Ordinarily, this would be a pretty interesting game, but the NBA made an unfortunate decision to schedule the last meeting between these two division rivals on the final day of season, rendering it predictably irrelevant. (Can you remember the last time the season finale actually had a bearing on playoff seeding for the Pistons? Neither can I.)
So instead of a hard-nosed battle between familiar opponents, we’ll get a few minutes of the starters followed by a parade of reserves with Flip Saunders and Mike Brown each knocking on wood the entire game hoping no one gets hurt. As recent as last year, the season finale was a chance to see little-used reserves get extended minutes (remember how exciting the Amir Johnson Experience was a year ago?) but with Detroit’s depth this year, we’ve seen the Pistons go 12 deep on a semi-regular basis. I guess I’ll be entertained if Walter Herrmann or Cheikh Samb recorded a double-double or something, but my guess is that those two won’t even be active.
In any case, the ball just tipped — if anyone is still out there is watching this laptop in hand, leave your thoughts in the comments.
… are in progress. Better late than never — leave your thoughts in the comments.
Funny update: Remember how LeBron James and Mike Brown got called for techs when Rasheed Wallace and co. “blocked” LBJ in the paint? Even Sheed admits LeBron had a point — from Dana Wakiji of the Detroit News:
On that last play when both LeBron James and coach Mike Brown were called for technical fouls, Rasheed Wallace strolled over to the scorer’s table and told Rick Mahorn, “I fouled the (crap) out of him.”
NO POST UP YET ABOUT THE CAVS???? C’MON MATT! GET WITH IT!
NBA - Where a full house beats a king anyday…
Yeesh, my bad. I agree with Boney’s declaration, as well as Rasheed’s that there aren’t any kings in the NBA in the first place. In any case, that’s all for now — ball tips in a few minutes on TV20 for us local folks and ESPN for the out-of-towners. As usual, leave your thoughts in the comments.
I’m going with the latter — what about you? I’ll be taking off soon for tonight’s game between the Cavs and Pistons at the Palace. As usual, check out HOOPSWORLD for my pre-game, halftime and post-game reports.
Random display of self-awareness: I’ve been linking to those HW game blogs for a while, but in case you haven’t checked them out, please do. You probably noticed I’m not doing quite as many game recap-ish posts on DBB this year, but that’s mostly because when I’m at the games for HOOPSWORLD, I’m writing about it on their site.
The link I posted above features nothing but a preview now, but in time it’ll also have another pre-game post just before tip-off, halftime observations and my post-game reports. So check it out now and reload throughout the night. All told, I usually end up writing somewhere around 1,200-1,500 words about the game for HW. It’s as much or more than I ever wrote before, but now I’m actually in the room getting quotes directly from the players and coaches instead of second-hand from one of the beat reporters (whom I respect more than ever, by the way — the jobs they do despite a looming deadline is actually quite impressive when you see it in action.)
As such, if you ever have questions about the game that you want me to ask one of the players, leave a comment on the HOOPSWORLD game post and I’ll see what I can do. I wish there was a way I could better integrate/highlight my experiences with HW on DBB, but right now that’s not possible, so frequent links will have to do.
Quick note: Me, Skeets and Tas, together again. I was a guest on The Basketball Jones this week, previewing the Central Division. You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or listen directly through their site — either way, check it out. And when you’re done, vote for them, because they kind of rock.
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Last night’s exhibition may have been meaningless in the big picture, but it didn’t stop things from getting chippy on the floor. Rasheed Wallace in particular got heated, drawing five fouls in the third quarter as well as a technical. He jawed with Drew Gooden, LeBron James as well as the Cavaliers crowd. From Krista Jahnke in the Detroit Free Press:
His fourth sent Gooden to the line for two shots, and as he stood there, the players talked back and forth. The officials called technical fouls on both.
“That’s how we do it,” Wallace said. “Just usual. That’s all. Young punks thinking they really did something. Now we’re going to have to put them young-ass cats in their place. He got a little bit out of control with his mouth. Normal stuff. Normal junk-talking.”
On the next play, the Pistons got the ball to Wallace, who backed in against Gooden, turned and fired a jumper that looked good. “We hadn’t run that play all through training camp,” Billups said.
But LeBron James knocked it out of the air. Wallace picked up foul No. 5 on the next play, and he went to the bench angry, talking to the crowd and motioning to James that he thought his block was goaltending.
