NBA Basketball 2004-2005 thread - Page 15

Yep, if anyone wants to watch two teams that are well-schooled in the fundamentals of basketball, just tune into the Finals starting tomorrow night. You will not see selfish, ego-driven players who are more worried about their stats line than whether their team wins, or players who do not work on the defensive end. All you will see is two teams playing hard at both ends of the floor, and players working as a team.

I'd much rather watch Kobe Bryant be a ball hog and refuse to pass the ball to Shaq, like in last year's Finals.

Hey, I'd rather see that...if it got us another championship!

True, Haggai. I did enjoy, in a morbid way, watching the Lakers implode against the Pistons last year.

Alas, tonight's game truly lived down to my expectations.

The heavy emphasis on strong defense and the half-court game result in a low-scoring, sloppily-played affair that made me wonder if this game was a cure for insomnia. Only when the Spurs finally went on that scoring run very late in the game did we see something resembling a decent offense.

G** help us all if we have to suffer through this for every game in this series.

Thanks for your opinion Ray. Myself as well as the commentators for this game felt it was a great show of basketball and entertainment.

The Spurs showed great defense and great offense in the final quarter

I just cant understand how some people think that nothing but high scoring games are entertaining.

I hope to see more of this very same style in the coming games

Too bad for you and everyone else who wants "pretty" basketball. Maybe you could watch some Phoenix Suns games on tape? They were entertaining, but not good enough to make it to the Finals.

The NBA Finals determines who the best team is, not the most entertaining. If you don't like it, by all means don't watch. As for me, I think I'll stay tuned.

I think what kind of dragged me down was the fact the Pistons only scored 69 points tonight--that was way off their normal season scoring average. I think the fatigue from going through that seven-game series with the Miami Heat showed tonight.

Hopefully, Game 2 will have a bit more scoring--hopefully with the Pistons scoring at least 90 points!

Er, well, not such high quality of play, I thought. The D was good on both sides, but I was concerned after the first quarter because the Pistons were only up three, in spite of San Antonio being completely awful for most of the period. I was similarly a little bit encouraged by Detroit being down only 4 going into the 4th after their hideous 3rd quarter, but Ginobli took over and the Pistons still couldn't score.

Rip missed a lot of good shots in the first half, but Bowen and company really did a good job on him in the second to limit his opportunities. The bench was the worst it's ever been for the Pistons: McDyess, Arroyo, and Hunter were all beyond terrible, just shamefully awful. Billups was the only one on the team who really contributed on offense (that fake behind-the-back pass was definitely sweet). Pistons also got killed on the boards, 49-35, and I think most of that was in the second half. The Spurs beat them to pretty much every single loose ball in the last two quarters.

One more thought: It seemed to me that neither team was all that ready to face the other's defense, as evidenced by all the blocked shots. I think it's reasonable to expect that the offenses will get more productive as both teams make their adjustments and settle in with the new matchups they're facing.

It was good to see Devin Brown get a few early minutes, but it was obvious that he still is favoring a leg and that he is not completely healthy.

Spurs gambled on Brown and lost with his health. Oh well, that's why the rosters go that deep, so you can take a bit of a chance.

Spurs win tonight and the series is over in 5, if they lose I think it goes 6, with SA still winning it all.

Spurs up 2-0, good, but nothing to write home about. Just TCB-ing. Game 3 will be tough. If Tim does not land on Rasheed's foot, I like the Spur's chances.

Okay, the Pistons didn't score 90 points like I thought.

I don't know what's going on but the Pistons are having major trouble stopping Ginobili, Bowen and Duncan all at the same time. Also, at the same time the Pistons' shooting percentage has really gone south in this series.

At the rate things are going it'll be kind of a miracle if the Pistons can get the series back to San Antonio.

I'd like to thank the Spurs for allowing me to go to bed early and prevent me from being too tired at work today.

San Antonio clearly has the Pistons outmatched. There is no way this series goes back to SA.

Pretty embarassing performance by the Pistons last night. Turning the ball over to Horry in the backcourt THREE times in ONE quarter is just stupid, and is complaining to the refs on literally every call. Is that supposed to help? Do they expect the refs to respond to that in some sort of positive way? I hope it at least doesn't end in a sweep, although it quite obviously will if Detroit loses Game 3. The Spurs did lose to LA last year after dominating Games 1 and 2 at home, but those wins weren't as decisive as these first two games have been, and this San Antonio team is clearly better than last year's version.

I hung in a little longer than you, Brandon. I made it about halfway through the 2nd quarter (around 10pm). I still have no idea why ABC and/or the NBA decided to start these Sunday games so late.

Phil Jackson returning to Lakers. This team is not ready-made for another championship run, so Phil will have a tough time getting that record 10th title in LA. Can he and Kobe get along?

No offense, but who cares about the Lakers? They suck!

