The Pistons knew what they had to do to beat the Chicago Bulls. They needed to shut down Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich, something they couldn't do in Games Four or Five, and last night they finally did. The Pistons are headed to the Eastern Conference Finals after a 95-85 win in Chicago last night.
It took 24 minutes for them to find their footing, thanks in large part to the half of P.J. Brown's life, but when they did it was an emphatic return. Down five at the half, the Pistons opened the third quarter with an 18-5 run that turned the tide for good. Defense was the order of the day and Detroit wisely eschewed the bustable zone preferred by Flip Saunders for some honest man-to-man and found the results they were missing in the previous two games. Despite the 20 points from Brown in the first half, the lack of a consistent offensive presence down low really cost Chicago last night and throughout the series. They'll need to address that this summer because the Ben Wallace signing looks pretty silly without a first-rate scorer playing beside him up front. Whether or not that changes his lackadaisacal approach to showing up on time or not remains to be seen but in the closing game of the season he was being beaten to rebounds and his defensive presence was limited at best.
For Detroit the key is clearly in the focus department. Neither the Cavs nor the Nets have the depth to hang with the Pistons over a seven-game series unless they return to the less frenzied defense of the two Chicago losses. If it's Cleveland the Pistons should remain a man-to-man squad to take advantage of their massive superiority over everyone not named LeBron James while Saunders' zone will probably be in order against the Nets. Either way the defense is going to be their route to success in the next round and whichever opponent comes their way it's looking like a third trip to the finals in four years for Detroit.
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