2003-2004 NBA Season (1 Viewer)

[Casey Trowbridg]

You may have lost your bet on that game, Casey, but Webber won his.

Its funny cause its true.

As for me egging you on, come on that felt good didn’t it. Even just a little bit?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Anyway, Carlo is right and this is something I thought about before reading today's posts, how the Pistons respond in game 3 is key. The reason is, I genuinely think that shot rattled them for the last play of regulation and all of overtime.

Kobe's shot absolutely rattled the Pistons. That was very apparent in OT. They've been able to put these things behind them against New Jersey (3OT loss) and Indiana, so hopefully they can do so again. This one will be tougher to deal with, but this team's work effort and toughness should help in dealing with the disappointment from last night. However, if they do not respond well on Thursday, they are done.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

As for me egging you on, come on that felt good didn’t it. Even just a little bit?

[sheepish grin]Well, maybe just a little[/sheepish grin]

 

[Raasean Asaad]

After the first play in OT I turned and said to my girl and said "This game is over, the Pistons are 'shook'". If they don't win on thursday then the series is probably over in my opinion. I think they have the mental toughness to beat the Pacers but like most teams they look on the Lakers as being on another level and the "jut turn it on" abilities or the perception of those abilities in Shaq and Kobe beats a lot of teams. Just ask the Spurs, Kings, T-wolves and Trailblazers.

 

[Chris Farmer]

Well, after three weeks of torture trying to get my iBook back from Apple (they mailed it to the wrong address after a repair) I'm finally back. Don't have a lot to say, but there was a reason this Spurs fan was being kept out of the thread, I didn't have my comptuer to post from and didn't want to clutter up the others in the house with a bunch of HTF cookies, so I just waited for my iBook.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Chris good to know you're still among the living, I was wondering where you had been...speaking of people M.I.A. anyone know what happened to Hunter he hasn't posted since the playoffs started.

 

[Brandon_T]

Here is something of at least a little intrest from a local newspaper..

Orlando's Tracy McGrady was at Games 1 and 2 and stayed at the Pistons' team hotel, fueling speculation that there's some interest from the Pistons in the All-Star guard.

Hmmmm...I would rather see him in a Piston Uni than a Pacer one.

 

[Chris Farmer]

Can the Pistons afford him? With trying to keep Rasheed, they're already pretty strapped for cash I though, and T-mac will undoubtedly fetch top-dollar from whoever signs him.

 

[Raasean Asaad]

I was thinking of T-Mac in Purple and Gold...

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I was thinking of T-Mac in Purple and Gold...

I've thought that, too, if Kobe is serious about leaving LA. Since Kobe probably would not want to go to Orlando, a third team would probably need to be involved here, too.

 

[Raasean Asaad]

I was dreaming because I don't think that Kobe is serious about leaving LA, not if he has either sense or good advisors. I mean who else can offer him the combination of large market fan adoration, a quality big man to play with, the ability to offer the cash and the potential to win right now. Even Jerry West said that kobe should stay where he is in some interview a weeke or so ago.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I'd rather have Kobe than McGrady myself.

 

[Raasean Asaad]

Oh and my T-Mac thought was of malone and Payton being retired and draft picks and role players for T-Mac for a starting 5 of:

Shaq, Kobe, T-Mac, Fish and Rush


It would never happen but I'd like it, hell I'd like to see the Lakers get Rajah Bell or Nick VanExel back!

 

[Jan H]

After witnessing the worst half of playoff basketball I've ever seen in my history of watching the Lakers in the playoffs (27 years), I am not only going to blame them for their ineptitude, but I'm going to unequivocally state:

The 2004 Detroit Pistons are the greatest defensive team the NBA has ever seen.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

It is very strange. I swear they don't look like they are playing that great at defense. It looks like the Lakers are just playing terrible basketball.

But this is the third game in a row now, where the Lakers have looked horrible.

Hmmm....maybe, just maybe, there is something to this "great defense" thing with the Pistons?!

Still, giving all the credit in the world to the Pistons, the Lakers are still NOT playing good basketball, as evidenced by way too many unforced turnovers.

I won't say that this series is unequivocally over. But I will say that it "probably" is over. The Lakers really have not shown any signs that they will really be able to overcome the Pistons defense. If it wasn't for a late run in the fourth quarter of game 4 and an amazing 3 point shot by Kobe, the Pistons are up 3-0.

