Who would have thought letting Rondo score early was part of the Pistons game play? BOSTON POPPED: Late foul, Billups' free throws lift Pistons past Celtics in marquee matchup
Tay did a great job defensivly on Paul Pierce to make up for his shooting. Think its safe to say that he has too many of these off-nights to ever make up Rip's production on a consistant basis. So what have we learned? Billups ownes their PG's. The best part of the game was probably watching Billups bring the opportunist Rhondo back down to earth. Could tell the guy thought he was a baller. What a hot shot trying to use both hands to play call and getting offended when CB took it away. Plus he looked a bit like Boobie Gibson which added to the fun. And what is Eddie House doing on a team? Hunter can still play in limited mins. They have no center. Perkins can sometimes put up the numbers playing alongside Garnett but is no match for Sheed/Dyess. I like the matchups. Garnett will always get his and there is no defense for Ray Allen when he gets hot. But the Pistons effectivly controlled everyone else ( incl Pierce ). Just one game though. Lets try to keep that in mind. I have a feeling there will be at least 7 more ( incl the post-season)
The interesting thing is that Billups said that Tayshaun told him to consider pump faking on the final shot. Tay is wise beyond his years, that's for sure. Also, Max, look at the shots Garnett was getting. He was doing damage, but that was the best possible scenario, having him take contested outside J's. Next game, maybe he misses some of those.
There are some interesting comments about the game on Celtic Nation. A lot of their posters said that the refs favored us and that C-Bill and Rip grab and bump on a lot on defense. There are even a couple Pistons fans posts on the game thread. I think that the Celtics fans think that any game that they don't get at least 35 foul shots and at least 15 more than their opponent is a poorly officiated game. 12/19/07: Pistons @ Celtics - Page 3 - Celtic-Nation.com: Boston Celtics forums
Well, as we've hoped for, Rip and Allen canceled each other out, Tay and Pierce close to canceling each other, KG did better than Sheed, but KG+Perkins got matched pretty closely by Sheed+Dyess. The benches were close, except Pistons bench played better defense. And Chauncey owned the PG position. If Tay can hit a few of his shots and Sheed's post ups bring results, Pistons should have an upper hand in this match up. And Allen is not going to keep hitting those 3's with a hand in his face. He hit a few of those falling out of bounds while Rip was wide open for his. Afflalo kept Allen more or less in check. The guy's defense is very good. He's probably going to replace Lindsey as the best on-the-ball defender on Pistons team. His offensive game is underrated. He could've scored more if he tried, but he knows that that will get his playing time cut, so he sticks to the defense and picks his opportunities to score here and there. He's a very smart player. Lindsey had a great game. I wonder if he's starting to round up into the shape after not playing much at all to start the season. He'd be a great help if he can provide 8-10 min of the same D and hit his shots. What I didn't like (and that's probably the only thing) is that Pistons had numerous chances to close the game and let Celtics right back in. This won't work in the playoffs - Chauncey will most likely not get that call to decide an outcome of a playoff game. And, who are bigger whiners? I mean, please, Boston was so much worse than Pistons. And they call Pistons the worst whiners in the NBA.
The last second call shouldn't have been an issue if the pistons would've closed the deal up by 6 with just over a minute to go. A made shot would've put this baby away. But they didn't score until those foul shots and let Celts tie the game. As far as the tempo of the game slowing down, that's called imposing your will. And Pistons did just that in the 2nd half.
I have not watched the game, so not much comments. However, I have read the Celtics national forum and I have few comments: 1- They think the refs have bet on the game (with pistons win) 2- They did not like that pierce took the last shot 3- Most of them do not discuss their shallow bench 4- Last, they have only 4 pages on this game, compared to 13 so far for the pistons
Can you imagine the level of excitement over there? Take our 01-02 team, how we felt about that transition, and multiply it by 5.
Some of the comments in fact most of them mirrorred some of the comments our forum fans have scribed over the past couple of years. They complained as we do expecting more and the same arrogance that existed over here two years ago appears to be in force pver there. Two of their hall of famer posters made some good points and tried to consul the panic stricken fans to calm down. Looks like most or their posters are regional where as we get views and posts from an intenational flair of folk. Good BB reading from both sites!!
Watching the game i thought Sheed seemed kinda out defensively of it when Garnett did most of his damage. Maybe he was trying to keep himself calm and not freak out about the calls ? I expect a better effort next time, but i agree let Garnett get his like that. If we can limit everyone besides him and one of the other big 3, it'a a good enough strategy. If we get offensive production from Tay and Sheed, even better.
Going to Dyess isn't exactly a great option in the clutch. He was wide open though both times. I think Chauncey tried to take over a little too much (and a little too much dribbling). It still irks me that we don't drive when we have a lead like that in the last few minutes.
In addition to your excellent points, it seems to me that we won because we played good defense, they didn't get to the foul line 35 times and we hit 5 more threes than they did. Sheed was effective enough on offense making 3 of 5 threes. His rebounding was about the best he has done all year.
