I was genuinely blown away by Detroit today. They showed us today why they are one of the top contenders in these playoffs though they play in the L-East and these Pistons are as good as they were 2 years back when they won it all. They go into Chicago and the Bulls came out with all the energy in the World to erase the memory of those 2 embarrassing defeats in Detroit. On the other hand, Pistons just had a horrible second quarter and scored only 10 points. All this amounted to a 16 point half-time lead for the Bulls. 44-28, Pistons scoring just 28 in the entire half.
So you would think it's time for Detroit to mail this game in and get ready for game 4. All they need is a split in Chicago and they can finish it off in Detroit. But the Pistons came out of the half on fire. They erased 15 of those 16 point lead in the third quarter. They scored 32 in that quarter like they were the freaking Phoenix Suns after scoring just 28 in the entire first half. Chauncey Billups might still be one of the more under-rated players in this league. He was amazing in this second half. This guy might be as critical to what the Pistons do on offense as Nash is to the Phoenix Suns. Billups pretty much controls the flow for the Pistons and when they are in a soup, he can just raise up and shoot the 3.
So all of a sudden, the Bulls had a battle on their hands and they were crushed. They were not ready for it in the fourth to fight this thing out. They thought they were going to blow the Pistons out and suddenly they got blown out in the third. As always it's the Pistons defense that wins them games. It was impressive to see them defend the Bulls in the second half. They defend everything and rotate beautifully to bother the shooters. Just talk to Ben Gordon. He is one of the most prolific scorers in this league and he can't do anything in this series. He shot 4/16 today for 16 points and Deng's 8/22 wasn't much better either.
All in all a great game for the Pistons and now it's just a formality. Billups had 21, Tay had 23-22 and Sheed had 16-11 in this game. A rare bad game for C-Webb as he went scoreless in 23 minutes.
Detroit @ Chicago - 81-74
Playoff schedule for 05/11/2007
Utah @ Golden State - Oracle arena should be a sight to behold for this one.
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