That's The Way To Start A Series - Pistons Take Game One
The Detroit Pistons and The Orlando Magic faced off in Game One of the second round Saturday evening in Detroit. What did Detroit accomplish besides a convincing 91-72 win on their home court? They tamed the beast that is Dwight Howard. Howard, who was averaging 22 points and 18 boards in Orlando's first round series with The Raptors, was corralled by a number of Pistons bodies that they threw at him. Orlando's Superman scored just 12 points with 8 boards, 3 blocked shots and quite a few goal tending calls.
Key Points:
Key Points:
- The Pistons, up by just one at the half, handed the Magic the lead early in the third quarter for a very short time and then proceeded to go on a 19-3 run in the third and then take off with a 17- 4 surge in the fourth quarter, to put the game out of reach for Orlando.
- Flip Saunders really had a different game plan in mind when he put Jason Maxiell on Dwight Howard to start off the game and then Dyess, a little Sheed and then a little Maxiell again with a little Theo late in the game. It worked like a charm.
- Herrmann! He was activated in place of Lindsey Hunter and he even got some time on the court. He wasn't going to be pushed around either, he got into a little jawing match with Pat Garrity late in the game, it was hilarious.
- This one was just simply a joy to be at.
- I don't know if you could hear it on the broadcast, but the Palace crowd was as loud as it's been all season. I promise you that we were the reason The Magic shot just 50% from the free throw line.
- Detroit is probably the only team that gets called for a foul like this. WORST CALL OF THE YEAR!
- Chauncey Billups led the Pistons with 19 points and 7 assists without touching the court in the fourth quarter. Mr. Big Shot is most definitely back.
Photo/Getty Images
- Dwight Howard was called for goal tending at least 5 times, the last one late in the fourth was clearly out of frustration.
- This one was so out of reach for the Magic that we got a J.J. Redick fohawk sighting.
- When you are at the Palace a lot you tend notice little things. Bill Davidson usually leaves his seat court side right before the fourth quarter starts, but he must have been enjoying this one because he didn't leave until it was just about through. When they were wheeling him across the court to the tunnel an excited Pistons fan who as close by turned toward him in appreciation and saluted. Nice
- I know the Cavs are waiting on the Boston - Atlanta winner, but why was Damon Jones at the game?
- Detroit defense was aggressive and working all game long.
- Rashard Lewis layed a hard foul on Theo Ratliff that Jason Maxiell didn't take kindly to. Don't worry fella's Maxie's got your back. Technical for Lewis.
- Player of the game Jason Maxiell was amazing, when he wasn't knocking down 15 footers he was putting his body on Dwight Howard. When you block Superman you get tons of respect.
Photo/Getty Images
- Way to show him Maxie: Dwight Howard 12 points and 3 blocks a steal and 8 rebounds. Maxiell 12 points, 3 blocks, a steal and 9 boards.
- Howard injured his left thumb trying to get a rebound in the third but continued playing.
- Five Pistons in double figures.
- The Pistons took care of the basketball, they had just 6 turnovers on the night.
- Detroit shut down the high scoring Magic in the second half limiting them to 16 points in the third quarter and just 14 in the fourth.
- "Turkoglu grabbed an offensive rebound early in the second half, dribbled up the court and didn't break stride on an uncontested dunk as Wallace and Chauncey Billups watched. Pistons coach Flip Saunders, who usually lets his veteran team fix its own mistakes on the fly, called a timeout and let his players have it." Via NBA.com. That may have been one of the best time outs Flip called in a while, he was clearly upset and threw his clip board on the floor right before play resumed. The Pistons turned the gas on after that and never let up.
- The Pistons have now beaten Orlando eight straight times in the playoffs.
- Solid night for Mr. Prince who scored 12 with 8 boards and 5 assists. Tay was everywhere around the basket making sure anything close got tipped in.
Photo/Getty Images
- Theo Ratliff is surprising the heck out of a lot of us. It seems like we get instant production from him as soon as he touches the hardwood. The Rattler played 12 minutes, went 2-for-2 with a solid dunk a blocked shot and 4 boards.
- Double tech for Sheed and Turkoglu, though it looked more like Dyess should have picked that one up.
- Orlando was just 2-for-15 from downtown. The Magic are a team that lives on the three, in fact they have scored at least three in every game this season. Mission accomplished.
- Jameer Nelson looks just tiny out there on the floor, Chauncey once again took advantage of the matchup.
- Sheed had a quiet night for Sheed, but his 3 pointer in the third was a dagger. He finished with 8 points and 5 boards. And yes he can shoot right over Howard and Hedo, he's just that good.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons, The NBA and TNT
- Rip Hamilton rolled the Pistons out of the gate scoring 8 of his 17 points in the first quarter. Rip added 6 boards, 3 assists, a takeaway and a blocked shot.
