Detroit went into the Garden and ran off a 13-2 lead on the Celtics, but Boston bounced right back to tie the game at 21. A false hope of optimism for Pistons fans in reality turned into a stomping (again) by the Celtics, who made Detroit look almost silly by the third quarter. The Celtics took this one by 18, but the 98-80 victory didn’t do the Celtics’ domination justice; it looked like a 30 point plus blowout.

Key Points:

• From Domination (Cle) to Disheartening in one day.
• It was collectively a bad game from everyone. Nobody on the team besides Iverson (5-13) took more than 10 shots.
• The whole team looked miserable, by the second half nobody even looked like they wanted to be on court. From the looks of it they gave up after they headed to the locker room
• Think Rondo gave Billups trouble? He blew by Iverson all night long…
• 16 turnovers that translated into Boston buckets.
• Boston has now embarrassed Detroit to the point that they should be ashamed. Right now it’s clear that they truly are a better team all the way around. The ball movement alone was textbook. And their defense… stellar.

Photo/Getty

• “Oh yeah, definitely,” Richard Hamilton said when asked if the score was an indication of how far the Pistons are from the Celtics’ level. “We’ve got to be a lot better. We lost to them two times by 20 points — that’s absolutely bananas. We don’t play like that.” Via The Detroit News
• Out muscled and out hustled all night long.
• There is really not much more to say, it was bad enough to be at the Palace when Boston stomped on them. We chalked that up to Iverson being new to the team. He still is, but this was just awful. Do we gauge the team on these two losses to Boston? Right now we do, they are the team to beat and if Detroit didn’t know that before then shame on them.
• I miss these…

• A little Will Bynum dunk to maybe put a smile on your face.

• I promise you if I would have seen a little more “want” on their faces it wouldn’t be that bad. The looks could kill last night and the whole country saw them.
• Herrmann was in the Hospital?
• We need Dyess more than ever.
• PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION – I am going to do whatever it takes to get as many signatures as I can and get this thing in the right hands. PLEASE pass on the link to anyone you know that will sign it. Let’s give Dyess some Love.
• Direct link if you want to copy and paste it -  http://need4sheed.com/2008/11/antionio-mcdyess-please-come-home-petition.html

The Pistons Director of Player Personnel George David sat down to talk about Detroit’s plans for the future and what went wrong in the Celtics series. This was before the shakeup yesterday.

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

With the series at 2 all, I’m not saying this game in Boston is a must win for The Pistons, but it would make things a lot easier to wrap the series up. If Doc Rivers knows how to make adjustments, they won’t be leaving Mr. McDyess open all game long, so someone else may have to step up.

Detroit’s success hinges on the play of Chauncey Billups, sadly I don’t think they can pull it out tonight if he struggles like he did in every game of this series except Game 2 unless Saunders shelves him and gives Stuckey the go ahead if his game is off again.

I’m hoping for more stifling D, and one of these.

But block or not, I’ll take a W at the end of the night.

For further inspiration, they are selling Celtic’s ECF Champion T-Shirts down in Florida.

Tip off is at 8:30 PM and will be Nationally televised on ESPN and ESPN360 is streaming the game live for those of you who don’t have cable. If you can’t catch it on the tube you can always tune in to 1130 AM WDFN The Fan, or stream it live through your computer at NBA.com.

Leave ‘em in the comments.

Detroit came out of the gate with a purpose, to even up the series up at two after their disappointing loss at home on Saturday. It wasn’t Rasheed Wallace, or Chauncey Billups that controlled Detroit’s fate in Game Four, it was the one man on the Pistons who wants it more than anyone on the team, Antonio McDyess .

Dyess, who played with more energy than anyone in the building, had his best game of this playoff season putting up 21 points and grabbing 16 boards and a blocked shot for the Pistons in their 94-75 victory at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

He doesn’t have a ring just yet, but he played like a Champion on Monday night.

Key Points:

• The Pistons bolted off to a 10-0 lead playing the way we expected them to play in Saturday’s loss.
• How does one check the Celtics statistics from the line? At one point during the game Boston had scored more than half of their points from the line. They finished the game 32-39 from the stripe. Had Boston not gotten to the line and knocked them down the game would have been quite different.
• Defense wins Championships as Detroit displayed last night.
• Don’t let the score fool you, this game was within reach for the Celtics, who were down just four points with less than five minutes to play.
• Antonio McDyess, I guy who we all know plays with as much passion and heart as anyone on this current Pistons team, outdid himself in Mondays game. Thank McDyess right now for tying this series up. Shame on the Detroit Pistons if they don’t get this man a ring. If you’re not pulling for a guy like this, something is wrong with you. Watch his face and emotion in his post game press conference, if that’s not a winning attitude, I don’t know what is. He’s laying it all on the line, and it shows. From my vantage point of the action, Dyess just wasn’t going to miss.

• Mr. Billups struggled again with his shot going 3-for-12 on the night. He didn’t make many, but his three pointer (Detroit’s’ only one) with 2:55 left in the game was not only the dagger, but Billups biggest shot in quite some time.
• With the flurry of whistles going against the Pistons all night long, Richard Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace spent considerable time on the bench.
• Jarvis Hayes made a brief appearance early in the game. He quickly air balled a three and go call for a quick foul. He was pulled. He did return for the last minute or so of the game when it was already decided and knocked a three.
• Detroit led the whole way.
• I don’t know about you, but everyone in the Palace, including myself, hung on every shot Chauncey put up. I was just obvious he didn’t have it, so when he took that three at the end of the game and knocked it down, The Palace erupted.
• What a night from Jason Maxiell who stuffed Kevin Garnett so hard he could have propelled him back to Boston on force alone. Maxiell was a PERFECT 6-for-6 from the field, for 14 points, 3 boards and The Big Denial.

