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.

omg the c's are gonna blow this game

they are still winning but i just feel like this is detroit's game to lose at this point

Not a fan of this fouling stategy Doc.

C's hold on.

Somehwere, Stern is sitting in a dark room wearing his Bird jersey over his Magic jersery, smiling.

HUGE freaking sigh of relief.

Not according to the NBA, who announced that he should have shot two free throws.

Heartbreaker of a game to watch tonight.

EDIT: Missed a page, but this was in reply to the comment about Barry traveling.

*shrug*

Looks like a clear travel to me. Barry is already lifting his pivot foot and hasn't dribbled the ball yet when the foul occurs.

Of course, It wouldn't be the first time a travel has gone uncalled/unnoticed in the history of the NBA, either.

:D

Lotsa stuff that went down awry in that Lakers/Spurs game.

The Spurs shouldn't have even been able to put that last shot up. The ball grazed the rim on Fisher's shot at the last possession... meaning the shot-clock should have been reset with 5 something seconds left.

There's nothing more annoying that a team hitting a game-tying 3-pointer with under 10 seconds to go. It doesn't have to happen - and most coaches finally realize that.

Yes, Doc deserves credit for having the balls to go against convential wisdom and do the smart thing in that situation. More things have to happen for you to lose a game if you simply foul in late game situations when you're up 3.

Heh. Sheed is now $25K lighter after his bleep-filled rant last night. Win or lose, I think he'll get that magic #7 T in game 6, so if there's a game 7, he'll be sitting out.

Come on, Lakers. Less than ten minutes of stellar basketball, and it's back to the Finals...

And the Spurs are done.

Four wins away, Lakeshow.

Heck ya!

God, that introduction by "Mason" was the most streetball set of introductions I've ever seen :)

How does Rasheed not get like 2 technical fouls right there? EVen looked like the one official grabbed the other official as he was about to call the T to stop him doing it.

and yet perkins got T'd up for nothing. Huge double-standard. It needs to be more consistent

The refs apparently have heard it straight from the top that there should be a game 7. What a one-sided crapfest from the officials

Man, please get Cassell out of there.

agreed. How in the fucking hell was that a 4th foul on garnett? or an offensive foul by pierce on that potential 4-pt, game-changing play? bullllshit

Pierce obviously initiated the contact by forcing the Detroit defender to jump into him. NO! It was a terrible call! Should have been a 4 point play. The 4th foul call on Garnett was absurd. Perkins got a T for much less than Rasheed has done. The refs are scared to call one on him becuase he'll be suspended for a possible game 7.

I think Rasheed has at the very least lot a bit of cash for his reaction to the cameraman.

yeah and then they'd be worried that that'd affect the game too much.

which just illustrates my key issue with NBA refs, they're too focused on the big picture - "omg if I call this a technical it'll potentially affect the series" - when they need to be instructed to just call things CONSISTENTLY. A charging foul should be a charging foul regardless of whether it's a scrub-PG running into someone or Kobe running into someone. It's just too inconsistent and that bothers me.

dola

And didn't I say we needed to take Cassell out? He can get you back into a game, but he can also take you out of one. Old man wasn't feeling it today.

yeah...his turnovers there in the 3rd were a huge reason why they fell behind

AND HOW was that not a foul on maxiell?

fortunately billups missed twice

thought the C's had blown it...great run by them here...and now the Pistons are in the penalty

Why was Hamilton sitting? Uh, thanks for that, Flip!

Celtics shooting lights out. They might just pull this off.

damn...huge play by posey


garnett's laid an egg this game though - but I guess that's why you got a "big 3" so that only 2/3 needs to be firing at a time

I hate the Pistons right now. I love them, but I hate them.

Sheed needs to go. He's showing everyone that in the big game, he's a baby and a cancer. He might be a "good teammate" the rest of the time, but when it counts, he's a liability.

Oh, and if Boston makes it, they will get destroyed by the Lakers (who I hate).

good point there by the announcer - ray allen shouldn't have passed it to garnett...he should have taken the foul himself as the better FT shooter

if detroit makes it they'd get destroyed by the lakers too though

Garnett decides to keep the game interesting...

