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Ginobili, Spurs rock Pistons
By David Zizmor June 9, 2005 |
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Game 1 of the NBA Finals saw the San Antonio Spurs take it to the Detroit Pistons with an 84-69 victory down in the heart of Texas at the SBC Center. The Spurs showed a little more life than the Pistons. We can chalk a lot of this game up to the fact that the Pistons only finished out their series with Miami on Tuesday and had two days to prepare after a grueling seven-game series. The Spurs applied a lot of pressure down the stretch as the game closed out. San Antonio was really taking it to Detroit and the Pistons just weren't strong enough to defend. San Antonio scored 29 points in the fourth quarter versus only 18 for Detroit. The front-line scorers were the guys doing it all for the most part. Chauncey Billups led Detroit with 25 points, Manu Ginobili had 26 for San Antonio, and 24 came for the Spurs' Tim Duncan to go with 17 rebounds. Detroit wasn't really ready to play a full four quarters against a team as good as San Antonio. Tony Parker and Ginobili were taking the ball right down the heart of the Pistons' defense, driving the lane with every opportunity, making as much contact as possible and scoring. It's one thing to get down low and make contact, but if you don't score, it's not worth it. Ginobili was just fantastic - he was 10-of-16 (63 percent) from the floor, perfect from the free throw line (4-for-4), and 2-for-4 from beyond the three-point line. Rasheed Wallace had six blocked shots for Detroit, but only scored six points. The Pistons will need more than that from him if they want to have a chance in the series. The Pistons will finally get a chance to catch their breath, and hopefully on Sunday for Game 2, they'll be a little more rested and a little more able to keep up with the Spurs. In the first three quarters, the Pistons were right there with San Antonio it was neck-and-neck until they just fell apart in the fourth. Ziz's footnotes: The Pistons' Richard Hamilton, who was top scorer for each of the games in the Eastern finals, had only 14 points on 7-for-21 shooting. Ginobili got the Pistons' blood boiling early when he collided with Ben Wallace, who was called for a blocking foul. Wallace was given a technical foul for arguing the call, and the Spurs from that point wen off on a 14-4 run and went up by 16. The Spurs also had closed off a 13-point deficit in the first half. Finally: This was the third time in NBA history that two past NBA Champions from consecutive years have met in the NBA Finals. The rest of the NBA Championship finals schedule: June 9th - San Antonio 84, Detroit 69 June 12th 6PM PDT @SA June 14th 6PM PDT @Detroit June 16th 6PM PDT @Detroit *June 19th 6PM PDT @Detroit *June 20th 6PM PDT @SA *June 23rd 6PM PDT @SA *-if necessary David Zizmor will be covering the NBA finals and will be giving you his inside look on Sportstalk on 1430 KVVN San Jose and 1110 KLIB Sacramento. |
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