After the surprisingly difficult task of putting away the Philadelphia Seventy Sixers in the first round of The Playoffs, The Pistons now have a whole different beast to deal with. Dwight Howard, who’s game has improved leaps and bounds this season, will be be the focus of Detroit’s game plan. Dwight averaged 22 points and 18 boards in Orlando’s first round series with The Raptors, but I will be shocked if he puts up those kinds of numbers against a defensively minded team like The Pistons. The Magic aren’t just a one man show either with Rashard Lewis and most improved player Hedo Turkoglu.
Hedo and company may be a bit tired considering they were out clubbing last night to prepare for Game One.
If Detroit’s backcourt can take advantage of their matchups and if Tayshaun Prince keeps playing the way he has it will be a tough task for The Magic to pull off an upset of Detroit. Look for the Pistons to exploit Chauncey’s matchups with either Nelson or Arroyo and Rasheed Wallace and Ratliff to concentrate on keeping Howard off his game.
“We know that they’re going to be physical, but we’re not going to back down an inch,” Howard said. “Rasheed is a great, great player. We have to be smart because we know he’s going to talk trash and be Rasheed Wallace. But we’ll be ready.” Via The Detroit Free Press
Don’t expect a Swiffer like last season, but if it happens I won’t complain. Here is the schedule for Round 2:
Gm. 1: Sat., May 3: at Detroit, 7:30 p.m. ET (TNT)Gm. 2: Mon., May 5: at Detroit, 7:00 p.m. ET (TNT)Gm. 3: Wed., May 7: at Orlando, 8:00 p.m. ET (TNT)Gm. 4: Sat., May 10: at Orlando, TBD (TBD)Gm. 5*: TBD: at Detroit, TBD (TBD)Gm. 6*: TBD: at Orlando, TBD (TBD)Gm. 7*: TBD: at Detroit, TBD (TBD)
Tip off is at 7:30 PM and will be Nationally televised on TNT. If you can’t catch it on TV you can always tune in to 1130 AM WDFN The Fan or stream it live through your computer at NBA.com.
I’ll hold it down at The Palace while you do the same here…Leave ’em in the comments.
It’s imperative that we hold home-court in this round.
With Detroit, it almost seems as if we’d be better off without homecourt advantage, because I think we’re good at marching into someone else’s arena and stealing a game.
Oh well, that’s for another series, assuming the Celtics even make it. (last laugh to us)
Eric, how bout we win both at home and still steal one in Orlando. Now that would be nice.
GO PISTONS
Don’t have much more to say now, but Go Pistons!
Come out strong, lock down on D and make them hurt for going to the hole.
I hope we can take game one by a lot and send a message to the magic. LETS GO PISTONS!
I wan’t blood. Dwight Howard or no Dwight Howard. Let’s make them bleed. Go Detroit.
My thoughts on this series:
-Dwight howard plays great against lousy teams, but struggles against savvy vets, which is exactly what Sheed and Ratliff are. Howard’s numbers will look great, as always, but also I expect a lot of mistakes, turnovers, travels, missed free throws, etc…
-Hedo is their best player. he’s clutch but I think Tayshaun can slow him down.
-Rashard Lewis doesn’t scare me. anyone who played so long with the sonics has losing in their blood.
-Jameer will step up his game to the challenge and Chauncey will play down to the level of competition like he always does … keyon dooling is a great defender who will frustrate the heck out of our guards, so we have to hope they play some arroyo. the more arroyo plays, the better the pistons chances of winning.
-bogans will shoot from outside and get open and make 3’s and drive pistons fans crazy. come on just because he’s coming off the bench we gotta guard him!
-flip will get outcoached; stan-van will be smart enough to take advantage of mismatches. … worst case scenario: dooling shuts down chauncey, turk and lewis hold tay and rip to average games, howard takes advantage of sheed’s laziness, and our offense is stagnant. i dont expect much from our bench this series. not against a half-court team like orlando.
-one positive i like is who on orlando is going to follow Rosco out to the 3-line … if it’s howard, that opens things up for the slashers to cut inside.
-let’s just hope arroyo is on the court a lot so we can feast on his suckiness.
sorry i wrote so much , i have a lot of thoughts on this series i guess. i’ll be cheering on from grand rapids, hope the palace represents and carries the pistons to victory.
“let’s just hope arroyo is on the court a lot so we can feast on his suckiness.”
Fantastic, that quote couldn’t me more fitting or funny. Great points David..I’m off
Agreed Natalie.
It seems like the consensus is that the Pistons are in for a tough battle, and I agree, but I can’t shake the feeling that if we make a statement at home, we’ll take this series in 5.
What is the soundtrack to that youtube vid?