I kinda hope the Pistons pull of an amazing comeback here and most of the Pistons fans will hear about it in their car on the way home after leaving too early...

ballgame

The Celtics deserve this win after getting screwed by the refs. Everyone here thought they'd lose to the Pistons except myself and the bandwagon Celtics fans. I think the Celtics-Lakers series will be a close one and the Celtics won't get destroyed. I think they'll lose, but it'll be a good and hard fought 6 or 7 game series.

Garnett vs. Gasol is going to be interesting battle. Garnett's a better pure shooter but can he exploit that. Pierce can guard Kobe okay, he's shown that.

The question will be Lamar Odom for the Celtics and Ray Allen for the Lakers. Those are the guys that would be matchup problems defensively...at least if you assume Pierce on Kobe (which I think you almost have to do if you're the C's)

David Stern and the ABC executives are having a sexy party right now.

Lakers vs. Celtics!

Pierce can guard Kobe better than his teammates, but my guess he is still going to get burned by a lot. I think both Bowen and Udoku are better defenders and Kobe blitzed them.

Gasol is a solid player, but Garnett should be a mismatch. He is a better offensive and defensive player, with the length to bug Gasol on both ends. Plus, KG has been fairly consistent, but Gasol still has a tendency to occasionally disappear when the going gets tough.

Garnett might actually have to guard Odom, come to think of it, because Perkins can probably at least stay with Gasol a bit, but there really is no one else who can play with a guy with Odom's length and versatility.

As for Allen, I think Manu is a better player than Allen right now, and Vujacic bugged Manu to death. My guess is that Vujacic can stick with an older Allen. Sure, Manu is a little hurt, but a healthy Allen hasn't hardly shown up for the playoffs.

It's been such a weird playoff run for the Celtics and this sums it up....They were so unimpressive, they're obviously going to lose in the next round. We've heard that twice already. The theme of the story on ESPN.com after game 5 was how they didn't play like champions.

Now they're 4 unimpressive wins away from the NBA Championship. If they pull it off, they'll of course be the most unimpressive 60+ wins/championship team ever.

Not sure about that, but good luck.

I hate Kobe. Even though my other thread was bumped, I'm not sure who to root for now.

I might just watch the Wings win the Cup. :)

Heh, I'm rooting for the Wings, cuz I can't stand Pittsburgh, since the days of Lemieux

Wow, less then an hour after the Celtics win, the NBA online store has already emailed me (psuedo-spam) with the chance to buy 2007-8 Eastern Conference Championship gear

I agree with this sentiment. It really does not matter to me who wins the title. Both teams have players that I really would like to see win titles. On Boston's side, seeing KG, Ray Allen, and especially Paul Pierce would be cool since as recently as last year all somehow "lacked what it to took to win a title." I think Pierce's public turnaround is almost as impressive as Kobe's. I remember how much of a problem this guy was considered. On the other hand, I would also like to see guys like Lamar Odom, Luke Walton and the other "no talent hacks" on the Laker bench win the trophy.

I'm not sure how everybody is crowning the Lakers right now. They're the slight favorites, but the Celtics, even as individual players, have been so schizophrenic this postseason I think anyone making predictions is bound to be wrong.

I think with Gasol the Lakers are the best team in the NBA, so I would pick the Lakers regardless of how this post season had gone for Boston. But after this series with Detroit I would assume everyone who was writing off Boston b/c of the earlier series would not be doing that anymore(I'm in that camp, I didn't expect them to lose to Cleveland but I certainly didn't' expect them to beat Detroit either after their play in the early rounds). I do think that the Lakers could win it in 5, where if Boston wins it'll likely go 7.

< 12 hours until Game 1!!!!

Lakers or Celtics?

Time to draw the line and take sides. :D

Go Lakers!

Can't we just hope for the ground to open up and swallow both teams :) ?

Great article from The Onion:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news...lakers_celtics

Awesome new commercial with Magic and Bird.

Agreed.

Pierce hurt?