I notice that it is now Larry Brown who has joined in the ref conspiricy club.

Funny how losing will do that to you.

Detroit looked a lot quicker tonight, aided by some lazy long-distance passes by SA. Too bad for the Spurs Manu did not show up to play. He needs to realize that if he wants to be MVP, MVPs don't take games off.

You know, they picked the wrong guy for Kobe to have a reunion tour with, they should've picked the other guy he alienated, I think he plays center somewhere.

I don't like Phil, even when he was coaching the Lakers to rings, I merely tollerated him at best. I am however glad to see him take over a team that you know like isn't already pretty good, I just didn't think that it'd be the same team he left a year ago.

I actually watched some of the game tonight, it was the most I've watched of a playoff game yet this season.

A question, I thought I heard someone perhaps Al Michaels say that the Pistons won game 5 against the Lakers on June 15 of last year...if this is true, and I purposely don't remember, but if this is true, does that mean that this year's playoffs have actually taken longer to play than last years? Of course, I don't know when they started last year and this year as that's where the comparison needs to be made.

The Pistons looked much better last night (obviously). Now we have to wait to see if they can duplicate that effort on Thursday. They need to win all three in Detroit to have any chance in this series, and that is a tall order against a team as good as the Spurs.

As for Phil Jackson, maybe his first act as new coach of the Lakers will be to try to get Kobe traded away.

Weird 2nd half last night, a flurry of Spurs turnovers led to a major fast-break points advantage for Detroit (20-4). Rip and Ben Wallace outscored Duncan and Ginobili 39-21, obviously a major factor as well, plus the big offensive rebounding edge for Detroit (17-10). Spurs got completely outworked in the second half. We'll see if they can keep it together for a whole game on Thursday night, as I expect they will, and we'll actually have our first competitive game of the series if that happens.

As for Phil, I don't know if he suddenly puts them back in the playoffs, although his return + fewer injuries would certainly improve them. They did finish 11 games out of the playoffs, so I don't think it's a given that they'll make it back in (where they'd promptly lose in the first round anyway). We can obviously expect more soap opera, given that Phil's book not only hurled Kobe under the bus, but also backed up over him two or three times.

Nor do I. The West is just too tough, with a plethora of good to great teams, most of them improving. Consider these teams:

Spurs
Suns
Sonics
Mavs
Denver
Houston

all of whom should be better next year. Plus the Grizzles, Kings, T-Wolves and Jazz should be in the mix. Even the Clippers have as good of a chance to improve and make the playoffs as the Lakers.

And many of these teams also had injuries during the season (the Clippers probably had even more than the Lakers).

It seems a pretty big mountain to climb.

Well well well, we have yet another ass kicking by the Pistons on the Spurs.

I guess now we have a series. 102-71 is mighty impressive.

Can the Pistons win 4 straight? Just maybe...

Woohoo! Pistons kicked the Spurs ass tonight. I don't think anyone thought that all 4 games would be blowouts.

So far my prediction of the first team to 70 wins each game is right so far.

Balanced scoring effort combined with ferocious D by the Pistons made for one hell of an entertaining game.

Best of 3 now!

This is the strangest series I've ever seen. The Pistons have dominated the last two games even more than San Antonio dominated the first two. I guess the main factor going Detroit's way now is that their physical play has flustered the Spurs, but this is bizarre. This group of Pistons has never played a better game together than they did last night, setting a Finals record with only 4 turnovers, 13 steals to 1 for the Spurs, 22-10 on fastbreak points, etc. Actually, Rip and Chauncey struggled from the floor, only 9 of 30 combined, but they did also have 11 assists between them, plus 14 boards (Rip had 9!) and 11 for 11 on free throws. Hunter had the best game of his career, just completely out of nowhere. One factor that's actually been consistent for the Pistons in every game has been McDyess. He's been awesome in the last three games, and although he stunk in Game 1, that was more due to himself than the Spurs' defense, since he missed at least 4 open shots in that game. The Spurs don't seem to have an answer for his offense.

After the game last night, Stephen A. Smith talked about how the Spurs (particularly Duncan) have a glazed-eye look about them that reminded him of when they played the Lakers a few years ago and got dominated. He wasn't precise about what he meant, but since last year's Spurs-Lakers series had that crazy Game 5 (and wasn't "a few" years ago), he must have been referring to the 2001 Western finals, when the Spurs-Lakers dream match-up that everyone had been looking forward to all year ended in a Lakers sweep. They won the first two in San Antonio pretty easily, and then won Games 3 and 4 by 39 and 29. Obviously the Spurs still have home-court in this series, but the Pistons have to feel good about where they are right now. The 2-3-2 format probably helps them here, as the Spurs can't go back home and re-group. They have to stew about these last two games for the next couple of days, and then the Pistons will have their fans behind them again.