| Re: 2nd Round Game 3 - At Chicago May 10 9PM
Well, the fat lady ain't sang yet, but she's warming up, and you can definitely hear a tune forming. No team has ever come back from down 3-0. Technically, not over. Realistically though, just a little matter of some mop up action on a Sunday afternoon.
Biggest improvement this year over last? Absolutely Tay's outside shooting. It is gone to the outstanding level at the end of this season and into the playoffs. Tay was content to let others take their shots, until we really needed him to step up. He responded with a 13 point 3rd while CB chipped in 10 that quarter, and the Pistons erased 15 points of the 16 point Chicago halftime lead. Tay scored outside, and when played for that, he came inside well. Tay just has it going on on offense. Did I mention he is one heck of a defensive player too? Deng scored on a very difficult shot over Tay early in this game, but you knew if Chicago had to rely on shots like that, they were going to lose. Chicago shot just under 34% in this game, and are at 33. something for the series. Detroit just simply wins all the matchups.
Sheed was stead as rain from around about 10 to 15 feet out. Not quite in the paint scoring, but it was in close scoring. Just shooting over everybody. Awesome. Gave me goose bumps every time another one went in. And he hit that 3 to end the 3rd to cap off the comeback. Wow, and what D Sheed played.
Webber did not do much at all in this one. It was pretty clear he needed to come out of the game. With him gettting virtually no inside scoring for us (he did get inside a couple of times) and not even hitting his outside shots, his sub par defense was hurting us. Dyess came on and played some pretty good D, although the refs were loving ot pick on him, and some good rebounding.
Maxiell barely played, but he did get in for a couple of key minutes in the 4th quarter. That little burst of energy he provided helped, as did his dunk to give us the lead.
Flip Murray got in just for a few minutes to start the 4th quarter, just enough time to give Rip a slight breather, and not enough time for Chicago to exploit him being lost on defensive rotations.
Hunter pretty much killed our 2nd quarter. His total lack of point guard play disrupted our offense so bad, we could not recover even after he left. The result was a ten point quarter. We do not have a backup point. Fortunately, Billups got into no foul trouble and was able to play the entire 2nd half. Not having a backup point is bad. It won't matter in the next series, but it might hurt us in the NBA finals a couple of weeks down the road. The time is now to do something about it. Continuing to run Hunter and Murray out there is not good.
Delfino did very little. He can't guard Deng. He missed his only shot, only playing for 8 minutes in the first half.
Chicago pretty much choked in the 2nd half. Hinrich had enough guts to take a shot or two at least, but he was shaking in his shoes none the less.
Chicago took Ben Wallace out of the game to start the 4th, desperate to find some offense. But did I mention we overmatch Chicago at all positions? There was no offense to be found.
Its so easy to forget Rip's contributions. His stead shot was the only thing going in for us at times in the first half. Good job Rip, surely an unsung hero in this one.
Great floor game by CB in the 2nd half. Just one turnover for the team in the 2nd half. And between him running things so well, and Sheed thankfully not settling for threes, Billups brought us all the way back and then some. We had a 29 point swing at one point in the 2nd half.
I hate to have to harp on this so much, but we have no bench. We have bench players, but no functional bench. People ask me how Flip is doing. He is doing some things well, but he has not developed a bench regardless of the hype to the contrary. Still time to take care of this. GO PISTONS!!!!! | 
05-11-2007, 12:13 AM
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