BillLaimbeer's Look at this series:

The Milwaukee Bucks will be the Pistons 1st round opponent this year. At 40-42, the Bucks will be the only team in the 2006 NBA playoffs with a losing record.

The Bucks started out the season pretty strong (17-11), but have had losing records in each of the last four months:

November 7-6
December 9-5
January 7-10
February 6-7
March 7-8
April 4-6

Milwaukee depends on Michael Redd (25.4 ppg) for over a quarter of their offense. On any given night, Redd can go off for 40+ points. In the 3 games Redd scored 40+ this year, however, the Bucks are 1-2. The shooting guard is the only position that Milwaukee holds the advantage over the Pistons (Rip Hamilton).

The Bucks have some youth at most key positions and that should prove to be the difference in this series. Point guard T.J. Ford is playing in his first full season. Ford averages 12.2 ppg and 6.6 assists per game (14th in the NBA). Edge: Detroit (Chauncey Billups)

At the small forward, Bobby Simmons is really in his 2nd full season as a starter. His numbers and experience are somewhat similar to Tayshuan Prince, but I'll give a slight edge to Detroit with Tay's all-around game.

The Pistons also have an advantage inside with the Wallace's matching up against rookie Andrew Bogut (good rebounding and FG% numbers) and Jamaal Magloire (3rd season as a starter in the NBA, 9.5 rebounds per game).

The bench production differs a little bit, as far as scoring goes. The Bucks have 8 guys scoring 8+ ppg. The Pistons have 7 guys scoring 7+ ppg. Detroit most likely will use an 8-man rotation with McDyess, Delk, and Hunter coming off the bench.
Defense: The Pistons rank 3rd in the NBA for points allowed (90.1). The Bucks rank 20th, giving up 99.8 ppg.

The Bucks have beaten just about every team in the NBA, including Detroit, Miami, New Jersey, San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix. With a 40-42 record, the Bucks have lost to just about every team in the NBA, as well.

Season series:
Nov 26: Det 85, @Mil 76
Jan 25: @Det 106, Mil 102 (OT)
Mar 31: @Det 112, Mil 105
Apr 17: @Mil 113, Det 93

Detroit won the season series 3-1, although the Bucks win came in a game when Detroit was resting its starters (Sheed and Rip didn't even dress). The 3 Piston wins were all close games.

For a #1 vs. #8 matchup, these games will be more competitive than most people predict. My guess is the Pistons win the series 4-1. The difference will be Detroit's experience.

Since rip is a little banged up we should have more shots else where so that rip can hound michael redd. I would like to see a fast start so all the bench can have playoff time.

Couple of things to look for tommorrow night...

- First is of course, will Rip play and how effective can he be coming off the spained ankle. Press reports today indicate he will start and seem to imply he won't be slowed by the injury.

- More important for Rip, will the refs let him play the way he did in game 1? Yeah, it's a playoff game, and yeah you can get away with more than in the regular season, but it wouldn't surprise me to see Rip pick up a couple of quick fouls in game 2. Maybe Sheed too. The bench will be more important tomorrow.

- How about that hack-a-Ben? When Stotts pulled that out of the bag of tricks it was really too late in the game to make any difference (only a couple of hackable posessions before the 2:00 minute mark). So, why then? I'm guessing he was planting a seed, trying to get inside Ben's head a bit. It's good that BBen split the throws. But I wonder what might happen if you intentionally fouled Ben everytime he grabbed an offensive board.

- Interesting stats in one of the articles about how many games the Pistons starters have played since 03/04. Prince leads the league with 295 games. CB, BBen, and Rip are 2, 3, and 4. Then Bowen, then Sheed. Talk about settling into a pre-game routine. These guys will need occupational therapy to figure out what to do with themselves if they ever lose in the first round.

- Game 2 seems the pivotal one to me. The Pistons did what they were supposed to do in game 1. It will be a different Bucks team (though still without Kukoc) on Wednesday. I'd guess a Pistons win somewhere in the 94-88 or 94-86 range. Win Wednesday and it's all over except the shouting. Let the Bucks pick one up and they might grab another in cheese-land.

__________________
"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

Ps 96
Bs 76
no mercy

Got some info feom MilwJournalsentinel on the announcers from Game 1(BTW, our online and beat writers in Detroit rank second to Nashville as the worst I've read). Matt devlin is the Charlotte NBA PBP guy and u know about Van Gundy, who is very good. For Game 2, it'll be Ian Eagle(?) and my boy Bill Raftery("Pistons start the game MAN 2 MAN!)

BTW, SI.com ranked Devlin and Adrian Branch the worst paired teamed in the league.

Bucks have not tapped Gadzuric yet. He had some good games against the Pistons. Energy guy who is hard to keep off the glass because he can camp out down there not being involved in the offense.

Still have to play the game. Only thing that can beat the Pistons is themselfs.

guess i am goin to the game, so see you guys at the palace!

I've always wanted him to backup Ben, having watched him a lot when I lived in Milwaukee. But I think there's a caveman lurking in there. I've never-ever heard him speak....even back at UCLA!

Anyone up for bringing back guessing the score?

I say Pistons 94 Bucks 81