Detroit Humbles Orlando to Reach the East Finals Print E-mail
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 
Written by Darren Odellot   
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Detroit Humbles Orlando to Reach the East Finals


Six. This is the number of times in a row that the Detroit Pistons are able to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals. In two of those times, they have won the NBA Championship. This year, they have made it again and will be facing the winner of the Boston Celtics – Cleveland Cavaliers series. Regardless of who wins between those two teams, the Pistons are prepared. They have ample time to rest, which is most important for their star point guard Chauncey Billups who had an ankle injury in their team’s match-up against the Orlando Magic. Detroit’s beating of Orlando in five games was their ticket to this year’s East Finals.

The Bad Boys of Detroit were at it again, even though they missed the services of Billups. In Game 5, Richard Hamilton was outstanding as he had a game-high 31 points. Although he had an off shooting night as he only managed to make 7 shots out of 20, Hamilton was able to sink in 16 out of 16 free throws. He also added 4 steals, 3 assists and 2 rebounds. Antonio McDyess helped Hamilton in scoring as he put up 17 points. He grabbed 11 rebounds for the game, 6 of them from the offensive board. He was a key factor in Detroit’s recent win and will most probably be the difference maker in the next round.

All five starters for the Detroit Pistons scored in double digits. Rookie guard Rodney Stuckey had 15 points and Rasheed Wallace added 14. Tayshaun Prince, recently named to the All-Defensive Second Team, poured in 10 points. The Detroit bench was ineffective during Game 5 as they only scored a total of 4 points for the whole game. However, they proved to be inessential since the main unit was able to take care of things and finally finish the season for the pesky Orlando Magic. Yet, the Magic are still proud to push the former champions to the limit, with every game coming down to the wire.

Orlando’s Dwight Howard was not his usual beastly self as Detroit clamped its defense tightly around him. Howard managed only 14 points but was still able to get 17 rebounds. The free throws really hurt Dwight as he only got 6 out of 15 shots. NBA Most Improved Player for this season, Hedo Turkoglu, carried the offensive load by putting up 18 points. He nearly had a triple-double since he also had 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Prime free season pick up Rashard Lewis was limited to only 4 made shots, two of them from three-point land. Orlando’s bench was better compared to Detroit, with Keith Bogans scoring 10 points.

The Detroit Pistons are now on a waiting game. They will be using the time off to heal Billups’ injury and to develop plays aimed at stopping either Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Big Three of the Boston Celtics comprised of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. The Pistons are not worried on which team they have to face. They are the Bad Boys and they are meant to slug it out with every NBA team that comes between them and the Championship. 



Reddit!Del.icio.us!Google!Live!Facebook!StumbleUpon!Yahoo!Free social bookmarking plugins and extensions for Joomla! websites!
Comments (0)add
Write comment
smaller | bigger

busy
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]