Pistons/Celtics Recap, Lakers/Spurs Preview
Posted by Justin Jacobs on May 23, 2008
Uh oh Boston, you’ve got some winning on the road to do! It figures that the night Ray Allen decides to show up for the Celtics that they would fall to Detroit 103-97. Allen, who has been pretty awful in these playoffs, shot 9-16 from the field and scored 25 points in the Celtics loss.
It’s not as if the big three of Garnett, Pierce and Allen didn’t play well last night, they would combine to score 75 out of their total 97 points. The problem was the only other player on their squad to score in the double figures was Rajon Rondo who helped out with 10 points and eight assists.
The Pistons, on the other hand, had six players in double figures and were led by Richard Hamiton’s 25 points, ten of which came from the charity stripe. Chauncey Billups was able to improve upon his game one performance by scoring 19 points, and also handed out nine assists.
The question now will be whether or not Boston can finally get their first road victory of the playoffs. With Allen shooting better, and Rondo playing beyond his years, it’s hard to see the Celtics getting blanked on the road for the third straight series. Detriot has a tendency of not showing up for playoff games, and one let-down at home would be disastrous for the Pistons.
(Derek Fisher needs to play big tonight if the Lakers are to grab a 2-0 advantage against the Spurs tonight)
(Moving On)
Tonight is game two of the Western Conference Finals, and if game one was any indication, we should be in for a wild ride. I kind of doubt Kobe will go 1-for-3 from the field in the first half, like he did in game one, so this game should have a completely different dynamic to it. LA will also be looking to get Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom better looks, as they struggled to get good shots on Wednesday night.
The burden is on Manu Ginobli to ignite the Spurs offense tonight, as more attention will be on Tim Duncan following his dominating performance in game one. Ginobli will continue to be hounded by Sasha Vujicic, but he will still have some open looks at the basket as a result of Tim Duncan drawing double-teams.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Lakers decide to deal with Tony Parker tonight. Fisher had a hard time staying in front of Parker in game one, and if the Lakers continue to collapse on him when he gets into the lane, the Spurs will have a lot of open looks from beyond-the-arc.
I don’t think that either team feels like they truly need this game if they want to win the series. Both teams have enough experience and talent to be able to win on the road later if need be. That doesn’t mean that either LA or San Antonio will take this game off, there is a certain level of hate between these two teams, and I doubt there will be any blow-outs in this series.
(One Last Thing)
Expect Chad’s glorious return tonight, and part one of his MLB update will hit sometime this weekend as well. Enjoy the games everyone, and have a great weekend!
