I have all sorts of stuff from last night’s game going up at FanHouse this morning. Before the game, Rashard Lewis told me that the brewing war of the words between he and Theo Ratliff was over and done with:
“I’m a basketball player, I go out there to play basketball and not to trash talk. It was just something that he said and I responded to it. It wasn’t nothing personal, it was just me being a man and responding to what he said. But at the same time, I’m not that type of player. I go out there to play basketball and try to win for my team and let the trash talk stay on their side.”
After the game, Ratliff told me that Dwight Howard isn’t on the same level as David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon … yet:
“He’s a phenomenal talent — his athleticism, his size, but he’s still young. He’s going to continue to get better and continue to get better and he’ll probably be at the status of those guys later on in his career.”
Jason Maxiell explained why he’s so freaking active on the court:
MW: At the end of the last series, Thaddeus Young had a pretty entertaining quote about you. … He said, Maxiell is crazy, he’s crazy crazy. What do you think about that, that’s a sign of respect, wouldn’t you say?
JM: Yeah, to a certain degree. I guess with my size, I got to keep moving, going for offensive boards. They don’t run plays for me, so the way for myself to score is to get to the board.
And, of course, the clock thing. The Pistons obviously got a gift, but the Magic refused to blame that one play for their loss:
“They didn’t start the clock and he made the shot, but I didn’t think that determined the game,” said Rashard Lewis. “We were still in the game, we were down two points at the time. We still had another full quarter to go, we were still in the game, but I think we made a lot of little mistakes that made us lose that game.”
You can’t get too upset about an iffy call when you go out and finish the game shooting 25% and committing five turnovers over the last 12 minutes. That whistle on Keyon Dooling for “pushing” Rip Hamilton before the in-bounds pass? That was bad, too, but the Pistons were already up three with the ball so it’s hard to say that was a game-changer, as well. I will admit those types of things add up over time, though. I’m willing to chalk some of it up to the refs being partly influenced by a LOUD crowd at the Palace.
What a game. I like how the Pistons seemed to address their lack of intensity in going for the 2nd chance baskets last night. Everybody worked hard and McDyess continues to impress me in the playoffs. A little annoyed that after game 1 and letting the guys really bang it out that the press gets wind of it becoming physical and then last night the refs seem to call *everything* under the basket, putting a lot of people in foul trouble early. The rain of 3’s at the start of the 3rd from Orlando impressed the hell out of me but even moreso? Some real composure from the Pistons in the midst of it. I don’t know what it is about this Orlando vs. Philly but I think if Philly had come out like Orlando did following half-time I think we might have crumbled.
Great game, guys. Keep it up!
the most impressive thing about last night:
After Orlando hit their 4th, 5th, 6th and then 7th consecutive three point shot off of an open look, Flip did not call a time out to rally the troops. He let them play through it, and it made them stronger as the game wore on.
At that point in the game they were matching bucket for bucket, but the Magic were hitting 3s to Detroit’s 2s. I was impressed that Sheed only bombed what, 1 or 2 3s last night? 17 points from 17ft and in, not bad from your power forward.
I also think we’ve seen a resurgence from McDyess since he’s come off the bench. He comes off and has rhythm, whereas before he was starting and he was coming out flat. If he can give Detroit 8 and 6 off the bench to go with Maxey’s 8 and 6 or 7 that’s a pretty dominating presence at the 4/5 spot on the floor. Not to mention Ratliff’s vicious shot blocking off the bench too…
I was worried about the lack of big men in Detroit this year, as compared to last year. Last year I think we had too many big men, this year I think we have just enough with or without Amir in the game.
Ratliff has been more than any of us could’ve ever hoped he would be, and I’ll take it over a Dale Davis statue in the paint.
I’m with you, Boney. Ratliff has been a very pleasant surprise. Thank God we didnt end up with statuistic Dale Davis again.
