[CLE/DET] Eastern Conference Finals discussion

[Superman]

I was trying to stay out of this... but Chris Webber's legal issues are a lot worse than Ricky Williams'. Ricky's use of marijuana has deeper medical reasons as he is diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and it helps him calm down. His legal issuses are a lot more naive than Webber's, so your comparison is entirely incorrect (do your research on Ricky Williams before you bring him up).

For the record, Webber's history of legal issues in the past spans approximately 15 years, so it's not like it happened only once by accident.

And no, I have personally never comitted a crime, nor do I need a bible to tell me so, so perhaps that's why our views differ.

Not to disrespect anyone, but I think you're missing the point. I'll leave it alone after this, but I'm not saying that you have to have committed a crime in order to have made a mistake that you regret. I'm not going to go into Ricky Williams vs. Chris Webber (my point in bringing him up was that his little problem has pretty much cost him his career, at a time when he was one of the best in the business), but Webber isn't a hardened criminal the way you make him out to be. Far from it.

As I said twice before, his problems off the court aren't the real reason you don't like him. That's all I meant.

And I'm done.

 

[Superman]

The #2 seed in this case is barely a 50 win team and has looked godawful in even struggling past all those mighty 40-45 win playoff teams in the East. Barring some amazing breakout by LeBron, which frankly he has shown few hints of lately, this is really Detroit's series to lose, rather than Cleveland's to win. Which is hardly a surprise given that that's the case for almost every East team Detroit meets. And which also explians why they have begun to adopt the Shaq "turn it on when we want to" mantra of laziness. That's Cleveland's best hope. Just some more arrogance, passivity, lack of focus, letting them jump up 2-1 or some such, and then go into a Game 4 with a chance to get a stranglehold. Unfortunately for them, you would think the scare last year would have the Pistons ready to come out and make a statement this time. Guess we'll see.

Don't look for Cleveland to win one of the first two games in Detroit.

 

[Kstat]

Last year's Cavs series had a whole lot more to do with Rasheed spraining his ankle in game 3 and Ben Wallace declaring open war on the coaching staff than laziness...

There was a ton of internal conflict that killed our chemistry, and kept us from really turning it on after game 2.

 

[Kstat]

BTW, I went back to watch film of last year's series. The Cavs didn't even BOTHER to guard Ben Wallace. Every time one of their bigs would rotate out to trap the perimeter.

This year, they better find another defensive strategy. They can't defend us 5 on 4 anymore.

 

[sloter]

Pistons got infected by the Cavs syndrome of slow ugly games. Except the Cavs seem to be experts at it.

 

[Nico]

41 - 35 for the cavs at halftime
hey vytzka get ready for the i told you so lol

(im going to get killed if pistons win this...)

 

[Nico]

damn a 7-0 for the pistons to start the third ! Karma
ps : i'm not watching this game just the boxscore (so i won't comment anything)

 

[sloter]

You're not missing much. The most amazing thing about this game is that the Pistons crowd is totally confused and you can barely hear them at all.

 

[Kstat]

ok, now THAT was bad basketball.

I do think that Webber should have been in the game in the 4th. Dunno what flip was thinking, Webber was killing Z in the 3rd.

 

[vj9999]

Detroit not making that much of the statement

Go Cavs!!

 

[Kstat]

Detroit not making that much of the statement

Go Cavs!!

..so you're happy losing by 3? This will be easier than I thought...

 

[VF21]

Detroit not making that much of the statement

Go Cavs!!

The ONLY statement they needed to make ... and did ... was the W.

Go Pistons!!!

 

[PurpleHaze]

U-gly, boring, slow, horrible viewing. This proves Det/Cle won't be worth my time from here on out. I was hoping Lebron might come of age in this eastern conference championship series but his uninspired, measly 10 points means - not!

 

[Kstat]

What a fantastic judge of basketball to stop watching after 1 game....

 

[PurpleHaze]

What a fantastic judge of basketball to stop watching after 1 game....

The entire eastern conf playoffs this year have been boring and uninspired.
No comparrison to what has been going on in the west.

 

[VF21]

What a fantastic judge of basketball to stop watching after 1 game....

Remember, this is a Kings board - you know, Western Conference? There are a lot of people who simply aren't enamored with EC basketball. No need to get snippy about it.

 

[4cwebb]

ok, now THAT was bad basketball.

I do think that Webber should have been in the game in the 4th. Dunno what flip was thinking, Webber was killing Z in the 3rd.

Hopefully CWebb will be able to avoid foul trouble and bring a better offensive and rebounding contribution in Game 2, but I thought Jason Maxiell did an excellent job of providing energy and hustle in the 4th quarter, and that probably helped the Pistons win the game in the end.

Lebron's terrible shooting game negated a great job in support of him by Big Z and Varejao. I don't imagine Lebron will play so poorly in Game 2, but the Pistons can point to the fact that Billups only took 3 shots prior to the 4th quarter. Of course, Billups made all 3 of his shots in the 4th quarter, including 2 triples).

 

[vj9999]

..so you're happy losing by 3? This will be easier than I thought...

I could care less for the either team. I didn't lose anything

I just like cheering against Detroit.

 

[stoyak]

I don't think there's anything particularly unreasonable about sloter hating Webber; for some people, there are professional athletes that you just can't stand. For a surprisingly large number of people here (for reasons that don't make any particular sense to me), that person is Manu Ginobili, or Robert Horry, or even Dirk Nowitzki.

How, how could you miss Rick Fox?

Manu is hated because he plays as if his first coach was Stanislavskiy. Divac was accused by many to flop all the time, but Manu is clearly in a different league.

