The Pistons take game one of the Eastern Conference Finals 79-76. It wasn’t pretty, in fact it was pretty darn ugly, but as long as it’s a W the Pistons will take it. Detroit, led by Rip Hamilton’s 24 points, held LeBron James to just 10 points on 5-for-15 shooting.
Key Points:
- Tayshaun did a great job all night guarding LeBron, and when he was on the bench taking a rest Delfino matched that.
- Not only did Delfino do a great job on LeBron when he was on the floor, but he grabbed a couple of key offensive rebounds in a crowd of Cavaliers.
- How about Dale Davis coming in early in the first quarter when Chris Webber got in foul trouble. DD went strong to the hole on a couple of plays for and-1’s.
- Rip Hamilton was The Pistons only offense in the first half.
- Everyone is all over LeBron for passing the ball out to D. Marshall on the last play of the game. Now I really thought he was going in for the basket, but I can understand why he dished to his teammate for the win. Had Marshall made the shot LeBron would have been the hero.
- With the way that The Pistons played, the Cavs should have won this game. Detroit was out-rebounded, they had more turnovers and shot horrible the first half.
- Rasheed was a monster in this one. Had Rasheed not anchored the D, the Pistons would have lost this one. Sheed put up 15 points, with 12 rebounds and 7 blocked shots. That my friends is SHEEDtastic.
Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
- James was scoreless in the first quarter and finished with a playoff-low 10 points.
- Ilgauskas had a big game, he led the Cavs with 22 points and 13 boards.
- Jason Maxiell played great, although the box score doesn’t reflect it. He was actually on the floor for the last few minutes of the ball game.
- Chauncey was invisible in the first half, but like always he comes through in the clutch.
- Antonio McDyess couldn’t buy a bucket.
- Surprisingly the Pistons shot 43% for the night.
- I listened to Mike Brown’s press conference on the way home from the game. He must have mentioned that it was ridiculous that LeBron didn’t go to the foul line all game about five times.
- How can he go to the line if he’s not driving the lane?
- Yes Sirrrr, if Rip wasn’t hitting his shots in the first quarter The Pistons would have dug themselves in a hole they couldn’t get out of. Rip finished with 24 points, 7 assists, 2 steals and three rebounds.
Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
- An old friend gave me his prime seats, so I was really close to the action. So close in fact I could hear everything that Sheed was saying on court. I was actually sitting right behind Chauncey Billups good friend Tyrone Lue.
- Did anyone catch the play when Sheed and Clownfish went for the rebound and Sheed landed right on top of him. It was as though he was just sitting on him like a kids would do when they were fighting. Hilarious.
- Rasheed’s 7 blocks were a career high.
- One down and three to go.
- Chris Bosh – Sheed interview.
- The Cavs led by as many as nine points in the first half and didn’t trail in the game until Detroit started strong in the third quarter with a block and shot-clock violation on defense along with a 3-pointer and hook at the other end of the court.
Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
- Billups scored 10 of his 13 points in the final quarter, making all three of his shots including a 3-pointer that gave the Pistons a 78-76 lead with 1:52 left.
- Rip and Tayshaun connected for one of their signature ally-oops. It’s been so long since I had seen one of those that I almost forgot how pretty they are.
- C-Webb had a couple on nice dunks.
- The Cavs got too many second chance points.
- Chauncey was a turnover machine, he ended up with 7.
- The Pistons will have to come out much stronger in game 2 to take hold of this series.
- Sorry with the late recap, I was having server issues.
What surprised me is how bad Chauncey looked last night, even with the late 3. Seven turnovers? For whatever reason, the Cavs are in his head. That’s why this series will go 6 or 7.
Why is nobody talking about LeBron throwing the ball at a fan in the front row? It happened during the second quarter, he clearly lost his cool. Had it been Rasheed who had done that he would probably be facing suspension
Did he do that? But LeBron is Stern’s little pet, he gets away with alot of shit. I was busy listening to the really loud fan whose cheering could be heard off the camera.
Chauncey needs to stop waiting until til the 2nd half to get it going, he won’t get hot everytime.
How come nobody called a flagrant foul on that Sasha Pavlovic guy when he threw Sheed on the ground?
