Game 7 looms

[Mavs<Spurs]

That was Deeeeetroit basketball!!!

Chauncey was awesome. The points were good, but outstanding were his 10 assists to only 1 turnover.

The team defense for Detroit was terrific. That is what I am talking about!

Detroit fans know that their team is the toughest team to eliminate in the NBA. Can't underestimate the heart of a champion and this team won it all in 2004 and were within minutes of winning it all in 2005 (think if Horry's shot didn't fall in game 5 or if they had held that 9 point lead from the middle of the third throughout the game).

The offense looked much sharper. However, the reason their offense was better was their defense was much better. They scored more in the paint and got good looks off of turnovers.

Look at the number of times that the Heat had problems inbounding the ball. That is hustle and effort.

They stopped Wade from getting into the lane at will and amazingly enough his shooting percentage dropped. Great double teams, forcing Wade to give up the ball.

They made Payton, Williams and Walker beat them and they couldn't.

They got Shaq in foul trouble. They put Shaq at the free throw lane and he could not convert.

Ballgame.

I'd still like to see Rasheed more in the post. Otherwise, a great game.

It looked like the Detroit Pistons and it looked like the same stuff that we think of when we think of the Pistons. It was what I described in my post about fixing Detroit basketball, which was simply saying the obvious truth we all know.

All we need now is 1 more game on the road and we have game 7 at home in Auburn Hills.

Play like this in Miami and they will win. Miami knows that they do not want to have to return to Detroit to play game 7.

Detroit is the best home team in the NBA (Detroit being Detroit instead of the Phoenix Suns).

So, as Chauncey said and some of the other commentators have suggested, the pressure to win game 6 returns to Miami.

1 more game and the series is even and returns to Detroit for a deciding game 7.

Go Pistons!!!!

:elephant :elephant :elephant

[Dunc]

It makes my heart glad to hear this from a Spurs fan :)

Thanks man. I think we all appreciate the support from you guys.

[Pistons < Spurs]

Yep totaly agree w/ everything.

2 points that you nailed that I feel need to be mentioned over and over:

'hustle and effort'---that is what makes Detroit basketball. And it is precisely what has been missing for the last few weeks.

Sheed----we need you. need to have it from you. hopefully he'll be huge on friday!

[Bob Lanier]

I'm afraid I can't agree with much of that. :lol

[Dunc]

I'm afraid I can't agree with much of that. :lol

I'm afraid I'm not surprised.

[Pistons < Spurs]

I'm afraid I'm not surprised.


ditto

[Vizzini]

Along with having sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads, I only ask for one thing. MAKE A F@CKING OPEN GD JUMPER!!!!!!! Please. Thank-you, that is all.

[Dunc]

Along with having sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads, I only ask for one thing. MAKE A F@CKING OPEN GD JUMPER!!!!!!! Please. Thank-you, that is all.

Agreed. And how about when Rip gets the ball, he just shoots it. No driving, no passing. Just pass him the ball and let him shoot. Nothing else.

[Mavs<Spurs]

It makes my heart glad to hear this from a Spurs fan :)

Thanks man. I think we all appreciate the support from you guys.


As a sign of support for you all, I put on my Spurs shirt and my Spurs cap for the game because our teams are connected!!!

We both play the same basketball.

Props to the Pistons and to the Pistons fans!!!

:elephant :elephant :elephant

1

Go Pistons !!!!

[Dunc]

As a sign of support for you all, I put on my Spurs shirt and my Spurs cap for the game because our teams are connected!!!

We both play the same basketball.

Props to the Pistons and to the Pistons fans!!!

:elephant :elephant :elephant

1

Go Pistons !!!!

You rock dude :)

[Vizzini]

Agreed. And how about when Rip gets the ball, he just shoots it. No driving, no passing. Just pass him the ball and let him shoot. Nothing else.


maybe, but Miami has been blocking the hell out of the ball. The only play that Rip is hitting most of the time is the sideline curl. Keep doing that and force help away from the lane, then maybe the Pistons get a few more dunks, layups and fouls.

