarters before they played much better for the last 10.
Billups was on Jim Rome’s radio again . . . Rome loves the guy. Decent interview, kind of a fluff piece considering Rome is a superfan for Chauncey, but nonetheless decent.
I still disagree with Billups . . . he IS arrogant, despite him refuting that on the show. Read the damn dictionary, Chauncey. Smooth or not, when you make claims like “we’re the better team,” you made a declaration of dominance, and every team, especially those sub-.500 clubs, they got you guys in their sights. That’s how it is. Don’t be ashamed of the arrogance, but do back it up.
Pistons have to forget about what they’ve accomplished for the next two months and play with the fire and focus that got them their only championship. Nobody is going to go easy on them.
Mike: You can bring him along slowly until we NEED him in the rotation. Sheed, Dice, Maxiell and with even Ratliff around, takes the word “need” out of the debate. Amir still looks raw as hell (see: Cheikh Samb in rawness). From his offense last night (and any nights prior), it’s clear the guy has insane skills and athleticism, but it all has to click up top. It’s not going to click up top if he can’t get out there on a consistent basis. It’s not that he’s not capable, it’s just more prudent to wait. There’s no reason to give him mad minutes when you have Sheed, Dice and Maxiell (and now Ratliff), so rather than be all herky-jerky with him and give him tons of meaningful minutes one night, then DNP him, you let him crawl before he walks, and walk before he runs.
Sauce: I agree that the last ten quarters doesn’t mean All Possible Problems have Definitely Been Resolved, but I wouldn’t say “14 drifty quarters” before the last 10. Detroit beat Philly soundly in game 2, and even in game 1, after the first two quarters, Detroit was up 13. Detroit got outplayed (badly) in six quarters (or one could say, three halves), and outplayed the Sixers pretty soundly in at least most of the remaining 18 quarters (or nine halves).
Now, they will have to play more consistently against Orlando, we all agree.
You’ll never read a column about Amir bemoaning his lack of minutes, that’s for damn sure. Jarvis is a sieve, whether he faces it or not, and teams go right at him when they have a good 3 on the floor.
‘09 is the Year of Amir.
Let’s all keep criticizing Flip, though.
TJ, if they drift against this Orlando team, they may play themselves into a hole they can’t escape.
Are you guys watching the Celtics game? Exciting stuff! Pierce just fouled out! Ha!
HOLY CRAP. That shot Joe Johnson just hit was amazing.
Man, imagine if the Celtics lost in the first round? I think ESPN would self-destruct. Maybe Stern will dig up Donaghy to ref game 7………….
What a great Friday evening! My computer is officially back (I felt so lost without it), LeBron finished off the Wiz so he can now rest up before giving Boston all they can handle. What’s that you say, Boston? Surely you’ve heard of them, they are team that STILL isn’t done with the Hawks after six games. Which team looks like the class of the East now, Boston Critics? I imagine it’s the guys who won three straight by an average of 16.33 to close out their series in six and on the road (a type of victory you apparently can’t achieve during the playoffs).
Wah wah, go ahead with your typical whining about how you got jobbed by questionable calls when the obvious truth is your players can’t control themselves *cough* Paul Pierce *cough* when they absolutely need to and you got beat. If Pierce and Garnett can’t control their crazy antics, those loons are going to cost their team a title.
Word to the wise: A lack of playoff experience together as a club isn’t a big deal unless your head coach has never won a playoff series in four tries (one game away from five) as an NBA coach.
Garrett: Ditto on Joe Johnson’s amazing shot-clock beating triple. He may be the new/real Mr. Big Shot. What a gamer this guy is. You could see the look on his face during the last timeout that he loves it close. I guess ‘nique wasn’t kidding when he held up seven fingers on Wednesday night. The Human Highlight Film should not be questioned. Basketball in the ATL is officially back! Good for the Hawks and good for the NBA!
I saw that, Garrett.
Thank the heavens that Mike Woodson just made a name for himself. I was tired of hearing the 5 Atlanta fans call for his head.
And, lol Celtics. Rondo last shot? 3-ball-really?
Garrett: Come on man, Celtics will close it out in Boston, but it’s still refreshing to seem them get embarrassed worse than any DBB-pessimist could even dream for the Pistons against the Sixers. Temper, temper Paul Pierce. These guys really are a bunch of crazies and if they can somehow get past us (not looking good for now), the Western Conference champion will destroy them.
Still, what a great night.
On that note, Mo Cheeks is a good coach, too. I’m tired of seeing the blame get lumped on the wrong people. Avery Johnson? Deserved every bit of that firing, in comparison. Doc Rivers? Should his team drop that 7th game, I don’t think you can bring a coach back like that . . . see Avery Johnson.
LawyerBoy: A fella can dream, though, can’t he? A fella can dream…..
(that sentence has more impact if you say it really quickly and with a weird pseudo-english accent like they did in black and white movies)
All of a sudden, I’m considering buying a Josh Childress jersey. He’s good at the game of basketball.
Not to mention that King James and co. are resting and waiting for our friends the Celtics.
Not to mention that the Cs haven’t shown that they can win on the road.
Not to mention their bench has become a bit exposed.
This pleases us.
I believe they should change the website to http://www.perkisanonfactor.com or http://www.perkisamarginalplayeratbest.com or http://www.perkisacenterforateamtiedthreetothree.com. Just a thought, one that pleases me, Rob G.
In a series between Boston and Cleveland who gets the calls?
I mean the league loves the Celtics, they want Lakers/Celtics after all, but Lebron is well loved by the officials too. Will it just be a 7 game series of 21? I fear for Detroit if they play any of those teams just because of potential bias by the officials towards their opponents.
Of course we must get past the Magic first. (ON) Pistons in 5, (OFF) Pistons in 7.
I love you, Atlanta. You’re a scrappy bunch of guys and I love what you’re doing to Boston. Watch out for you guys, Philly and Milwaukee next season…
Laughton: You start talking about officials determining the winners and losers of games and you’ll sound like a Celtics fan.
Did anyone hear the highlights of the Atlanta radio announcers? Hilarious stuff.
Thank you Celtics, Mavs and Suns for putting the past 6 years of Pistons ball in perspective.
Not a whole lotta jersey poppin’ goin’ on.
Everyone shouldn’t jump off the Celtics wagon just yet. I still believe it’s merely a bad matchup for them, with Atlanta’s athleticism. I’m of the opinion that if the Mavs had met the Spurs last year they would’ve beaten them (again), as they at the time matched up with them as well as anybody. Instead the Spurs went on to another title, while Dallas has now taken a step backward. Unfortunately for them, they met up with a team who had their number, records and seedings be damned (see Pistons vs. Jazz). Still assuming Boston handles Game 7, Celts-Cavs is hard to call. Cleveland really had no business causing Detroit all those problems in ‘06 and ‘07, but I’ll take Boston in 6 (maybe 7). Boston’s struggles with Atlanta shouldn’t cause anyone to make the leap that they’ll cave to Det