Re: Detroit game

[CeltsSteve@AOL.com]

In a message dated 3/24/02 3:55:33 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
dforant1@nycap.rr.com writes:


> We never matched the intensity of Detroit's from the opening jump. They came
> out with an agenda. We lost because we are a perimeter team and we shot 26%
> 3's. We played sloppy and loose again and it cost us. I still think we have
> a shot at the finals in the East.




Dan,

I agree the C's did not match Detroit's intensity from the opening tip. The 
Pistons quickly zoomed to a 10-1 lead and the C's were running uphill the 
remainder of the 1st half and were actually lucky to get it down to a 3 point 
game. They were trying  to be aggressive at the urging of Obie as witnessed 
in one of the time out huddles because the refs being a veteran crew were 
letting them play. They foresaked the 3-ball for most of the game (only 12 
attempts well into the 4th quarter) but couldn't stop Detroit defensively and 
they let Ben Wallace look absolutely Chamberlain-esque. 

By the 4th quarter, they found themselves 15 down and that is when they made 
a comeback of sorts by inserting V into the game to put a body on Wallace and 
going back to the 3-ball which cut it down to 5 at 102-97 but they couldn't 
get over the hump.

They made more FGs than Detroit and were fairly close on the boards (50-44) 
despite Wallace's monster game and were within 1 on the O-boards (16-15). The 
difference wasn't as much from the 3-point line as you might think as they 
made 5 out of 19 attempts which is well under their seasonal average even 
though Detroit made 8 - 22 from downtown. 

The difference IMO was Detroit made 21-26 from the FT line and the C's were 
only 12-17 and Wallace blocked 6 shots while the C's could only manage 2. How 
is it that a team that plays as physical as Detroit only gets whistled for 5 
personal fouls and the C's play 'soft' and get whistled for 22 fouls?

CeltsSteve