“Yeah, it was,” Wallace said. “And good thing for (Gooden) LeBron came over there. I told LeBron he better keep coming over there.”
Things may be heated now, but they’ll cool off: the Pistons play the Cavs on Nov. 28th but then won’t face them again until they meet up three times in the final six weeks of the season.
You may have noticed that Flip Murray didn’t play, but as Jahnke points out, Flip Saunders indicated Murray should get extended minutes tonight. Saunders tightened up the rotation a bit, giving a fewer number of players longer minutes. It won’t be a surprise for him to do the same thing tonight — it’s a bit easier to grade players when you’re not going 12 deep.
As a team, the Pistons shot poorly (36.9%), and only Nazr Mohammed (3-5) was better than 50% from the field. Unfortunately, Mohammed left after getting kicked in the calf; it’ll be interesting to see if he’s available tonight. If not, expect Cheick Samb to be throw into the fire.
The Pistons lost the game, but it’s worth pointing out the starters did a pretty good job handling the Cavs. It wasn’t until the young bench took over that Detroit stated to falter, and under no circumstance can I envision an overtime period in the regular season in which Saunders has a rookie backcourt, Ronald Dupree and Jarvis Hayes on the floor. In other words, treat this as the learning exercise that it was, not as a meaningful predictor of success.
Tonight’s game doesn’t matter enough to be a real re-match, but the Pistons and Cavs are meeting up tonight for the first time since Cleveland knocked Detroit out of the playoffs in Game 6. The ball tips in just a few seconds and is being televised in Detroit on TV20 — as always, leave any thoughts or observations in the comments.
But while the Pistons succeeded in not allowing LeBron to do it alone, they still lost the game by letting a mere rookie bury them. Daniel Gibson, a baby-faced killer from long range, scored 19 of his career-high 31 points in the fourth quarter. He was the game’s leading scorer, finishing a perfect 5-5 from beyond the arc and 12-15 from the free throw line.
When Gibson broke out with a 21-point performance in Game 4, we shook our heads and said, “well, that won’t happen again.” Not only did it happen, he almost matched Game 4’s performance in the final quarter alone. The Pistons are allegedly built for defense, but they couldn’t stop a rookie (and a former second-round pick, at that) from torching everything they worked for in the past 12 months.
But this is old news — the game ended over 24 hours ago as I write this. Loyal readers of the site have already digested the loss, moving on to intelligent conversation about the team’s future within minutes of the final buzzer.
Me? I spent most of today reeling in a hangover-like stupor, avoiding the keyboard to delay the inevitable: writing my last game recap of the season. And while I’m embarrassed to admit it, I should reveal something: I didn’t get to watch most of the game. I attended a friend’s wedding, and in my haste to get out the door I forgot to set the DVR. In a panic, I called a friend in time for him to record it for me, but knowing what I know now, I’m not excited to head over and watch my favorite team figuratively (and literally — poor C-Webb) get kicked in the nuts.
I did receive a couple of encouraging text messages from Natalie during the game, but by the time I was able to sneak away and find a TV to watch the final seven minutes of the fourth, the game was all but officially over. Maybe I’ll watch it in it’s entirety at some point, but at the moment, I can’t think of anything I’d like to see less right about now — well, aside from House of Payne, that is.
Before I tackle some of the big picture “what the hell do we do now?” questions banging around my head, I’m going to close with some final thoughts about the series and the game:
Do the Cavs officially have the worst arena maintenance staff in the league or what? From crap falling from the ceiling earlier in the series to a 21-minute delay trying (and failing) to fix faulty 24-second clocks, heads should roll at the Q.
Not only did the Cavs seem to want this more, I think the Cavs’ fans did, too. No offense to you, of course — you’re reading an NBA blog, you’re clearly among the hardest of the hard-core in Pistons fandom — but check out the scene outside the arena after the win:
Can you imaging that happening anywhere in metro Detroit had the Pistons advanced to the Finals? Maybe once upon a time, but not now. We’ve been spoiled by success, for sure. I want to crack a “way to act like you’ve been there” joke about Cleveland’s fans, but it wouldn’t make sense: this will be the first Finals appearance ever by the Cavs.