(Sheed was really good at baiting the little punk on this)
We did indeed get lucky, but in the playoffs, a win is a win. 1 down, 3 to go. We do indeed have to play better and more united as a team.
-KollinNaples
We cannot let the Cavs win Game 2.
I knew we were gonna win and I knew it wasnt gonna be that easy but I didnt think it was gonna be that hard either.
Even if the Cavs would have won (thank god they didnt) there would have been one happy thing I would have been cheering about.. JAMES, 10 POINTS!! (scoreless in the first!!) PRINCE, AMAZING!!
I had to go to bed early becasue i couldn’t keep my eyes open (thats a 1st..and really odd when whatching a pistons game)..anyway I keep having nightmares that the pistons lost game 1 & 2…but i was realeaved when i woke and looked at tye front page of the newpaper
The game was awful, but W’s don’t always come with style points. I thought the boys looked as though they expected to be up by 20. The play where LeBron may have tossed the ball at the crowd came right before he got his reverse oop. I also thought Pavlovic should have gotten a flagrant for tossing Sheed. When Sheed “fell” on Varajeo, I don’t think it was an accident. I was just glad he didn’t get called for a foul. We need to sweep the court for invisible wires before next game, I think Tayshaun fell on at least five of his moves to the hoop last night. I still say we beat these guys in four or five, and I’ll be surprised if we don’t blow them out on Thursday. In the meantime I’ll try to make it through tonight’s hockey game without suffering an aneurysm.
i was sooo tired, but i would NEVER be able to sleep during a pistons game..
the last thing i think about b4 sleeping is the pistonsss.
We could’ve had Chris Bosh. Oh well.
I love Bosh’ interview, i’ve always likid him. He has style!
– TheGreatDane
The night before this series started I also had a dream about it, but I didnt know the outcome. In my dream Rasheed got ejected from the game with two techs EARLY in the first quarter. It was more like a nightmare, NOT a dream!
Throughout most of the game (especially in the 1st half) it seemed like nobody was paying attention to who had the ball on the Pistons end. Whether it was Chauncey or Tayshaun with it, none of their teammates were looking at them to receive a pass. I found that really odd and extremely frustrating. I kept yelling things like “Pay attention ‘Sheed!” or “Take the fucking pass, Tayshaun!” It seemed very unPiston like.
I didn’t see James throw the ball or ‘Sheed fall on Varejao but I’d pay to see the replay! I thought Pavlovic’s foul on Chauncey seemed hard even before I noticed he was bleeding and I read that Chauncey said a few choice words to Pavlovic near the Cavs bench. This series might turn out to be more heated than the Bulls one was expected to be.
I agree with Nat completely on the last play. Had Marshall made that 3 James woulda been showered with even more praise and he’d be looked at as the hero even though it wouldn’t have been him that made the shot.
I was really surprised James didn’t get any stuperstar calls even though he didn’t drive like he normally does. I thought there would be a lot more ticky tack fouls called on the Pistons for breathing on him or something. Had that of happened the Pistons would have been in deep shit. lol Thank God for Chauncey “Mr. Big Shot” Billups and Rip’s sharp shooting in the first half and ‘Sheed’s… well just thank God for ‘Sheed! lol
amanda, if you don’t mind, can you tell me where you saw the article about chauncey and him and his bloody nose?! thanks. that doesnt sound like him.
Haha, deleted comment… Gotta love it. Anyway, I was suprised at how many times Tayshaun fell on offense. Pistons just looked sloppy overall offensively. (With an exception of Rip, everything he threw up basically went in. Rasheed wasnt too bad either) Tay and Chauncey need to get back in a groove. I know that gaurding LeBron is going to take some energy Tay, but stay on your feet SON! Go DeTRRROOIITT, Pistons in 5.
Nick~~
PS- Gotta love when we took a charge on Var-EH-HOE… And he complained to the ref, what a scrub. He got a taste of his own medicine; the stupid freakin flopper. Oh, and *PLAY FLIP MURRAY*
I’m glad we won, but we need to use this series to get real crisp before the finals.
Tay spent a lot of time on the floor, but I’m not gonna knock it cause he was being aggressive and that’s all I need from a player to be satisfied with him.
