Or at least, they've cut the series to 2-1 with a 86-77 victory, especially impressive since Larry Hughes did not play after the death of his brother. My condolences to the Hughes family.Now about the game. Detroit pretty much did the same thing last series against Milwaukee, when they lost game 3 by like 20 points. Today they at least made it a close game, but either way they go home with the loss.
In Game 3, it was all about LeBron late, when he scored 15 of his 21 points in the 4th quarter, leading some to call him the Anti-Kobe (I'll let you decide for yourself there). He also had his second playoff double, obviously registering his first earlier in these playoffs. He finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.
In the grand scheme of things, I doubt this will really mean much. I picked the Pistons to win in 5, and I see no reason to divert from that. Cleveland may be able to steal one more game, but I seriously doubt they can do more than that. But for tonight, this is enough, especially with LeBron passing another hurdle - coming up big and leading his team to a victory against a legitimate great team in the playoffs. He's 21 years old. He really has absolutely no ceiling whatsoever.
Anyway, Game 4 is Monday sometime, and I fully expect Detroit to come right back and get the win to go up 3-1. With all due respect to Cleveland, they're just not an elite team yet.
In the other matchup, which I was not able to watch much of because I was out and about, Dalls pulled off the 104-103 win. Tim Duncan continued his rampage through Dallas with 35 and 12, but Dirk scored 27 (21/24 FT? Can anyone comment on how he got to the line so much?), and for the second straight game Devin Harris was excellent. Game 4 is officially a must-win for the Spurs, because falling down 3-1 to a team of Dallas' caliber is really not a good idea.
2 comments:
Since 2003, the Pistons' record in a Game 3 is 4-9.
For whatever reason, the combination of the opponent putting forth its best effort and the Pistons maybe relaxing a bit results in a Game 3 loss. (Or if you're a conspiracy theorist, the Pistons' ownership wants an extra home game.) It would be frustrating, if not for the fact that they still usually close out a series decisively.
I was very impressed with LeBron, by the way. That was a Magic-esque, Jordan-ian performance, in that he spent the first 3/4 of the game getting his teammates involved and making sure the Pistons had to factor them in on defense, and then "took over" at the end when it counted most.
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