The Detroit Pistons came out with fire at home against the Sixers from the tip and didn’t stop scalding them until the final buzzer sounded. Detroit took their first lead of the series with their resounding 98-81 victory in Game Five. The Pistons are now just one win away from moving on the the next round, but it won’t be easy against a gritty Sixers team who has surprised everyone but themselves.
Key Points:
- There was a moment of silence before the game for basketball legend Will Robinson. Detroit will wear a black patch on their uniforms for the remainder of the season in his memory. He will be missed.
- You could actually see from their faces before the game started that the Pistons came to work.
- Jason Maxiell again started in place of the broken beaked Antonio McDyess. The Palace crowd gave him a huge thank you during the pre-game intros.
- Detroit shot a gaudy 58.1% for the game.
- New and improved Sheed dance? You be the judge.
- In case you were wondering, The Palace crowd was just as hot as the Pistons were.
- Sheed was hitting early and often but it was his 6 blocks on the night that lit up the gym. RA scored 19 points, grabbed 6 boards and had a steal and 3 assists. The Sixers are going to have to play a lot bigger to stop Sheed.
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- Best assist I have seen in a while was this outlet pass from Sheed, who saw a streaking Tay bolt down the floor after a Sixers hoop. I don’t know how it looked on television, but I could see the whole thing unfold before it happened. I was on my feet before Tay even put the ball in the hoop.
- Arron Afflalo got 18 meaningful minutes and did a heck of a job during every single one of them. He played great defense and hit the open jumpers every time he had the chance. He finished with 3 steals and 4 points. Solid night from the rookie who surprisingly took the place of Jarvis Hayes off the bench. Whether it lasts remains to be seen.
- Rodney Stuckey seemed a bit more comfortable on the floor for the first time this post season. Stuck played 14 minutes and scored 6 points on 3 for 5 shooting with 4 assists and 3 boards.
- Credit Flip Saunders who pulled Stuckey when in less than 30 seconds he turned the ball over and then committed a quick foul. In came Billups in a hurry.
- Mr. Big Shot is back, he truly lived up to his nickname for the first time this series. Chauncey led the Pistons with a double-double, putting up 21 points, with 12 assists and 2 boards. I appreciated the fact that Tayshaun Price played a bit at the point position so Chauncey could stay hot with his shot.
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- I arrived to the game a litter earlier than usual so I was in my seat when Samuel Dalembert stepped out for warm ups with his new Mohawk. A few minutes after the Sixers took the court out came The Pistons. When Sheed got a look at Dalembert he gathered up a few (I think Billups, Hunter not sure of the rest) pointed to Sam and started cracking up and didn’t stop for quite some time. I know I thought it was amusing, but Sheed took it to another level. Apparently he made mention of Dalembert’s new hair to The Sixers coach Mo Cheeks.
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- Philadelphia’s Samuel Dalembert said Green’s barber in Detroit gave him the mohawk he was sporting, complete with “LJ” and “SD” shaved into both sides of his head. “The SD is for strong defense,” he said. “The LJ is for a loved one.” Reggie Evans seemed to pity his teammate. “Willie, that’s your fault,” Evans said. “He’s going to be on the bloopers.” Wallace agreed. “I told Mo that should’ve been a team fine to come here like that,” Wallace said.” Via Yahoo.com
- Louis Williams had another great night for the Sixers with 16 points. I’m glad to see him doing well. I remember following him a little when he was in high school with all the hype surrounding him and thought he may have done better had he went to college instead of heading to the NBA. It didn’t help that he played behind AI for so long, not getting much time on court. Good for him, he’s been big.
- Andre Iguodala finally found his offensive game leading the Sixers with 21 points. He was on, but the rest of his team was way off. Did anyone notice the his stare down of the crowd after his dunk in the fourth quarter? Yeah it was nice Andre, but you only do that when you aren’t getting blown out, it’s not like you’ve done anything this whole series anyways….you just looked silly.
