I agree over 7 games the steadier team will win. But not with erratic shooting. High % shots baby.

Here are some stats for y'all.

+/- leaders on the Pistons for game 1:
High- Evans at +7
2nd high- Lindsay at +5
Low- Rip at -11
2nd low- Ben at -9

HEAT SHOOTING-
Alonzo- 100%
Dwayne- 82%
Gary P- 75%
JWill- 71%
Shaq- 50%
Antoine- 50%

And the anchor, Udonis Haslem- 38 minutes, 0 points, and 5 fouls... ouch.


The Pistons' shots seemed to be uncharacteristically short... indicating that maybe there were tired from their defensive effort in game 7.

Thanks TaS, I still don't want to believe these guys were tired.
Let'd see what game 2 brings.

It a team is ever allowed to be tired, it is now. They went through a 7 game series where they had to come back from 2-3 and win on the road. Then in the final game, they won with a sustained defensive masterpiece. Everyone knows that it takes more energy to play D. And also, they did it without sharing the minutes with the bench. TaShaun held "The Maestro/ His Majesty/ The Chosen One/ The King" in check without any rest what so ever.

The shots were missing. They were short. And the Heat had 52 points in the paint. Those are all signs of Piston fatigue.

At least we don't have any back-to-backs.

The Pistons really need a hot shooting night to energize them again.

I would like to point out as others kind of have that the Heat had a week to prepare (although they might have made a few plans for the king and company) a week of Riley barking orders at them a week to rest and a week to heal. That said I think we took the Heats best shot last night. Had the Pistons shot a little better or if Sheed had shown up we would be talking about another gutsy win by the boys. We got Shaq and Wade in early foul trouble we played fairly good defense (Big Ben Pissed me off on 1 play where he let Payton blow right by him without even a hint of him going up for the block) and we kept the game close.
The Heats hot shooting will cool off (Wade will not shoot 9-11 and Payton will not be 6-8 that’s for sure) and the Pistons will shoot better plain and simple. There is no way in hell we shoot 37.8% from the field again in this series. If cats want to jump off the wagon this early you just don’t get what this team can do. Did anyone think we would sweep the Heat anyway?

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" Either you play with a sense of urgency, or you will be leaving. It's that simple." Joe Dumars
Ok Joe it's time to prove it!!!!!!

um, ahem, actually, i did predict a sweep in my nba playoff pool entry... but i agree with everything you say here sausage king...

and truly, once the pistons reminded me of the kind of playoff team they really are (i.e. once the regular season drugs wore off -- probably in game 4 of the cleveland series), i revised my own private prediction for miami: detroit in 6 (including losing one in detroit). so detroit in 6...or 7. but detroit for sure. definitely. no doubts. detroit. detroit in 6... or 7.

Even the Color analyst for the Heat admitted today on Full Court Press (Sirius radio show) that same thing on the midrange jumpers. Payton getting his shots was unusual, and the rest of the team following his lead to add rather than retract the lead was also very unusual. Especially since Haslem was goosegged. When Pistons took the lead, I thought that was it--lockdown and game. So, yeah I think fatigue hit them at time it mattered most.

Late poster,I scanned through and all made good points.We brought this on ourselves by letting the Cavs take us 7 games period.Tired or not with some focus on the role players of Maimi defensively we should have won this one.

Ben's defense I thought was fine and I can't say for every play but there were some where he stayed off the penetrator so he didn't get the easy lob to Shaq.Is that the right strategy?Take the penetrator everytime and let Shaq dunk?I don't know.

We shot like stale butt and that was what killed us.On a good note we found our ft% and I hope whatever cardboard box in the Palace storage room that they stuffed our fg% they rummage through before game 2.

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Losing this 1st game was probably the best thing that could happen in the series. Now the team has to play at 100% the rest of the way.

If we would have won the 1st 2 at home then I would have bet my house on us losing game 3. Perhaps even game 4 as well.

Now, I have to agree. I love CB, but he does look somewhat lost the last 3 or 4 games. Even when he's doing interviews. Must be going through something personal, because he just doesn't look the same.