One thing I’ve noticed is that we have used our reserves more in the playoffs than any other team. Sometimes when the game is at a crucial moment, we’ll have Maxiell, Stuckey, and Ratliff or even Afflalo on the court. This should help us in the long run.
The Pistons did keep cool during the (very impressive) Rain Of Three Pointers in the third. Of course it helped that they started off the quarter 10 points up, and then got an, um, questionable result on Chauncey’s last three-pointer, so they were still actually in the lead at the end of the quarter.
Van Gundy and the Magic players did a good job in the interviews not blaming their loss on that call, or the Nelson-off-the-ball call, or the Lewis-and-Hedo-under-the-basket-non-calls at the end. On the other hand, at the final buzzer, TNT had a shot of Van Gundy, and you didn’t have to be a great lip-reader to see that he was saying “that’s fucking bullshit.”
So, does this game mean Orlando can and will continue to play very competitively with Detroit, that they’ve figured out how to get Howard his (almost) 20-20 and they’ve gotten back to making three-pointers? Or was this Orlando’s best shot, which came up short in a demoralizing way?
I’m hoping for a split in Orlando, and maybe a possible game 5 ending of the series. But I wouldn’t be shocked if it went longer.
I’m not worried about the Magic one bit. The only reason they were in that game was because of a crazy-hot third quarter. They’re kinda like one of those mid-majors in the NCAA tournament — They can only win by hitting the three. Unfortunately for them, it’s not one-and-done in the NBA. The Pistons are clearly the better team.
I don’t care if we sweep, but we gotta get the split down in O town.
Mike: Pistons won the first game with ease, so technically it IS fortunate for Orlando that it’s not one-and-done, because Orlando wouldn’t still be playing games right now if it was one-and-done.
“Lewis-and-Hedo-under-the-basket-non-calls at the end.”
You saw a foul on Detroit there? Maybe if it was a Lebron or D-Wade phantom call, but for any player besides them? No way.
In fairness to Orlando, we match up with them better than just about any other team in the NBA. We are one of a handful who have enough big men to stick on D’Ho, and we also happen to have the best defensive 3 in the game and defend the three pointer extremely well.
That said, we are not going to win in Orlando if we continue to ignore Jameer Nelson. We got off our game plan, and let some wide-open threes slip by in the second. They misfired on them, and we ceased to respect the shot.
I found this comment on Matt’s Fanhouse article about Theo Ratliff’s thoughts on Dwight Howard’s game very amusing:
“Theo who? What have you done in this league?”
Um, he WAS an all-star, wasn’t he?
Cavs Fan. I don’t watch the Piston much unless they play the Cavs. I may not like some of thier players, but I do like their Team Play. Of course, I think they get way too many breaks from the officials LOL.
A question for someone who watches the Pistons: Why didn’t Maxiell get more PT during the regular season? He can play.
Quick Darshan: Not only was Theo an All-Star (in 2001; but he couldn’t play due to injury) but his full name is Theophilus Curtis Ratliff. Gangsta.
Chris: Maxiell is still relatively new to the NBA (3rd season, 25 years old). The Pistons tend to bring along their late first rounders and second rounders rather slowly because the team has had a very established core and a tendency to rely heavily on that core. That is changing some now with this season and subsequent playoff run.
In the case of Maxiell, he is an energy guy on a team with established veterans, so it makes the most sense to play him in shorter spurts in spite of the fact he may be better than a boatload of players at his position in the league who are getting more minutes than he is in starting roles (think how the Spurs use Ginobili or the Bulls use Gordon). This season he played in all 82 games (started in 7) and averaged over twenty minutes. I would be happy to see him play more than that each night over the course of a full season (to be fair, he’s averaging 29 mins./game in the playoffs this season and I think that number suits him rather well), but I’m hardly going to complain. Maxiell has only begun to start regularly since Antonio McDyess broke his nose midway through Round 1 with McDyess since returning to his familiar sixth man role (he played sixth man here for the three years preceding his switch to starter this season).
