The Pistons once again dominated The Bulls in game two beating them handily 108-87. Detroit, led by Tayshaun Prince’s 25 points, took an early 8-0 lead and kept it the entire game.
Key Points:
- The Pistons took their balanced attack and deep bench right at the Bulls no matter what they threw at them.
- Detroit put up 34 first quarter points, its highest total in the opening period thus far in this year’s playoffs.
- The Pistons shot 53% from the floor.
- I am amazed that the Bulls went to the line 53 times.
- And speaking of those 53 times, Ben Wallace actually made 5 of his 9.
- Rahseed never got going in the game because of foul trouble, he played just 18 minutes but still scored 10 with 7 rebounds and an assist.
- The crowd was really loud, but when the Pistons pulled away it quieted down a bit.
- Michael Sweetney? I didn’t even know he was on the Bulls.
- Tayshaun just couldn’t seem to do anything wrong. Prince put up 25 points on 9-for-20 shooting, with 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. He also did a great job helping Chauncey bringing the ball up because of the Bulls trap.
Photo by D. Lippitt/Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images
- Did I mention that Tay rocked a hard dunk right over Ben Wallace?
- It can’t be a good sign for the Bulls when at one point in the game Ben Wallace is your high scorer.
- Miss enough three’s Nocioni? He went 1-for-6 from downtown with 4 turnovers. I don’t think he will be making any more guarantees.
- Two Bulls Blowouts.
- Undefeated in the Playoffs.
- Hinrich had 2 points on 0-for-7 shooting.
- Pistons out rebounded the Bulls 36-22.
- Detroit’s bench is HOT.
- Pistons Bloggers were representing, I met up with Matt of Detroit Bad Boys and we caused some havoc.
- I think C-Web could have put up at least 30 by the way he was playing had he not been in foul trouble. He did however score 22 points with 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Chris also hit a few right over Ben Wallace.
Photo by D. Lippitt/Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images
- The Pistons uncharacteristically turned the ball over 21 times.
- All Detroit starters in double digits.
- “We kind of lost our swagger,” said Kirk Hinrich, who didn’t make a shot in Game 2. “We need to get our swagger back.
- It seemed like no matter what The Bulls threw at The Pistons they had an answer for it.
- The Bulls guards just can’t match up with Chauncey or Rip.
- I haven’t seen the Pistons play defense like this since the 2004 championship run.
- C-Webb played great, he was actually 10-for-11 from the floor.
- My favorite sign of the night: “Sheed is the only Wallace we Need”
- Sheed had a couple of monster dunks. He had so much fire inside when he threw them down it reminded me of this commercial, which is one of my all time favorites.
- Maxiell played 15 minutes with 4 points and 8 rebounds. As Chauncey would say, “when he gets that basketball he’s going hard to the basket, whenever he gets the ball he has bad intentions.”
Photo by D. Lippitt/Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images
- The flow of the game was nonexistent because of foul calls.
- Maxiell groomed to be the next Ben Wallace. We have been saying that all season.
- I really thought the Bulls were going to bring it. I have to tell you that I love seeing Ben and company hanging their heads on the bench.
- The Pistons were up bunches, but they still were diving for loose balls.
- Scott Skiles is going to explode sometime soon.
- The Pistons held the Bulls to 34% field goal shooting.
- Detroit can’t take these two wins for granted, they have to play even harder on Thursday in Chicago.
- NO MERCY.
- “I have seen an intensity in that locker room that’s higher than I ever expected,” said Chris Webber, “I love that edge and I am seeing it becoming more intense every game.”
- All the Pistons bigs were in foul trouble.
- “I told the guys before the game, ‘No rebounds, no rings,’ ” Saunders said.
- Rip was great, scoring 24 with 9 rebounds and 6 assists.
Photo by D. Lippitt/Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images
- Late in the game, you could hear a group of fans sitting behind the Bulls’ bench taunting ex-Piston Ben Wallace, chanting “Sixty-million!” over and over in reference to the money he took in bolting for the Bulls. The fans continued to taunt Wallace until he acknowledged them by rubbing his fingers together in the universal sign for money. Then he waved to the fans to continue. All the while, Wallace never took his eyes off the court. Via The Detroit Free Press
hold on a second. The Bulls had swagger? When was this? When they beat a slow, old, injury-ravaged Miami team?
great stuff!! You nailed it again Nat. I love that C-Web quote. Time to give Saunders some props. He has done a very nice job thus far!!
His faith in Maxiell has paid off nicely.
-Junior
maxiell is groomed to be the next ben wallace? not really…i totally disagree…maxiell actually has an offensive game!!
“maxiell is groomed to be the next ben wallace? not really…i totally disagree…maxiell actually has an offensive game!!”
Good point, I totally agree.
I would say more like Maxiell is the next Barkley– an undersized, zealous forward who will turn into a beautiful monster. I live in Chicago and got to watch this one from the 40th floor of a condo overlooking the city. It felt so good to metaphorically piss all over the city.