[Pistons < Spurs]

themanurules rules

[Vinnie_Johnson]

As a sign of support for you all, I put on my Spurs shirt and my Spurs cap for the game because our teams are connected!!!

We both play the same basketball.

Props to the Pistons and to the Pistons fans!!!

:elephant :elephant :elephant

1

Go Pistons !!!!

Spurs fans kick soo much ass!!!

[Bob Lanier]

I'm afraid I'm not surprised. :drunk

It's nice to see that Flip got the team put forth an effort; I was thrilled with the shotblocking and rebounding; and the newest double-team on Wade was actually successful for a while. However...

The defense was not good, except for the "free throw defense". Flip continues to go to zone.

The offense looked a little better than it has been in a while, but not nearly as good as it will have to be to win in Miami. Prince made a lot of shots he does not make on the road. Billups had his best game of the series and still looked pretty bad, and Rip and Sheed had their worst offensive games of the series. The team still can't get Sheed the ball when he's fronted. The zone offense looks as bad as it ever was under LB. And Miami's defense was much, much less disciplined (I'm looking at Wade, O'Neal and Payton here) than it had been in previous games and likely will be in the future.

The relatively friendly refereeing was a bonus. Who will have Game 6? Javie? Rush? Dan Crawford? Salvatore?

In conclusion - Miami will get considerably more FTAs and most likely more FTMs in Game 6. Miami will not be outrebounded again in Game 6. And, if Detroit doesn't find a way to shoot above 45%, they will lose Game 6.

[Vinnie_Johnson]

:drunk

It's nice to see that Flip got the team put forth an effort; I was thrilled with the shotblocking and rebounding; and the newest double-team on Wade was actually successful for a while. However...

The defense was not good, except for the "free throw defense". Flip continues to go to zone.

The offense looked a little better than it has been in a while, but not nearly as good as it will have to be to win in Miami. Prince made a lot of shots he does not make on the road. Billups had his best game of the series and still looked pretty bad, and Rip and Sheed had their worst offensive games of the series. The team still can't get Sheed the ball when he's fronted. The zone offense looks as bad as it ever was under LB. And Miami's defense was much, much less disciplined (I'm looking at Wade, O'Neal and Payton here) than it had been in previous games and likely will be in the future.

The relatively friendly refereeing was a bonus. Who will have Game 6? Javie? Rush? Dan Crawford? Salvatore?

In conclusion - Miami will get considerably more FTAs and most likely more FTMs in Game 6. Miami will not be outrebounded again in Game 6. And, if Detroit doesn't find a way to shoot above 45%, they will lose Game 6.

Wow great glass is half empty speach. There are two types of people in this world Fontains and Drains easy to tell where you fall.

[Pistons < Spurs]

Wow great glass is half empty speach.


I may be wrong here.......but compared to his other posts, I actually believe he made a very serious effort and was trying to be more positive than usual. :lol

[T Park]

congrats to the Pistons,

outside of the Suns, they are the only team Id rather see win.


BTW, outside of the Spurs, Tayshaun Prince is my new favorite player.

The guy is practically a Spur himself he way he carries himself.


Class all the way.

Definately buying that dude's jersey.

[Bob Lanier]

Wow great glass is half empty speach. There are two types of people in this world Fontains and Drains easy to tell where you fall.I prefer to think of myself as a sewer. I play a vital role in the public health of the community. But that was not in any way my glass-is-half-empty speech. There's room for improvement, to an extent. I'm not thrilled about it, but the Pistons suddenly do have a thread of life.

[FreshPrince22]

Either Tayshaun or Sheed need 20 points in game 6 in order to get a win. Those 2 are the X-Factors. And with Sheed being hurt like he is, that will be tough. Tayshaun needs to step up on the road yet again. Hopefully Flip gives him a lot more post-ups than he has lately. I still prefer that to the jumpshots he's getting right now.

[Vinnie_Johnson]

I prefer to think of myself as a sewer. I play a vital role in the public health of the community. But that was not in any way my glass-is-half-empty speech. There's room for improvement, to an extent. I'm not thrilled about it, but the Pistons suddenly do have a thread of life.

