Detroit looks tired

[naico]

Is it just me or does Detroit really look tired? Their passing game isn't there, they look very slow while making a play and they mostly play zone..

[td4mvp3]

Pathetic Pistons show age in Game 4 loss
May 30, 2007
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist
Tell Gregg your opinion!





CLEVELAND -- So this is how it's going to end for Detroit. Feebly. Embarrassingly. Not with the dying roar of a proud champion, but with a bonehead plea for an official's help, and finally with an impotent attempt at intimidation.

Pathetic, Pistons. Pathetic.


Rasheed Wallace reacts after picking up his fifth technical foul of this postseason. (Getty Images)
If we're lucky, now that Cleveland has evened the Eastern Conference finals at two games each after winning Game 4 on Tuesday night 91-87, we're about to see the last of Detroit. This is a dynasty that has lasted too long anyway. Outside of Detroit, has anyone enjoyed watching the Pistons over the past four years? They have no flash, no fury, one ring and no fans beyond their state border. There is no single reason to root for the Pistons, and no reason to believe they can finish off Cleveland.

It's almost as if the Pistons know it, too. They finished Game 4 by trying to beat Cleveland with everything but good basketball, because good basketball has been beyond Detroit's grasp for most of this series.

Good basketball was definitely beyond Chauncey Billups' grasp in the final minute and 15 seconds, when he made a pair of bad decisions that led to a turnover and a missed shot. The turnover came with Detroit trailing 87-83 and Billups driving to the basket. He got himself hung up in the air, leading to an ill-advised pass to the perimeter that Drew Gooden intercepted.

The missed shot was just ridiculous. Needing a 3-pointer to tie the game with 44 seconds left, Billups pulled up in transition and -- sensing Cleveland's Sasha Pavlovic approaching from behind -- tried to create a foul by jumping into the oncoming Pavlovic. Billups missed the shot -- and Pavlovic. Never again would the Pistons have the ball within range of tying this game.

That was bad, but Rip Hamilton's final attempt to influence the game was worse. It came with four seconds left and Cleveland leading 89-87. LeBron James, who had a ho-hum game (for him) and still put up 25 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds, was going to the foul line for the two free throws that would clinch it. Hamilton, who needed 21 shots to score 19 inefficient points, tried to get inside James' head by stepping into his space near the foul line. James shoved him aside and sank the free throws.

Shoo, fly.

RIP, Rip and your dying semi-dynasty.

We could ask Rasheed Wallace what he thinks of his crumbling team, but his big mouth only works on the court, where he earned his fifth technical foul of the playoffs. Granted, that was a weak technical foul. During a timeout Wallace was angry at his team for taking silly shots -- translation: non-'Sheed shots -- and flung his red headband toward the team bench. Again, that's a weak technical foul. But Wallace probably could have been whistled two or three times for legitimate technicals during the game, so the Pistons should have no complaints.

As for Wallace, he let his clothes do his talking after the game. First there was the strip show he put on in the hall leading to the Pistons locker room. Wallace tore off his sweaty jersey and flung it angrily behind him, hitting a member of the Detroit entourage -- not sure which one -- in the face. Pleasant.

Halfway naked before hitting the locker room, Wallace was the first Piston out the door. No shower, no suit, no tie. He left in jeans and a T-shirt, a towel draped over one shoulder and his button-down shirt draped over the other. Then he stood by an arena exit that led to the Pistons team bus, playing with his iPod near a postgame watering hole for Cleveland fans. The fans mocked him, but Wallace seemed to relish it. That's Wallace. Empty gestures all day long.

Same goes for the Pistons. They're empty, a husk of the team that once terrorized the Eastern Conference. Billups and Hamilton seemed to have grown old overnight. Tayshaun Prince is shooting poorly this series. Chris Webber is good one night, decrepit the next. Wallace? Who knows. Some nights he dominates. Tuesday night, he had nine points and five rebounds.

The old Pistons would have clamped down on Cleveland on a night when James was mortal for three quarters. After 36 minutes, James had 12 points and three rebounds. He had provided the game's highlight dunk, a running alley-oop in which his eyes were at rim level -- that's at least a 40-inch vertical, if you're wondering -- but he was trying so hard to get his teammates into the flow offensively that he took himself out of it.

The old Pistons wouldn't have let undersized Cleveland shooting guard Daniel Gibson score 21 points. Daniel Gibson? The old Pistons would have put Lindsey Hunter on Gibson, and Hunter would have had the 21-year-old Gibson in the fetal position by halftime. But these aren't the old Pistons. These Pistons are just old. Hunter is 36, no longer a defensive demon.

The old Pistons, after winning the first two games in Detroit, would have found a way to win at least once in Cleveland and been in position to end this series on Thursday back home.

These Pistons? They're hanging on with yellow fingernails, bullies with no bite.

[JamStone]

lmao

[DarkReign]

This column was discussed at length on Detroit sports radio.

I would agree with one of the hosts (Doug Carsh) that the columnist makes good points yet has an obvious disdain for the Pistons and it shows thru.

Probably a Bulls fan.

[J.T.]

I am sure the Pistons will win again tonight and eventually win the series in six or seven games. They have a tendency to let off the gas, but still pull thru. Chauncey and Rip have looked a little off, I am sure they will come back with big efforts tonight. Especially Chauncey, I don't think there is anyone in the league who responds to pressure as well as that man.

[DisgruntledLionFan#54,927]

Taken from his bio on CBS:


Doyel's an idiot, but you knew that. That's why you're here, right? To find out, "Who is this idiot?"

That about sums it up for me.

[Bruno]

I don't think they are tired, they just need to be more focused ont the game, especially Billups and Hamilton.

I expect a Pistons wake up today, they are much better than Cavs and they shoudl prove it now.

[BacktoBasics]

Pistons scare me. Cleveland scares me.

[td4mvp3]

I don't think they are tired, they just need to be more focused ont the game, especially Billups and Hamilton.

I expect a Pistons wake up today, they are much better than Cavs and they shoudl prove it now.
but that's the thing, statistically, at least, the pistons aren't all that much better than the cavs. i've just gotten really annoyed by the love affair of the pistons because they've gotten to their conference finals so much and won a title. good team? sure. near-dynasty? give me a break. and this crap about them not playing up to their potential should be the final damning piece. seriously, did the jordan bulls, magic lakers or shaq lakers not play up to their potential during the playoffs? during the conference finals? no one is saying they couldn't have, but they didn't, and the fact that, if the pistons are indeed coasting, it may be a worse reflection on them than if they were playing their hearts out.