well, yesterday just plain sucked. i got a flat tire and had to switch cars. on the way to the palace, on i-75 it was such a downpour of hail and rain drops the size of spit, that i couldn't see 5 feet in front of me driving...FROM RAIN. then when i got home our cable was out so i couldn't watch tv or go on the internet. the weather was bad enough during stretches that even with an 8 PM start people were still late getting there.

from the beginning the atmosphere was not as electric as games 1 and 2. everyone figured close-out game, we got this. the bulls making their first basket was bad. yeah there were some BS calls in the 3rd, and if chauncey stayed in the game i believe we would've pulled it out, but really we lost the game in the 1st quarter. we let the bulls shoot whatever they wanted, drive the lane with no help, didn't give hard fouls, didn't even contest shots. as soon as the bulls get confident, you have a problem, and well, we gave ourselves a big problem.

the fans and pistons got ultra-frustrated in the 3rd, because the pistons kept driving to the lane with 0 calls, while the pistons got called for ticky-tack crap on the other end. i still can't believe they called chauncey for the offensive foul, as hinrich clearly flopped (and did a couple other times during the game), but chauncey also tries too hard to draw those fouls sometimes. now that's 2 straight games that our comeback was stopped by a billups charge.

there were a few times that the crowd was trying to get into the game, but then the bulls would hit another shot and we'd all say 'STOP MAKING THEM!!' and get quiet again. but honestly, pistons fans are smart, and we get quiet when we get p1ssed off. when do we get upset? when the pistons don't play defense and give up easy baskets. other arenas might get quiet for other reasons, but the pistons crowd stops caring when it's clear the pistons aren't putting the required effort out there.

the pistons figured, hey it's game 5, the bulls can't handle the pressure, they'll buckle early and we'll take the game running away. even after the game 4 loss, and being down by 19 in the 3rd, they STILL took this game for granted, and admitted to not making any adjustements! if you look at the 20 quarters of basketball played, yeah we're up 3-2 in the series but it's basically been 10 to 10, which is what scares me more than anything, especially since they have the momentum.

webber actually wasn't terrible, but he's being underutilized. like tayshaun. tay was 4/4 in the 3rd quarter, and then chauncey got out and tay never got the ball again. annoying.

at this point i'd seriously start maxiell over webber, have dale davis be the first sub (and early) so he can regulate, and then play amir johnson over dice the rest of the way. dale should be playing in this series, and doing what he did to orlando - REGULATING. maxiell is outplaying the bulls' big men, and dice/webber are so mentally screwed that we might as well put amir johnson in there, who you know is going to fight for rebounds and play hard. heck you could even put him in at the 3. either way, flip murray and lindsey hunter should not see another MINUTE the rest of the series. let AJ backup tay, and delfino backup rip/chauncey. and the point about not having a deep bench being our problem? that's horse poop. if our STARTERS were doing their job this wouldn't be a problem!!!!

at 6 minutes left in the 4th, just about everyone left. there were a scattering of boos at that point, and a lot more at the end of the game, although the arena was so quiet at that point, it could've been one fan doing it and you would have heard them. so roscoe, to answer your question, the atmosphere was of anger in the 3rd, and of apathy in the 4th. i sat back and relaxed and played my Nintendo DS for the final 6 minutes (and of course my friends' DS battery died so we couldn't multiplayer), and even that was frustrating as i kept falling into this stupid lava and missing easy platform jumps.

we even got to witness a near fight 5 feet away from us. these two obnoxious kids were standing up and cheering during the 3rd quarter, trying to encourage everyone else to do the same, but 1 - palace fans don't stand up unless it's the last minute of a game, and 2 - we were down 22 points and no one's gonna stand up for that. so people in back were yelling 'DOWN IN FRONT!', but they kept standing (and one i don't think understood english anyway). so ushers and security got involved, and this kid is yelling at one of the security guys saying he's not doing anything wrong by standing. then this old guy who thought he was cool decided to get involved, even though he was one section over and 2 rows in front of this kid and completely unaffected by the whole situation. he got in the kid's face and was yelling at him, telling him he shouldn't be blocking people's view, etc., and they nearly came to blows. this went on for about 10 minutes and was about the most entertaining part of the whole day.

ugh. i'm taping thursday's game and not even watching if they lose.

oh and one other thing - pistons assistant coach kevin wilson came on the radio after the game and basically placed a bunch of blame on the palace crowd for being too quiet, and that it was 'quieter than orlando and chicago by far', and he doesn't understand it. well guess what - GIVE US SOMETHING TO CHEER ABOUT!! like i said earlier, if we're not playing defense the fans know it and they stop cheering. we're not the ones on the court sucking.