So your saying there is a chance???????

[pussyface]

Someone should photoshop an image of tony parker giving ben wallace a handjob while tim duncan jerks off chauncey billups with his feet.

ginobilli could be giving it to chauncey billups from behind.

...someone break up this circlejerk

[Mavs<Spurs]

Wow.

Did we watch the same game.


I'll just say this: a lot of times the Spurs win ugly. They make a lot of mistakes, but their defense is so good. Grind out, slower games with a lot of defense will bring out lots of mistakes in both teams. In that case, it is even more true that the team that makes the fewest mistakes wins. I can look at games the Spurs won and wonder how they did it considering all the mistakes they made.

That's when I remember that the nature of the game was different and they forced more turnovers and made fewer mistakes than the other team.

Probably the same thing applies here.

Detroit is the best defensive team in the league or tied with San Antonio. That means that they may win a lot of games by grinding it out, with lots of defense. They make fewer mistakes than their opponents, in this case the Heat.

So, if Bob Lanier wants to say that they weren't perfect, no one doubts it could be better. However, he ought to consider that more mistakes will be made in this type of defensive struggle and the Pistons made a lot fewer mistakes than the Heat. And most of the mistakes by the Heat were forced by great defense.

There has never been a perfect basketball team and there never will be a perfect basketball team and a perfect basketball game has never been played.

However, imo Detroit played played well enough to beat any team in the NBA tonight and they deserve credit for that because that means that they were the best team in the world tonight.

And we all know that Detroit is a championship team.

[Bob Lanier]

So your saying there is a chance???????
I'll do my part and say "absolutely not." Whenever I'm overwhelmingly negative about the Pistons' chances, they feel my 'disrespect' and start playing better. That, and low expectations are never a bad thing.

themanurules, I completely agree with what you say, but I don't believe that the Pistons played very good defense tonight.

pussyface, coming right up.

[pussyface]

"we all know that Detroit is a championship team" themanu.

i think thats really debatable right now...great regular season and all in a weak east, but its a stretch to say that based on playoff performance THIS YEAR this team has shown itself to be of championship caliber. really the people who are most convinced of this seem to live in san antonio and have a Det fetish.

Someone should photoshop an image of tony parker giving ben wallace a blowjob while tim duncan jerks off chauncey billups with his feet.

ginobilli could be giving it to chauncey billups from behind.

...someone break up this circlejerk

[Mavs<Spurs]

I'll do my part and say "absolutely not." Whenever I'm overwhelmingly negative about the Pistons' chances, they feel my 'disrespect' and start playing better. That, and low expectations are never a bad thing.

themanurules, I completely agree with what you say, but I don't believe that the Pistons played very good defense tonight.

pussyface, coming right up.


Wow. High standards for defense. I guess that's out of love for the Pistons and belief in what they can do. So, I guess that's cool.

I thought that it was great defense. That's just my opinion. However, maybe we can find a middle ground here: they played good enough defense to win this game and probably good enough defense to beat the Miami Heat most of the time and good enough to beat Dallas all of the time.

Go Pistons!!!

[Mavs<Spurs]

Let's recap:

Detroit won it all 2004
Detroit was minutes away from winning it all in 2005.
Detroit was 64-18 and had the best record in the league in 2006.

This is the same team with all of these accomplishments.
The same starting 5 and it's not like they are old or something.

By what you are saying, it sounds like that we should not have considered Detroit a championship caliber team in 2005 when they were struggling with Indiana and Miami or after the first two games of the finals in 2005. But that would be to jump to a conclusion too quickly because it turns out that they were a championship caliber team and easily could have won it all in 2005.

They have had 2 tough series. Remember LeBron James is going to be one of the greatest players in the entire history of the NBA. Beating him is not going to be easy. They didn't play their best, but they played well enough to win.

Now they are playing the Heat, who had the best record in the East last year. However, they are doing it with a healthy (and improved) Wade and Shaq. It is understandable to have a tough time with this team. Most analysts would favor them over the Mavs. So, you have to give the Heat some credit.

