I hope my Sixers can take the Pistons to 7, but I get the feeling it's all over.

Either way, they put up one hell of a fight, and did far better than most people thought... except for yourself, of course.

A lot of people like to say the Pistons lose focus and that's why they lost, but I tell you watching that game 3, I thought the Sixers simply kicked their behinds. They have some talent and athleticism and *if* they lose this series, they got a lot of experience out of it as well as a ton of confidence.

With that being said, I hope Detroit pounds them like a drum tomorrow!

Hack-a-Ben, hack-a-Shaq, those are brilliant tactics. People who are so weak at one fundamental part of basketball should be punished. These guys are in league for over 10 years, making outrageous sums of money, and still can't hit a free throw. Great work ethic.

David Lee went from 50% to around 80% in just one year.

I definitely don't miss Ben for that. Watching him on the free throw line is just painful, and I had to watch him in person once. (Actually, it was Detroit/Miami in round two a couple years ago, so I got to watch both of them, but Ben is worse than Shaq.) It's like, maybe if he moved his legs a bit he would do better, but he just looks bored and stiff and doesn't even try.

But .. it's so cheap and lame. Cavs could've used Wallace last night down the stretch but Eddie Jordan drove him out of the game. Doesn't seem right.

What doesn't seem right is Wallace's shooting percentage of less than 50% for free throws. Why these guys (Shaq, Wallace, Bowen, NY Knicks :X,...) don't hire shooting coach, they have the money. And Shaq actually did that once for a period of around 20 games, and his percentage rose all the way to around 70%. Or why they don't shoot like this?



Oh yeah, it looks *bad*. Man, for $20m, nothing is too bad.

Plus, something I read elsewhere, and completly agree with...in hack-a-someone, hacking team isn't really in advantage, first, they give 2 free throws to opponent. Free! You can't get a better reward than that. Then, you put the hacking team in foul trouble, and third, they get quicker in bonus, which your other players (who shoot free throws better) can take advantage of.

And you don't have the oppurtunity to get easy fastbreak baskets off turnovers or just quick rebounds

Yeah, I'm with Nebs on this one. It's a non-issue if you make your free throws, which anyone who has played basketball enough to be in the NBA should be able to do with at least some regularity. I'm not gonna lie and say it doesn't hurt the game from an aesthetic and pacing sense, but c'mon... make your fucking free throws.

When you foul someone and have NO intention on playing the ball, which in "Hack-a-someone", you have no intention of doing so... in the RULES it is an INTENTIONAL foul which should result in a technical free throw AND possession of the ball.

i agree with Munk.

WOW! this is the Pistons (up 25 with 2 minutes to play) we all know and hate.

Detroit appears to be back in playoff shape now. Hopefully the continue to roll and don't let their foot off the gas with the Magic. I could stand seeing an easy 4-0 sweep and then rest up for the Celts.

Checking in on my predictions, so far I am 4-1:

I was right on Detroit over Philly, but off by 1 game
I nailed the Magic and got the right games
I nailed the Lakers over Nuggets perfectly
I was way off on Mavs over Hornets... way off.
I was right on Spurs over Suns, but off by 1 game

As for the remaining... I'll likely be right on the Celtics, but definitely off on the games. I'll probably be right on Utah, and the number of games is still possible, and I'll likely be wrong on the Wiz, but there is still a chance.

The Celtics absolutely deserved that. For one, it's absolutely pathetic that they will end up not winning one game in Atlanta, and second, towards the end of the game they just didn't take the ball to the hoop. Atlanta did, they got to the line (hey, want a fun fact? The Hawks have gone to the line 69 more times than the Celtics have in this series!) and that was the difference. And what the hell was that last play call for the Celtics? Rondo brings the ball up, and none of the three point shooters got near him to get open leaving Rondo to throw up an air ball from almost half court. Great job there.

But, for a comparison I think this will end up like the Bruins/Canadiens series this year with a similar Game 7 result. It's pathetic that it's gone this far, but I think the Celtics will pull it out at home. They better, or no member of the team is going to be able to show their face in Boston until late October.

Celtics

If you told me this would be the only 7 game series of the first round (assuming Utah holds their 16 point lead at home) I would've punched you in the face.

More thoughts on the game......

Paul Pierce fouling out was not surprising. When he got his fifth foul with about eight minutes left, you knew that he was either going to have to sit on the bench for most of the quarter, or he was going to pick up that sixth sooner rather than later. Now, it sucks that he fouled out on an unbelieveably awful call, but you could see it coming. If they have Pierce for the final three minutes, who knows what's going to happen.

