The Spurs are gone, and now the Pistons have joined them.

What an exciting NBA Finals it will be! Surely, a feel-good story featuring a team that has risen from the ashes and a team that is just finding its niche- and with everyone’s favorite MVP!

Just like old times, right? Celtics and Lakers at it once again, after all these years. Since the Pistons have already played the Lakers in the Finals and everyone is sick of seeing the Spurs, I guess it really was time for a change in scenery.

Undoubtedly, the ratings will soar. You’ll be a very rich man, David! Maybe so many people will watch the Finals that that Tim Donaghy mumbo jumbo will just kind of slip from their memories.

This is what needed to happen to get the NBA back on its feet. I understand.

Besides, who wants to watch any more playoff games with those two boring teams that always seem to linger around? Who would want to watch that, other than the pure die-hards in Detroit in San Antonio?

No David, it’s all about the story, right? I mean think of the reaction! Boston! In the Finals! They made it! After all the struggle in years past, they traded their whole team away and made it all the way solely on the efforts of three people. From worst to best! What sports fan in their right mind will be able to flip past that?

Who wouldn’t want to watch a washed-up flopping “superstar” and two franchise players that collectively abandoned their teams and their fans for a fatter paycheck and a better shot at winning.

But we don’t hear about that do we? Nope, we hear about how much effort these guys went through to start a “band of brothers” that gave up so much to be together, happily ever after.

I can’t imagine how much emotional pain and anguish Kevin Garnett must have had to overcome to pick up that pen and John Hancock a contract to cash in $72,408 every quarter ($23,750,000 overall). How can you not give your utmost respect to such a team player? I mean, it must have killed him to leave Minnesota.

But hey, what happens happens. We can’t turn back time now.

Anyways, why would we want to?

“All that bull[expletive]-ass calls they had out there. With Mike [Callahan] and Kenny [Mauer] — you’ve all seen that [expletive],” Wallace said. “You saw them calls. The cats are flopping all over the floor and they’re calling that [expletive]. That [expletive] ain’t basketball out there. It’s all [expletive] entertainment. You all should know that [expletive]. It’s all [expletive] entertainment.”

Call me crazy, but as much as Sheed runs his mouth, he’s right.

Cash in on the goods here.

Hitting open jumpers, grabbing gritty offensive boards, and diving for loose balls- there was a win to be had and Antonio McDyess wasn’t soon going to let it slip away.

Finishing the night with a huge 21 points and 16 rebounds, Antonio once again showed his priceless worth to a team that often searches for a leader.

“You only have so many opportunities, and they’re limited, especially for me,” [McDyess] said. “I’m at the end of my career, and I just feel like leaving everything out on the floor.”

And then there was this.

The epiphany of what the Pistons strive for – hustle. In a block that rivaled Tayshaun’s ’04 swat, Jason Maxiell snatched 2 points away from the KG and gave Detroit the early power boost it had been looking for in the series. A little bit of the highlight reel never hurt anyone, right?

By and large, a crucial win for the Pistons. To go down 3-1 and be forced to win two games in Boston would have been a daunting task, to say the least. Unfortunately, due to the Game 3 debacle, they’re still going to have to steal one from Celtic turf to prevent another Conference Finals disappointment.

Look for the Pistons to come out firing Wednesday, they will need a win and they will need it bad.

All Game 7′s need not apply.

At the Pistons’ shootaround Tuesday morning, Saunders was asked a standard question about what he planned to do while filling out the active roster for Game 1, and the coach gave his standard answer:

“Joe [Dumars] and I will talk about it,” Flip Saunders said.

After the chat, the Pistons decided to activate little-used forward Amir Johnson, who gives the team more depth in the frontcourt, and deactivate guard Juan Dixon, forward Walter Herrmann and rookie Cheikh Samb.

Johnson did not play in Game 1, as Saunders went to a nine-man rotation.

But just the fact that the Pistons have to sit down and make decisions regarding whom to activate for a playoff game proves that one of the organization’s main priorities last off-season — developing a deeper bench — has come to fruition at the most crucial time of year.

“When we signed some guys over the course of the summer and the draft, and as far as the trades we made,” Saunders said, “we had the ability to play a lot of different guys depending on the style of play we’re playing against, who we’re playing against and what we feel we need to do.”

I guess Dixon’s deactivation can be justified with Stuckey’s performance, but I would have liked to see at least an attempt to stick Walter Herrmann on Kevin Garnett.  Not only do I think his great defense on mobile big men could possibly shut KG down, but I’m not sure if KG would be able to guard such a versatile player such as Herrmann. Call me Walter-biased…

Eastern Conference Finals

Detroit Pistons

vs.