Maxiell is a huge fan favorite around here and we tend to think he has an extremely bright future that will only improve itself as the veterans (read: Rasheed, McDyess) begin to wear down. Hope that clears it up for ya.
Skeets with a Matt shout-out:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/The-Internets-are-alive-Magic-at-Pistons-Game-;_ylt=ArLlFj1dwCXhkBSCq02CcWKkvLYF?urn=nba,80940
Lawyer Boy: you failed to mention Max’s penchant for fresh babies. I think it is rubbing off on the rest of the team. Case in point, Tay’s dunk in the first half last night. I don’t think I’ve seen him throw it down like that in a while. I’m sure it has to be a direct result of Max telling how delicious those infants are.
…of course I could be wrong.
Q Dog
theo was voted a starter in fact.
chris: maxx’s pt was dramatically increased this season, but he was still playing behind sheed and dyess. the only reason maxx is getting this increased pt in the playoffs is the discomfort in dyess’ face and the comfort in dyess being a bench player. and of course it doesn’t hurt that we’ve been 5-0 since he’s become a starter.
Q Dog: I thought it was a bit premature in the conversation to try and explain to Chris the Cavs fan, the legend of Jason Maxiell’s baby eating prowess. Please forgive my indiscretion. As Roger Clemens would say, “I’ve made mistakes”.
Also, kudos to Chris for being a respectful fan of an opposing team on a blog championing a bitter rival. I think I speak for most if not all of us (including Matt) when I say we never get tired of hearing input, as long as it’s respectful, intelligent input, on DBB from people who don’t necessarily root for the Stones. It really improves the blog.
Tried to post this earlier, but apparently it didn’t take…
Matt gets a shout out from Skeets:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/The-Internets-are-alive-Magic-at-Pistons-Game-;_ylt=ArLlFj1dwCXhkBSCq02CcWKkvLYF?urn=nba,80940
Skeets has some great posts recently at Ball Don’t Lie (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie). The newest post deals with the OCD case of Ray Allen’s pregame ritual. It figures. If I wasn’t OCD already, having to deal with KG and Pierce’s inappropriate bravado would probably lend me to wanting a bit more control in my life.
If you scroll down to “The Internets are alive: Magic at Pistons, Game 2″, he also excerpts the end of this post by Matt.
The thing I liked about last night’s win was that the Pistons were able to use their strenghts to overcome their weaknesses. Orlando making seven 3’s in a row, was a bit of a fluke, but almost all of those came from drive-and-dish situations where Chauncey was getting beat like a drum everytime down the floor. I’m glad that didn’t stop him from playing his game on the offensive end and making use of his advantages of going right at Nelson and causing him to foul out.
This is a big reason why I think the DP’s like this matchup. They are actually at an advantage when the Magic want to force feed Howard the ball down low since the Pistons chances of stopping Howard one-on-one with their stable of bigs seem better than Orlando going pick-and-roll on us every time down and opening up the shooters. Kind of like Philly was doing with Sheed in Rd One.
I’m also happy that Afflalo is starting to see the floor more in this round because he can do a better job of stopping guys off the dribble than either Rip or Chauncey and with Mo Evans’ very limited offensive game we can pair AA up with Billups at the same time and have them switch defensive rolls.
Now let’s get back to hitting the defensive glass and getting the offensive spacing like we were in the 2nd half of game one and we can save our nails for the next round.
Thanks. Maxiell has always produced against the Cavs and the couple of playoff games that I saw (non Cav opponents). Just wanted to hear what the Pistons Fans thought of him. Pistons Fans have a good team to watch. I love to watch Hamilton and Billups. Not a big fan of Sheed. Love his talent, but I think his antics sometimes hurt your team. Anyway good like. Hopefully the Cavs can get past the Celts (I don’t think it will happen) and we can meet again.
