Halftime in game one. Great game thus far. If Dooling hadn't gotten all of those lay-ups swatted away Miami would have at least a 5-point lead, but it's a 1-point lead for Detroit instead. Wade played a good first half as a point guard, he let Shaq ease into a game setting yet again, and he fed the ball well down low. Eddie Jones was spectacular this first half, hit some big shots made some key defensive plays and was hustling throughout. Great job from Eddie Jones. Haslem had some good passing opportunities that he missed and hasn't been up to par. Rasheed Wallace has been fantastic offensively, he's hit some huge shots. All the while Rasheed has come up big defensively - forcing players to adjust their shots effectively. Rip has been off, shooting 3 of 10 thus far. Good first half, I look forward to a great 2nd half.
What an ugly half. 44-43. The game started out great, both teams shooting well and scoring regularly. Somethin happened after that, goin into the 2nd quarter, and it became a typical boring eastern conference suckfest where nobody can make a shot. I'm sure the Pistons like that though.
After the third Miami is down by seven, 74-67. Haslem continued to disappoint and he picked up a technical foul. I liked Stan Van Gundy's decision in putting Shaq and Mourning on the floor together, trying to get the crowd into it and in attempt to pump energy into Miami's offense. Dooling played well towards the end of the 3rd, he was a real spark-plug. Wade's offense hasn't been what Miami fans were hoping for, an atrocious 6/19 shooting, Detroit is really getting to him. Looks like Wade is starting to slow down, some may attribute that to the sweep and all the time out of a game setting but it looks like Detroit is taking Wade and bringing him out of his comfort zone. Detroit played great basketball in the 3rd, they showed why they're the defending champs. They're looking very good right now.
The Pistons extended their halftime lead in the 3rd quarter doing more of the same. Eddie Jones is keeping the Heat in the game offensively and the Heat are now shooting over 50% against the mighty Pistons defense. Van Gundy experimented with Shaq and Zo on the floor at the same time, after Haslem re-injured his dislocated finger. Keyon Dooling has played a lot of minutes in this game and Damon Jones has been on the bench. The 4th quarter just started, and the Rip Hamilton cardiovascular course has just begun.
Does anyone else think some of these calls the refs are making are rediculous? Things that haven't been call the entire season all of a sudden are being called, its pretty much bs if you ask me.
Sheeeeeeed! With the defensive play of the game so far with a rejection ... Pistons lead by 5 with 1 and 1/2 minutes to go.
Wade 7-25, as mentioned before the looks he had in the previous two rounds are gone. The Pistons defense was great in the last 5 minutes. Still needs to be played for the full 48 minutes but they got stops when It mattered late. Sheed was huge so was Mr big shot. Pistons take back homecourt straight away.
Game over. Detroit takes it by nine, 90-81. Sheed was defensively superb, played a great game offensively as well. Sheed was 7/10 shooting and had 20 points with 10 boards. Eddie Jones was the one who kept this game remotely close. Defense won the game, Detroit's defense was simply sensational, allowing only 14 points in the 4th quarter (even though they scored 16, they already had a good lead). Ben Wallace played a good game, 13 points and 13 boards (four offensive) with two blocks and three steals. Damon Jones only played 27 minutes and was shut down by the defensively sound Pistons as he scored only five points with 2/6 shooting. Jones did, however, have 5 assists in those 27 minutes. Not too bad for limited action, since Detroit did a good job of covering men and forcing Miami to make tough decisions passing/shooting wise. Wade really suffered tonight (as mentioned in my prior post, and in others').
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting ksc6000:</div><div class="quote_post">What an ugly half. 44-43. The game started out great, both teams shooting well and scoring regularly. Somethin happened after that, goin into the 2nd quarter, and it became a typical boring eastern conference suckfest where nobody can make a shot. I'm sure the Pistons like that though.</div> it's called defense.
Great game tonight in Game 2... but Wade was just himself.. unstoppable. Mannnnn what a player... great try though Pistons, back to the Palace!