Boston Celtics

Western Conference Finals

Los Angeles Lakers

vs.

San Antonio Spurs

Make sure to vote in the poll on the left for who will make it to the Finals.

Tune in tonight at 8:30 on ESPN to watch the ECF kick off in Boston!

BOSTON (AP)- Paul Pierce returned home and made sure the Celtics would play there again.Boston’s captain scored 41 points, hit two clinching free throws with 7.9 seconds left and led the team with the NBA’s best regular season record to a 97-92 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday in Game 7 for a spot in the Eastern Conference finals.

That round begins Tuesday night against the Detroit Pistons in the same arena where the Celtics have won 14 straight games and are 8-0 in the postseason. Home teams are 22-2 in the second round of this season’s playoffs.

The Celtics are 0-6 on the road in the postseason.

“I didn’t guarantee a win,” [Nelson] said. “I didn’t say, ‘we’re going to …’ I said ‘we have to go win, we’re going to come get this win.’ And the media took it out of proportion or whatever they want to do. The media always wants a story. I mean, I really don’t care what people write, you know?”

If you take his words literally, Nelson is fibbing: he did predict a win. It wasn’t manufactured by the media. He didn’t use the word “guarantee,” but his exact words were, “We’re going to go there and win this game.” There’s no ambiguity there.

-Matt Watson

Calling ALL fans of ALL NBA teams! David Stern threatens to take away our beloved pregame pyrotechnic displays and WE can help stop him!

Click here to be redirected to the petition.

After seeing this debacle from a “professional” newspaper’s website, I can officially state that the Orlando Sentinel has no class either.

All photos are from the Orlando Sentinel’s website.

 A bit over the top if you ask me, hard to believe a “professional” newspaper would publish this on their “professional” website.

Ehh, I’d say about $10,000 since that’s what I saw Stan Van Gundy paying to have Antonio McDyess fouled out of every game.

JJ? Who’s JJ? Ohhhh, J.J. Redick, that guy that always sits on the bench while the city of Orlando leans on the false hope that he’ll transform into the next Daniel Gibson.

Off topic, but is drinking lighter fluid an Orlando tailgate ritual?

I can’t believe I’m seeing signs like this one, not after seeing 95% of Magic fans holding signs about the shot clock fiasco in Game 2 (see below).

I’m used to seeing ample attacks on Sheed’s “whining”, but I don’t think he’s the one that needs to be quieted here. The sign should look more like this:

“I’m not trying to be arrogant or cocky or anything like that,” said Nelson after the Magic fell to the Pistons 90-89 Saturday in Game 4. “But tonight, we let it slip out of our hands. Game 2 we let slip out of our hands.”

“We’re going to win this game in Detroit.”

All courtesy a 15-0 run and a clutch shot from Mr. Prince.

And apparently, the Magic are already counting themselves out of this series.

Why? Because of the “blame game” runaround they gave after the game. It was an Orlando contest to see who could take the most blame, and I’m not too sure I can declare a pure winner out of all of it. But one thing is for sure, they walked off that court with their heads down, a coach’s anti-cardinal rule, and are already getting ready for a sad, lonely team group hug when the series is over.

“We haven’t gotten a very good shot on any possession, so you’ve got to lay that on me.” -Stan Van Gundy

“I’m just upset that I couldn’t help the team.” -Hedo Turkoglu

“I missed a lot of shots.” -Dwight Howard

Orlando is 0-4 in the playoffs when it doesn’t score 100 points or more.

 “Rashard! We’re not gonna get swept! Piggyback ride!”

Thus, the attitude after a Game 3 win over the Detroit Pistons.

First off, let me start by saying that Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis have some of the poorest shot selection that I’ve ever seen in the NBA. Unfortunately, they were falling again.

Don’t chalk this up as a Pistons failure, remember it as another ridiculous display of knocking down the long ball by the Orlando Magic. Detroit made a valiant effort at a comeback and nearly pulled it off until the barrage of treys rained down like hellfire.  I highly doubt Stan Van Gundy uses a coach’s clipboard, because it’s really not that hard to say “Rashard” and “three-pointer”.

If you’re not a fan of ref rants, block this part out because it’s coming whether you like it or not.