• And how can I forget the sick dunk and alley-oop, that just about blew the roof off the Palace.
• “Max made an unbelievable play on that,” Billups said. “I’m sure KG didn’t know how close Max was, but that was a great play. You look at how Stuck (Rodney Stuckey) is playing, and you look at how Max has come along this year. We don’t win like that without those guys.” Via The Detroit Free Press
• Rodney Stuckey was solid, but didn’t have the game we thought he would. Though he shot just 1-for-4 for the night, he had 5 assists.
• Surprised that Flip put Theo in the game when Sheed got into foul trouble after the monster game he was having. No matter, Theo did a fine job in his 7 minutes on court.
• With the way Detroit played in the first half they should have been up by at least 15. Something was foul smelling at the half when The Pistons were up by just four.
• Example of Detroit’s defense, they held Boston to just 31% for the night. Pierce 3-14, Garnett 6-for-16, Allen 2-for-8.
• Antonio was everywhere all game long, diving for balls, pulling down boards and winning the game for Detroit.If there ever was a time to show appreciation for the gentle man, this is it. “Since I’ve been here we kind of have had excuses why we haven’t won another championship since I’ve been here, and I feel that, you know, if I don’t say nothing vocally that we would have an excuse this year,” he said. “I don’t want us to have no excuse.” “I don’t think no one can sit here and understand where I’m coming from when I felt how I felt at that part of my career, when I felt like it was over,” he said.”I was laying in the bed thinking, ‘Hey, this is going to be it.’ And now I’ve just reinvented myself, coming to this team. Via Pistons.com

• Sheed was solid when he wasn’t sitting on the bench in foul trouble. Rasheed finished with 14 on 6-for-9 shooting with 5 boards an assist and 5 freaking blocked shots. The man was on a mission to play D and it showed.
• NBA.com Highlights of The Game.
• Always solid Lindsey Hunter, who didn’t score a point but pestered the Celtics in his 9 minutes.
• 51% from the floor for Detroit.
• After last night’s game Richard Hamilton is now the Pistons all time playoff game leader, surpassing Bill Laimbeer.
• Speaking of the Bad Boys, I spotted James Buddha Edwards in the elevator last night. He looks exactly the same, but the fu-manchu is gone.
• Dyess all Day.

• 24 points in the paint for both the Celtics and the Pistons.
• Tayshaun Prince struggled for the second consecutive game going 3-for-12 for 7 points with just 2 boards, 3 assists and a steal.
• Just 7 turns for Detroit to the Celtics 14.
• Rebound war lost 38-34.
• A lot of you have asked me, and for whatever reason the intensity and thunderous noise from the Palace just doesn’t come across on the broadcast. Monday’s game was easily the loudest night this season. The Palace crowd was ready before the tip, as were the Pistons. And as much as I can’t stand thunder sticks, I didn’t put them down all night. I earned my paycheck last night, trust me. I’m exhausted today, I gotta get out more.
• Though Dyess played better than anyone on court, Crawford, Delaney, and Foster stole the show.
• FYI – Team Need4Sheed member Raul A. Mora naming of Maxiell’s block on KG , “The Big Denial” is really catching on.
• 2-2 back to Boston

Get that out of here….Jason has been taking lessons from Tayshaun. Full version for your enjoyment, yes it was that good.

This Block has been dubbed “The Big Denial” by El Patron Himself, Raul A. Mora from the comments and I like it.

Don’t kid yourself Pistons fans, down 2-1 in the series after their loss at home Saturday, Detroit needs to win game four. We haven’t received a Guaransheed, but if I had to put money on something, I would lay it down on seeing a Detroit Pistons team that knows what’s at stake and one that will play like it.

Chauncey Billups is the key to the series and after his performance in Game Three, his injury may still be a huge factor, Arnie or not. The thing that may do us in is the fact that Billups and ultimately Saunders may have a struggling Billups out on the court rather than Rodney Stuckey. From what I have read today it seems the two are on opposite sites of the argument.

I was thinking about the whole situation during game three when Saunders substituted Stuckey for Billups late in the game when Rodney was clearly sparking the team. I’m not the only one who hopes Billups gets shut down if he plays the same in Game 4 as he did in Game 3.

I’m planning on being tied 2-2 by morning, but we still have a game to play confidence or not.

Tip off is at 8:30 PM and will be Nationally televised on ESPN. If you can’t catch it on the tube you can always tune in to 1130 AM WDFN The Fan, or stream it live through your computer at NBA.com .

The whole White Out deal threw off the mojo I had with my red Sheed jersey, so for support the new playoff gear (until we lose) is my throwback Chauncey Billups jersey. If you need to get pumped before the game, there is nothing better than watching this, let’s truly hope They’re Back……

The rest Pistons fans is up to you, leave ‘em in the comments.

Bennie and Jeff give us their take on The Pistons disappointing loss to The Celtics at home in Game Three of The Eastern Conference Finals.

Don’t forget you can e-mail Bennie and Jeff at gameday@woodradio.com or as always you can leave them your thoughts in the comments.

Team Need4Sheed Podcast – Pistons vs Celtics Game Three of The Eastern Conference Finals

I don’t want to sway your vote, but I was ashamed that the fans actually booed The Pistons. I could go on, but I did that enough already.

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