No disrespect for the Mavs, but you all have not earned the right to be considered a championship caliber team yet. This team has not won any championships. They have yet to make the Finals. If they do this year, it will be their first appearance. If they do make it to the Finals, most people will believe that the Eastern Conference team (the Pistons) are the better team. Hypothetically, the Heat would be favored over the Mavs.

And you all are tied 2-2 shooting 40 % from the field (last 2 games) against a Phoenix Suns team that has no Amare Stoudamire an injured Raja Bell and a recovering Kurt Thomas.

If the Pistons lose, you can remove that status from them if you like. Until then, they have earned the right to be considered a championship team. That right remains with them until they lose a series in the playoffs and I am not throwing away well established confidence in them because of a few less than stellar games.

Go Pistons!!!

BTW, I and many other Spurs fans love the Pistons because we both play the same style of basketball. We both play the game the way that it is supposed to be played. I guess that's the difference, onetimer (if you get to the Finals). Detroit 3 championships Spurs 3 championships Mavs ?

[boutons_]

Pistons offense goes totally absent, again, except for Tayshaun and Antonio.

Since Tay's road stats compared to home are so horribly inferior, the others better find their shots for Game6.

I was impressed with Heat's hustle on defense.
Riles has got them playing pretty good.

[pussyface]

Detroit has historically won 3 nba titles, therefore this years flip saunder's helmed edition is championship caliber.

this is a team that lost its identity as a defensive power by using a fraudulent offense to rack up a ton of wins in the regular season. that record was misleading... most people will agree with me especially after these guys season ends in game 6.

Going 7 with the Cavs is disgraceful. Lebron will someday be an alltime great, but that team of his is garbage. a great team should dismantle one superstar.

...lets not talk about about how the Pistons won a title in 1990 or whenever because its not relevent. I guess you would give Dirk and these Mavs more credit if Rolondo Blackman had led the Mavs to a title in the 1980's. This is just stupid. I capatalized/emphasized that Detroit hadnt shown championship pedigree in the postseason THIS YEAR in my original post to avoid this type of idiocy.

At the end of the day, you can always "you havent ever won anything" to Dallas (at least for another week or two), but if theres any lesson you could have learned from this years postseason it might have been the past does not equal the present.

The 2006 Detroit Pistons were a mirage... they were never gonna win the NBA title.

[samikeyp]

While I think Detroit is a championship contender and can still come back in this series, the 3 titles are irrelevant because they are in the past and have nothing to do with the here and now. I never got the whole "lets bring up history" thing. There were some Spurs fans (not all) who did that this year "well, we have 3 rings"....having 3 rings is awesome but other teams are not going to lie down just because a team has a championship history.

[Vinnie_Johnson]

Detroit has historically won 3 nba titles, therefore this years flip saunder's helmed edition is championship caliber.

this is a team that lost its identity as a defensive power by using a fraudulent offense to rack up a ton of wins in the regular season. that record was misleading... most people will agree with me especially after these guys season ends in game 6.

Going 7 with the Cavs is disgraceful. Lebron will someday be an alltime great, but that team of his is garbage. a great team should dismantle one superstar.

...lets not talk about about how the Pistons won a title in 1990 or whenever because its not relevent. I guess you would give Dirk and these Mavs more credit if Rolondo Blackman had led the Mavs to a title in the 1980's. This is just stupid. I capatalized/emphasized that Detroit hadnt shown championship pedigree in the postseason THIS YEAR in my original post to avoid this type of idiocy.

At the end of the day, you can always "you havent ever won anything" to Dallas (at least for another week or two), but if theres any lesson you could have learned from this years postseason it might have been the past does not equal the present.

The 2006 Detroit Pistons were a mirage... they were never gonna win the NBA title.

Good post alot of good points but as a Piston fan I know this team and don't count them out yet. I may eat my words but they have been down this road.

