State of the Pistons Address (April 23)
One up, one down.
That's about all this game really meant. The Pistons are 1/16 of the way through a long journey.
Their 92-74 win over the Milwaukee Bucks Sunday was fun to watch; the Pistons played OK -- not great, not poorly, just OK.
What made it fun was their two surges in the second half. Everything was clicking -- especially the fast break, keyed by some beastly blocked shots -- but then they'd fall into some lapses.
The first surge began at the outset of the half, and then when the Bucks pulled within four toward the start of the fourth quarter, Detroit found that second gear yet again and coasted to the win.
It would have been a different story altogether had 'Sheed not carried them in the first half, though.
He scored 17 points and hit three 3s, playing with an obvious energy not quite present in any of the other four starters. (That energy was really there early in the second half, too, when he picked up his first technical of the Playoffs. I thought Flip should have left him in the game, to key off the energy, to tap into his increased productivity that seems to inevitably follow a cheap technical. But he put in Dyess, who played well, and all worked out fine.) 'Sheed has the tendency to coast through games, but when he's on, he is the most influential of any of the Pistons. They were lucky he was there mentally for the duration of this game, because they could have fallen into quite the hole had the Bucks kept up their hot start and the Pistons had remained tepid.
But when Ben came alive in the second half and facilitated some breaks with rejections and great outlet passes, Rip and Chaunce got going, and everyone and everything else fell into place.
So the best thing you can say about the game is that the Pistons played OK and still won by 18. Granted, the Bucks didn't shoot well after the first quarter and I'm sure that their percentage will climb slightly as the series progresses, but I don't think that will matter. I don't expect the Pistons to play just OK -- I expect them to come out with an intense focus from the get-go and win even more convincingly. Which is why they will sweep the Bucks.
That's about all this game really meant. The Pistons are 1/16 of the way through a long journey.
Their 92-74 win over the Milwaukee Bucks Sunday was fun to watch; the Pistons played OK -- not great, not poorly, just OK.
What made it fun was their two surges in the second half. Everything was clicking -- especially the fast break, keyed by some beastly blocked shots -- but then they'd fall into some lapses.
The first surge began at the outset of the half, and then when the Bucks pulled within four toward the start of the fourth quarter, Detroit found that second gear yet again and coasted to the win.
It would have been a different story altogether had 'Sheed not carried them in the first half, though.
He scored 17 points and hit three 3s, playing with an obvious energy not quite present in any of the other four starters. (That energy was really there early in the second half, too, when he picked up his first technical of the Playoffs. I thought Flip should have left him in the game, to key off the energy, to tap into his increased productivity that seems to inevitably follow a cheap technical. But he put in Dyess, who played well, and all worked out fine.) 'Sheed has the tendency to coast through games, but when he's on, he is the most influential of any of the Pistons. They were lucky he was there mentally for the duration of this game, because they could have fallen into quite the hole had the Bucks kept up their hot start and the Pistons had remained tepid.
But when Ben came alive in the second half and facilitated some breaks with rejections and great outlet passes, Rip and Chaunce got going, and everyone and everything else fell into place.
So the best thing you can say about the game is that the Pistons played OK and still won by 18. Granted, the Bucks didn't shoot well after the first quarter and I'm sure that their percentage will climb slightly as the series progresses, but I don't think that will matter. I don't expect the Pistons to play just OK -- I expect them to come out with an intense focus from the get-go and win even more convincingly. Which is why they will sweep the Bucks.
posted by RGarfield @ 9:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home