Not only did Rasheed Wallace get himself tossed (video) from the most important game of the season, he would have been unavailable for the next most important game of the season had the Pistons pulled off an improbable comeback and forced a Game 7 — his two techs gave him seven for the postseason, enough to earn a one-game suspension. Jon Paul Morosi writes in the Detroit Free Press:
In case you’re wondering, Wallace won’t have to serve a one-game suspension for next year’s playoffs — that is, if the Pistons make the postseason.
Did anyone actually think Rasheed would be suspended for the first game of the 2008 playoffs? Of course not. Just like no one actually doubts if the Pistons will be back in the postseason next year. The real question is whether he will be suspended for the first game of the regular season. Too bad Morosi didn’t investigate that instead of simply working to set up a snide remark.
In any case, shame on Rasheed for bailing on his team. Yes, the whistles were frustrating, but his reaction was over the top, though sadly, a microcosm for his entire career.
Nazr Mohammed in the first quarter? Really? If Flip Saunders is going to wait until an elimination game to get crazy with his rotation, why not do something really drastic and dress Amir Johnson? What did he really think Nazr would do?
Jason Maxiell played one minute? Really? Either this guy has extremely poor practice sessions or Saunders can’t trust anyone younger than 29.
Chauncey Billups: nine points, one assist. He was 3-7 from the field and 2-3 from the line. Five guys wearing Blue attempted more shots than he did. This couldn’t have been the way he wanted to end his season … and quite possibly, his tenure as a Piston.
LeBron’s 19 free-throw attempts matched the output by Detroit’s entire starting lineup. As a team, the Cavs shot 46 free throws; Detroit, 27. This was the first time in the series the disparity was that bad, and perhaps not surprisingly, this was the first blowout in the series. Conspiracy theorists, rage on.
Tayshaun Prince was 1-10 from the field, and 16-66 for the series. No need to bust out the abacus: that comes out to 24.2% for the series. Although … his worst games coincided with LeBron’s lowest scoring games. And despite his atrocious night from the field, he was “just” -3 on the night in the plus/minus column. You’d like him to contribute on both ends of the court, but unlike some guys, at least he (usually) did one or the other.
For a lot of you, I’m sure this might be the last time you think to visit this site until November. I hope that’s not the case, though, as this summer should be very interesting. Guys like Chauncey Billups, Chris Webber, Antonio McDyess, Dale Davis and Flip Murray are either free agents or have the option to become one. Who comes back? Will Flip Saunders be fired? Will another team make restricted free agent Amir Johnson an offer too rich for the Pistons to match?
Last year, the Pistons didn’t have a single first-round pick. This year, they have two in what is widely-regarded as the deepest NBA draft in years. They have a legitimate chance to pick up at least one immediate contributor to the rotation, if not two. Plus in July there’s the Vegas Summer League, where we’ll get a sneak peek at the draft picks as well as (hopefully) guys like Amir Johnson and Chieck Samb.
In many respects, losing on Saturday marked an end of an era for the Pistons, and this summer will determine whether they can re-build on the fly and remain among the league’s elite contenders or if they’ll slip a notch and play second-fiddle to the up-and-coming Cavs and Bulls for the next decade. I’ll be spouting off on all of these developments this summer, so bookmark the site now (or subscribe to the RSS feed) and check back often.
(Note to Cavs fans: you’re in the Finals, congrats. Now go find a Cleveland blog to celebrate at. If you’re confused why your snide comments aren’t appearing here, read the bottom of this post and realize that I’m going to have a hair trigger for the next few days.)
Look, I won’t lie. I’m not exactly throwing in the towel, but the Pistons haven’t done much to convince me that they can go on the road tonight against an opponent in their head and come out with a scheduled game on Monday. At this point, I’d consider “dignity intact” a lofty goal.
Yeah, I know. Not exactly Matt’s aforementioned “was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor” speech. Not the “once more unto the breach, dear friends” that Jazz fans or Warriors fans probably summoned in the face of their team’s dispatching. It is just much more fun being a fan of a team on the ascent, rather than one trying to muster one last ounce of fight. But for those of you who still need the glimmer, I’ll put it to you like this.
I love that speech.
Anyways, as I mentioned, I’m not in a ra-ra mood. But there is one thought that drives my fandom tonight. It isn’t the years that this team has had together and the potential breakup that could result from an embarrassing loss to a mediocre Cavs squad. It isn’t the potential discord between certain key (and, more importantly, untradeable) members and free-agent-could-be Chauncey Billups. It isn’t the fact that Flip Saunders will once again be proven a failure as a postseason coach. (It’s an effing trap off the pick and roll… how could you lose two games because of that?)