How does three parades in Detroit sound this year? Wings tigers and Pistons…ive been sayin it all along Detroit is the Best sports city in the world
That pic of Mad Max pulling down a rebound is $$$ 🙂
About the rivalry,
its just not the same and will never be the same. i mean the bulls are pathetic. the whole eastern confrence is pathetic except for dp.
back in the day both organizations had amazing teams, the pistons slightly better chronologically. but the series use to always go seven. now the pistons have built a consitent winner for the past 7 years. While Chicago has all young talent which will most likely will not develop into the championship type team that can challenge the pistons in the playoffs. i will never hate nocioni as much as i hated pippen. even though i would love to see him pushed into the hoop support and bust his nose open a’la pippen.
fortunately for us, the last time the eastern confrence sucked and was getting all the slack, we smashed the lakers 4-1 in the finals. i think we can repeat that this year, and hopefully get some revenge on San Antonio for that game 7 in ’05
go pistons
ash
that was my buddy who made the ‘sheed is the only wallace we need’ sign, and i was next to him. 😀
Way to be friends with a guy who holds a great sign! 🙂 lol I can’t even imagine how pretty that game looked at the Palace. I was at home on my sofa and it was 5 kinds of beautiful.
pistons in 5 i think the bulls will take one of their home games.. detroit did an excellent job of defending home court advantage and look like they are really rolling now.. the combination of tay sheed and c-webb is just too overwhelming for the bulls… that dunk tay had over ben was rediculous.. all 5 starters in double figures the BABY bulls are really showing how young they are
jp
i was at the game last night, and the price of the ticket was worth it when they showed the bulls bench looking at the score in disbelief. bens face was PRICELESS!!!
pistons in 5!
I also liked the huge sign the guy had that said ” Hey Shaq, hows the vacation?”
Big_Ben
I liked that one too…
ALL THE WAY BABY!!!!
Everyone seemed to do amazing. the bench is really pullin through for us!! what time is the game on thursday again? i’ll be sittin at my house.. be loud and proud to who ever is going to the game!
– – Tara
That look on Ben’s face is priceless.
Nat, did you actually hear them saying “sixty million”??
i kinda feel bad for him.. that musta been hard to hear. its got to be!
CHAUNCEY BILLUPS WAS ON JIM ROME WAS BURNING!!! I TAPED IT! sorry that got me pumped. ive been waitin for them to interview a pistons. deetroit basketball!
it was on espn around 4:40
-pistons_1
^^nah i felt bad for him at the beginning of the season when he was booed..but once he thought the bulls were doing good it seemed like he had no love for detroit and was acting too good for us.. sooo ever since then… i just cant STAND the guy !!!
just let him have his $60 mil .. it seems like thats all thats really important to him… and by all means he can have it !! while ben is worried about his money, selling his house, and why his EX teammates stood him up at dinner, the pistons are staying focused [ which i am EXTREMELYYYYYY proud of them for !!!! ] and they are after something a little different ;]
sorry .. my comment at 4:53 was supposed to go after 4:13.. lol it confused me for a sec there i thgouth i was responding to the person above me
Jim Rome what? I’m so confused…
“Jim Rome is burning” is the name of a show on espn at either 4 or 4:30….on a side note there are some spirited debates going on right now…lol.
Everyone thought that we’d beat the bulls in game 2 but it wasnt goin to be as an easy task as it was in game 1… but clearly they proved us wrong again.. and boy do i love our boys or what??
Rip was just one rebound shy of a double double. Who was that fight guy on the court?
This was such a good game. Everyone at my work is saying how the pistons are going to be burned out winning by so much, my come back was how do you figure with all the rest they are about to get they will be rejuiced every game. I mean to me they are playing with passion and not emotion so it does not take as much energy out of them as well they seem to be playing better when they are up by so much. One thing that the pistons are not doing is getting sloppy one they are up as they have before.
On another note I can’t believe wallace let the crowd get to him, I mean he had it coming and he is getting what he desevers with the loses but he should know what the palace crowd is like we were on his side for so long I guess he forgot.
The Ben Wallace Pistons fans knew for the 6 years he was here would never have given into the hecklers. And rubbing his fingers together to indicate money? That’s just sad. I’m not sure how I feel about him yet, but when he does things like that it makes me hate him. Sure he got more money for going to Chicago, but at what expense? He’s going to be an old man coming off the bench before he ever (if he ever) gets a ‘Ship again ’cause the Pistons are not ready to give of their place as the class of the East and won’t be for a long time.
P.S. Thanks for the info on the Jim Rome thing. I had absolutely no idea what you were talking about. Is there any way to view it on the Web?
I was reading an article on Yahoo (I think) about how the Bulls saw some positives from the film from Game 2. They said that they were getting open looks and stuff. Were they? I can’t really remember. I know it was just yesterday but my memory is shit and I wasn’t really paying attention to what they were doing so much as I was to what the Pistons were doing so I didn’t notice.
Pistons will give open looks when they go into zones and Chicago plays the inside-out half-court game. We haven’t seen a lot of guards driving to the paint to free up the outside shooters on the Bulls – and we haven’t seen a lot of their jumpers falling, either, since they’re not doing a great job on that zone, to date.