Boston vs Pistons ecf...

IT is destined that Boston and the Detroit Pistons meet in the Eastern
conference finals this post season.

In truth, just listing the personel no team in the east could match up
with talent or play off experience Detroit holds. Their push or drift
depending on your perspective over the last 5 years has been impressive.
The way they leave the post season hasn't been impressive. And that's
their only weakness. They faulter to teams far beneath them. However,
Boston isn't beneath them, they are above them. That's a challenge that
the Pistons seem to enjoy and focus well upon. If the pattern holds
true they should make the ecfs. But leave no doubt this road isn't going
to be easy.

Boston has held up! I thought for certain they'd have been prone to
injury, fatigue or both.
I didn't feel they'd have any trouble blending the talent or with the
coach just thought the naturals of NBA life would get a hold of em' and
bring em' back to reality. Instead they've enjoyed one sweet ride.
These guys have a goal and a focus that hasn't been seen since the days
of Magic Johnson's Lakers. They honestly hunger and seek to win each
game.
They haven't let up and continue to press the pedal to the floor each
and every night throughout the entire season. One can only hope with
the price of "gas" this team might empty its tank before the final
"seventh" game between themselves and the Pistons.

On Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:03:06 -0400, [email]rdjio@webtv.net[/email] wrote:

>IT is destined that Boston and the Detroit Pistons meet in the Eastern
>conference finals this post season.


And Dallas was destined to be in the NBA Fianls last year.
We ALL saw how THAT ended.

Brian

On Apr 12, 6:57*pm, Brian Matthews <nooneca...@ddd.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:03:06 -0400, rd...@webtv.net wrote:
> >IT is destined that Boston and the Detroit Pistons meet in the Eastern
> >conference finals this post season.
>
> And Dallas was destined to be in the NBA Fianls last year.
> We ALL saw how THAT ended.
>
> Brian

I worry a lot about beating Boston. But even getting past Dalla's
shocking first-round loss year, it is interesting that it's been (I
think) 7 years since the team with the best regular season record in
the NBA went on to win the championship that year. Hope that trend
continues this year. -- Joe

Boston is a threat, hungry and game.

So far, they haven't shown a weakness in their approach.

We can only hope that the Cav's will tax them to the limit and hopefully
drain them emotionally as well as physically. If Boston rolls by them
their momentum will certainly erupt against us.

On Apr 16, 11:07*am, rd...@webtv.net wrote:
> Boston is a threat, hungry and game.
>
> So far, they haven't shown a weakness in their approach.
>
> We can only hope that the Cav's will tax them to the limit and hopefully
> drain them emotionally as well as physically. *If Boston rolls by them
> their momentum will certainly erupt against us.

Agreed. I hope the "new" Cavs (including Ben) step up, and that
LeBron gets all the "superstar" calls he got against us last year
against the Celtics. I think Boston will survive, but I hope they
play their starters a lot of minutes in a long series -- and they we
can get by playing the starters fewer minutes in fewer games against
(probably) Orlando. -- Joe

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:00:05 -0700 (PDT),
"jslater@NOutnet.utoledoSPAM.edu" <jslater@utnet.utoledo.edu> wrote:

>On Apr 16, 11:07*am, rd...@webtv.net wrote:
>> Boston is a threat, hungry and game.
>>
>> So far, they haven't shown a weakness in their approach.
>>
>> We can only hope that the Cav's will tax them to the limit and hopefully
>> drain them emotionally as well as physically. *If Boston rolls by them
>> their momentum will certainly erupt against us.
>
>Agreed. I hope the "new" Cavs (including Ben) step up, and that
>LeBron gets all the "superstar" calls he got against us last year
>against the Celtics. I think Boston will survive, but I hope they
>play their starters a lot of minutes in a long series -- and they we
>can get by playing the starters fewer minutes in fewer games against
>(probably) Orlando. -- Joe

For all of us who were hoping to play Orlando in the 2nd round instead
of Cleveland? I'm not sure anymore. Orlando is a pretty good team.
Dwight Howard can take over a series much like James can. The only
advantage Detroit will have is with experience. But that didn't stop
Cleveland from beating us last year...

Brian

"jslater@NOutnet.utoledoSPAM.edu" <jslater@utnet.utoledo.edu> wrote in
news:cc41d400-357c-47c5-9072-38173d46a907@d1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com:

> On Apr 16, 11:07*am, rd...@webtv.net wrote:
>> Boston is a threat, hungry and game.
>>
>> So far, they haven't shown a weakness in their approach.
>>
>> We can only hope that the Cav's will tax them to the limit and
>> hopefully drain them emotionally as well as physically. *If Boston
>> rolls by them their momentum will certainly erupt against us.
>
> Agreed. I hope the "new" Cavs (including Ben) step up, and that
> LeBron gets all the "superstar" calls he got against us last year
> against the Celtics. I think Boston will survive, but I hope they
> play their starters a lot of minutes in a long series -- and they we
> can get by playing the starters fewer minutes in fewer games against
> (probably) Orlando. -- Joe

I wouldn't make too much of a deal about this. For one thing, Boston is
deep enough that they'll be fine giving time to their bench. They've
managed to play well and win late in the season even when they've rested
one or more of their big three. Also, Boston has done very well in
playing back to backs, so there's no reason to think they do a whole lot
worse when they're tired, and there's usually lots of rest built into
the playoff schedule anyway. Also, teams can get sloppy with long
layoffs facing another team that's had a drawn out series.

Where rest makes a big difference in the playoffs is when there's an
injury that could heal with a layoff, but both teams are pretty healthy
right now, so there's no reason right now to believe a longer series
will be an issue there. Unless there is some goofy TV scheduling where
a team has to play a Noon game on the road with just one day off after a
late night game at home, I don't see this being an issue.

Detroit can beat Boston, but it's going to come down to basic matchups
and effort and brains and I'm not expecting rest to be an issue.

> For all of us who were hoping to play Orlando in the 2nd round instead
> of Cleveland? I'm not sure anymore. Orlando is a pretty good team.
> Dwight Howard can take over a series much like James can. The only
> advantage Detroit will have is with experience. But that didn't stop
> Cleveland from beating us last year...
>
> Brian

Not too worried about Orlando or Dwight Howard. With Lebron you can't really
take away just one part of his game and beat him because he is so well
rounded. If you can keep Howard out of the paint and prevent him from
dunking (which obviously isn't real easy to do) he can't hurt you much. Plus
he is a horrid free throw shooter and the Pistons have some big bodies.