- NBA.com Highlights of The Game.
- The Pistons won the war of the boards 47-40.
- I have to say I like the dynamic of Dyess off the bench again. I was worried we would lose that spark from Maxiell but Dyess is bringing it strong. Had it not been for McDyess hitting his shots in the first half Detroit may have lost it's edge. Diggity finished with 10 points, 5 boards and 2 blocked shots, not to mention the heated exchange with Turkoglu.
- When Detroit started the fourth quarter with Rip, Stuckey, Tayshaun, Maxiell and Ratliff I was puzzled and on the edge, but the lineup juggling clearly worked the entire game.
- Kind roll for Maxie, everything was clicking for him.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons, The NBA and TNT
- Turkoglu was also clearly frustrated, he fouled out midway in the fourth quarter. He finished with 18 points on 8-for-16 shooting. Am I seeing things or did he go to the same hairdresser as Mr. Redick? Looked like a mini fohawk form where I was sitting.
- Sheed always in Dwight's ear....in a good way.
- Pistons led by as much as 24, the Magic 1.
- Maxiell "I try to bring the energy every night - it's my job. I try to go down low and be dirty, be rough and get physical." Via Pistons.com
- Nice tone set for Monday's game at The Palace.
Labels: Game Videos, Magic, Playoffs, Recap
posted by Natalie Sitto at 2:31 AM link to this post
34 Comments:
since you go to almost all the games i'm going to ask you.
The Pistons crowd SEEMS absolutely DEAD when viewed on TV. I know we have a spoiled fanbase that doesn't get hyped as, say, the Hornets/Warriors, for just any ol' playoff game, but i'm having a hard time believing it gets THIS quiet.
Is the noise filter THAT serious? Because i've heard from season ticket holders that it actually gets pretty hype.
reading that back makes me sound like a negative nancy, but it was kind of a response to one of the bullets. TV does the crowd no justice at all.
We Rocked the place, quiet at times tonight in the first half but you could hardly hear yourself think in the second. For some reason they don't pick that up on the nationally broadcast games but I can hardly speak right now and I guess there are plenty Pistons fans that will be horse come morning.
We may be spoiled but we were loud as hell.
They were even chanting DEEEETROIT BASKETBALLL through the concourse when I was walking out.
Good day!
i thought you could definately hear the crowd was louder in te second half, loud enough that they were always loud, not just when something happened.
That was the most goaltends I've seen outside of playstation, Howard should be proud.
I wonder what jarodd the delusional Magic fan has to say about this game?
bad ass game..def took them off their high horse from round one and brought them down to earth..now goin for the SWEEEEEEP!
Hi Natalie,
Detroit-Orlando was not televised here in the Philippines... I'm really intrigued by the Hermann-Garrity jawing you mentioned in the site.. can you post a video clip of that as well.. thanks!
GO PISTONS!!!
I'm in disbelief and disgust after seeing that clip of the bad call. I don't know how anybody can call a foul on that. I also don't know why I am suprised though, the refs make shitty calls all the time and at least it wasn't during a crucial time.
lol @ the guy who wrote "most goal tendings next to playstation"
lol
im just curious, does anyone knows the shoes Tay is wearing in the picture shown above? its so flash i like it.
Great little article on Sheed's "intern" Howard:
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2008/05/04/dwight-howard-is-rasheed-wallaces-intern/
this was a great game, the pistons play like this all series we could have a sweep however I think it will go to 5. That foul was the worst call ever, you run in to your own guy and stuckey gets the foul call on him come on. I hear form so many teams that detroit is allowed to play hard and get away with a lot of things well I am sorry I do not agree with that you watch this game and last series and you tell me how is allowed to get away with things, we even had another clock start to soon as well. This one chauncey had not even toughed the ball yet and the clocked started last series tay had not even inbounded the ball and the clock had already started so and we all know the questionable foul calls but atleast detroit does not let all that get to them and I am happy about that. O mean chauncey was the only one to make it to the line until last in the game and its not like we didn't fight in the paint onthis one. BUt I am not going to worry about all that we came out with a good win and even know I am hearing if howard had of stayed in the game at the end it would have been closer or even a different out come we still won and would ahve still won if howard had of came back in.
coin operated boy we wear Nike and I think he gets them made for him every season, not sure if you can buy them or not in stores.
Does anybody else find Turkoglu extremely annoying? I can't put my finger on it but he just annoys the hell out of me. Not like the Varajao does, but close
you could tell the turk was out clubbing the night before. his focus was all ... croakus.
great recap natalie. Hermann over Hayes had to be the highlight of the game for me.
great job last night with just 6 turnovers. I think Chauncey really did a good job cotrolling everything
Ryan, I didn't put up the clip of Herrmann jawing because for some reason TNT had that moment on a split screen and you didn't really see any of the incident except both players walking away.
