We have our first of many cheap, dirty shots by the Pistons. Wouldn't be surprised if Hamilton the Ripper gets a visit from the league office and his paycheck be a bit lighter. (note, no way a suspension, but that kinda cheap shot elbow deserves a fine)

So far this is typical Pistons. They had the worst record of any playoff team coming off a 3 day layoff and they have looked meh. I would've been shocked if they pulled this one off to be honest. If they lose game two though, then I am shocked.

That's just how backwards this team is.

Some of these non calls are frustrating. Not that it'd make much difference because Detroit has been God awful and should be down 20 not 10, but Rip got mugged there and nothing.

26 assists on 34 FG's for the Celtics so far, nice. Lots of ball movement, while the Pistons have been "One guy dribbles for 15 seconds, settles for a jumper". The Pistons are going to have to change things around for game 2, win or lose.

EDIT: 1-0 to the Celtics.

great defensive effort by the C's tonight too

Rose is the no-brainer #1 pick for Chi-Town, as Kirk isn't a true PG, and I don't think Beasley has the superstar potential that Rose has...

I'm a Bulls season ticket holder so I am real excited about this. But I don't think Rose is a no-brainer. While he has the most upside, Beasley is still a stud who fits better into their current team. The biggest problem they've had is no one to score down low. Rose is a huge improvement at PG but they still have no one down low who can score.

Getting Rose means that either Hinrich or Gordon are gone. I think Gordon was going to be traded no matter what, but this will ramp it up. Not sure what Gordon's trade value is though (or Hinrich for that matter). I still think they hang on to Kirk since his contract is longer, his value is lower, and he plays better defense. He can also be a nice transition at PG for Rose who may not be able to play 40+ minutes a night his rookie year.

Apparently they changed to a "no blood no foul" concept. Saw Pierce and LeBron both get mugged numerous times last round with no call.

Lakers come back from 20 points down... and win against the Spurs!

Amazing!

Game was a drag until Jordan showed up in the third. Great after that.

Kobe was sick. I don't how anyone can defend him when he plays like he did in the 2nd half tonight.

Man... I'm working but I watched the first half of the game, and was trying to decide whether to ask my boss for an extended lunch break to catch the rest of it... Then the Spurs went on like a 10-2 run to start the 3rd so I decided against it.

Looks like that might have been a mistake.

Good game tonight. Even though the Lakers were down by 20 at one point, you almost knew they were coming back

Udoka 4 Lakers MVP

Udoka=Spurs version of Melvin Ely?

Pistons do what I suspect, play awful game one and lose, then tighten up game two and win. It's on Boston now.

Yeah, every time the Celtics looked like clawing their way back in front the Pistons came up big. Stuckey looked real nice tonight. Still early in their careers, but I imagine the Hawks might be wishing they could swap Acie Law for Rodney Stuckey right now.

Two down, two to go. Let's go Lakers.

6 more wins....

Nice to see the Celtics finally playing up to their regular season form. Hell, they're playing above regular season form right now.

I was really hoping for the C's to win the title while losing every home game.

When I was driving home tonight, I saw the Lakers bus headed for the airport

Nice to see Manu show up in this series, but I can't shake the feeling that their very uncharacteristic Game 1 collapse is going to doom them. It's just not the kind of thing that happens to championship teams, and I can't ever remember being more surprised by a Spurs loss in the Duncan era. I'm still really, really hoping the new Lakers dynasty waits to get its start until next year.

Not sure that was the Lakers' bus. We'll see in a few days if it might even leave too late for Game Four--or not at all.

I'm liking the C's chances tonight, especially if Chauncey is still ailing and Rasheed continues to be a non-factor.

For the interest of the series I really need the Pistons to win

4-20 shooting aint going to get it done. What a terrible game thus far.

Typical Pistons. I think though if Detroit keeps it up and wins tonight they're winning Game 5, because that is this teams MO. Sheed will blow up then too, count on it.

I can't believe this is only a 4 pt game.

Good game for the Pistons last night. Wish I had been able to go to that one instead of Game 3.

It's amazing how much the pistons control this series. If they try on defense, they win.

Good start by the Lakers.

Missed the miss by Barry at the end. Was he actually fouled as he, according to the recap, claimed, or was it 50/50 at best?

Looked like a non-shooting foul to me.

Fisher almost sat on Barry's shoulder as he tried to dribble for a shot.

At best, it was a non-shooting foul, but it was a foul.

It was a foul, but he wasn't shooting. Had he went up for the shot when Fisher slammed into him, he would have gotten the call and 3 shots. But the way it played out, he should have gotten 2 shots for the non-shooting foul.

They've been pretty hard on the "initiate contact" fouls this season, especially late in games. It was a smart play by Barry, but he initiated the contact with Fisher to try and get a foul. IMO, if Barry goes straight up and into Fisher's arm - he gets the call. Instead, he moved into Fisher while he was landing, absorbed the contact, then shot the ball. That difference may have cost him the game.

Ironically, I remember seeing a game earlier in the season where Kobe tried that late in a game (I think against the Hornets) and didn't get the call. He threw a big fit at the refs after the no-call. ;)

I hate the Lakers, but Barry didn't deserve foul shots for that.

Crawford finally got his back against Timmy D. :)

Not saying that it was wrong for not happening, but that no-call is going to be the definition of when the San Antonio dynasty ended

Eh, on the play before, they shot clock should have been reset as the ball skimmed the rim before bouncing off Horry and going out of bounds.

Oh well, those are the breaks

5 more wins to go...

Lebron has got my interest in the NBA back up lately, but there are two things that annoy me.

1. Travelling

2. I swear to god, and this is especially bad towards the end of the game, every single star player looks at the ref with his hands in the air after every missed shot. Like the ref is the one that fucking missed the shot. Play the damn game. You missed, now hustle back down court.

Barry travels before the foul anyway. Watch his pivot foot:

My biggest pet peeve in the NBA is what they consider "carrying" to be.

Who is this big guy doing the damage in the middle for Boston? I thought the Celtics traded away Al Jefferson?

Ray Allen is waking up.. that's very bad for the Pistons

And Kendrick Perkins is awesome tonight

And we're getting chippy (both sides), but it looks good for the C's!

Here comes the Pistons.. lead at 6...

Ooooo Sheed with the brain fart at the worst possible moment.

EDIT: BTW, I was only half listening because I was talking to a customer, but is that the magic # of technicals for a game suspension, or does he need one more?

They said 1 more.