[pussyface]

yr right vinnie...i had just had to go back at themanu and have sensationalized my disrespect of Detroit to some extent, although I do see Miami closing the thing out here in 6.
good game tonight fella

[pussyface]

It is taking every ounce of restraint I have in my body not to create a thread that says "The Key to Game 6 in Miami? Bill Lambeer's Tough Play in 1989 East-Semis" in honor of themanu

[Vinnie_Johnson]

It is taking every ounce of restraint I have in my body not to create a thread that says "The Key to Game 6 in Miami? Bill Lambeer's Tough Play in 1989 East-Semis" in honor of themanu


Do it we want to see it. :smokin

[bdubya]

I was impressed with Heat's hustle on defense.
Riles has got them playing pretty good.

Jeeezis, Riley's got them playing better defense than the Pistons for long stretches at a time. Heat are very much earning my respect with their defense - I'm expecting a game 7, but damn....this is a very scary road game coming up.

[wsdp]

congrats to the Pistons,

outside of the Suns, they are the only team Id rather see win.


BTW, outside of the Spurs, Tayshaun Prince is my new favorite player.

The guy is practically a Spur himself he way he carries himself.


Class all the way.

Definately buying that dude's jersey.

Rock on T Park... we play the same style... we're all united (until we get our rematch next year, LOL)... *cheers*

[wsdp]

While I think Detroit is a championship contender and can still come back in this series, the 3 titles are irrelevant because they are in the past and have nothing to do with the here and now. I never got the whole "lets bring up history" thing. There were some Spurs fans (not all) who did that this year "well, we have 3 rings"....having 3 rings is awesome but other teams are not going to lie down just because a team has a championship history.

Sam... found one of my last posts from after Spurs won last season... you were there too... http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20138 ... thanks for the kind words (11-months later)... look forward to doing it all over again next year.... if Pistons pull thru this year, between our two teams, we've owned the 2000's and hopefully get the chance to meet up next year :flag:

[DubMcDub]

Only reason Spurs fans root for the Pistons is because they have elitist attitudes in which they don't want any "new" teams to win an NBA title.

[Pistonsfan01]

Only reason Spurs fans root for the Pistons is because they have elitist attitudes in which they don't want any "new" teams to win an NBA title.
duh :rolleyes like we want Cuban and his cronies in our class

[SA Gunslinger]

Congrats, Pistons. You folks deserved this win.

Game six is must see t.v.

[samikeyp]

I realize Dub has all us Spurs fans pegged as being of one mindset....:rolleyes....but personally I am not really rooting for anyone, I root for one team and they are out. If I had a choice of teams to win, I would like to see Detroit do it because I am a big fan of the Wallace's. Nothing to do with being an elitist. As someone who lived through the dark days of Spurs history, I take nothing for granted.

[1Parker1]

Get Game 6, because saying Game 7 looms. :)

[Vinnie_Johnson]

Congrats, Pistons. You folks deserved this win.

Game six is must see t.v.

Crap I will be camping but will be back for game seven.

[NBA Junkie]

For fear of jinxing the Pistons, I'll say that history is on their side as they are 8-0 in game sixes dating back to the 2003 playoffs with six of those wins coming on the road.

[MadDog73]

Only reason Spurs fans root for the Pistons is because they have elitist attitudes in which they don't want any "new" teams to win an NBA title.


Not true. I said as soon as the Mavs beat the Spurs, as a Spurs fan I was upset, but as a basketball fan, this is great.

A new Champion means new viewers, means better ratings, means better rivalries, means better things all around.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Suns, Heat or even (gasp!) the Mavs win it all.

In fact, I think the Mavs are favored to win right now.

I'd much rather see the Suns or Mavs win then for Detroit to get it's 4th Championship before the Spurs, or for Shaq to get 4 rings before Tim Duncan.

Plus, how great will a WCF between the 3-time Champion Spurs and the Defending Champion Mavs be!?!

[Dunc]

Only reason Spurs fans root for the Pistons is because they have elitist attitudes in which they don't want any "new" teams to win an NBA title.

That makes sense. Except they're also mostly going for the Suns. The reason that Spurs fans are going for the Suns and Pistons is because they dislike the Mavs and the Heat. Quit trying to paint yourself as a victim. Who gives a fuck if your team is disliked by another team's fanbase? I love the fact that Heat fans and Pacer fans hate the Pistons. Don't whine about it.