Bench is lost a lot on the offensive end, they lost that aggressiveness that they were gaining in the regular season, need to play better with the starters.
I was so excited to see Rip to Tay ally oop, I’ve been wondering the last couple of weeks why they weren’t doing it anymore, figured they were told not to or something.
I’m tired of seeing Chauncey flop on his shot when trying to get a call. (you know when he shoots then shakes really hard acting like he got a hard foul, just unneccessary)
I’m glad we didn’t take Bosh because he would of gone through what Darko had to endure, not matter how good he is he’s still a rookie and wasn’t going to play on this team, so I’m glad he went somewhere where he could grow. He’s the only other player besides Darko that I wanted the Pistons to draft, but hey it’s all good.
Sheed and Rip played outstanding, and I was jumping up and down practically when Dale Davis came in and had like 2 1/2 and 1s (didn’t convert one)
if ur upset about the game, listen to this:
tayshaun and chauncey both had TERRIBLY NIGHTS, and we still won!!!!
mcdyess was scoreless, and we still won!
SO, THE NEXT FEW GAMES WON’T BE AS CLOSE, as long as most of the guys play better.
Nat you don’t have to apologize for anything. We all know that this is something that you do in your free time ( but you should really be looking into finding a way to get paid….maybe even reach out for sponsorships….other blogs have been known for that ).
The play that everyone has been talking about was really a good play. When Lebron drove to the hole and Rip/Sheed collapsed on him to prevent an easy layup, there were 2 cavs WIDE open for a 3. If you flipped it around and it was Chauncey driving to the hole and Tay was on 1 side and Rip was on the other and Chauncey decided to dump it off the Tay instead of going for the not that wide open lay-up…what would your opinion be about it then? I realize that was an extremely LONG run-on sentence but you get my point.
I was laughing a lot about the guy that was yelling a ton and could be heard on camera. That was good stuff.
A W is a W, but I’m not worried about the Pistons losing to the Cavs. We won’t have a pushover team in the finals!
my heart almost stoped the last min of the game….Scary one. Thankfully we got the win. Tay did awsome against lebrone and i thought rip and sheed did well two. i really want to see more of webber though. cant wait till thrusday……soooooooo exited
I can’t remember who he pulled down, I’m pretty sure it was Rasheed, put Palovic pulled one of the Pistons down to the floor to get the ball. What an asshole. He got called for the foul though.
How about Metallica´s Load song: King Nothing, good to be played at the palace, after lebron´s throwing a ball at us…
Translation of Varejao in portuguese: Fruit retail market.
See ya!
anonymous 4:49,
I got that bit of info from an article by Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. All it said about the Billups/Pavlovic thing was this:
“You want some bad blood? After Marshall’s miss, Sasha Pavlovic raked Billups across the nose when they were chasing the long rebound.
Billups was bleeding out of his nose and he had some stern words for Pavlovic in front of the Cavaliers bench.
This one is just getting heated up.”
Here’s the link:
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/SPORTS0102/705220426/1127
And anonymous 4:50, that deleted comment was by me. I accidently submitted my post twice. 🙂
Varejao means “fruit retail market” in Portuguese? lol
player of the game : without a doubt RiP HAMiLTON :]
i just wish the other guys would turn it up
pistons D rules! they played really bad but still won
What does that say bout the cavs?
Yeah Amanda, this word, Varejão can be understood as a retail, but in most cases is fruits or vegetables retail, usually at very low prices…, like solding out bad carrots, go to the “Varejão”, where you can buy fruits and vegetables for a low price.
Lol…
lol oh, I love it!
Rip and Tay haven’t connected for their sweet ally oops that much ever sence the allstar game. Think the fact that Tay allready didn’t get in was a part of that?
They used to average like 1 per game if you recall!
~Richie~
Mr. BIg Shot and Mr. Big Stopper!
Go DeTRoiT!!
anyone notices that Sheed hasn’t shaved since the beginning of the playoffs?? if u remember he did the same thing when we won the ‘ship in 2004….
Did anyone see that elbow Lebron gave Webber? check this video out from game 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGnnN5BMXwE
similar to a Kobe move..and the refs let it go.