Detroit rallied back from a double digit deficit in the third quarter to send Game Five of The Eastern Conference Finals to the wire. Detroit’s fourth quarter surge unfortunately wasn’t enough to take the game, after getting within one point with eight seconds left on the clock. The Celtics, now in control after their 102-106 victory, are just one win away from the NBA Finals.

Detroit has plenty of work to do on Friday.

Key Points:

• Things looked good for the Pistons right from the start, in fact a good sign early came from Rasheed, who knocked down his first three of the night early.
• Though loss for Pistons fans, but surprising finish to a Pistons team that looked cooked in the third quarter. Had Detroit played with half the defensive intensity in the third as they did in the fourth things would be very different.
• The Pistons almost came all the way back from a 17-point hole, that either says something about Boston, or Detroit. Probably both but I still like Detroit’s chances even with their backs to the wall. Hell, don’t they like it like that? It’s that whole “If it ain’t rough it ain’t right” mentality. I personally would prefer to be up 3-2 right now.
• Plenty of things went Boston’s way, including a huge game from Kendrick Perkins who dominated the game for the Celtics early, grabbing boards from the opening tip. Perkins 18 point, 16 board game was clearly his best of the series. Weren’t we all begging Detroit to give him a little taste of the old school Bad Boys?
• Boston looked timid down the stretch, even though Garnett had a huge game with 33 (best of this season’s playoffs) he was passing up wide open shots. Scared to take the it KG?
• Rip was a little cool to start the game, but his jumpers were hitting the bottom with ease when it counted. Rip finished with 25 points and was one of the reasons Detroit got back in the game in the fourth. Hamilton scored nine straight points to start the fourth quarter. What we worry about…is his elbow injury that happened with second left in the game. I’m sure we’ll get a complete update soon.

• “He got a little bit of, I think, hyperextended in there on the rebound on that one defensive sequence that we had,” Saunders said. “He was great again tonight, especially in the last three quarters. Hopefully he’s going to be ready to go for us.” Via Yahoo.com
• Our recent hero Antonio McDyess didn’t come up big in Game Five. Dyess got into early foul trouble and never seemed to be able to get going. We missed his boards last night after getting walloped on the glass 42-25. That just can’t happen again.
• Dyess finished with just 4 points and 5 boards eventually fouling out mid fourth quarter. With the troubles he was having, he still gave 110% every second he was out there. Ice for Dyess I tell you!
• Sheed is clearly not happy. Is that a good thing?

• “That (bleep) ain’t basketball out there,” Wallace said. “It’s all (bleeping) entertainment. You all should know that (bleep). It”s all (bleeping) entertainment.” Via The Detroit Free Press
• I really did think Detroit was going to pull it off, especially after the HUGE three pointer by Stuckey late in the game. I actually felt bad for him after he made his last free throw when he was clearly supposed to miss it. He played well otherwise, 13 points, 2 steals and 3 assists. Glad to see Saunders didn’t pull him when he was on a roll in the forth.
• Same goes for Lindsey Hunter who played his usual pesky D. “All decisions I make aren’t popular with the media, players or whoever,” Saunders said. “Lindsey did a great job for us and I wasn’t going to hesitate to put him back in. But I thought we had some scattering offensive sequences and we needed to make sure we had a guy out there to run the show.” Via The Detroit News
• 11 minutes for Maxiell who scored 6 points in a hurry and was an instant spark. What happened?
• Highlight of the game besides the near comeback, alley oop from Lindsey to Maxiell.

• The Pistons are in serious need of a big game from Prince. His lone highlight was the block he had that the ESPN announcers argued about for what seemed to be 10 minuets.
• Flagrant foul on P.J. Brown on Maxiell was borderline but you Peirce’s foul on Billups later looked worse.
• Van Gundy is miserable, I’m going out on a limb saying he’s neck and neck with Walton right now in by book. You have no idea how huge that is for me. Oh how I wish TNT had the rights to all NBA playoff games.
• It didn’t look like Big Shot was back, but he showed up strong leading the Pistons with 26 points, 6 assists, a steal and 5 boards. Chauncey was a perfect 9-for-9 from the line. His shooting percentage wasn’t great (7-for-17), but it was nice to see his shot go down.

• Keith Langlois – True Blue Pistons - “There are ample reasons for optimism that the Pistons can get this done – no matter that NBA history says 83 percent of the time the Game 5 winner of a 2-2 series prevails. Billups, for one. He looked better than good for much of Game 5 and seems to have pushed the hamstring strain out of his mind. “This is the best I’ve felt,” he said.”I felt really good in Game 2 before I tweaked it. This is the best I’ve felt, movement-wise and being able to explode and get that step by people and hopefully I continue to get better. I feel good about it.”
• NBA.com Highlights of The Game.
• Allen got his grove back, for the night anyway. He finished with 29, none bigger than the three late in the game to pretty much seal Detroit’s fate.
• 36 points in the paint for the Celtics, just 18 for Detroit. Where was that no layup attitude?
• Never did like Posey, his ridiculous mouthpiece makes me sick and so does his attitude. He’s got to jaw with Rip when the game is on the line? Shows his character and his stupidity.
• How great was it to have Sheed and his three back? RA knocked down 6 treys on the game but one thing that bothers me is when his three is going down he doesn’t play in the post. Sheed finished with 18 points on 6-for-12 shooting with 4 boards and 3 blocked shots. Foul trouble stopped him from adding to his best game of this series.

• For those of you counting, Sheed is a tech away from a suspension.
• The D was on point for 36 minutes..Boston still shot 50% on the night to Detroit’s 46%.
• Pistons biggest lead – 8 points.
• No doubt in my mind that I will be confident walking into the Palace come Friday.
• If you’re going to the game on Friday….Loud and Proud, they need us!
• “Our experience of being in so many of these situations will help us and being in front of our fans will help us,” Billups said. “Those are the things you’ve got to lean on when you are facing elimination. We’re going to scratch and claw and do the things we’ve been known to do and try and get back here (to Boston) for Game 7.” Via The Detroit News