NBA Playoff Chatter Sunday: Raps-Magic, LA-Nuggs, Pistons-76ers, Cees-Hawks
April 20, 2008
Boston-Atlanta
End of 3rd quarter, 73-55
Boston is going to handle their biz. As you can see, it’s been a long day for me, so I’m just going to settle in and purely watch the rest of this game and listen to the postgame talk. See ya.
Halftime, 49-40 Boston
Joe Johnson is keeping the Hawks in the game, but the Cees are cruising.
2nd quarter
The Hawks are hanging in there, while the Cees are on cruise control. They’re up by nine late in the first half, but Boston needs to continue to put their foot down defensively. But they can’t with KG on the bench with four fouls.
4th quarter
It’s all on Billups, who has missed his last five shots… Pass into ‘Sheed who misses wide open layin. Igupdala makes the first - :7.0 left. Makes 2nd.
Philly wins!!!! 90-86.
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:26.3 remaining… Is it Billups time or Rip off screens? Billups penetrates to the lane, passes to Prince who chokes and barely hits the rim. Iguodala board and fouled… chikes 1st FTA., make 2nd; 88-86 final Detroit TO. :11.3 left.
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Dalembert, on a pick-and-roll - offensive foul charge drawn by Jason Maxiell. TO Detroit, 87-86 Pistons ball.
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Billups strips Williams, ball goes out on Williams, ref misses call; :32.7 left, 12 on the shot clock. Cheeks calls his final timeout.
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Billups fouled by Williams on a two-point attempt - 87-86. :45.1 left. :20 TO, Philly.
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84-80, 2:33 left. Iguodala loses the ball inexplicably…. Hamilton scores, 84-82. Miller misses, Evans tip-in (13 boards). Wallace fouled by Evans (5th foul), 1:22 left. 86-64. Hamilton is guarding Miller and seriously harassing him. Iguodala gets the benefit of a questionable call against Prince - 1-2, 87-84, Philly. Hamilton misses. Louis Williams tips the ball out of bounds. :51.7 left. Timeout.
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Win or lose, I’ll say it now, just like I did last season —- FIRE FLIP SAUNDERS!
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Evans hits a miracle 18 foot jumper with no time on the shot clock… Billups back to the line makes one of two 4:11 left. Hamilton misses a three footer. Louis Williams hits and the Sixers lead by four. Prince misses. But Dalembert misses but Billups misses a layin - Cheeks TO, 2:33 remaining in the game!
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The fouls was changed to Wallace. Reggie Evans (47% FT) make both free throws, while Billups (92%) misses both FTs. I repeat, Detroit is in trouble.
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76-76, 6:39 remaining… Miller gets hacked three times but no call Billups gets the steal which ends up in Rip Hamilton getting two free throws; 77-76 Pistons. Miller scores again and lead 78-77. Maxiell just got his 5th foul - Detroit is in trouble.
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Detroit’s offense is stagnant and the reserves (with starter, Tayshaun Prince) are being outplayed - except for Lindsey Humter - by the 76ers reserves (with starter, Andre Miller. The Sixers are only up one, 74-73. Saunders puts in the starters but takes out Prince who was the only potent Detroit player. Prince is pissed. Miller is taking over the game with 12 points already in the 4th.
3rd quarter 70-63 Detroit
The Pistons allowed the Sixers to within five and haven’t been able to really pull away from then since and now lead by only seven at the end of the 3rd. Maurice cheeks has done a wonderful job of keeping his young charges from folding their collective tent at the half. Cheeks said that all they had to do was convert layins early in the game and the score at the half would have been much closer. Philly came out aggressive, made their layins and stuck around the Pistons. And the move to Reggie Evans has provided the 76ers energy and a bit of inside offense.
An 8-0 run brings the score to 51-46. The question is, can a coach of a veteran team do something, say something(s) at halftime so his team does not come out flat as Detroit just did?
Halftime, 51-38 Detroit
‘Sheed took over the game on both ends of the floor, The Sixers showed that they have no inside answer for the Pistons. If Detroits attends to business, the starters are going to get an early rest tonight. Wallace has 13, 6, and 4 blocks at the half.
TNT’s Reggie Miller just came up with a beautiful - albeit arcane - stat: Rasheed Wallace is the only player in NBA history to record at least 100 blocks and 100 three-pointers…
…And the Zoo Crew, mixed with starters are rewarding Saunders by stretching a 27-22 lead to a 39-28 lead and really clamping down on the defensive end.
Flip Saunders using his bench? In a regular rotation, no less!?!? Amazing. I guess it’s taken Saunders all this time to have a bench he is confident enough in to actually utilize.
1st quarter 27-22 Detroit An 11-0 run got the Pistons from six down to a 27-22 lead at the end of one. As I said in the first glimpse, the Sixers can play with Detroit, but there are crucial stretches in every quarter and it appear that the Pistons feel those moments and take advantage of their knowledge that the moment is upon the two teams. And that is when they take control of what appears to be an even game.
Detroit-Philadelphia, first glimpse: The Sixers can clearly play with the Pistons. But early on it looks like the experience of Detroit is going to get Philly in the end.