We know NBA referees have a beef, so to speak, with Sheed. This is known by every man, woman and child who ever set eyes on a “professional” basketball game. But out of the woodwork surfaces a new vendetta, the all-seeing eyes shift to focus on not only #36, but #24 as well.  The reffing on McDyess alone should call for another referee investigation. I realize the Magic are a finesse team, but that doesn’t mean that every time they take the initiative to break the 20-foot barrier, that a foul needs to be assessed to the opposing team. 4 fouls on Dice in 14 minutes of gameplay? Come on, have a heart! Like losing Chauncey to injury wasn’t bad enough, the Pistons were robbed of their hardest worker on top of that.

Sharp shooting, Orlando. You got your home win. But don’t count on that 3-point bull****, I mean skill, to fall for much longer.

P.S. After only 3 games, I am officially sick of “Superman”, “Clark Kent”, “Kryptonite”, and every other comic book reference TNT and Orlando fans have thrown. If I see one more middle-aged woman hold up a sign tell me that Dwight Howard is “Pistonite” I don’t know what I’ll do. Just FYI.

Was Chauncey’s 3-pointer with 4.8 seconds left in the 3rd in time? Eventually it was deemed no, but unofficially. Considering the officials on the court can’t use instant replay for time-related issues, Chauncey was awared the 3-ball and the Pistons took a 78-76 lead going into the 4th.

Here it is in case you missed it:

As odd as the situation was, we can’t discredit the shot or the win. The players on the court were playing like the time was running, and until the shot was in flight and Keith Bogans raised his arms in disapproval, I couldn’t see any reaction to it. Nobody stopped playing defense, and Chauncey did what he does best, he came through on a big shot. I’d be saying the same thing if Detroit was on defense.

It’s unfortunate that this will take away from the merit of the Pistons staving off a 3-point-crazed Magic and weathering the storm to pull out a W. Not too mention Chauncey’s overall performance. But hey, a win’s a win.

Isn’t it nice to have the old Chauncey Billups back? I don’t know where he was the first few games in the Sixers series, but he sure as hell is back now.  He notched 28 points with 5 boards and 4 assists.

A rare off-night for Rip, who went 4-18 from the field.  Had he been on his game, this thing wouldn’t have been close.

Talk about your ultimate ticky-tack fouls.  Sheed and Dice got hammered all night by the refs calling fouls practically for looking at the guy with the ball. Sheed went 7-10, although we would’ve seen a lot more if fouls #4 and #5 weren’t on his back during the late game. Only fitting, Dice fouled out.

This is the Dwight Howard we’re used to.  22 boards and 18 rebounds, although a packed stat line, is the norm for Howard. Looks like all that thumb injury talk can quiet down now. Although those 5 turnovers (with 0 assists) is nothing to write home about.

This one was all Pistons until a 36-point, 7-11 from downtown onslaught by Orlando brought them back into it.  The perimeter defense was borderline nonexistent at that point.

Tayshaun- still gettin’ it done.  17 points, 10 boards and 5 assists for the Prince.

Game 3- Wednesday May 7, 8:00 in Orlando.

NEW YORK (TICKER) —Detroit Pistons guard Chauncey Billups on Monday was named the winner of the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award.The award, named after the second commissioner of the league, honors an NBA player or coach for outstanding service and dedication to the community.

Billups won the award for his charity work in Detroit and his hometown of Denver.

“It’s a great award,” Billups said Monday. “The thing about doing stuff like that, doing charity work and having a big heart, you never do it for the accolades. You do it for the kids. You try and teach kids a better way than the alternative, which is being in a neighborhood doing bad things and getting bad results. It’s good to be recognized for it, but at the same time, that’s not why you do it.”

No big first round upset this year.  No trade demands, no coaching changes, and no depressing, reminiscent talk of Pistons’ past. Yet.

The Detroit Pistons live to see another day, and they did it in powerful fashion with an utter annihalation of the Philadelphia 76ers on the Sixers’ home court. We saw, once again, the Pistons that can win any, and I mean any, game when they decide to “turn it on.”

The question is: can they keep that intensity switch on? Or will it slowly slide down to off again, revealing the team we saw in Games 1 and 3?

I sure hope it’s Door #1.

Rip Hamilton- what more can I say about this guy? Night after night he’s running and gunning and hitting every shot he puts up. He finished with a rock-solid 24 points on 9-14 shooting. Wow, looks like when they say they’ve “been in these situations before”, they mean it.

Chauncey continued his rise to his former self with his second straight excellent offensive showing. He only missed 3 of his 11 attempts and dished 7 assists while committing only a single turnover.

The score after the first 12 minutes: Pistons: 30, Sixers: 12.