The thought that drives me, I’ll pretend you asked? Well, just think of the consequences of a loss tonight. Think about who stands to benefit from a loss tonight. Friends, I’m worried that Detroit is slipping below Cleveland on the sports loser scale. Seriously… think about it. The Tigs have proven themselves incapable of standing for the D (0-5 thus far against the Indians this season). Our beloved Wolverines… I don’t even want to talk about it. The Lions? How hard is it to be better than the Browns? Seriously…
But the Pistons. We’ve always been able to hang our hat on the Pistons. The balance of power is shifting dear friends. There is an angry, title-starved people on the banks of the Erie sludge pond, and they are rising up against us. They want what we have… mainly our consistently-slightly-better-than-mediocrity, and they won’t rest until our Pistons are on the slag heap.
Well, I say no. I say “Edgar Rentaria” on you. I say “Earnest Byner” on you. I say “Marcus Ray“, “Craig Ehlo“, and “John Cooper” upon you.
I say, “this is what happens when you ___ a stranger in the ___!” [WARNING: NSFW]
So it isn’t the perfect speech. Hell, I don’t even know if it’s applicable. But I’m in a weird place right now, and you should be too. Let’s get this b*tch over with, one way or the other. Game on.
After losing Game 5 in double overtime 109-107, the Pistons are losers of three straight and five of their last eight. After accumulating 53 wins in the regular season and 10 so far in the postseason, they now sit on the brink of elimination. As fans, we spend so much time celebrating this team’s alleged greatness during the first six months of the season that we tend to forget how often they take us down this same path.
When I was a kid, I remember a trip to the zoo where I went to go see the apes. Most of the apes were fat and lazy and spent their time sunning themselves in the back of their cage far away from the gawking idiots with their flashing cameras and fanny packs and stupid little grins on their faces. But there was one ape sitting right up close in the corner hunched over with his head pressed up to the glass.
I walked up to the glass and stood less than 12 inches away from him, and I was mesmerized as he slowly and methodically vomited on the ground in front of him. When he was done, he proceeded to eat the vomit, only to heave it back up a few minutes later. He did this over and over and over again. Why I stood there and watched him for 20 minutes I’ll never know for sure, but I imagine it was part of God’s plan for me an analogy for how I feel right now.
Pistons fans, this team has been making us vomit for the entirety of their five-year run in the Eastern Conference Finals. Hell, it was barely a year ago that we were in the exact same situation as now: down 3-2 to the Cavs after winning the first two games. Back then, I penned this inspirational post, which I must admit is still one of my favorite posts I’ve ever put together in the history of this site. But while I want to triumphantly raise my first and proclaim, “We did it last year! We’ll do it again! If it ain’t rough, it ain’t right!” … I’m kind of getting sick of eating what I just threw up. (It’s an imperfect analogy, I admit — I’m not sure if we’re eating when they lose or when they dodge the bullet and close out the series — the point is that it’s a cruel cycle that makes me feel like hell and never seems to end.)
And besides, this is not last year. This is not last year! Last year, Detroit blew out the Cavs in the first two games, dominating them in a way reminiscent of how this year’s crew initially handled the Bulls last round. Detroit escaped Cleveland last year, but something happened to them … much like something happened to this year’s team after Chicago came back to win two and a half games. If you want to compare this year’s run to last year, then realize that we are no longer playing the Cavs, we are playing the Heat — and the Heat beat us in six games!
Can Detroit flip the script? I don’t have a clue anymore. When the Pistons lost Game 4, we said, “Daniel Gibson won’t score another 21 points in Game 5,” and “Drew Gooden won’t keep hitting so many clutch shots.” We said things like, “Eff this, let’s not lose because the supporting cast beat us. Let’s quit double-teaming LeBron and leaving everyone else open, let’s see what some ol’ fashion man-to-man defense can do.”
You know what it does? It lets a guy score 48 points, including every single point for the Cavs in two overtimes! Midway through the final quarter, LeBron took over the game, scoring 29 of his team’s final 30 points. On his winning bucket in double-OT, he beat Chauncey off the dribble and slid past every single player that dared pretend they’d slow him down. I firmly believe if the Pistons had their entire roster in the paint, Rick Mahorn and Bill Laimbeer on the blocks and Chieck Samb standing under the basket with both of his hands poking up through the bottom of the rim that LeBron James still would have scored that bucket!
