A week ago today, the Magic had just won Game 3 and Chauncey Billups was out with some sort of a hamstring injury – nobody knew how severe it really was – and there was the feeling down in Orlando, at least among the fans of the Magic, that the underdog had more than just a fighting chance to win that series. Then the Pistons went out and won two games without their point guard, and while everybody else still alive in the playoffs is fighting to get to the conference finals, the Pistons got there first.
I thought those wins were two terrific wins and neither one was easy. The Game 4 victory on the Magic’s home court without Chauncey had to almost be a perfect game by the Pistons and I thought it was, including, of course, Tayshaun’s big basket to win it. The defense on Dwight Howard from the Pistons’ big men – Rasheed and Dice and Jason Maxiell—was dynamite. And Rodney Stuckey’s overall game was terrific. To come back and then win a Game 5 without Chauncey at The Palace when Orlando had to think they could make this a seven-game series if they could get out with a win that night was special.
The Magic shot it straight, but they really couldn’t take cake of the basketball under the tremendous pressure of the Pistons’ defense. People can say all they want about Orlando not taking very good care of the basketball. They had four or five unforced errors – everything else was under duress. I give an awful lot of credit to not only the Piston defense but the Pistons’ sixth man – I thought The Palace crowd was great.
They had noise-makers in Orlando, and their building with clappers wasn’t as noisy as The Palace with Thunderstix. Thunderstix make noise, but they don’t make that aggravating, almost metallic clapper noise you would get in Orlando. The Palace is not a tinny building, so it’s really hard for the fans to raise the noise level. That thing was built for Barbra Streisand concerts, if necessary, so for our fans to raise the noise level where it was for Game 5 when the team needed the crowd was terrific.
And so was Rodney Stuckey. Over the winter and into the spring and now into the postseason, Rodney has grown into a big-time NBA guard right before our eyes. We always knew he had the talent and the persona to play at a very high level in our league, but under the pressure of the playoffs, you see exactly whether a player is up to the minute. He passed with flying colors and he’s not going to go backward. What you see from Rodney Stuckey right now is what you’re going to get – and more – over the years. If they do last year’s draft over again, if he’s not a top three or four choice, I’d be very, very surprised.
But as well as Rodney had to play to give the Pistons a chance to win that game, and I thought he was brilliant, and as well as Rip played with his perfect night at the line, and as well as Tayshaun played on both ends, including that unbelievable block, Antonio McDyess was the player of the game for the Pistons. Antonio McDyess was the man. He looked like the all-league star he was earlier in his career, yet he also looked like the veteran with all the savvy he’s become. He was absolutely impossible to stop around the boards and as a scorer. Believe me, the reason the Orlando players were grabbing Dice is they had no answer for him and nobody would have. Not just the Orlando Magic, there’s nobody in our league that could have guarded him or kept him off the glass in Game 5.
Now the Pistons wait for Boston and Cleveland to finish their tussle on the other side of the Eastern Conference bracket. I think any time you rest you raise the possibility of losing your edge, but I think when you factor in the fact that Chauncey truly needs to get 100 percent healthy for the Pistons to make a championship run and the fact that even at his age, Rodney Stuckey has to be exhausted after games 4 and 5, hey, this rest came at a very good time. And to top it all off, as mentally tough as the Pistons are, why do you want to be tested two more times and burn up some more emotional energy? Now you can save it for the conference finals and the NBA Finals.
I think either one of those opponents is worthy and dangerous, but I’d rather play Cleveland, simply because the Pistons have home-court advantage if they play Cleveland. That’s just the fact. And I believe it gives you the better opportunity to win the series, but right now the Pistons are playing better basketball than either the Cavaliers or the Celtics. If they just play their game, I love their chances in the conference finals.
Its another time, time to work, time to defend and time to execute, we are invincible, Pistons fans and the team are invincible!!
we will defenitely get what is ours,
YOU WANNA PLAY ROUGH!! OKAY!!!
SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!!!!
DEEEEEETROIT BASKETBALL!!!!
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