Chris: Most of us here are salivating at that prospect however unlikely you or I may think it is (I give the Cavs a 30% chance). I think we’ll have at least a slightly better idea at their chances after tonight.
Lucas:
No, I didn’t think there was a foul on that play after seeing the replays, but I would forgive a Magic fan who thought they should have called one. My point was that the Magic folks weren’t whining when maybe they could have been, which was nice.
Of course I still want Detroit to kill them.
langlois at pistons.com tells us in his blog that the clock starts when the ref pushes a button on his belt and stops when the ref blows the whistle. Pretty interesting that they are in sync
One reason Maxiell doesn’t play as much is because of fouls. Flip Saunders wholly embraces the second foul boogeyman paradigm. Fouls play an inordinate role in his perception of player’s ability.
Against an opponent against whom fouls are tolerated, even encouraged, I think we’re seeing our big men take more chances. I’d like to see D’Ho going to the line even more in Game 3.
I’ll take up the chant with Magic fans about the refs needing to be fired any day of the week, so long as the target are the refs and David Stern. I hate them. I spit at thee.
http://www.nba.com/ pistons/news/langloi s_blog_080506.html
“The timekeeper was at fault.
Nope. The timekeeper - in this case, Tom Mauer of the Minnesota Timberwolves - is pretty much there just in case these days. The clock starts at the referee’s touch of a button attached to his belt and stops in sync with the whistle. You read that correctly. The system in place - called Precision Timing - connects the clock to the whistle. As an NBA spokesman explained, that’s why officials blow their whistle even when the ball flies out of bounds - an obvious clock-stoppage situation.
So, to review: The whistle blows, the clock stops. Automatic.
And, in this case, one of Game 2’s three officials exhaled into his whistle forcefully enough to fool the system. “
Am I a bad person for rooting for Cleveland?
It’s a tough call. It would be nice to have a chance to avenge last year’s playoff loss to the Cavs, and to go up 2-1 in terms of series victories. Yet, I despise this Boston team and beating them would be even better than when the Pistons took down the Heat in 2005.
QD: I’m with you. I’m surprised that the refs are FINALLY calling LeBron for some offensive fouls when he bulls his way to the rim.
QD: If you’re bad, I am bad as well. I think it’s a decision between Boston’s arrogant, repulsive behavior and a team with the guy who gets all the superstar calls, the former face of our franchise, and a (arguably undeserved) victory over us in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. I think the arrogant, jersey-popping (with a side of perkisabeast.com) is so much more egregious than Cleveland’s crimes.
dogg: Wouldn’t you rather watch Boston suffer the indignity of not making the Conference Finals while we simultaneously avenge last year’s crushing defeat? I know I would.
I think I’m learning Chinese thanks to SopCast! Yay!
LeBron getting called for a travel? One of the greatest basketball players in the world changes his pivot foot? I’d like to see a replay on that (although he probably did).
Tits!
I have never been made so happy by a Boobie Gibson 3 as I am now.
“Paul Pierce…..in and out!” in Chinese is, “Paul Pierce…..in and out!”
If Cleveland wins this game (with Lebron not making a single jumper), they take the series. And Boston will have serious doubts about whether they can win a close playoff game.
This is some unwatchable basketball right here. How you can root for anything other than “asteroid” in this series is beyond me.
C’mon LeBron. Do that thing you do when you take over and win games single-handedly.
“How you can root for anything other than “asteroid” in this series is beyond me.”
Bahahahahahaha. So subtle. So brilliant. Simply classic.
Truthfully though, the tight score and the overwhelming desire to watch Boston blow it makes this very watchable for me.
Seeing Sam Cassel flop around on the floor like a fish makes this watchable for me. That was pretty funny.
WOW. How did LeBron miss that? Point blank.
And Boston escapes with game 1. Commence jersey popping.
That’s a really big loss for Cleveland. A win here and the Celtics are on the ropes pretty much immediately. That said, I can’t imagine that LeBron will go 2-18 again. Wait, is that a typo in the box score? That’s outrageously bad.