Thank God I don’t have to see Samuel “SD stands for ‘strong defense’” Dalembert’s frohawk anymore.  Ever since he created that monster the Sixers haven’t been able to do squat, especially on defense. Thanks, I guess.

Although this was a blowout and everything seemingly went right, I still have to complain about sketchy reffing by the officials.  I know, I know we’re used to it right? Still, there were far too many calls going in favor or Reggie Evans’ flops and way too many clean blocks by smothering Detroit defense that weren’t recognized as clean.

Things kind of got messy when the bench came in in the 2nd quarter, but they eventually pulled it together and did well in the 4th quarter keeping points on the board.

Dyess continues to be an inspiration for Detroit, despite his lower minutes.  If anyone wants it on this team, it’s him.

If the Pistons can continue this kind of teamwork and sharpshooting into Round 2, Orlando doesn’t stand a chance in hell. However, if they let their guard down again, Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu will be waiting anxiously to punish them for their mistakes.

The Eastern Conference semifinals kick off Saturday night at 7:30 in Auburn Hills.

The series is not over. Not officially. Not mathematically. Not in a clean- out-the-lockers- and-exchange-off-season-phone-numbers kind of way. But it is over, at least if the Detroit Pistons want it to be over, which is always a question worth asking. Judging by last night, however, they are ready to dismiss the young Philadelphia 76ers with its young legs and its fresh ideas about what this postseason might bring.

The Pistons played with sporadic enthusiasm in the first four games of the series, and the 76ers took advantage enough to earn a split in those games. Detroit’s recent playoff history indicates that is a familiar pattern. What happens next also has become familiar to the Pistons’ opponents, particularly in the early rounds. What happens is that Detroit rouses itself, often spectacularly, and what once seemed possible disappears like a soft spring evening fading to dusk.

It got dark early for the Sixers last night on the way to the deflating 98-81 loss, with the grim reality of evening closing in before the first period was half completed. The Pistons came out with an intensity that isn’t always present wrote Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Bob Ford.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Just in time too, because their seemingly imminent self-destruction was not boding well around Motown.

I was getting scared after the turnover debacle continued through the first half last night, but the second half arrived with the 59-win Pistons team that I’ve been watching all year- the team that was not only playoff-seasoned, but also title-hungry.

Tayshaun. Prince. Talk about stepping up under pressure. Tay missed only a single shot from twelve attempts and finished with 23 points and 6 boards. I am convinced that this would have been a lot closer to overtime, or possibly even gone the Sixers’ way without his performance.

You know how Reggie Evans had been the Sixers’ ridiculous knight in shining armor? Well, not only did he finish with a Reggie Evans-like 2 points and 3 turnovers, but he also cost the Sixers the ballgame.  How, you ask? With that outrageous flop at the end of the first half, that’s how. The flop, deemed a foul (of course), led to a Rasheed technical, which was followed by an offensive onslaught by the Sheed Machine to open the 3rd. When Sheed started clickin’, everyone else started dropping shots too. In my opinion, if the Pistons end up winning this series, that sequence of events was the turning point. Gee thanks, Reggie!

Good to see Dyess in action so soon after he underwent surgery to repair his broken nose.  He responded in true grit fashion with a hard-fought 10 points and 4 boards, all while wearing that hot, sticky mask.

Just when I thought Andre Igoudala was going to pull off a decent game in this series, he goes like 1-for-72 in the second half.

Chauncey is still struggling, but there were minor improvements.  Not real sure what’s going on with him…

Oh yeah, still waiting for that bench of ours to show up…

Five fewer turnovers than Philly!

Game 5, Tuesday night at 7:00. Palace, baby.

PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Pistons forward Antonio McDyess returned to Detroit on Saturday and had surgery to repair the broken nose he suffered in Game 3 of their playoff series with Philadelphia.

Pistons coach Flip Saunders said McDyess’ availability for Sunday’s Game 4 would depend on how he felt after surgery. McDyess was injured Friday in the third quarter of Detroit’s 95-75 loss to the 76ers.

-AP

The Pistons good name as a playoff-ready team seemed to diminish with every ridiculous turnover that they made last night.

This has been stressed and I agreed with it: The Pistons are a better team than the 76ers, they’re just not playing up to par. Well, now I’m not so sure. How good can a team be when it works so hard to grab a comeback, statement Game 2 win, only to get absolutely annihilated in Game 3.

Was there no lesson to be learned? Or are the playoff-seasoned Pistons just too experienced to have any lessons left to learn on the playoff stage?

