MVN - Most Valuable Network

Round 1: Philadelphia vs. Detroit

I had this series going to 5 games at the most. The 76ers are a gritty, athletic ball club and I knew they could catch Detroit slipping. I didn’t expect an opening series win, but maybe the Pistons took Philly lightly.

During the first game, everything was going as everyone thought it would. The Pistons were up by double digits in the third, and than seemed to relax. Rasheed Wallace began talking to former teammate Flip Murray in the stands and the rest of his current teammates expected the young Sixers to lay down. That’s when Philly decided to take control, erase a 15 point deficit and steal the game with a 90-86 win.

The second game saw the Pistons answer the critics with an 105-88 win. The third game saw Philly do exactly what has made Detroit an Eastern Conference threat for the last 5 years. They played stifling defense, never got rattled and made the clutch plays. They stunned the Pistons once again for 95-75 victory.

From that point the Pistons would go on to win the last three games 93-84, 98-81, and 100-77

From the Pistons standpoint, It raised questions about their focus. One of my friends pointed out that the championship Bulls teams used to toy around with inferior teams, but what he forgot is those Bulls teams closed those game. Detroit seems to play a lot better when the odds are stacked against them and when they’re being told negative things. Detroit still is the team to go through in the East, but can stay stay motivated enough to not let games slip away? They have their hands full trying to guard Dwight Howard and Orlando’s perimeter players in round 2.

It’s not so hard to believe if Andre Igoudala would have had a better series than Philly could have pulled off an upset. I also blame the fro-hawk of Samuel Dalembert but he did play well in the series. Andre Miller who’s name was in frequent trade rumors is the point guard of this team and isn’t going anywhere. He is as consistent a player as I’ve seen in the league. Philadelphia has this to build on in the summer and youngsters such as Thaddeus Young, Rodney Carney and Louis Williams will only get better. The franchise is still Igoudala and even though his season is over, he still faces one of the biggest games of the summer.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 2:03 pm and is filed under NBA Teams, Andre Igoudala, Philadelphia Sixers, Rasheed Wallace, Playoff Race, Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons, Eastern Conference, Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.