Why don’t the Pistons get ANY rest before the 2nd round? They only had one day..
And why are the Pistons playing their first 2nd round game today when Boston and Atlanta have not even finished the first round?
I know Spurs and Hornets are playing tonight too but still..
It’s all good, Pistons are rolling, they are hot, they are better off without the rest.
This should be a good series. I’m putting my magic stones on the Magic to get over on the Stones. As you guys learned last year with LeBron, the NBA Playoffs are where new blood comes to a boil. Howard is a stud, and the supporting cast is solid enough, with Hedo and Lewis capable of being stars in their own right.
More on this series at
http://www.clevelandfrowns.com
I really like the way Flip has started off this game. Starting with Maxi on Howard was a nice move to save Sheed from getting in early foul trouble.
Just the first quarter and the announcers are in a lovefest with the Magic. That’s irritating.
Do my eyes fool me, or is Walter dressed for this game?
hack-a-howard 🙂
Man, ‘Sheed is amazing in how he just KNOWS what Howard wants to do, and then just denies and frustrates him.
Oh, and the offense is nice as well.
SHEEEED!
SHEEEED!!!
Every Piston on the floor contributing in one way or another. Fun to watch.
We should be getting a “sorry bout that” call any minute now.
HERRMANN!!!!
fluidics, you were right. Hermann was dressed, and thankfully so. I always thought he deserved to be on the active roster, he is a combination of hustle AND skill.
lol hedo and co. were out clubbing last night. Club on, Hedo!!!
Young blood, old blood, my blood, your blood, Pistons Win!!
Quote Maxy:
“that’s my job, I’m a tough dude”
good win tonight. I thought we limited dwight howard and our backcourt played great. aldo maxie was great and I like to see him hitting the 15 footers consistently. Lets hope we can keep this up in game two.
Finally, after waiting for it all season, WALTER GOT JARVIS’S PLAYING TIME!!!!!
When Flip subbed in Walter Hermann before Jarvis Hayes with about 9 minutes left, it was the best part of the entire game. Walter does all the things that won’t show up in the stats, whereas Jarvis only plays to get his own stats. They’re opposites of each other, and for the first time all season the better player got to play first. I think it has something to do with Jarvis getting ticked about not getting the playing time in game six at philly, when afflalo took his minutes. Jarvis was upset after the game. What right do you have to be upset Jarvis?? You prick. You have one 27 point game all season, after which you proclaim yourself the “best shooter on this team,’ and you suck it up in the other 81 games. You think you’re a better shooter than the best mid-range shooter in the game, as well as Chauncey, Tay and Sheed??? You ass Jarvis. You’re not a better shooter than Dyess or Stuckey, or WALTER. who led the NBA in 3pt% last year?? Oh yeah, it was WALTER HERMANN. and who actually plays with some effort on defense? yeah, that’s right, WALTER HERMANN. I can’t believe Jarvis “I Love My Own Stats” Hayes was upset after winning a playoff series on one of the best teams in the NBA. He’s a bench player, and he’s acting like T.O. or Chad Johnson, saying he should be getting his minutes. Yeah Jarvis, your awesome 43% shooting, not to mention your pathetic defense (i.e. when you fell down guarding Iguodala, then fouled him twice in 10 seconds) and your complete lack of concern about your teammates really give you good reason to be playing off the bench. Jarvis Hayes has slowed the development of Stuck, Arron and Amir with his selfishness and me-first attitude on offense. Jarvis once said after a game (a win, no less): “I feel like when I get the ball, if I don’t shoot it’s basically like a turnover.”
Are you kidding me?!?!?!?!? You only shot 43% from the field. only a 75% free throw shooter. We brought you in here to come off the bench as a “shooter” and you’re not even a good shooter!!! You think you are the second coming of Mitch Richmond, but you’re not even the second best small-forward on the Pistons. Keep playing Walter Hermann Flip!!!! All the fans want you to. All the Pistons players want you to. The only people who want to see Jarvis on the court are: Jarvis, and the Orlando Magic.
To summarize: Basketball skills are like hairs on your head. Jarvis vs. Walter: you figure it out from there.
maxiell… wow what can i say? from day one i said orlando would LIKELY be an easier opponent than the sixers because they have no one who can bother our guards… BUT i was worried about wth could guard howard? i know sheed can, but that then meant maxy would have to guard the quicker rashad… well a couple minutes into the game and maxiell took away any doubt i had by stuffing D12… that was nice to see :)… he ended up out-rebounding howard, and had the same number of points and blocks… what a game for mad max
You know things are going right for you when Jason Maxiell is hitting jumpers like that all night.
Let’s hope we can get performances like we’ve gotten the last 14 quarters from the Stones.