I know, I know. Why panic? It’s not like we’re facing elimination, right? Not technically, no. But an ESPN2 commentator put it best when he said that you never know who will get injured, or what will happen. You have to play every, single playoff game like it’s your last.

This is a Pistons team we are not used to seeing. Yes, we’ve seen faltering near the end of the road, but not this early on in the playoff hunt. I guess this is what it takes to get them to realize that their dominance and cakewalks to the Eastern Conference Finals aren’t there anymore. As a loyal Detroit fan, I hate to be so critical on my team, but there’s not much swagger left to take away.

I’d love to chalk it up to a bad shooting night. What Pistons fan wouldn’t? But instead, I have to face the music. The Pistons did not want to win last night. There is no exaggeration when I say that they played like it was the preseason out there. And in Philly, as good as a road team as Detroit is, shame on them.

The turnovers were the biggest story of this one. All 23 of them. And these weren’t silly bench turnovers. 17 of them were committed by the starting five, including 5 from Tayshaun and 4 from Rasheed and Rip.

Luckily, Rip and Tayshaun were on the offensive money last night. I think that was the only thing saving us from a 40-point self-destruction.

What was up with Chauncey? I certainly hope we’re not witnessing the once-per-season shooting slump that he didn’t really catch this year. Because those weren’t just slight misses, many of his shots were far short of the rim- routine shots that he knocks down 90% of the time.

If anyone blames Flip Saunders for this debacle, they are sorely mistaken. Do you think Flip goes out there and tells his crew to play with the half-energy and lethargy that we saw last night? This one’s on the players. The only thing I would’ve liked to see more is more feeds to Sheed in the post.

Reggie Evans’ celebrating after every (and I mean every) microscopic play that he makes is getting pretty old, for me at least. But honestly, I wish we had someone on our team that ran around and pumped up the crowd in these dark days, because that’s the difference between these two teams: one has motivation. Must be nice to be the underdog, right?

Bob Wojnowski of The Detroit News: “The young and impetuous must be dealt with severely, or they never learn. The Pistons tried to play nice with the 76ers, but play time is over. This first-round series should be a mismatch, and it might yet be a mismatch.”

Bill Khan of Booth Newspapers: “Somebody please check Antonio McDyess’ birth certificate and biography. He can’t be 33 years old with 12 seasons of NBA mileage on his surgically repaired knees.”

Greg Johnson of The Grand Rapids Press: “Detroit, when it plays like it did to even the series Wednesday night, is the superior team. But there’s the other Detroit, which makes the Pistons remarkably two-faced, even three-faced and always looking like it could be the next upset victim.”

Bob Ford of The Philadelphia Inquirer: “If you expected the Sixers, a team that has become a sum-of-its-parts unit in the post-Iverson era, to suddenly discover a singular go-to guy on the roster, then you were expecting far too much. That’s what it would have taken against the Pistons last night, and what it would take in this series in general.”

Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News: “Rasheed Wallace indicated that his lack of interest in being a focal point of his team is an old story. ‘I think you can get more done with five individuals than you can [with] one individual,’ he said. ‘If you’ve got one guy you know is going to get that ball in crunch time, it’s easier to defend him. But if you have five guys who can get that ball in crunch time, it’s harder.’”

-Compilation courtesy of ESPN.com

“Those are the Detroit Pistons that we expect to see.”

Although my opinion of Game 2 being a must-win was heavily debated, my call was answered anyways.  The Stones put those pesky Sixers away with a 17-point statement win in front of a home crowd that sure as hell needed it.

The reason this was a must-win: Remember when the Cavs “stole a win” last year?  I know it’s not a carbon copy, but look how it ended, regardless.  We lost a game, no one panicked, then elimination.  After last night’s win, I’m almost glad the Pistons lost Game 1 instead of Game 2 or 3.  They had an opportunity to catch their mistakes early.  Had they lost later on the series, I wouldn’t be surprised if the lull and comfort of winning the first couple could leave them offguard, sending the Detroit Pistons into a self-esteem snowball headed downhill fast.

All in theory, of course.

I was getting a little deja vu when the Pistons went into the locker room with a double-digit lead at the half.  This time, however, the visitors weren’t coming back into this one.  Needless to say, it felt good.

Looks like the old Rip is finally back and healthy, because he sure filled up that stat line.  20 points, 7 boards, 7 dimes.

Sheed kicking things off once again, he had 11 points in the 1st quarter.

