LINK<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>AUBURN HILLS, Mich., April 23 (Ticker) -- The Detroit Pistons weren't about to lose to the Milwaukee Bucks. But they may have lost Richard Hamilton. Hamilton suffered a left ankle injury in the fourth quarter, when the Pistons regrouped and pulled away for a 92-74 victory over the Bucks in the opener of their Eastern Conference first-round series. NBA TV highlights from Bucks-Pistons: PlayPress Conference: Play Rasheed Wallace scored 22 points and Ben Wallace swept 17 rebounds for the top-seeded Pistons, who smothered Bucks All-Star guard Michael Redd and wasted no time asserting themselves in what appears to be a mismatch. The Pistons won the title in 2004 and were five minutes away from repeating last year. One of the reasons for their success has been their ability to avoid a major injury. In winning a franchise-record 64 games this season, they set a league mark by using the same starting lineup for the first 73 games. But in the fourth quarter, Hamilton stepped on Bucks forward Andrew Bogut's foot and twisted his left ankle. Pistons coach Flip Saunders called a timeout seconds later, but Hamilton stayed in the game. At that point, Milwaukee had used a 19-4 surge capped by consecutive 3-pointers from Charlie Bell to close to 68-64 with 9 1/2 minutes to go. Detroit responded with 11 straight points that included a pull-up jumper by Hamilton to re-establish control for good. "It seemed like when they wanted to turn up their defensive pressure, they did," Bucks coach Terry Stotts said. "They challenged a lot of our shots, but during that stretch on the offensive end, we had three or four opportunities that didn't go, and they ran the other way with it. The lead went from four to 12 pretty quickly." Hamilton began limping noticeably and sat down for good at the 5:36 mark. He scored 21 points and was the primary defender on Redd, who was limited to 11 points on 4-of-15 shooting. "It's sore," Hamilton said after limping from the training room more than an hour after the game ended. "But that's what we have Arnie (strength coach Arnie Kander) for. We'll see how it feels (Monday). "I mentioned to Tay (Tayshaun Prince) that when we first saw the schedule we didn't like that it was all spread out. Now I'm glad it is a couple of days between games." It is hard to minimize Hamilton's effect on the Pistons. The All-Star shooting guard disrupts defenses by scooting around screens to create open shots for himself and his teammates. In 66 career playoff games, he has scored at least 20 points 51 times. Hamilton also is earning respect as a defender, as his work on Redd attested. "I sacrificed my offense," said Hamilton, who made just 5-of-18 shots. "I told myself that I didn't care if I missed every shot, as long as (Redd) missed every one, too. I just tried to make it tough on him every time he got the ball. We know he's a big scorer." Saunders said that containing Redd, who averaged 30 points in the four regular-season games against Detroit, was a priority. "He's one of the most explosive scorers in our league and I thought we did a pretty good job on him team-wise," Saunders said. "Rip did a good job of understanding where help might be. He tried to send him to as much help as he could and he contested most of his shots." "I knew it was going to happen," Redd said. "They did a great job having two or three guys around me all night. It was very difficult to get a shot off. They were just concentrating on shutting me down. We have to make adjustments. It's totally different than the regular season." Prince scored 15 points and Chauncey Billups added 14 for the Pistons, who shot 34 free throws to 10 for the Bucks. "It's hard to win when they shoot that many more free throws," Stotts said. "All season, the Pistons have shot a lot of free throws. That's one of their strengths." Bell scored 13 points, Jamaal Magloire added 11 and Bogut 10 for Milwaukee, which did not have a scorer in double figures until the fourth quarter. The Bucks, who were eliminated by the Pistons in five games in their last postseason appearance in 2004, will try again here Wednesday. "I thought we played well in stretches," Stotts said. "We've played this team well before. The one thing we have to do is execute better." Milwaukee bolted to a surprising 9-2 lead but went scoreless in the last 3:43 of the first half, falling into a 43-37 hole as Rasheed Wallace scored 17 points. Prince and Billups drained 3-pointers to help build the lead to 64-45 before the Bucks rallied.</div> I hhope that Rips injury is not serious, it didn't look too bad at the end of the game.But on the game, we played just like we all expected the Pistons to. Rasheed was on fire from beyond the arc and helped the Pistons gain that big lead after the game was close for a while. Dyess played will off the bench and Ben dominated the boards to give us a game 1 victory. No suprises here, just hope Rip gets better.
