MVN - Most Valuable Network

Piston Play Still Uneven, But Tie Series

Down ten at the half I will admit, I started surfing channels some.

What’s happening on Big Brother? Is the King lopping off heads on “The Tudors” yet?

Nope, I stuck it out and the Pistons saved the series for another game at the least (for me that is, I know they have two more to lose, and the thing is, I’m not yet convinced they won’t). The starters finally looked like someone I’ve watched all season and finally quieted the Sixers, and their fans, with a 93-84 win.

I’m still disappointed immensely. I am not a bandwagon guy. I am the type to say, “hey, this should be a 3-1 gig for Detroit right now.” Boston lost a game to Atlanta and it didn’t even make my day like it usually would. Why? because I want the Celtics to be tired out if we’re still in the playoffs. Otherwise, I’m a fan like everyone else and would want to see them represent the East. And if Detroit doesn’t keep this play up, it won’t be the Pistons playing Boston again until next season.

The first half consisted of the same old story, same old song and dance. The Pistons were slow and lethargic, throwing the ball away, getting beaten to the boards, to loose balls, and down the floor in both directions. They were missing everything, sans Tayshaun Prince, and couldn’t take advantage of a young Sixer team who sometimes seems determined to either blow us out or keep us around.

It was Prince who again tonight played the role of scorer while making life miserable for Andre Iguodala. Prince, 8-9 on Friday night and 11-12 Sunday, scored 23 points and kept the Pistons of being buried in the first half while A.I. may have started out 3-3, but went 1-13 afterward. After another 11 turnovers in the first half and that ten point deficit, with a Rasheed Wallace technical sprinkled on top, things were looking like Philly 3-1.

With the Sixers getting seemingly every call and making every impossible shot (I like to refer to their game as the “slop & flop”), they are getting to the line at a +31 over the Pistons for the series. So the Pistons had to just let it hang out to start the third. With Chauncey Billups, Wallace, and Rip Hamilton at a combined 5-24, what else was there to do but keep shooting. An 11-0 to start the third gave Detroit its first lead in over 57 minutes stretching back to the prior game at 47-46. Wallace hit 3 threes in the period and Billups started getting to the line while the 1-10 Hamilton started to find the range.

The 34-16 third period sealed the deal for the Pistons, turning the 14 point lead and ten point half time deficit into a 70-62 lead going into the fourth where the lead only grew. Wallace finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds but still only hit 5-12 from the floor. Its just that he went 4-7 from the arc while Billups (18 points) went 4-16, but 9-10 from the stripe and 7 assists to go with 6 rebounds. Hamilton, dismal in the first half, scored 10 straight points in the fourth quarter and was 6-12 in the half to also finish with 18.

Each of the Sixers seem to come back to earth a tad from their rousing blowout Friday. No Reggie Evans heroics ( a flop that wasn’t called and offensive foul immediately after was ill-advised), scoring only two points and grabbing only three boards. Andre Miller was solid (13 points, 3 assists), but not spectacular like he had been as was Willie Green (same). Samuel Dalembert scored 12 and snared 12, but had two defensive goal-tendings and one offensive call which helped Detroit in a couple situations.

Antonio McDyess flew out to Detroit to have his nose set and wore a Rip mask, and scored ten points while Jason Maxiell filled in the starting line-up nicely. I hope they go the rest of the way like that as I believe McDyess would be better served off the bench. Both Jarvis Hayes and Rodney Stuckey were liabilities on defense tonight and did not have the chance to get anything going on offense because Flip yanked them both quickly when it wasn’t there for them.

The teams head back to Detroit for game five at the Palace on Tuesday.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 27th, 2008 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Richard Hamilton, tayshaun prince, Chauncey Billups, Basketball, Detroit Pistons, NBA, Philadelphia 76ers, Blogroll. 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.