And Yes...I don't know if there is a single one of us that wasnt happy to see Walter come off the bench before Jarvis,
as always great game recap nat... i was so happy to see the pistons play like they were supposed to, i liked our game plan of giving the ball to rip on about 9 of our first 10 possesions i fell like that really threw the magic off and set the tone for the rest of the game... i love maxi starting for mcdiggity because mcdyess matches up better against the other teams bench and maxi brings the energy and youth our starting line up needs... heres to the pistons playing like this the rest of the playoffs and also to the hawks hopefully beating the celtics.. go pistons!
"That may have been one of the best time outs Flip called in a while, he was clearly upset and threw his clip board on the floor right before play resumed. The Pistons turned the gas on after that and never let up."
I agree 100% with you Natalie. When the Pistons go into that mode, the slumping, lack of effort mode, maybe that's when we need Flip to step in. Flip tends to let them work out of it themselves due to them all being smart veterans, however, a good a** chewing from the coach is sometimes needed.
Awesome game from the Pistons last night.
-Nate
Blaze, I completely forgot about Boston! Ahhh, but I just checked the score, and they're killing ATL. That's too bad. But I guess 7 games is better than the sweep I assumed would occur.
Great first game against the Magic! I can't wait until tomorrow night.
Oh, and, Nat--I adore that Sheed swiffer picture. That's for sure going on my MySpace, lol. Last night I put Maxy up before the game, and he was on fire! (And yeah, I'm as superstitious as Dice.)
Damn, ATLANTA =[
I really really really don't want to play Boston. I would much rather play Cleavland!
Hopefully they lose against the Cavs.
I don't want anybody BUT Boston in the conference finals. If Detroit can't beat Boston on the way to the championship, then they don't deserve to win it.
However, I'm not so sure Boston can get past Cleveland.
the fluidics I wouldn't say they don't deserve to win if they can't beat boston, if boston is not there then cavs are as good of a team to test detroit as bostons is due to what happened last year. Either team the pistons meet I think they are already a step a head than they were last year, last season tehy sweep orlando and had trouble with the bulls and it carried over to the cavs series it lloks like this year (knock on wood) they had their trouble early on and if they can take this series in at least 5 next round the pistons will be rested and ready and have one goal in mind to make it to the finals.
Well yeah, clearly whichever team wins the championships, deserves to win it.
But to this day, I still hear in 04 "the Lakers lost the championship" never that the Pistons won the championship.
I wan't the toughest matchups, it makes the team better, stronger.
I'm glad we got Philly and not Atlanta (Pistons would have killed ATL)
I'm glad we got Orlando and not Toronto. We'd probably sweep Toronto, with 18 point wins.
And I want a tough series with Boston, Because Cleveland isn't all that tough. Without that, it will be tough to run into a strong west team, like LA or San Antonio.
All of those teams have a tough playoff bracket, so they will be tested, and they will be prepared for the finals.
I only want the same for the Pistons.
Tough, lol.
Yea but either team will be a challange.
Does anyone know the record for the celtics-cavs series during the regular season?
I hope the Celtics get worn out after the 7 game series!
Theo was awesome. He really got under Lewis' skin by plain overpowering him.
I finding it a lot easier to dislike the Magic than I did Philly.
Hey Sitto,
How is it possible for Reddick to have a "fro" hawk LOL.
Spicing it up: Magic, Pistons trade barbs before Game 2
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview;_ylt=AjdAywl9fDj8Xdv8bFd2CJO8vLYF?gid=2008050508&prov=ap
LOL
When that bullshit foul call was made I was bout ready to throw something at my screen! You can tell there number "13" was so lost he not only bumped into his teamate but almost blocked his own teamates shot.
It pissed me off sooooo bad and it still is even after we blew them out.
Also I dont appreciate how "SUPERMAN" pushed Maxiell away when he was In Lewis' face. I used to like Mr. HOWARD.. but now, after that clip... things have changed. He could have just grabbed Lewis away.
Flu--I know exactly what you mean. Keep in mind though, people will find something negative regardless. If we end up playing Boston and beat them, it'd be, "If they would have played Cleveland they wouldn't have won." They can find a reason that we shouldn't have 'really won' with anything. So, basically, who cares what people will say. Once they do say anything, just realize they're merely saying it because they're jealous assholes.
Billups received an award--McCosky
http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/pistonsblog/index.cfm?CFID=16800364&CFTOKEN=83822414
go pistons!!!! its so hard for me to picture detroit to lose the match up especially after seeing the first game. our backcourt is already given and frontcourt? we got like 4-5 big guys ready to play physical!!!!
I almost had a brain hemorrhage when they called that foul.
Re Sheed's Tech: That was just horrendous. How are you going to T up Sheed while McDyess is jawing right there. Just seems like Sheed never gets a fair shake.
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