He's ok - Rip and Flip said that he could've went in - but he didn' need to - he's just fine - plus he has 3 days to rest.
the start was somewhat shakey, but just as i knew they would, they blew out the Bucks...Mike Redd was rendered useless, hopefully they can do the same thing on Wednesday...i am one happy dude cuz i get to go to that game...lower level tix, won on ebay....awesome!!!Anyways, if my own predicition holds true this series will be over in 4...then bring on Lebron!!!
YOUUUU!!!!! jkjk...i was going to make an official round one thread but i guess we can split it up....i was going to put for game 1 that...>Sheed led all scorers with 22>Rip had 21-but got hurt in the 4th but it seems that since we have the BEST strenght and conditioning coaches ever in Abdenour and Kander that he will be fine.>Tayshaun added 15-had a great 1st half>Chauncey did his thing with 14 and 7>Dyess led the bench with 9 points and 10 rebs.>Ben had 17 boards and 3 blocksRedd was cold all night being contained by Rip. and Flint, MI native and former MSU baller Charlie Bell came off the bench and scored 13...helped bring the game within 4 in the fourth...but we easily pulled away.Last night i was listening to a radio show on FOX Sports Radio, the hosts are two brothers from SAN ANTONIO...they were jealous as hell...they didnt know anything about the Pistons. they just kept saying that the Pistons will have an injury sooner or later(which i'm sure will hapen but much LATER). The Jackasses also said that Flip Saunders is one of the worst coaches in the league! i mean, how Hard-Headded can you be? the team with the best record has the worst coach? HA! i'm sorry but LB was the worst this year, but so were alot of his players so i understand. They also said that we have a horrible bench and all we have is McDyess and Lindsey. HELOOOO is there any brains in there? Delk, Evans, Dale Davis, Cato and Delfino are all really good players. Flip wants to play his starters 42 out of the 48 minutes fine with me. as long as we are winning. and players definitely will not complain if Championships are being won! these guys obviously are still high off of that Spurs title. too bad this year it wont end their way and the river walk will be dyed YELLOW BECAUSE THE PISTONS ARE GOING TO PISS IN IT! well anyways, I wanted to call and show them up-but being a 14-year old, i could not talk i cant wait until i'm 18!!!!!! lolbut then the guy that came on after them made a good point-one that Ben Wallace has shown...we do have the ability to turn it on whenever we want to and just laugh in their faces when we do it. but there will come a time when there will be a team that we may not be able to comeback on. Spurs maybe or Mavericks-Heat too. So I'm just saying that we need to be careful. and i think that Flip will most definitely tell the guys about that.get ready for game two!
excellent post pn13....i think when you get a collaboration of fans all hollering for their own team, they seem to forget the bigger picture...for one as spurs fans they dont need to worry about down grading the pistons team or coach...they should be more worried about the task at hand...beating the kings...easy?...probably...but still that should be their main concern....not worrying about how bad the coach of a team in the other confrenece is or isnt....worryin or should i say hoping that a piston is going to get injured is just another dream that could or may not come true...they cant worry about things out of their or the spurs control...the pistons epitomize the word focus...they dont look ahead to the finals...the look to the next game and that is it...they realize each task at hand is more important than the final goal...if they take care of business, the accolades and prizes will surely follow
Hoping, that is the word that i had in mind. your right, the Pistons know not to look ahead and just take one game at a time. and another thing that they definitely know how to do is take care of business! but the Spurs DO know how to do the same exact thing...hopefully they can get to the Finals-and that 1st round has been made a heck of a whole lot easier with Artest being suspended for game 2 (see playoffs board)
i didnt realize he got suspended...what did he do?...i guess i could not be so lazy and read for myself
lol. if you havent read it already and for ones that havent heard, he was suspended for elbowing Manu in the 4th quarter of Sat. game. but i think that it was payback for the elbow that he got earlier in the game...but the spurs got what i think they wanted, a blowup from a calmer Artest. now they have to execute what they 'may' have planned...but maybe it will pump up the Kings