- I got a pre-game kiss (on the cheek of course) from George Blaha.
- Again with the hecklers and Mo Cheeks. “I’ll be back,” Philadelphia coach Maurice Cheeks said to hecklers as the final seconds ticked off the clock. “I know you don’t believe me.” Via Yahoo.com
- Thank goodness Detroit’s 50% from the line didn’t hurt them in this one.
- Maxiell had the crowd standing on their feet for many occasions. Maxie finished the game with a career playoff high 11 boards with 6 points and 3 demeaning blocked shots. Doesn’t Jason Smith know better by now? Maxie has stuffed him hard on at least 4 times now.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and myTV20 Detroit
- So nice Maxiell we have to see the dunk again.
- Can we play like this for the remainder of the Playoffs please?
- Still have to work on the turnovers. Detroit had 17 but thankfully they forced the Sixers into 18 of their own.
- Very enjoyable game all around, especially after what game one and three did to Pistons fans.
- The Pistons led by as much as 26 points, the Sixers biggest lead was 2.
- 44 points in the paint for Detroit to the Sixers 34.
- All I have to say is that this had been Tayshaun’s series and the Palace crowd made sure they let him know how much they appreciated him. Tay was more than solid again with 17 points on 8-for-14 shooting with 4 boards, 2 assists and a steal.
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- NBA.com Highlights from the game.
- The Pistons made 11 of their first 13 shots.
- Rip Hamilton put up 20 points with 5 boards, 2 assists and a steal in 33 minutes.
- Rip spent some of his time on the floor with Dyess, Afflalo, Stuckey, and Maxiell.
- “It was definitely business to handle, but we still had fun out there,” Wallace said. “We still do our little side jokes or whatever. We’ve been in situations like this before. It’s not a lot of pressure. Our booty holes aren’t tight.” Via MLive
- 34 boards for each side.
- “The series is not over until someone gets four wins. They’ll zap our spirit when they get four wins. They haven’t zapped it yet,” Cheeks said. Via ESPN
- Detroit hopes to finish this off on Thursday in Philly to play a waiting Orlando.
The TNT guys were talking about the mohawk, and mentioned that the SD was for Samuel Dalambert, then showed a less than flattering highlight of him. Barkley then commented that it stood for Sucky Dude.
I laughed.
Wonder will Sheed ever end up on Dancing with the Stars.
Great to see Stuckey finally getting his execution going. We’re going to need that bench production to get the ‘ship.
Good game, time to make the phili fans cry on their home court by putting a bullet in them execution style! hopefully the hawks do bostons like the warriors did the mavs then we got this! lol
This was a great game all around. I think everyone contributed well in one way or another.
steve, as much as i want boston to lose to atlanta, i rather not…unless washington wins the series which is almost not gonna happen….i rather have boston and cleveland play face so before we face one them, they already killed each other, ran out of gas….my ideal series wiz vs. hawks or celt vs. clev……anyway, good game, glad billups is back. good team effort….its time to escort the sixers to vacation on thursday.
this series is gonna go to 7. i hate to say it. but i just have a bad feeling we’re gonna play these morons two more times.
Nope.
Avery Johnson just got fired! and mark D from phoenix might be next.. if flip saunders doesnt deliver dumars should def think about hiring johnson hes young and is a great coach same with mark if they dont win a ship this yr i say bye bye flip hello mark or avery!
Mike Dantoni is the coach of Phx not Mark
But I agree I absolutely love Avery Johnson he is definitely one of my favorite current coaches. If he could be our coach that’ll be great
But not Dantoni he can’t coach Defense for shit! Case and point, Steve Nash
My favorite part was Young going for the rebound off of Sheed’s miss and knocking it into our basket! lol, thanks!
my bad ur right mike… lol mark mike same shit diff toilet… but yes i would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see flip get fired and johnson take over!! that is if we dont win the ship if we do flip deserves another yr “i guess” lol
Not Mike D’Antoni for sure.
