Comments on: We’ve Been Waiting Since November: Boston Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons Playoff Preview

By: Andrew Thell

Andrew Thell — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:27:09 +0000

You better hope the sweep doesn’t end in Detroit four games from last night.

By: Brandaddy

Brandaddy — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:00:29 +0000

Sweep Ends in Detroit, 4 games from tonight.

By: phil anselmo

phil anselmo — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:12:48 +0000

true, but everyone knows that David Von Stern will stop at nothing for a boston/LA finals. The conspiracy theories are going to be flying, and early.

By: Brian Spencer

Brian Spencer — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:06:52 +0000

Good lord, Phil–were you watching the same Game 7 (and Game 5) that the rest of the country was against Cleveland? Even impartial observers would agree that Boston shamelessly bitched, moaned, whined, and complained about the officiating until their faces had turned red! Literally every single whistle that went against them was met with stupified looks and pleadings to the officials… and apparently every time a Celtic hits the court it’s really, really… really painful.

That said, I expect a lot of talk about officiating from both sides during this series. That’s just about become par for the course during the NBA Playoffs…

By: phil anselmo

phil anselmo — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:00:43 +0000

baseless gut instincts:

It’s counter intuitive, but I feel like if boston goes up 2-0, they’re fucked and lose in 6. The road struggles have gathered so enough moss that I don’t think they could recover after the inevitable game 3 loss.

On the flipside, if they go to detroit tied at 1 game, the sense of urgency finally will hit them before it has in previous rounds and they’ll go back to boston tied at 2 and it will be chalk from there.

I like KG and the Boston centers to come up big this series and Ray Allen to continue to come up small.

Rip had better have a monster series, because a team with Prince carrying the load can beat the magic, but I can’t see it beating the celtics.

I predict it will be no later than after game 2 for pistons and spurs fans alike to be crying over nba mandated preferential officiating. I predict Sheed insinuates this no later than after game 1.

UBUNTU!!!

By: Brian Spencer

Brian Spencer — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:21:22 +0000

Hi Vijay,

Thanks for reading/commenting. You’re totally right: I have no idea how I forgot to mention Posey (it was getting late and this article was getting long is my best guess). He could very well have a huge impact on this series, especially if he’s draining triples. I’m not sure I agree that Boston has the bench advantage, but it’s pretty close.

I saw Allen miss a *ton* of wide-open shots against Cleveland, but you’re correct in that the Cavs were also focused on limiting him. It’ll be interesting to see if he turns around against the Pistons, and how quickly.

By: Vijay

Vijay — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:53:46 +0000

Nice article. But this statement about Ray Allen cannot be true “In short, he’s been terrible so far on both ends of the court”.

He has played great defense so far in the playoffs, limiting the guys he guards to fewer points than their capable of with just single coverage. He was constantly double-teamed in the Cleveland series because he killed them during the regular season, which is why he never got in the rhythm. besides doc rivers totally sucks at using ray.

Also noted that you forgot to mention Posey, he’s the first one off the bench for the Celts usually. Celtics should have the advantage in the bench – Doc usually uses 10-11 man rotations and all of those are more than serviceable players. Good luck!