June 6, 200422 yr NBA Finals Game 1 Detroit Pistons VS. Los Angeles Lakers C F F G G http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/gary_payton.jpg
June 6, 200422 yr Author If Detroit wants to win this game they need to come out liek the real bad boys. They need to get underneath Shaq and Kobe's skin. Throw a few 'bows, talk junk, try anything to mess with the Lake Show and somehow win the game.
June 6, 200422 yr Remember the 2001 Finals. The Sixers stole Game 1 then they lost 4 games in a row. Everyone got all happy when the Lakers got their first loss of the post-season then they won the Championship.
June 6, 200422 yr If Detroit steals this one, I'd be happy but not convinced because the Lakers seem to give away Game 1's a lot and then wake up. With that said, LETS GO MOTOWN!
June 6, 200422 yr Author Remember the 2001 Finals. The Sixers stole Game 1 then they lost 4 games in a row. Everyone got all happy when the Lakers got their first loss of the post-season then they won the Championship. Detoit is a much better team than the 76ers were they have more than one option on offense.
June 6, 200422 yr ready to shock the world...sounds like what the Marlins did in 03. Anyways-Detroit has to go being confident, because if they dont than Shaq and KB will just run all over them.
June 6, 200422 yr i just want a great series. something memorable, i dont care who wins. i was reliving Starks choking and reliving my childhood yesterday when i was watching game 7 of the '94 finals on classic imagine that, an NBA finals going 7. sounds nice.
June 6, 200422 yr By David Aldridge Special to ESPN.com The Matchups POINT GUARD Chauncey Billups vs. Gary Payton. Let's say this up front: Billups has to win this matchup decisively if the Pistons are going to have any chance at the upset. He can't shoot 2-of-9 or 4-for-15 from the floor. Now, Billups is as streaky a shooter as there is in the league. When he's on, he can get 30 in a hurry. He'll need a couple of those against L.A -- Detroit's best chance to compromise Shaq at the defensive end is if Billups is successful running screen-and-roll, getting into the paint, and creating shots for others. Plus, Billups can't turn the ball over, and he needs to come up with a couple of steals a game. That's a lot to ask against Payton, even a diminished Payton. Phil Jackson is trying to keep GP happy with some screen-and-roll looks and direct posts early in the game. It won't be as easy for Payton posting the 6-foot-3 Billups as it was with Sam Cassell, but with Detroit's entire team having to help on Shaq, Payton should get more than his fair share of open perimeter looks. EDGE: Even. SHOOTING GUARD Richard Hamilton vs. Kobe Bryant. It's a great matchup on paper, but I suspect the Pistons will use Tayshaun Prince on Bryant at the defensive end as much, if not more, than Hamilton. They can't afford for Hamilton to get in foul trouble guarding Bryant, which he surely will if he's on Kobe more than 30 minutes a game. Hamilton's job is to run Bryant ragged whenever the Lakers have Kobe defend him (although you'll see Payton and Devean George take their turns on Rip as well) by using multiple screens and picks, getting out on the break early and often and hoping Kobe tires at the other end. Rip has become a true scorer; he may have a bad quarter, or a bad half, but at the end of the night he's going to have his 20 points one way or the other. The problem for Detroit is that you can say the same for Kobe -- only it's 25 to 30. Detroit can only hope that Bryant doesn't abuse the willing-but-still-skinny Rip on the box, or that Bryant gets caught up in trying to beat Prince and his 7-2 wingspan enough times that he forces shots and disrupts the flow of the triangle. EDGE: Lakers. SMALL FORWARD Tayshaun Prince vs. Devean George. Both are enigmatic offensive players, prone to being AWOL for entire games. Prince is capable of getting to the rim but seems to have trouble finishing, and his jumper looks broken too often. But he can't be shy about letting it fly if he's open. Defensively, George is better than he's given credit for at closing penetration in the paint and creating deflections, and he will be a help guy on any Piston that gets going. Prince's length makes him a factor on just about every defensive possession (just ask Reggie Miller) and could be asked to provide some double-down help on Shaq, forcing George to hit a few threes. But it says here Prince's primary job will be prevent Bryant from one of his insane quarters, one of those 18-point masters where Kobe hits a few runners, a couple of threes and demoralizes the opposition with a few gravity-challenging hangers in the paint or a dump-off to Shaq for some crammage. Frankly, Detroit can survive if Prince fouls out; Hamilton is another deal. EDGE: Even. POWER FORWARD Rasheed Wallace vs. Karl Malone. Malone is doing a great job of hiding his injuries and diminishing energy. But he's so fit and so smart that he can still have a great impact on key moments in a series, like Game 4 against the Rockets in the first round, Game 3 against the Spurs in the second round, and so on. Offensively he's become a scavenger, taking what little scraps Kobe, Shaq and the opposition defense leave him. The idea for Detroit is for Malone to take contested jumpers, not the wide-open ones he can still knock down with ease. It should not be as easy for Malone to disrupt Wallace as it was Tim Duncan, not if Wallace's foot and ankle are right. Wallace has become quite adept in the screen-and-fade in the Pistons' offense, and he's well-schooled, keeping the ball above his head -- Malone lives for bigs that bring the ball to waist level, where he can rake at it. Nor should Malone be able to do much with 'Sheed's turnaround, one of the toughest in the league to contest. But how will Rasheed do against Malone mentally? The Mailman knows every defensive trick in the book, and he gets away with a lot. Will Wallace