What about Pat Riley? He’s no longer a coach for the Heat. But he seems like a “diva” among the coaches circle to me for some reasons. I always thought that Avery Johnson was a good coach, but the fact that his team got eliminated twice in the 1st round worries me though.
Yeah, Pistons already have a coach that doesn’t win ships, Johnson, we already have a Johnson.
This team acn’t have a coach like Johnson, or D’Antoni. Really, we can’t have a coach like Flip either. They need a Pat Riley, a Larry Brown, somebody who is bigger than the game.
You know I never saw this while watching the Philly series I seemed to have missed it check it out
Sheed tries passing it inside to Chauncey but Thaddeus Young tips it and it goes in
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JudP0tdYpJ4&feature=user
I wonder does Sheed get credit for a three? He threw it from the 3 pt line it could have been regarded as a shot.
Imagine that sheed shot a 3 and it bounced off the rim as thad goes for the reb, he accidentally tipped it in it would probably still be counted as a three wouldn’t it? so Shouldn’t this one too? can anyone who memorizes the NBA rulebook help me out?
“New and improved Sheed dance? You be the judge.”
Ehh I still like he spastic dance he does way better.
“Can we play like this for the remainder of the Playoffs please?
“
NO KIDDING!! Please play with this much effort EVERY night!! Please?!?!?! I am asking you guys…..WE are asking you guys.
Dominic, the basket went to Chauncey, as he was the player closest to the ball. Sheed doesn’t get 3 credit, as it was tipped in.
dominic I think Chauncey gets credit for the basket because he was closest to it.
Also I wanna ask those of you who can afford to go to the games. Does the Palace crowd ever chant? Because on tv I never hear organized chants and I’m wondering if the tv cameras just aren’t picking it up?
I’ll agree that there was more effort from the Pistons, but what concerns me is that we went back to going 1 on 5 a lot. We just happened to make the shots we missed in other games. I felt the sixers lacked effort and didn’t get into the passing lanes, but I’ll give a little credit to the Pistons d.
Also really happy Amir got some minutes and Arron Afflalo played great, kinda feel bad for Jarvis it’s hard to be a shooting specialist on a team with so many other options.
Sheed was nice in this game, I especially like it when he shows emotion, like when he swung his fist through the air and screamed, that’s the Sheed we need
Come on Pistons lets be sailing on a ship and not fishing on a boat.
In terms of organized chants, I meant besides the DEEETTTTRRRROOOOIIIITTTT BAAASSSKKKKEEETTTBBBAAALLL
which I think is freakin sweet (are there any shirts that say it, cause if there are I haven’t seem them in any stores?)
Pleanty Amre-can Prince, form Deeeeetroit Basketball to SHEEEEED to Defense. It gets pretty loud in the Palace.
As for the shirts, they do have them in the palace locker room store.
A lot of these other teams have a guy who comes out before the game and coaches the fans on what to chant, and when to do it.
Detroit fans don’t need that, don’t need to chant “beat Cleveland” whatever.
When the team does something right, we cheer. When steven Jackson has the ball, we boo.
Thanks Natalie I almost forgot about the Sheed chant.
And fluidics I had no idea that other teams did that. That’s messed up.
Every time I hear about something like that it makes me appreciate this team more. From the subtle things they do. Like for example, Keeping the name of the Palace of Auburn Hills rather than something named after a corporation. It just sounds better. To their community efforts, to even delivering a championship and hopefully another
Plus that intangible feeling of you’re invited, and not just because we want your money But because we want you to be here. With the Pistons I’m not thinking, how are they trying to cheat me out of my money
I really gotta give some love to Bill Davidson the owner for that.
Thanks man.
I gotta apologize for this sappy post I just had a pretty good day today and I’m in a thanking mood.
And thanks Natalie for the great site.