*I can't believe I'm talking about the Hawks series here.*

Garnett needs to start getting fucking angry. When the Celtics have played at home he feeds off the crowd and goes nuts during the game. For some reason when the series has shifted to Atlanta, he still talks, but he turns it off for some unknown reason. I have no idea how many times he could've taken the ball inside and stuff it down the Hawks throats towards the end of that game, but he kept passing the ball up to someone else so they could get a jump shot, or even he would take the jump shot. I don't think they could've played more into the Hawks hands in the final five minutes of that game if they wanted to.

I'm pretty confident that the Celtics will win Game 7 at home (here comes the Canadiens comparison again), but they're not doing theirselves any favors if they move on (*vomits*).

By the way, have I mentioned the Hawks have been to the line 69 more times than the Celtics have?

GO TO THE FUCKING HOOP GARNETT!

Wow, Houston cut into that lead quickly.

If (*vomits again*) they beat the Hawks in Game 7, the best they can hope for is to take the two days off and just start anew. The first two games are at home again, and they can get a fresh start. They have to win on Sunday first though.

And I'm listening to Tommy Heinsohn right now as I'm typing this and what he's saying is absolutely right and I mentioned it a second ago, but with just one player - they have to get angry. Not angry in the sense that they have to start going nuts, but by taking the ball to the net and shoving it down their throats. And they have to stop worrying about Smith.

I have confidence that they'll win this game, and then it's a fresh start with Cleveland..........once they beat the Hawks.

I think some of the criticisms people had of Boston before the season started, that were "overcome" during the regular season, seem to have reappeared. Those being

a) Doc Rivers. Before this year I'd have called him "shitty", the defense Boston had this year improved my estimation of him a bit, but I dunno, maybe that was KG. You have to question anyone that lost 18 straight games, injuries or not. Like in Game 4, Rivers left a defensively bad Ray Allen on Johnson the entire 4th quarter, when they clearly have an elite defender in Posey that would've been a much much better choice. I dunno. Maybe he can handle Flip in the ECF, but I think he'd get raped by Pop or Phil Jackson or even Stan Van Gundy.

b) KG has a history of never taking over in the playoffs or putting his foot on teams.

c) Their bench that looked great in the regular season looks kind of inexperienced and shady now. And Cassell has been a disaster. Though I'm not sure why they aren't using Eddie House and Tony Allen AT ALL.

I still think the reffing in Boston will make it impossible to lose, it's one thing to happen to the Mavs, but not a Game 7 in Boston, not in David Stern's NBA. Not with the potential of a Celtics-Lakers matchup later on. I mean Garnett pushed a referree earlier in this series and it was barely mentioned the next day.

Orlando could legitimately win the East. *shudders* Even Cleveland being there scares me, I mean San Antonio vs Cleveland THE REMATCH or Orlando vs San Antonio would probably dip below NHL ratings and would probably be about as interesting as Tony taking a poop. Wait, less than that. About as interesting as Gwenyth Paltrow. Yes, that bad.

ray why did you take that aweful 3 with 20 seconds??? we dont need any heros!

This season is just full of surprises!

I only caught the 4th quarter of the Boston vs. Atlanta game tonight, but Atlanta is just playing at a whole other level above Boston when they are at home. Boston looked way out of sync... took crappy shots... played poor defense... made stupid play after stupid play. Sure, some of it was due to Atlanta's aggresiveness, but Boston has got to play smarter than this to be a real contender.

As Magnus said, this is already a victory for the Hawks and an embarrassing defeat for the Celtics - even when the Celts win game 7. If they can't handle the Hawks, how are they going to handle Cleveland? Detroit? The Western Confence Champs? It just doesn't get any easier from here!

I just think this is another example of the regular season being a completely different story than the playoffs. It's fairly easy for a good team to do great in the regular season, but the postseason is completely different.

It sounds cliche, but I'm beginning to think that Boston was playing at 100% the whole season, and they have nothing more to give. Now that other teams are playing at 120% for the playoffs, Boston no longer seems as dominant.

Of course, this could just all be due to favorable matchups... which is what Boston fans have to hope. Maybe they'll just matchup better against Cleveland and Detroit and have no problems the rest of the way. Then again... maybe the Hawks will win the finals this year.

Kobe just won MVP. http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archi ... d_nba_mvp/

It would've been well deserved whether he or Paul got it, I have no problem with this. He should've got in 2 years ago too in his 35ppg season and that horrible team he led to 45 wins. 'Grats Mamba.

He's my favorite rapist to ever win the NBA MVP!

I'm not a religious man, but I pray every night that Kobe never plays for the Pistons.

Speaking of which, it's funny that Kobe committed rape twice in Colorado... once in a hotel room, and once to the Nuggets!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH

So true, so true...