Double-teaming him doesn’t work, man-to-man doesn’t work. There is no fair way to stop this man. After watching the play, my immediate reaction (after picking my jaw up off the floor holding back some tears) was that I wish someone had put him on the floor and made him earn it from the line. Not just a hard foul which might have resulted in a three-point play; no, I wanted somebody to hurt the guy. Yes, physically hurt him, go beyond the rules of the game and give him a bruise in two different places: on his face from where someone would shove the ball into his huge nose and on his ass from when he would fall out of orbit and back to earth. Needless to say, my head was in a bad place.
Upon further reflection, I admit that wouldn’t have been a smart play — and I came to that conclusion before even considering the notion of sportsmanship. Had someone done what I initially wanted him to do, it would have undoubtedly resulted in a Flagrant-2 ejection and suspension for Game 6. And considering there’s actually a chance that Antonio McDyess might be suspended for doing what every other person on the face of the earth wants to do to Anderson Varejao, I decided it wouldn’t be in Detroit’s best interest.
But I digress. There are some positives from this game, namely, LeBron didn’t score 60 and make the Pistons lose by 14. I mean, seriously. Cleveland had three guys foul out, recorded just 13 assists in 58 minutes of play and still came out ahead. Given the minutes everyone played, I’m not all that impressed by any of the numbers in Detroit’s box score. It was nice to see a balanced attack for much of the game, but I can’t get excited about Chauncey Billups scoring 21 points when it took him 53 minutes to do so. Chris Webber was a bit of a revelation, going 20 and 7 in 30 minutes, but it’s an awfully sad moral victory when you’re just happy about the fact your starting center proved he still has a pulse. If you want a good play-by-play, just read my live blog of the game over at the FanHouse — I’ve already written about every excruciating detail (including the occasional moments of joy when it looked like Chauncey had his mojo back) and I refuse to do it again.
Can the Pistons bounce back? Of course they can, I just don’t know if they will. At this point, I’m going say it’s a 50-50 shot that the Cavs win in six or the Pistons win in 7. If Detroit can go down to Cleveland and prove they can play their hearts out, I don’t see them losing another heartbreaker at the Palace in Game 7. But I honestly don’t know if this team has that extra gear anymore. Everyone likes to pin their failings on a lack of focus, but if you watched, you can see they were trying. And consider this: four of Detroit’s starters played at least 46 minutes, whereas only one of Cleveland’s players played more than 42 minutes. Oh how I wish there were three days between games now instead of earlier in the series.
Besides, it’s not just a matter of Detroit suddenly regaining their focus and playing their hearts out, it’s a combination of game-planning, making adjustments on the fly (for instance, when a guy scores 20 straight, do something not to let him score 25 straight …), execution and poise. Right now, the Pistons are 0-4 in that regard for the series, and they’re just damn lucky they eeked out a couple of wins in the first two games to give them the margin of error they’re now decided to test the limits of.
So yeah, go ahead and partake in the whole “If it ain’t rough” rah rah rah yet again if you like, but I’m taking a step back. I believe in this team, but I also know this team. And for the first time since George Irvine was coach, I’m actually scared that getting out of this series is now longer solely about the Pistons “doing what they need to do.”
No, for the Pistons to get out of this series, they need Cleveland to choke. They need LeBron to realize he’s only 22 years old and that there will be plenty of other opportunities to reach the NBA Finals at some other point in the future. Or they need a big chunk of whatever was falling from the roof in Cleveland’s arena in Game 4 to land on LeBron’s foot. Or they need hoardes of Darfur-ian children who are missing multiple limbs due to machete wounds to show up and sit courtside to get into LeBron’s head.
They need … McDyess to be suspended, forcing Flip Saunders to put Amir Johnson on the active roster, setting the stage for Amir to have his “Tayshaun Prince circa 2003″ moment where he breaks out and averages 20 and 10 over the next six, yes six (!), playoff games.
Let’s face it, if the Pistons lose tonight, the series is might as well be over. There’s not much else than can be said. I still think they can close this series out in six, but they’ll have to show a lot more than what we’ve seen the last couple of weeks.
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