This should be an exciting but fast series for Detroit. Detroit defeated Cleveland 3 games to 1 during the regular NBA season I expect the same from them in the NBA playoffs.Clevelands lack of expierence will be the downfall of this series. Lebron James will win Cleveland a game or 2 but we all know one player cant win a series on his own. I think this will be an exciting series overall regardless if Detroit takes this series easy. The Cavs role players need to step it up. Damon Jones cant continue to average less than 1 point per game in the NBA playoffs. Ronald Murry will need to take a huge scoring load of of Lebron's shoulders. Assuming James will face a double team Murry should get some open looks. Detroit in 5.....<u> Chauncey Billups VS Eric Snow</u>Eric Snow is an awesome perimeter defender. He has slowed Billups down in every single season game this year. He held Billups to 14.5 points per game in 4 games this season. That is 4 points below his season average. Billups can not lose his composure in this series like he has shown in the regular season. He recieved a technical foul against Cleveland in February because he was frustrating by Eric Snow's tough defense.<u>Rip Hamilton VS Larry Hughes </u>This should be a fun matchup to watch. Hughes being a phenominal defense player, Hamilton being a phenominal offensive player. I dont see Hughes having the stamina to contain Rip Hamilton for 48 minutes. Rip knows his strengths and I am sure he will use his stamina to his advantage. <u>Tayshaun Prince VS Lebron James VS </u>Its obvious no one man can stop King James. However he can be contained. Prince has played Lebron decently in the past. Lebron needs to play Prince in the post because he has a major stength advantage. If Lebron plays the way he should play Prince I wouldn'y be suprised to see him explode in this series as well.<u>Rasheed Wallace VS Drew Gooden</u>This is my key matchup of the series. Rasheed Wallace needs to take advantage of the Cavs big men and make them play him on the perimeter. The Wallace-Gooden matchup is a disadvantage for Cleveland because of Rasheeds range. Sheed always plays well against the Cavs. He is the one player I dont being stopped as fare as scoring goes. Drew Gooden just simply does not thave the speed to guard Wallace on the outside.<u>Ben Wallace VS Zydrunas Ilgauskas </u>Cleveland has the advatage here. Big Z may be weak in the post but his weight will casue matchup problems for Ben Wallace. He is 7 inches taller than Ben Wallace. Ben Wallace needs to play Ilgauskas very physical to try to contain him. Big Z is not a physical player and he doesn't play well against physical players.<u>Closing Comments and Predictions:</u><u>Key Matchup: </u>Rasheed Wallace VS Drew Gooden<u>Predicted stats:</u>Leading scorer: Lebron James 25.2 ppgLeading rebounder: Ben Wallace 12.7 rpgLeading passer: Eric Snow 7.4 apg<u>Game predictions:</u>Game 1etroitGame 2: DetroitGame 3: ClevelandGame 4: Detroit Game 5: Detroit
I agree with Ballah that we win in 5 games. I expect Sheed and Rip to have big series. But what I don't agree with is that you say Big Z is better then Ben! What the heck Ben is a soon to be 4-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Basically all you stated to support Ilgauskas was that he's taller, wow that makes a huge difference. Ben is more physical, quicker, and more dominant. I don't see how you see Zydrunas winning that matchup. Also on the Billups-Snow matchup, Chauncey may have had been slowed on scoring but he averaged something like 9 assists per game and that's the reason he didn't score much. That's the beauty of Detroit basketball because when someone's not shooting well then we'll go to someone else, we are a team effort. Individual matchups don't mean anything when you play excellent team basketball.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pistonz4life @ May 7 2006, 01:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Individual matchups don't mean anything when you play excellent team basketball.</div>They never matter really,its a TEAM game and you shouldn't be comparing players like that as if there playing 1 on 1.Well Cleveland is down by 10,I expect Detroit to take this one in 6.
^I agree. Lindsey is on fire. I see a possible sweep in this series. Pistons fans get your brooms ready......
The Pistons are dominating the Cavs right now. Cleveland is in for a tough series, that they will lose in 5 to 6 games. Balla Chauncey has great composure, the tech you are referring to was a joke of a tech. Chauney thought he got fouled, then walked away, then the ref followed him and started talking to him again which lead to that tech, hardly because of Snows defense. Snow is a good defnder but Chauncey doesn't really care if he scores at all any night, if he has 10 assists and 2 turnovers which is usually the case, alongside the win he is happy.On Tayshaun and LeBron, Tay has slowed him down big time his whole career. LeBron has only averaged 18ppg against the Pistons shooting 33%, that won't fly in the playoffs.I think that LeBron has played bad defense today on Tay. He is leaving him open for threes and Tayshaun is connecting. That could develope into a problem for the Cavs if LeBron doesn't step up on defense. Pistons in 5.
Yeah, the Cavs are playing like crap right now. But man, Lindsay Hunter was really lighting it up before halftime. Pistons in 4, I said it already. Very bad matchup for the Cavs.
I'm gonna go ahead and guaranSHEED a sweep. I might take some heat for it but the way we played today nothing is going to make me think otherwise.
Even after the game 1 thrashing I am still going with the Pistons in five because there always seems to be that one game that the Pistons don't show up for.
These Cleveland role players need to start hitting some open shots out on the wings. That is what a group of them were brought in for, was to shoot three's to open it up for James to slash to the rim a little easier. Early in this game they still are not hitting, and now the Pistons are starting to show a little zone defense making it hard for Lebron James to dribble penetrate. The Pistons are daring the Cleveland three point shooters to beat them.
The Pistons got me nervous for a minute. But we pulled through and got that game 2 victory. My prediction of sweeping the Cavs is still alive.
The Pistons will wrap this up in five games. They are at a high level of play right now, and Ben Wallace is showcasing his defense in the playoffs. Rasheed Wallace is lighting up from three point range, and the others are all playing great as well. Balla said we can't stop LeBron, maybe but we can slow him down better than any other team in the league.
I'm thinking the Piston's sweep right about now. The Cavs stand no chance whatsoever. LeBron won't have anothergame like he had last night, which was decieving
Cleveland will probably manage to win one on their home court, but I dont think they pose much of a threat to Detroit in the big scheme of things. I expect LeBron and co. to pull out a win at some point in this series, but at this point, there is no way they can compete with Detroit.