blow a gasket if the refs let Malone pound away down low without blowing the whistle -- which will surely happen more than once? If 'Sheed can keep his head, he should be able to score, and he can make a major contribution by getting on the offensive boards. More important, if he doesn't pick up offensive fouls, he'll be able to stay in the game longer to help guard Shaq, and that's where his size, length and smarts are vital for Detroit. EDGE: Pistons. CENTER Ben Wallace vs. Shaquille O'Neal. I'm looking forward to this one. Not because I think Big Ben can stop Shaq -- he can't, nobody can -- but because Wallace is the heart of the Pistons and he's not afraid of anybody. Will Admin Brown start him on Shaq, or will Brown use Rasheed on O'Neal first? Ben is the league's best weakside defender, but he can't play that role if he has to use all of his considerable muscle trying to keep O'Neal from walking him down to the low block. Surely, Brown will use everybody from Elden Campbell to Mehmet Okur against Shaq, but Ben will have to take him, too -- without somehow getting in prohibitive foul trouble. Shaq's biggest problem in the playoffs continues to be that his teammates can sometimes forget about him for quarters at a time. It's inexplicable; guys, he's 7-1, 340. He's not hard to find. For Detroit, it's OK if Wallace shoots jumpers in rhythm that were created by guard penetration; he has to get up a few shots to keep Shaq from totally resting on D, as he did against the Wolves. But it's not OK if Wallace has the ball in his hands as the shot clock is running down, which happened frequently in the Indiana series. This is the NBA equivalent of a great light-heavy or cruiserweight stepping up in class. I don't think the little guys have won many of those. EDGE: Lakers. BENCH Elden Campbell, Lindsey Hunter, Mike James, Mehmet Okur and Corliss Williamson vs. Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, Slava Medvedenko and Kareem Rush. Any offense Detroit gets from Campbell or Okur is gravy. They have 12 fouls among them to use on Shaq, and they better not come back to the bench with more than one left. Neither will likely front Shaq, because the Lakers will ultimately find ways to lob over them, as they did after Game 1 of the Spurs series. Okur is quite good on the perimeter, but it's hard to see the Lakers being very concerned if he hits a few jumpers. Hunter and James are quite adept at the halfcourt trap, which Detroit likes to use with its second unit. Williamson is the only Pistons reserve really capable of scoring consistently off the bench, but he shot the ball terribly against the Pacers. Rush's coming-out party in Game 6 against Minnesota was right on time, but he'll have to hit those same shots against Detroit. Fisher is banged up but does anyone look more like anything they throw up will go into the hoop right now than D Fish? Medvedenko was just as important in the closeout game against the Wolves as Rush, and his proclivity for big baskets in the fourth quarter is now more than coincidence or fad. The Pistons are going to have to keep a body on him. As for Darko Milicic ... well, he's active, and he's grown to 7-1, 265 pounds. Like that matters against the Diesel. If Darko plays real minutes in more than one game, Detroit is toast. EDGE: Lakers. COACH Admin Brown vs. Phil Jackson. I believe this has been Jackson's best coaching job ever. Forget all the Kobe stuff before the season and the injuries and infighting in the regular season, which were formidable obstacles in and of themselves. How Jackson got this team mentally off the mat from an 0-2 deficit against the defending champion Spurs is why he's probably worth the eight figures per he's been asking for in a new contract. The players did a lot of the self-correcting, too, but Jackson always hits the right note at the most critical time. Brown did what Joe Dumars hired him to do -- push the Pistons to the next level. Brown has found an offense that maximizes Hamilton, and he incorporated Rasheed into the system without a hitch. His players believe that he'll come up with something that will challenge L.A.'s prohibitive advantages inside. You wonder if Brown will get over his loathing of the zone to throw something different at Shaq. No one is better at in-game adjustments than LB, but no one is better at halftime adjustments than PJ. EDGE: Even. The Intangibles Most figure this to be a cakewalk for the Lakers. I don't think so. The Pistons will be better offensively in these Finals than in the last two rounds, but L.A.'s defense isn't as good as Indiana's, or Jersey's. And Detroit can guard anybody. But the Pistons have two major problems. One, O'Neal and Bryant are so good, so aggressive, that they stretch every defense to the breaking point. It's hard to see the Wallaces staying out of foul trouble, and when they're not on the floor, the Pistons are in trouble. Two, it's hard to see Detroit getting into the 90s at the other end, and that's where these games will likely be won. The Lakers can use either O'Neal or Malone on Rasheed Wallace if he gets hot. If 'Sheed could get 20 to 25 a game, you'd give Detroit a puncher's chance, but I don't see that happening. The Pistons' only chance is to make this a track meet, to get 40-year-old Malone and 38-year-old Payton gassed by getting up and down the floor. And if the Pistons could steal a game in L.A. it would be interesting to see how they'd feed off of what has become a loud home court in Auburn Hills, Mich. But they'll have to create turnovers or dominate the glass to control the tempo, and that's not likely. It's not that the Pistons can't beat the Lakers at all; it's that they have to beat them four times. With a championship on the horizon, they're going to get the best from the Lakers' Big Four. And when those four have been right, no one has challenged L.A. all season. Detroit will fight and scrap, but it won't be enough. The Pick Lakers in six.