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Final: LA 128 Denver 114 Ho-hum say the Lakers in the 4th quarter. Bryant 32 points (9-23); Gasol 36 (14-20),16, and 8; Odom 17 (8-14),14, and 6. Lakers - 33 assists on 46 field goals, 12 TOs (3.8 to 1 team assist to TO ratio)… And Allen iverson just got himself tossed from the game - after getting his playoff average 30th point. I know what I’m about to write is sacrilegious but…. I’m not sure what AI is crying about… it was Ken Mauer who tossed Iverson as he was complaining about what he felt was a foul. Interesting because thanks to all the slo-mo replays it is apparent that Iverson creates most of the contact and then flops and yells, “Oh!” in the hopes of getting a call, pushes his defender away just before his crossover-fadeaway jumper, and then turns to the ref and complain that it has he who was fouled. Now I wonder how many of those falls and the resultant bruises from those falls Iverson has incurred over his career are self-inflicted.
3rd Quarter 97-78 (39-point 3rd Q for LA; 25 assists on 37 field goals) 6′10″ can go coast-to-coast, 13 points, 13 boards and what, five dimes? No player today can what Lamar Odom can do… and this is the beauty of the triangle, especially when played against an undisciplined defense. Perfect example of today’s game: How should Anthony Carter get teed up for a little shove on Kobe? And Kobe knows how it’s called well enough to cry that Carter should get teed - it’s ridiculous. Bryant should keep his mouth shut, unless he wants some action, the ref should just break it up and say to Bryant, Stop woofing” and tell Carter to stop crying about getting accidentally poked in the eye….
Halftime, 58-56, LA by two Finally, the Lakers pick up their defense again. Denver finally begins to miss jumpers and LA eats up a deficit quickly to take a two-point lead into halftime Yet another Iverson-induced foul - this time it’s an easy charge call that turns into Bryant’s third foul. Again, every time he yell, “Oh!?” Are the refs going to fall for the okey-doke every time?? The Lakers continue to miss open or easy shots and Los Angeles players - especially Bryant - are gambling on defense too much, leaving a crisp passing Denver team with open shots, which they are converting into baskets. Must the refs call a fouls every time AI yells, “Oh!?”
1st Quarter - 26-22 Kobe is not getting off, but the rest of the Lakers are. Somehow Denver is right there, George Karl says its because of the zone but it looks more like Lakers defensive lapses and missed open shots by LA attributed to the Nuggets staying in the game. ———————
We’re going to use this one post for all the games today - and we’ll do it this way from here on out, so er’body can get their post on in one space…
Orlando is on they way to 3-pointing Toronto into submission… but it’s almost LA-Denver game time.
Comments
19 Responses to “NBA Playoff Chatter Sunday: Raps-Magic, LA-Nuggs, Pistons-76ers, Cees-Hawks”
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Denver’s defense actually looks worse so far than it normally does. Lakers are actually playing sloppy but still up by ten.
LINAS KLEIZA!!! That is all.
MC-
You can comment within the post, too, if you want (!) :=)
Decent win for the squad, but Kobe was FUCKING up the whole game. I was like, “Really? Another three?” But it was all good, in the end. He has one of those games every now and then. Good to get it out of the way early:)
That’s true D. And he was looking lackluster on the D end. I can’t believe he had better than a 1-to-1 point to FGA ratio!… all the FTMs.
In the end, the win looked too easy, too regular season.
I hear you Diallo one of the man problems I have with the lakers is that they fall in love with the 3 too much.
In the lose that they had against Memphis those fools shot 43………… I repeat 43 thress!!
Thats just ignorant.
O-
That was because they played Memphis (one of those, we can beat them any old way losses)…. Diallo’s talking about Kobe today… everybody else was taking what was given withing the offense - except Kobe.
The Lakers were never in any real danger, but they have a few things to tighten up. I was disappointed DJ Mbenga didn’t get any run. That dude is a beast! lol
The reason why Kobe is good is cause he can hit contested shots. He usually shoots his way out of those funks anyway.
Wow. Dare I say “choke job” with the Pistons?
Try as they might, The Lakers were not able to give the game away today. I was pissed at Kobe for coming in and padding his stats, but he dug us back out of the hole and we won comfortably.
It was definitely choke-ish:)
Diallo-
Not “choke-like”, but choke-”ish” on so many levels…. fire him, fire him as soon as the season is over….
Jeff Van Gundy is available:)
Oops, sorry D-Wil. I forgot that I can now edit any post, not just the ones I write (slaps forehead) I’ll be around tomorrow, promise.
I smelled some Iverson hate in those comments about him yelling “oh” when he goes to the rack.
No fan of Kobe can complain about a player’s mannerisms going to the hole.
It’s all love though.
Iverson creates contact. True.
But all great players create contact. If you’re going to the rack in the league and not looking for a body, then you’re not really going to the rack.
Does Iverson flop and complain? Sure.
But, he also understand angles on offense and takes away the angles defenders like to use. He prevents players from cutting him off on his way to the rack by getting into their space. Chris Paul is learning that. Kevin Martin and Corey Maggette are great at it. DWade as well.
[…] second “Chatter” piece was written the following day, April 20. In it I noticed some aspects of Allen Iverson’s - one of my favorite players to watch - game: And Allen Iverson just got […]
[…] second “Chatter” piece was written the following day, April 20. In it I noticed some aspects of Allen Iverson’s - one of my favorite players to watch - […]