DETROIT NEED ALL PISTONS FIRING TO WIN SERIES

Just when you thought it was safe to say the Detroit Pistons were the best team left playing in the NBA, the Boston Celtics reminded you of the danger it entails to pronounce so quickly. The Boston Celtics, less than 48 hours removed from an emotional, draining series against the Cleveland Cavilers, captured game one Tuesday night in Boston with an 88-79 victory over Detroit.

Many people thought the Pistons would be the beneficiary of having almost a week off after dismantling Orlando in five games, while Boston would be the less energized team due to the fact they played on Sunday. To the contrary, Boston was the team that seemed ready to play from the opening tip and controlled the action throughout the contest.

Kevin Garnett was the best player on the floor Monday night scoring 26 points, pulling down 9 rebounds, and passing for four assists. Even more important, he was one of a trio of defenders (along with PJ Brown and Kendrick Perkins) guarding Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace who had his worst outing this playoff season. Garnett was also very aggressive on the offensive end of the floor, looking for his shots, taking the ball strong to the hoop, and getting to the free throw line.

Paul Pierce continued his fine all around play with 22 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, and Rajon Rondo was key in victory with his defense on Pistons guard Chauncey Billups (Rondo also had five steals), and protecting the basketball (seven assists, only one turnover).

The only slight negative for Boston was the continued shooting struggles of shooting guard Ray Allen. Allen, who it seems hasn’t made an open jumper since his collegiate days at Connecticut, scored 9 points on 3-10 shooting from the field and missed all of his outside jumpers. Boston fans were growing restless with every air ball and clang off the rim from an Allen miss and Ray seems to have loss confidence in his shot. If Boston is going to win this series, they need Allen in the worst of ways. There will be a time in this series when either Allen is going to respond with a 20+point, 4 three point field goals made type pf game, or he’ll receive the brunt of the criticism for Boston not advancing to the NBA finals.

For Detroit, this had to be a frustrating game. The Pistons had come into this series playing some of their best basketball of the season and should have been ready to compete. Instead they let the Celtics score the first eight points of the game and gave up way to many lay-ups and open looks at the basket all night.

For the game on offense, Detroit received practically nothing from their starting back court of Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups. They combined to score 24 points on 8-19 shooting from the field and had no real impact on the game. Billups must play better no matter how bad the hamstring is. He was hardly noticeable on the court and had only one real spurt of importance (4th quarter under five minutes with consecutive baskets). For the game, Chauncey scored only 9 points on six shots taken, including only three shot attempts in the first half.

One of the most distinct advantages Detroit has over Boston is at the point guard position. Even at 75-80% there should be no way Rondo should have such an effective game while Billups struggled so. If Billups cannot exploit the point guard match-up position between himself and Rondo, Eddie House, and/or Sam Cassell (if he’ll ever play again!!), the Pistons will have a much harder time winning this series.

The silver lining for Detroit was the fact that despite playing so poorly on both ends of the floor, they were still in the ballgame until late in the 4th quarter. They allowed Boston to score 26 points in the paint and shoot 51% in the first half yet trailed by only one at halftime. For the game, the Pistons shot only 42% from the field and still were a couple of stops away from catching or passing Boston in the box score. One could make the argument that the six day layoff had something to do with the slow start, but there is no excuse for Detroit to come out and play as listless and unfocused as they did in the third quarter. They began the third quarter down 41-40 and at the end saw the deficit grow to 12 at 69-57.

The bottom line is in a series that is expected to be tight and hard fought; every opportunity you have to become victorious must be grasped with fervor. Detroit had everything it wanted to take home court away from Boston coming out the gate and failed to do so. They better make sure they don’t miss another opportunity.