As the playoffs begin, the Celtics addition of PJ Brown and Cassell has me concerned.  Prior to those additions, I felt Detroit had the best talent in the East.

 Not so confident at this point.

 Although I think Detroit can beat anyone in the West, I fear they may not be able to beat Boston now. 

 It's all going to ride on the bench play.  Detroit will need some stellar bench performance against Boston to beat them.  That's a lot to ask out of rookies.  I still think very little of Jarvis Hayes, and that isn't going to change.

 Detroit should not get beat prior to the ECF.

I never thought the Pistons could beat the Celtics in a 7-game series, and the additions of PJ Brown and Cassell aren't helping.

Maybe with some excellent (and I mean excellent) play from the bench we'd be able to squeeze past Boston. Stuckey's been coming along nicely after a rough start.

I can't say their loss to Philly in game 1 shocks me in any way.

Lazy team, lazy attitude. I've come to expect it.

They'll win this series, but watch out for Orlando.

This act is just plain old.  Losing game one is just absurd.  Doesn't even deserve comment.

This is what you get with this squad.  Never been any different.  If the bench was to make a difference this year...well...the game didn't look much different to me at the end.

Orlando will test them becasue they'll F around during some games.  They haven't put together a string of focused playoff games since the last five games of the 2005 finals.  Of course, that was after they screwed around for the first two.

This is the disadvantage of not having an elite player.

Guys like Kobe, Lebron, and Chris Paul keep their teams focused and are able to take over when needed.

Chauncey played like a complete idiot for most of the 4th quarter.

Quite honestly, I don't think I've ever seen a playoff loss as bad as that one.  They used to lose to Boston in game 1s on the road in Boston against Bird and co., pretty badly, but this isn't exactly Boston circa 1980s...yet they were DOMINATED.

This whole thing is about to come crashing down on Dumars and cause him to hit the BLOW UP button...I think so anyhow (if they actually lose this series). Although I thought he had to blow it up after last season's ridiculous loss to Cleveland and their one man crew.

 It's proving more and more that the success this team had was directly tied to the efforts of B. Wallace in his prime.  His presence defensively was of "elite player" status. He quits on them two years ago, look what happened.  Presence gone last year, look what happened.  Now this.  B. Wallace is terrible now, but back then he was something.

I don't know what happens now.  I really don't.  Game 3 looked like a team about ready to disintegrate.  Old, tired, and on their way down from the pinnacle of the league.  The Celtics have about the clearest path to the NBA finals that I've ever seen.  The Pistons turned disaster around against Orlando years ago.  However, they were young, had desire, and were still learning how to do things (they also had Prince come to the rescue).  I don't think they have any tricks up their sleeve in this one. They either do a quick 180 or see ya.

 I don't think much of Flip Saunders, but even he's not bad enough to cause this situation.  This is bigger than him.   Pistons look old, tired, and disinterested.  Stuckey looks like he should be in high school.  The Pistons franchise is dangerously close to needing the RESET button pushed.  Championship teams do not lose this badly in the playoffs to teams that went 40-42 during the season.  I challenge anyone to find a championship team lose in this fashion to a 40-42 team in the playoffs. 

 And perhaps that right there says more than anything else how this season is going to end eventually...sooner or later.

Ouch. I feel bad for Piston fans right now. Losing 1 game can be seen as a wakeup call, but if the mighty Pistons cannot suck it up and at the very least make game 3 competetive, maybe they are not so mighty any more? It will be interesting to see what happens in the off-season.

And game 4 is exactly why the Pistons are idiots.  They proved:

- They don't put forth top effort unless necessary, cheating the fans.  The "goin to work" thing is dead.  They go to work once in a great while.  They decided to work for 24 minutes in this game.

- They only focus when they have to.  When they play a team with an elite player, they will be defeated...just like last year against Cleveland...because they only focus once in a while.

No surprise if this goes seven games.  Asking them to focus and fight for three straight games is a lot to ask of them.  They'll need to take at least one of them off...or one and a half.

This team is so unlikeable right now, that I actually can't wait for Dumars to blow it up.

We'll squeak by Philly, but Orlando will give us even more trouble, if not beat us.

DonVitoCorleone:

The Celtics have about the clearest path to the NBA finals that I've ever seen.

Sure about that?

The Celtics should be ashamed of themselves.

How embarassing.  Good thing they get Cleveland next.  If they can't stop J. Johnson, how are they going to stop James?

I may have to start callling R. Hamlton the next Jerry Stackhouse.

I may have to start calling R. Hamilton the next "Jerry Stackhouse."  The guy can't seem to go more than a few minutes without turning the ball over. 

 Catch and shoot Hamiton.  Quit trying to create (you can't), and look at where your throwing the stupid ball.  Absurd.

The problem is, with a point guard like Chauncey Billups, Hamilton is sometimes forced to try to create his own shot. It was even worse last night with Stuckey in. 

If he had a penetrate-and-dish type point guard I don't think he'd turn the ball over so much because his offensive game would most likely be restricted exclusively to catch-and-shoot.

Big win.  Finally.

Wow, they actually got up and played without Billups.

I thought it was 2003 for a second.

Liked what I saw.

Game ball should go to McDyess.  He was everywhere on the offensive glass.  He was fantastic.  He wants to win it so bad.

Nice to see Prince show up for the playoffs this year.

McDyess is MVP so far.

 Prince must think he's a rookie again.

Now things can get started.

 Boston has been less than impresive to say the very least.  Cleveland is not as good as they were last year (that mid-season trade saw to that) and the loss of D. Gibson, who was the difference last year, made them even worse.  Yet Boston still had trouble finishing them off.  How about Garnett getting bailed out by PJ Brown?  How about Ray Allen?  Geez.  I guess there's a reason these guys haven't been to the finals.

IF Detroit approaches this series with laser-like focus

IF Detroit plays all out from the start

IF they want to get to the finals as much as Boston

Then I like their chances.  This should be fun to watch.

 I just wonder if Flip will get outcoached again.

Man, I sure hope Rondo is out there in crunch time in this series.  He'll have his moments, but he's the guy I want with the ball late in the game.  Hope he's out there.

That guy needs some help.

DonVitoCorleone:

IF Detroit approaches this series with laser-like focus

IF Detroit plays all out from the start

IF they want to get to the finals as much as Boston

This is basically what it all comes down to.

A bunch of IFs. You just never know what you'll get with this team.

Although I will say Boston doesn't look too great, and if they're still unable to win on the road, all we'd need to do is steal one on their home floor and the series is ours.

DonVitoCorleone:

That guy needs some help.

Haha.

Observations:

Can't win with Billups in this condition.

The Pistons don't pass the ball at all.  Their offense is painful to watch.

All they do is stand around on offense.  One on one just about every single time. 

Boston gets way too many easy baskets.  Paul Pierce is doing exactly what James did to them last year. 

The Pistons cannot stop their dribble penetration.

Boston should have won that game by 30 points.  Detroit was never in it after the first half.

 Detroit now has to win 4 out of 5.  They won't win a 7th game in Boston.

Boston could win this thing in five games at this rate...although they seem to really suck on the road.  Detroit just doesn't move the ball.  AT ALL.

I'm not very optimistic about their chances at this point.  They were absolutely pitiful.  I don't have much faith in Saunders being able to make adjustments.

What a crappy effort in the second half.

I couldn't agree more on the offense, players just stand around. What happened to running Rip off a million screens? Flip doesn't take control of anything. This team might as well not have a coach.

Looked like McDyess was the only one who cared out there tonight.

We still have a chance to wake up and steal game 2.