I know the Pistons can't think this way, but in my opinion, its over. Get the ring sizes for the Pistons, cause they will go on to win it all.
Flip made some adjustments. Good ones. Both game to game, and in that 2nd half. Now mind you, why we did not guard PJ Brown a lot earlier in that 1st half is beyond me, but I will give it a shot. Hinrich had a horrible shooting game, and a lot of that was that we just never let him get into any kind of rhythm. Hinrich took a lot of well covered shots. He did miss an open one here and there too, but he did not get very open very often. Maybe keeping Hinrich cooled off was more important than shutting down PJ Brown, who matched his playoff career high, with 20 points all in the first half. In the 2nd half, we played up on him, with our bigs giving less help in the middle. PJ tried too much in the 2nd half, so rather than Chicago using the fact that we were leaving the middle more exposed, we had PJ thinking he was Jordan (Note his middle initial)-and it helped us out. Sorry PJ, you are not Jordan, we were just not guarding you.
Webber started out pretty darn bad. Could not rebound, could not score, and just looked slow. He did go inside a bit, and that did help. Him and Sheed both went inside in the first few minutes of the game. In the 3rd quarter, Webber managed to be much more effective. Still too slow, but he kept showing up in the right place, either for the rebound or to help out on D. Not a bad game overall for him, and he did have a nice pass or too.
We had been using Delfino all wrong in the past few games. So this time, he did not play but a couple of minutes-and I believe part of that was at guard if it matters any for such a short time. But since he was not playing in position, it was a good thing he did not play hardly at all this game.
Jason Maxiell did not play a whole lot, but he came in earlier, very early in the 2nd half, and really helped us keep up a solid defensive game. A nice offensive rebound too. Too bad he can't shoot free throws better, as that would earn him a lot more minutes.
The concept of effort showed up in one player big time tonite, Antonio McDyess. Man was he after the ball. His offense remains exactly what we don't need as he is just doing nothing inside, but man was he a crazy man after the ball tonite. If ever I saw some hunger of late, it was from Dyess.
In all, we had a bit less Webber, and a bit more Dyess and JMAX. Good adjustment.
Chicago had a pretty good offense going, but we consistently nailed our defensive rotations. This was made possible by another adjustment. Flip Murray did not play a minute. He gets lost on defensive rotations so it is a darn good thing he did not play. Not just for this series, but in the regular season games, Chicago routinely exploited Murray not knowing who to cover. Another fine adjustment.
I got to give Flip some credit for getting his team all on the same page to play the pick and rolls so much better tonite. It helps to have a savvy veteran team that can learn quickly. Webber is part of that. Yes, I still think it would have been a lot easier to simply start JMAX, a much better pick and roll defender, but hey, it worked.
The calls were bent toward Chicago some. However, we were taking quite a bit of time doing slow mo to look closely at the calls. In all, while Chicago did get more favorable calls, the game was called more the way the Pistons like, with a lot of contact allowed. Yes, Sheed traveled. Indeed, he traveled twice before they called it. And he yelled. Did he yell too much? Maybe. But you got to love his fire. And you got to love his tremendous D tonite, all those rebounds, and some good work inside. Even his three pointers taken were usually like you want, off inside play and a kickout to him. Ditto for CB. Just an outstanding game for Sheed.
Tay was the hero of this game though. Flat outplaying their star, and contributing exactly what we need, inside play. And he heated up big time on the boards in the 2nd half. Matter of fact, I bet we outrebounded Chicago by a ton in the 2nd half-anyone got a stat on that?
As much as we hated watching Ben miss free throws last year, just how much more did we love watching him struggle from the line tonight. Two key misses late in the game surely helped our cause. Thanks Ben.
I must comment on the boards tonite. Other than one idiot mucking up the board, and we all know who I am talking about, the fans here did a great job capturing this game. Thanks everyone (except you know who) for their comments. I love reading them. Over at Micro's place, everyone is in chat I guess-and no, I don't read the chat log before doing this report. Still some good comments about the game after the game was over.
CB shot poorly, but then was the hero at the free throw line, making every one tonite. Rip did not miss either at the line, and had a fine shooting game.
Hunter played well. Good D. Made a couple of critical shots. And most important, Flip did not play him too much. I did get just a bit nervous in the 4th, but Flip took Hunter out within a minute of when I thought Hunter was done for the nite. Hunter has had a horrible playoffs shooting the ball, but here is a shout out to him for making those two tonite when we really needed them.
One quick comment about the announcers. Yes, its painfully obvious they were rooting for Chicago. I don't mind, it makes the victory that much sweeter. We won in front of Chicago's home crowd. In front of hostile announcers, and in front of a couple of refs seemingly on Chicago's payroll. Great win. Onto the finals. (oh, well, there is a minor thing called the East finals first, a meer formality this year. Did I mentinon thats five in a row? Five straight trips to the East finals. Now that is doing a good job as a GM, and as an owner. I still got my gripes, but this run is something you see like once in a lifetime. (Well, the Wings kind of have had similar success even though not in five straight years like this. Wow.) GO PISTONS!!!!!
05-18-2007, 12:09 AM
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