Did anybody else get confused and think that they were watching the 2004 East Finals again between us and Indiana? That series might have been some of the ugliest basketball in history. This was right up there as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t want to hear anything about LeBron’s magnificent 2007 ECF that clearly wasn’t all that magnificent. It’s led to jack and shit since then.
QD, I rooted slightly for them.
I hate ‘em both, though.
Boston? More so. Lifetime achievement award. Not really for all the championships, for the sickening sense of entitlement and the 10th-ish largest market acting like it’s the 1st. And Bill Simmons. And Heinsohn. And their fans. And their fans’ dogs. And their fans’ dogs’ fleas.
Every time KG pays the tip, he pops his dress shirt.
I can’t watch TNT anymore. Chris Webber makes me sick. Screw him, too.
i don’t know what to make of that game 1. haven’t seen a worse game from lebron. ray allen hasn’t not scored in a game in over 10 years. it’s nice to see these guys beat the s*** out of each other though. here’s to 7 games, mofos!
If Cleveland pulled that out on the road with Lebron going 2-18, I think you could pretty much call the series over.
Yes, here’s to six more slugfests.
Fun with stats:
Bron-bron had more TO (10) than assist (9) and almost more than points (12)
James Posey had the highest +/- of the game. JAMES POSEY!
Sam cassel scored more point than pierce, allen and perkinsisamongoloid.com together
and my grand all favorite, paulina shot 2-14 with 6 TO and 2 BA. maybe he was too busy popping his shirt to concentrate on taking a shot.
I honestly feel sorry for anyone who had to sit through this game…
Screw them, tonight we’re going for 3-0 towards breaking the magic.
The NBA, where good tasting babies are no longer allowed in the front rows when the stones’ are in town
Provided we make it through Orlanda (which we will), and provided this Boston-Cleveland series goes to 6 or 7 (which it will), I’d say we’re going to have the benefit of an immobile Posey. That man is going to destroy himself guarding James like that. He should probably just feel fortunate that James won’t pull an MJ and start kicking Posey’s ankles.
That said, I’m fully expecting tonight’s game to be incredibly tough:
1. We’re back in Orlando.
2. Refs will feel like O is owed something.
3. Stern would rather not have obvious coach-cussing on national tv for two games in a row, especially when it’s Ron Jeremy dropping the f-bomb.
4. We’ve played hard for 2 1/2 games straight.
But, oh, if we can steal this one…
Re the Cavs-Celtics, the Cavs HAVE to make some adjustments to the Celtics double (or more) teaming LeBron when he takes the ball past half court. Boston is a good defensive team, Cleveland just went back to the same stuff that wasn’t working for Bron-bron.
the other thing that struck me watching that game is ben wallace is that f****** wine and gold uni. that guy could have owned detroit. he could have been easily top 10 all-time piston. possibly even sneaking into the top 5 depending on how his skill set deteriorated during his mondo contract. it really bums me out to see him like that. i have yet to see him unleash the fro as a cav. guy seems dead inside.
I did enjoy watching Ben make a couple of decent defensive plays on Garnett (although obviously KG got his, against Ben and others), and for one short little jump shot Ben got off that hit nothing but net.
I loved Ben when he was here and wish him well. But I really don’t miss the 4 on 5 offense Detroit had to play. It’s easier to have one guy be no offensive threat at all if LeBron is on your team.
from Basketbawful:
“Any good coach — or in Brown’s case, even a bad coach — is going to get his star player’s back. But Brown took that to a kind of ridiculous length last night. “[LeBron] had a tough night, and he is entitled to it.” I’m sorry, but…what?! Since when did players start earning entitlement to horrific performances in critical playoff games? I’m sorry, Mike, but there’s no such thing as a Get Out Of Sucking Free card.”
i don´t know who is more annoying brown or the “king” himself.
Eddie Jordan > Mike Brown, and that’s not saying much.