Back to Detroit this series goes. Wade had a great game props to him but the Pistons were in this game heading into the final 30 minutes even with Wade dropping 40 and shooting 38%. Which is good heading into Detroit. I don't think anyone expected this not to be a close series. Pistons just need to take care of homecourt now. They got what they wanted, which was a spilt.
Miami got what they wanted a steal at the Palace. THE PALACE HAS BEEN ROBBED, THE PRINCE WAS BOWLED OVER!!! Hehe, just jokes... Game 3 Heat win... good luck Pistons!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AllNet:</div><div class="quote_post">Back to Detroit this series goes. Wade had a great game props to him but the Pistons were in this game heading into the final 30 minutes even with Wade dropping 40 and shooting 38%. Which is good heading into Detroit. I don't think anyone expected this not to be a close series. Pistons just need to take care of homecourt now. They got what they wanted, which was a spilt.</div>Pistons were still in the game after 7 miraculous 3pters in a row made. Good luck trying to pull off that feat in the rest of the series. In Game 1, the Heat got nothing from it's starting backcourt, Wade was hurting his team more than helping, and we were still able to tie with 5 min left down by 14. No miraculous 7 3pters in a row. You guys just got lucky that Van Gundy went away from the lineup that tied the game and put back a struggling Wade and DJ. This series should be 3-0 right now. Even after these 2 victories, the Heat know they have A LOT to improve and will study film to see what they can do better. Van Gundy is a perfectionist. He takes blame for when the team loses and doesn't believe he's done a good job or his job is done until the season is over and his team are the champions. The difference in this series is that the Heat have more control over their destinies than the Pistons do over theirs'.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Heat4Life:</div><div class="quote_post">Pistons were still in the game after 7 miraculous 3pters in a row made. Good luck trying to pull off that feat in the rest of the series. In Game 1, the Heat got nothing from it's starting backcourt, Wade was hurting his team more than helping, and we were still able to tie with 5 min left down by 14. No miraculous 7 3pters in a row. You guys just got lucky that Van Gundy went away from the lineup that tied the game and put back a struggling Wade and DJ. This series should be 3-0 right now. Even after these 2 victories, the Heat know they have A LOT to improve and will study film to see what they can do better. Van Gundy is a perfectionist. He takes blame for when the team loses and doesn't believe he's done a good job or his job is done until the season is over and his team are the champions. The difference in this series is that the Heat have more control over their destinies than the Pistons do over theirs'.</div> There were many other factors than just the 3-point shooting. The Pistons shot a really bd % from the line and turned the ball over alot. Billups had 8 in the first half alone. Pistons got basically nothing from their backcourt either. Both shot really badly in game 1. Fact is there were many different factors why each team didn't win each of the first two meetings. To call the Pistons "lucky" is any way is completely arrogance on your part. When the Pistons don't play strong enough defense they don't win many games. Thats the whole key to their offense. They force turnovers to get the fastbreak started which enknights them on the offensive end. When that doesn't happen then It's hard for them to win games. Bottom line.
What happened to the Pistons' championship poise? They looked more like the Portland Trailblazers out there rather than the defending champs. They flat out just lost composure and didn't play Piston ball. I think this series will still go to 7-games, but if they keep imploding like that in the 4th quarter, then that 7th game will go to the Heat.
The Pistons managed to bounce back and win game 4, 106 - 96. Richard Hamilton had 28 points and 8 assists for Detroit. With the series now tied, game 5 will be a huge game for both teams.
Was a good game, The difference was the Pistons actually defended better, something they didn't do in game 3. When they defend like they can then they are very tough to beat. Pistons played a good game but certainly not their best, They can play better than they did last night. The refs at least made up for the terrible decisions they made on the Pistons in game 3 by giving the Pistons some calls in game 4. Rip's injury seems to be healing. He is the key to the series, If he is performing like this then the Pistons have to be favourites to win this series. Heat have homecourt but the champions have proved they can win on the road and in a best of 3 series, experience can be a huge factor.. Game 5 will be huge and could be the deciding factor who takes the series.
