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Pistons Find Spark
By David Zizmor June 14, 2005 |
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We now have an NBA finals worth talking about as the Detroit Pistons showed up in Game 3 Tuesday night and beat the tar out of San Antonio 96-79 at Auburn Hills. The Spurs lead the series 2-1. One of the big factors was the injury to Spurs star Manu Ginobili early on in the game. Within the first 30 seconds of the contest, Ginobili got hurt and he was really not quite the same the rest of the game. Ginobili did play 30 minutes, but he only scored seven points and clearly was not his normal aggressive self, turning the ball over six times. Meanwhile, the Pistons were playing with a passion that was definitely missing from the first two games of the series. Whatever they're drinking, the Pistons should drink another dose of it for the fourth game Thursday night, because they're going to need it against a very good San Antonio team. This time around, leading the way was Richard Hamilton, who had 24 points. He was sharp-shooting all over the place and doing a great job from the floor finding his spot. With Ginboili hurting, the Pistons were able to play at full speed and created a problem for the Spurs on defense, creating openings for other guys on the Detroit team. Chauncey Billups had 20 points, Ben Wallace had 15, Tayshaun Prince had 12, and even Antonio McDyess had 12 points off the bench, something that's been sorely lacking for the Pistons. From San Antonio's side of the ball, they weren't as sharp this time around. Detroit's defense is very good and they held San Antonio to 42 percent shooting from the floor. More importantly, they weren't getting to the free throw line as often as they did in the previous two games. The Spurs only got to the line for 20 shots, and Detroit beat them up on the boards 44-37. The Pistons blocked ten shots whereas San Antonio only blocked three. The Pistons have another tall order for them in the next game Manu Ginobili is actually seriously injured he's going to be hobbled for the rest of the series. Detroit's got an opening and they're going to have to take it, they're going to have to be more physical and take it right to the Spurs. Ziz's Footnotes: If Ginobili isn't hurt, you'll see this one going in San Antonio's favor, and at the very least we have a very competitive series since Detroit can hang with the Spurs, something they couldn't come close to doing in either of the first two games. Interest might increase in this series and the Pistons, with the two more games in Detroit, have a good chance of taking at least one of those and sending a game back to San Antonio with something on the line. Schedule and scores: *denotes if necessary June 9th San Antonio 84 Detroit 69 June 12th San Antonio 97 Detroit 76 June 14th Detroit 96 San Antonio 79 June 16th San Antonio@Detroit June 19th San Antonio@Detroit June 20th Detroit@San Antonio* June 23rd Detroit @San Antonio* David Zizmor will have your NBA Championship coverage also join David on Sportstalk on 1430 KVVN San Jose and 1110 KLIB Sacramento. |
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