How about limiting Andre Igoudala to 4 points on 1-9 shooting?  Not to mention a rare 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio for Andre Miller, who only had 3 & 3.

Dyess was all over the glass, getting offensive boards left and right, which always directly converted to points.  Igoudala! Quote!

“When they did miss, they beat us to the boards and got second-chance points”

Nicely worded.

Somehow, Reggie Evans continues to get it done for the 76ers, he had 13 points and 11 boards.  The inner analyst in me wants to say “Don’t expect much more of the same out of Evans,” but that’s what I thought after Game 1, deeming me completely useless in all aspects of Reggie Evans.

16 points for the Dyess-Sheed-Tay trifecta.

Philadelphia’s reserves outscored their starters 50-38.

All five starters shot 50% or better from the field, and that’s usually a good thing.

Did anyone catch that shot clock failure in the 1st quarter that stole a Pistons’ possession?  Good thing the Pistons didn’t lose by a couple points…

Pack it to Philly for Game 3; Friday at 7:00.

“We’ve been here before. A lot of guys on that team, it’s their first time.”

“We’re going to be all right. We have been here before.”

“I thought the mood was good today.”

All prime examples of what Pistons fans have had to listen to for the last three postseasons.

Well maybe the mood shouldn’t be good.  We got showed-up, at home, on national TV, tisk tisk.

And yes, I fully understand that the Pistons’ way of dealing with stress is to reminisce upon all the times they’ve been in a hole before.

This just in: you were in a hole last year in Cleveland.  Did you get out?  No.  You got manhandled in front of a gleaming sports world that was already opening its arms for a LeBron James bear-hug.

Maybe it would help if a Pistons’ press conference went like this:

“We’ve been here before.  Yeah, we blew it last year when we let our guard down, but we learned from our mistakes.  We’ll try to bring a playoff intensity as well as a respect for our opponent’s abilities in Game 2.”

Barring the presence of a “superstar” that takes 30 shots each game, the Sixers bear one too many similarities to the ’07 Cavs.  No, there’s no Gibson, Gooden, or Pavlovic.  But there is Evans, Young, and Green, seemingly evolving before our eyes.

Is it going to take a team-dismantling, sending half the team their seperate ways, to get the Pistons to realize that the lull of the regular season is over?

No more blowouts, no more easy wins. This is real.  They knew it in ’04, they knew it in ’05, what happened?  Now they reminisce.  They reminisce like old men playing shuffleboard at a country club reminisce about their glory days on the front lines.

Wake up, Pistons.  I don’t want another LeBron James or Daniel Gibson coming out of the woodwork.  Put the past behind you, because if this series turns out like last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, you’re in for a long summer.

Well, it happened, and Philly deserves due credit.  They did everything right down the stretch.  But, in my (extremely) humble opinion, the Pistons lost this one more than Philly won it.

The story of the night: missed opportunities.

There were so many chances for Detroit to tie or take the lead in the final minutes, it was almost like the Sixers wanted to keep the Stones in it.  But they failed to capitalize: an open Rip 15-footer, a lightly-contested Sheed layup, you name it- none of ‘em were falling last night.

Maybe next time, right?  More like definitely next time. We’ve been in this situation so many times before, it hurts my head to think about it.  You don’t even need to have faith in the Pistons to be certain they’ll win Game 2.  However, if they do drop Game 2, they’re in deep #$%&.

Sheed was doin’ his thing this time around: 24 points, 9 boards, and 7 monster blocks.  He was all over the floor for 99% of the game, but his luck ran out in the closing minute when he missed a layup to tie the game.  Regardless, 3 blocks on Andre Igoudala in about 30 seconds almost makes it worth it.  But not quite.

“The last bunny, that was a bucket I should’ve made.” Wallace said. “I’m going to take this one on the chin.”

Jason Maxiell, coming up big with 12 points and 11 boards.

Although Max notched 29 minutes, I’m hoping Flip Saunders isn’t coming down with another bad case of “overplayyourstartersitis” or “benchaphobia”, if you will.  We’ll see how Game 2 goes, but I definitely would have liked to see more than 5 minutes out of Theo Ratliff and Jarvis Hayes.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Andre Miller truly is one of the most underrated point guards I’ve ever seen.  His ability to control every aspect of the game is uncanny and the guy can hit a shot from any spot on the floor.

Reggie Evans came up huge in the clutch.

Arron Afflalo and Amir Johnson will be luckily to step foot on the court if this series continues the way it started.

Game 2: Wednesday at 7:30.  Let’s do this thang.