June 7, 200422 yr I want to see the Pistons take it but I am more intrested in seeing an exciting series, I agree with marlins02 and would like to see something memorable.
June 7, 200422 yr im sure someone didnt know that :plain just posting it. Detroit leads 27-25 in the 2nd quarter. 8:31 left......very interesting game so far in that the Lakers have been held at home.
June 7, 200422 yr It'd be nice to see an Eastern Conference team win it, but I'm rooting for Karl Malone and GAry Payton. They've been a**holes, ok, but they've had great careers, and they deserve the ring. Let's go Lakers!!!!
June 7, 200422 yr Pistons win game 1, and in impressive fashion. All of those who said the Pistons have no chance take notice of this. Have the Lakers screwed around early in series? Yes, but the fact that the Pistons opened up a can by double digits in game 1 at Staples Center sends a message to LA that they are in for a series. I loved the Pistons strategy....let Shaq and Kobe get theirs since they will anyway, and shut down everybody else. Good stuff.....we are in for a series.
June 7, 200422 yr this finals will definitely be better than those from the last two years. Detroit is one of two teams, the Pacers being the other IMO, that can beat the WEst.
June 7, 200422 yr The last two finals were horrible. In 2002, Nets got swept by Lakers. Worst finals ever since Rockets swept the Magic in 1995. It's not a fun series when a team gets swept. Great to see the Pistons win.
June 7, 200422 yr Author Go Pistons! This game proved that you are going to have to let Shaq have his game because he is just that good. But if you stop Bryant, you have an excellent chance of winning. Hopefully Brown keeps his troops level headed, so that they know this is just a single game. If Detroit wins game 2 I think they will win the series. L.A came back from 0-2 once, but they wont do it this time. BOX Pistons REBOUNDS PLAYER POS MIN FGM-A 3GM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST PF ST TO BS PTS RICHARD HAMILTON G 43 5-16 0-0 2-4 3 4 7 5 0 1 6 0 12 CHAUNCEY BILLUPS G 39 8-14 2-4 4-4 1 2 3 4 1 3 2 0 22 TAYSHAUN PRINCE F 35 5-10 1-4 0-0 1 5 6 4 3 2 0 0 11 RASHEED WALLACE F 29 3-4 2-2 6-6 1 7 8 1 3 0 1 1 14 BEN WALLACE C 41 4-8 0-0 1-2 1 7 8 0 1 1 2 1 9 Elden Campbell 18 2-5 0-0 2-6 1 0 1 4 1 2 1 2 6 Lindsey Hunter 13 1-5 1-2 2-2 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 5 Corliss Williamson 11 2-3 0-0 3-4 1 1 2 1 3 0 0 0 7 Mehmet Okur 6 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 Darvin Ham 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 Mike James 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Darko Milicic DNP TOTAL 240 30-65 6-12 21-30 9 27 36 19 17 9 14 4 87 46.2% 50.0% 70.0% Team Rebs: 11 Total TO: 14 Lakers REBOUNDS PLAYER POS MIN FGM-A 3GM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST PF ST TO BS PTS KOBE BRYANT G 47 10-27 1-6 4-4 1 3 4 4 2 4 3 2 25 GARY PAYTON G 31 1-4 1-1 0-0 1 1 2 3 5 2 2 0 3 KARL MALONE F 44 2-9 0-0 0-0 3 8 11 3 1 0 0 1 4 DEVEAN GEORGE F 27 2-5 1-2 0-0 0 3 3 0 2 1 1 0 5 SHAQUILLE O'NEAL C 45 13-16 0-0 8-12 5 6 11 1 4 0 6 1 34 Derek Fisher 20 1-9 0-2 0-0 3 0 3 3 2 1 1 0 2 Kareem Rush 16 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 0 4 0 2 0 0 Stanislav Medvedenko 6 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 1 1 0 3 0 0 0 2 Rick Fox 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 Brian Cook DNP Luke Walton DNP Bryon Russell DNP TOTAL 240 29-73 3-13 14-18 13 24 37 15 25 8 15 4 75 39.7% 23.1% 77.8% Team Rebs: 8 Total TO: 16 If someone can get a better looking box, please post it. Thanks.
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