One thing that I am confident in: if the Lakers don't win game 4 on Sunday, the series is over. It is doubtful they can win 2 in a row vs. the Pistons, never mind 3 in a row. The stats are already heavily against them as it is.

I feel bad for the Mail Man. He deserves a ring! Payton I don't feel so sorry for, especially considering how poorly he has played during the playoffs.

 

[Prentice Cotham]

Way to go Pistons! Held the Lakers under 70!

It is very strange. I swear they don't look like they are playing that great at defense. It looks like the Lakers are just playing terrible basketball.

That's what New Jersey said and that is what Indiana said.

 

[Jan H]

To be frank, I never watched any of the Eastern Conference playoffs, and would scroll down these pages whenever Seth or Brandon or any fan of an Eastern team would pontificate about whatever was going on in their pathetic little conference. But after seeing the Pistons put the smackdown on my team 3 times I can see that, while there are no marquee superstar names and they don't shoot well, the Pistons are a great all-around team that is phenomenally well-coached. The Lakers have to win Game 4, or it is over.

This would be the biggest upset in NBA history.

The only analogy I can think of is from baseball. We're talking '69 Mets, '88 Dodgers.

Congratulations, Piston fans. If somebody was going to beat the Lakers, it might as well be Detroit. Better you than the Kings or Spurs.

 

[Haggai]

Damn, I thought the Pistons would win tonight, but I didn't expect an ass-kicking. That was a really dominant performance.

You know what I thought was the most unremarked on statistic from the first two games? The disparity in free-throw attempts. Detroit shot 12 more free throws than the Lakers did in Game 1, and 6 more in Game 2. You had to figure that spread would only increase as the Pistons came back home, and indeed it did: they had 17 more attempts, and outscored the Lakers by 13 from the line.

So think about this: will the Pistons continue having a double-digit disparity in free throw attempts? Probably, yeah. If the teams are then relatively even in field goal percentage and turnovers--i.e., if the Lakers don't shoot significantly better than Detroit from the floor, or have a really positive turnover differential--then how do the Lakers win? They don't. They can't.

Is the series over? Of course not. Kobe and Shaq are NOT going to make a habit of getting only 25 points combined, like they did tonight. But where else do the Lakers go for production? Not too surprisingly, Luke Walton couldn't replicate his magical Game 2 performance. And while Malone was decent early on, the injury clearly slowed him down, and there's not much reason to think that it's going to get a lot better for him in the next week. Brian Cook was on the floor for a non-trivial amount of minutes--Brian Cook, for pete's sake!

The Lakers, of course, are still a championship level team. San Antonio and Minnesota were not chopped liver, to put it mildly. But the main reason that the Detroit Pistons are up 2-1 right now is that they're a better team than the Lakers. Can LA still win it? Sure they can. Win one of the next two, and then it's Game 6 and 7 at home. But who thinks that the Pistons can't win again in LA, if it comes down to that? Everything in the media in the last couple of days was about the Lakers' aura, and how the Pistons could have effectively clinched the series but let it get away, and now they'd have a tough time recovering mentally, etc. Well, look how far that got LA tonight.

This blowout is highly unlikely to be repeated--Kobe and Shaq WILL be more effective than they were tonight. But what tangible, on-the-floor things can LA point to and say, this is what's going to win us this series? I don't see much there. Yes, they have the two dominant players, and they have a lot of intangibles with all their experience and mental toughness in games that come down to the clutch. But as Curt Schilling said in the 2001 World Series, "mystique" and "aura" are just a couple of New York city strippers. You have to play better than the other team if you're going to win the championship, not just plan on overpowering them with your mystique and aura.

 

[Jan H]

What an utter slug he is. Shitty teammate, shitty player. I pity the team he winds up on next year. He did next to nothing all year, and he's done worse in the playoffs. If the Lakers somehow win the championship, it's a crying shame that he'd gravy-train his way to a ring.

 

[Chris Farmer]

You know, after my strong commetns in the Spurs-Lakers series I hesitate to say this, but this series is really confirming what I've felt for a while. This year's Lakers, while definitely a good team, aren't a great one, or even close. They needed a miracle to beat the Spurs (want to know what happens if Fisher's 0.4 second shot doesn't go in, check last year's Spurs-Lakers game 6, Spurs beat LA in a rout), arguably would have lost to Minnesota had Cassell and/or Hudson been healthy (hell, Hudson nearly beat LA by himself a year ago), and are now struggling big time against Detroit.

They may win it all, but this was not the dominant team that people were predicting. If they win, it will be by the skin of their teeth.