Horry was somewhat disliked on this board probably because of his shot in game 4 in 2002, but my impression was that the dislike was always mixed with reverence. His latest foul added to the dislike because there was absolutely no rational motive for such a hard foul: the game was already over. The benign explanation is that he did it out of frustration, which is understandable, but then again he might have been intentionally trying to provoke the Suns starters. I have a vague recollection about Lakers-Portland 7 games series circa 2000 (Wallace-Pippen-Sabonis era for portland as far as I remember): someone on Lakers team was constantly trying to provoke Scottie, and eventually it worked. Does anyone remember it or I am just imagining things? Was is Horry or R. Fox?

I have no idea about Dirk. Expectations were too high??

 

[acisking]

ok, now THAT was bad basketball.

I do think that Webber should have been in the game in the 4th. Dunno what flip was thinking, Webber was killing Z in the 3rd.

Agreed..I fear Webb won't be seeing much playing time in the 4th from here on out.

 

[4cwebb]

Agreed..I fear Webb won't be seeing much playing time in the 4th from here on out.

his physical "limitations" at this point in his career largely impact his effectiveness on the defensive end, and in close games where he hasn't had his offense firing on all cylinders, there are other Pistons bigs without his same limitations.

On the other hand, if he has a hot offensive hand like he did in Game 2 of the Bulls series, I think he'll get plenty of 4th quarter burn.

 

[vytzka]

..so you're happy losing by 3? This will be easier than I thought...

Look, there's no way in HELL LeBron is going to score 10 points in the second game in the row. None.

I wish I could say that about their "primary" point guard and his two assists but I'm not sure about that one

However, if Ilgauskas and AV can make Cavs keep up with this invulnerable, amazing Pistons squad, then when James shows up you'll be in trouble.

So I'm quite hopeful

BTW, James didn't go to the line even once, according to the box score. Was it because he didn't play aggresively, or just didn't get the usual calls?

PS It's also kind of weird that a player can get one assist short of a triple double, and still be considered to have an off-game. I wish he focused more on scoring and leave more ball distribution to the Cavs' so called point guards.

 

[BMiller52]

Look, there's no way in HELL LeBron is going to score 10 points in the second game in the row. None.

I wish I could say that about their "primary" point guard and his two assists but I'm not sure about that one

However, if Ilgauskas and AV can make Cavs keep up with this invulnerable, amazing Pistons squad, then when James shows up you'll be in trouble.

So I'm quite hopeful

BTW, James didn't go to the line even once, according to the box score. Was it because he didn't play aggresively, or just didn't get the usual calls?

PS It's also kind of weird that a player can get one assist short of a triple double, and still be considered to have an off-game. I wish he focused more on scoring and leave more ball distribution to the Cavs' so called point guards.

Do you expect Z to have another 22/13 game though? I don't. Just like I don't expect Varejao to have 13/8 on 6/9 shooting. Bron will play better but those guys won't play as well. Not to mention guys on the Pistons didn't exactly play well. Once Billups started contributing for Detroit the game was basically over. The Cavs still don't have anyone to guard Rip. Tayshaun was pretty awful and Webber was okay, but not great(he was awesome in the 3rd quarter though). Sheed was awesome though for Detroit.

IMO the next game is going to be like 90-85 Detroit wins.

 

[vytzka]

Do you expect Z to have another 22/13 game though? I don't. Just like I don't expect Varejao to have 13/8 on 6/9 shooting. Bron will play better but those guys won't play as well. Not to mention guys on the Pistons didn't exactly play well. Once Billups started contributing for Detroit the game was basically over. The Cavs still don't have anyone to guard Rip. Tayshaun was pretty awful and Webber was okay, but not great(he was awesome in the 3rd quarter though). Sheed was awesome though for Detroit.

IMO the next game is going to be like 90-85 Detroit wins.

In other words, both teams sucked.

That does not, however, convince me about Pistons' proclaimed superiority yet.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I'd still be more worried if I were rooting for the Cavaliers; Detroit played as poorly last night as they are going to play, whereas Cleveland has already demonstrated in these playoffs that they can play much worse.

 

[Nico]

I'm not sure Detroit really played a lot better in game 4 and 5 against Chicago.

If i was a Cavs fan i'd be worried too but my point is Pistons may not be that much superior. And actually i think Cavs have a true chance to win this series because at the end of the day they matchup pretty well with the Pistons.
I know as a team Pistons > Cavs but Pistons can't stop Lebron (or what is the price to pay ?)

i know thinkink loosing by few points while playing a bad game mean you won the game won't get me anywhere, but still cavs were apparently close to win G1 and it would have been huge for them !

 

[Superman]

but Pistons can't stop Lebron

10 points on 5-15 shooting, with no free throws...

That's stoppage.

 

[Nico]

Wait and see.
besides i said they can stop him is they really want it but the price to pay is high (He shares the ball so if you take 3guys to stop him...)

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

If i was a Cavs fan i'd be worried too but my point is Pistons may not be that much superior. And actually i think Cavs have a true chance to win this series because at the end of the day they matchup pretty well with the Pistons.

Funny you should say that because, quite to the contrary, the Pistons remind me of that old Milton Berle joke...

 

[Superman]

Wait and see.
besides i said they can stop him is they really want it but the price to pay is high (He shares the ball so if you take 3guys to stop him...)

Well, I guess you're saying that you have to pick your poison, right? I think I'd rather take my chances with Big Z and Anderson Varajao than let LeBron take control of the game.

The Pistons have a reputation for focusing their defense on slashing guards and forwards. They completely frustrated Kobe in the 2004 Finals. I'd have to guess that they will continue to concentrate on LeBron, and let's see if the role players can win a game.