Echoing in my mind throughout the second half: comments David Thorpe made on the phone back when the Sixers traded Allen Iverson. "If the Sixers are making this trade hoping to lose a bunch of games to lose a bunch of games and get good draft position," he said, "they got the wrong guy. Because Andre Miller can play." Amen.
For the record, Thorpe, in an ESPN.com preview written last week: "If Detroit can't beat the Sixers in Game 1, Philly's confidence will only grow. But Detroit is such a superior team that it's hard to envision a Golden State-Dallas situation." He picked Pistons in six, and tells me today he stands by it. He also adds that he thought Wallace was fouled on that last play, and loves that Wallace didn't complain, and took the blame for the loss. "That's a good sign," for Detroit, says Thorpe.
It's scary to rely on a hot Rasheed Wallace. When he's your go-to guy, it's like that Forrest Gump line: "you never know what you're going to get." You may end up relying on a guy who, if things broke differently, could be MVP every year. Or you could be relying on the guy who has all the talent to be MVP, but has never come close because something tends to go wrong. Why? In my estimation, it's simply that he doesn't really want to be a star. He'd rather be a great team player. Which is admirable and fine, unless you need him to star. Maurice Cheeks set up a game plan that forced Wallace into a starring role, and he obliged by missing more than his fair share of shots, including a huge one down the stretch. Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: on the coaching decision of the game: "The 76ers' game plan coming into the game Sunday was to guard Wallace with Samuel Dalembert, alone. Single-coverage. After Wallace scored eight points in five minutes, he yelled over at Cheeks, 'You better change this, it ain't going to work.' Cheeks was crazy, all right. Crazy like a fox. 'We played Sheed one-on-one with Sammy and we weren't going to help,' Cheeks said. 'If Sheed made shots, we were going to live with that. But we didn't want to start doubling and chasing their other guys around. We wanted to keep them in front of us and not over-help. I think that was big for us.' Wallace did get 24 points, though he missed 12 of 21 shots. Dalembert got into foul trouble. But here's the other side of that. Cheeks knew the Pistons would try to force the ball into Wallace and try to exploit that mismatch. He figured their obsession with that would negate the scoring threat of Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton."
Kelly Dwyer at Yahoo's Ball Don't Lie: "Detroit could romp from here until the end of June. But the signs, the same things that popped up even as the wins piled up against Milwaukee and Orlando in 2005 and 2006, the sings are there. Bummer. This team should be trying to get to the Finals for the fourth straight season, and they might not even make the second round this year."
On Detroit Bad Boys, after last night's loss to the Pistons, the comments got a little out of hand (PG-13!) with people calling for the heads of many people on the Pistons' payroll, but mostly Flip Saunders. LawyerBoy, however, was one of several to call for calm: "Do you guys remember the '03-'04 Pistons? You know, the ones that won an NBA title? Remember those cats? Do you remember what happened to them, at home, in the first round? They dropped a close Game 2 to the Milwaukee Bucks after Rasheed fumbled the pass out of bounds that could've resulted in a potential game tying/winning shot from the corner. Did the Bucks have any business being in the same gym as the Stones that season? No. What did the Stones do after that disappointing Game 2? They took three straight from the Bucks to close them out in 5. No one called the Pistons 'overconfident' that season."
Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News: "'We were a little nervous, doing things that were speeding the game up,' Cheeks said. 'The second half, we settled down. We scored the first eight points [of the third period], and when we did that we got our confidence back up. When that happened, we got our running game going. You make some shots, you get a stop here, a stop there and your confidence gets a little better. The biggest factor was keeping guys in front of us [defensively], not giving up wide-open threes.' When Cheeks was asked whether his young team had grown up in this one, he said, 'No question, they grew up in the second half.'"
Marc Narducci of The Philadelphia Inquirer: "The 76ers were once again aided by a mentality that never allows them to die. At least not for too long. Raise your hand if you truly felt that down by 15 midway through the third quarter that the Sixers had a puncher's chance at beating the Detroit Pistons."
Rob Parker of The Detroit News: "The Pistons, who split four regular season games with Philly, couldn't have possibly overlooked the 76ers. 'We knew that they were going to play hard, that's what they are known for, for the season,' said Rasheed Wallace, who had a game-high 24 points with nine rebounds and seven blocks. 'There are no excuses. I got this one; I will put it on me.' Wallace is making a noble gesture, taking the blame to protect his teammates. But once again, the guards let the Pistons down. Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton combined for just eight baskets. 76ers point guard Andre Miller had nine field goals and took eight fewer shots."
Chris Silva of the Detroit Free Press: "If he keeps this up, Andre Miller no longer will be considered one of the league's most underrated point guards. Miller was a calming presence for his young Philadelphia teammates in Game 1 at the Palace on Sunday. He steered the offense the way coach Maurice Cheeks wanted. He made Chauncey Billups work on both ends of the floor. And Miller waited for the right time to strike offensively, scoring 15 of his 20 points in the second half to help the Sixers earn a 90-86 victory and take a 1-0 series lead over the second-seeded Pistons."
Comments that include profanity, or personal attacks, or antisocial behavior such as "spamming" or "trolling," or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our terms of use. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
H
