That is slippy's job. I don't want to step on his toes.

Ok.

Slippy!!!!

X out that 6th win my friend!!!!!!!!!

Mad props to Slippy and anyone else involved in the idea and maintenance of the official playoff countdown (up)!

More of the same, only we jumped out on them harder, going up 24 early in the 2nd quarter. After that, we pretty much coasted in. Lots of foul trouble kept disrupting our rotations, but it did not matter that much as Chicago just had way too little fire power against us. Chicago could run a good play here and there and get points while the Pistons simply overpowered Chicago on matchup after matchup.

Weird game in some ways. We outrebounded Chicago completely, with Chris Webber helping to set that tone with early offensive boards. We scored plenty of paint points. A lot of that was Webber too on his way to 22 points. The only thing Webber did not do well at was defense when he was called on to do a bit too much. Like when paired up with Dyess or simply out there as our only big at times.

Due to so much foul trouble on our front line we ended up playing Prince quite a bit at power forward in the 2nd half, but we could have used Dale Davis more.

Prince was the scoring hero for us along with Webber. All starters got double digit points again. Our bench did not score a point for much of the first half though. Still no point guard for our bench. Still correctable. We could still play Blalock, or use Delfino as the backup point, letting Amir play some small forward.

We gave up 30 points off turns. Thats bad, but most of that if not all was with us up at least 16 points when the turn was made. Just did not matter. Lots of margin for error in this one.

Jason Maxiell made one jumper from the post, and thats about it for his offense. He missed 2-2 at the line on one trip. He got in foul trouble, along with Webber, and Sheed fouling out. Maxiell's defense is pretty darn good though, and he got his share of bounds in this one.

Delfino played some good D, helped with the ball handling chores, especially when we went small at the end of the game. I think he just made one free throw. He did not shoot much. Murray did not play except for 2 garbage minutes at the end of the game. Hunter did nothing at all, but he did hit a three in garbage time. Dale Davis put in maybe 4 minutes? Not much to say about his stint.

CB got double digit assists and scored about 14. Eleven of those points came in the 2nd quarter, and much of that as we built up that 24 point lead. About midway thru the 2nd, we were on a pace to hit about 75 points for the half. We cooled off pretty much for the rest of the game, but the damage was done, and Chicago never got to better than within 13 the rest of the way.

Tay had the inside game going as well as the outside shot. Rip scored some, including a couple of long rangers. So easy to forget to guard Rip out there. So easy to forget that he led the league in 3 point shooting last year.(In percentage). I think that new ball hurt him to start this year. Good for us as it helps to lull teams to sleep as they just don't remember how good he is.

Chicago was at the line all nite. I don't think it was the officials, we were just fouling a lot, and not caring really as our front line is just too deep to care.

As the announcers pointed out, Chicago now has to win 4 of 5 to take this series. As they lose every matchup, and man did Tay ever whip the snot out of Deng tonite, this is virtually impossible. Flip Saunders is going to have to give quite a motivational speech for next game to keep the team interested-or not. Ben Wallace is still on the Chicago team-I don't think a word needs to be said.

Speaking of Ben, those were my best laughs of the nite watching Ben trying to be an offensive machine. Got to love that he is on another team and some other fans have to suffer that kind of thing. GO PISTONS!!!!!

Btw, Wings just closed out the Sharks.

DETROIT PRO SPORTS!!

The best part of Rip's game tonight was backing down on the much shorter Bulls guards and scoring on turnaround jumpers in the lane. He was killing them with that.

Three-point shooting has been big as well. Pistons were off the charts tonight, 10-19. They're shooting 45% on 3s so far in the playoffs!

Thanks Ozark!

They really can't board with us. Ben is all alone against our entire front line. They have match-up problems all over the court. If they cover the match-up problems shooters are open.

They went to Sweetney because we are playing smart defense--getting out on the shooters and forcing them to drive. We leave Ben to pick up the driver. Skiles wanted to see if Sweetney could give them some offense. Not enough offense and his defense was poor.

They are capable of giving us a battle ( the score is somewhat deceptive) but hard to see the Bulls compete for the series.

We need to go into Sheed early next time. Dyss needs to adjust. They are rushing out on him to stop the open look. Hunter sure did not look too good out there. Delfino is too tentative on the shot again. Maxiel made some mistakes but they cannot handle him down low. Only Ben can and he is overmatched by what they are asking him to do. I would use eMurray some at the point.

Pistons bench was weak in this game, after a great Game 1. But as long as they don't get totally dominated in Chicago, I think the Pistons will be fine, given how badly the Bulls' starters are getting outplayed by ours.