Deja Vu: Pistons 79, Cavs 76
Another close game in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals and another victory for the Pistons. Interestingly enough, the first two games ended with the exact same score for each team. 79-76. How often does that happen?
I’m not basketball wizard, but both games probably should’ve gone to the Cavs (moreso for the first game) but the Pistons were able to edge out a victory to go up 2-0 in the ECF.
Dana Wakiji wrote the following in a liveblog for The Detroit News:
To use his words, Rasheed Wallace is one incredible cat. That dude knows no fear and he is the reason the Pistons are up 2-0 in this series. That turnaround jumper falling down almost with 24.3 seconds left gave them the lead. He had 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter. He also got that last rebound. All I can say is WOW.
I promise to update this post on Friday with game recaps from the Detroit Pistons’ bloggers and local newspapers.
Update:
Natalie @ Need4Sheed:
Rasheed was the Pistons high scorer with 16 points, but his defense is what has been coming up big this series. In fact there has been a Need 4 Sheed this whole playoff run. …
Mr Wallace, who hit the off balance game winning shot over LeBron, was happy that Varejoke tried his patented flop move. It just make it easier for Sheed to sink the shot while Varejoke was crying on the floor. Everyone knows you game Clown Shoes, it doesn’t fly here in Detroit.
Matt @ Detroit Bad Boys:
For the second game in a row, Maxiell was an absolute difference maker. In Game 1, it happened down the stretch in the fourth quarter, doing all of the little things that aren’t always reflected in a box score. In Game 2, though, he entered the game early, taking over for an injured Antonio McDyess midway through the first quarter and announcing his presence with a flurry of vicious dunks. He’s a baaaad man, making King James look all silly and whatnot in that poster-worthy shot above.
During his first 12-minute stint, Maxiell had four dunks among five shots, including one coming on an alley-oop and another on a fast break (which he triggered, by the way, picking LeBron James’ pocket on the other end). All in all, it was a good day to be Jason Maxiell and a bad day to be an infant hailing from Cleveland: he finished the game with 15 points, six boards and two blocks (a would-be third rejection was called goaltending) in just 22 minutes. The only mark on his game was his 1-6 performance at the free-throw line, but seriously, you can live with that on days you get all of the other stuff.
The funny thing is that Maxiell wasn’t even supposed to be in the game: after Rasheed Wallace was tagged with two quick fouls, McDyess entered the game, but he lasted just 90 seconds before taking a Zydrunas Ilgauskas elbow to the jaw, which left him shaken and (if I saw things correctly) bloodied. But even if he wasn’t the first or second option, he ended up being the best one. The Pistons missed his energy after he left the game four minutes into the second quarter, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his absence coincided with Cleveland’s storming out to a 12-point lead heading into halftime.
Chris McCosky @ The Detroit News:
The score was the same, the Pistons wound up on the plus side of both, and in both, the ball was in LeBron James’ hands in the final seconds.
In Game 1, the controversy was whether James should have passed the ball. This time he didn’t pass — and the controversy is whether he was fouled by Richard Hamilton.
“It could have gone either way,” Wallace said. “It could have been a foul on Rip or it could have been a foul on LeBron with that off arm. I mean, it was just a playoff call, I’ll say that. It was a good no-call.”
Only two teams in the history of the NBA have returned from a 2-0 deficit in the conference finals (it happened in 1971 and 1993). It’s looking good for the Pistons.
Mitch Albom @ the Detroit Free Press:
Thursday was Joe Dumars’ 44th birthday, and as he sat watching his team, his gifts to the Pistons — his decisions — were coming back to him. One was Rasheed Wallace, a guy he traded for when everyone advised against it. The other was Jason Maxiell, a guy he drafted who most of the fans had never heard of.
Those acquisitions were on full display in Game 2. On a night more schizophrenic than beautiful, Wallace got it started, Maxiell took it over and Wallace finished it.
What amazing performances by these two. Wallace, who finished with 11 rebounds and 16 points, was white-hot intense in the final period — in which he scored 10 points and snagged six rebounds. He had strong rebounds, made a great block, stole the ball and went coast-to-coast off the glass — Rasheed coast-to-coast? — and he hit the biggest shot of all, a pull-up over James with only 24 seconds left. That shot came after his dumb pass that turned the ball over to Cleveland.
“Whoever turned it over has to get the ball back,” Wallace explained afterward.
Or, as Hamilton told TNT: “When he’s mad, nobody in the world can stop him. He was mad. He was pissed off.”
Or as Chauncey Billups later said: “Rasheed just never ceases to amaze me.”
That sums it up, doesn’t it?
Drew Sharp @ the Detroit Free Press:
They’re winning, yet this series nonetheless feels like it’s slipping away.
They’re 2-0 in this Eastern Conference final — quite possibly the luckiest 2-0 you’ve ever seen from a team with home court — but you couldn’t help but come way from another 79-76 heart-thumper believing that if the Pistons don’t squeeze Cleveland’s throat in Game 3 they still might lose this series.
They need Chauncey Billups. They need Chris Webber.
The benefit of a team sharing the load is that you get nights like this where Rasheed Wallace had one of those I-can-be-the-superstar-when-I-want fourth quarters or Jason Maxiell can emerge from the obscurity of the bench and provide the necessary push.
But Billups is the engine, and he’s sputtering still. If Webber’s going to take 13 shots — 12 from near the basket — he had better make far more than the four he did Thursday night.
“We’re fortunate,” coach Flip Saunders said.
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