[外電] Pistons' magic has run out after collapse against Cavali
No one could have ever imagined that it would end this way.
No, not the Eastern Conference finals, but the Pistons' wonderful run the
past five years.
In the end, the Pistons pulled one of the biggest choke jobs in the NBA.
With their embarrassing 98-82 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6
before a sellout crowd at the Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday night,
the Pistons lost the best-of-seven series, 4-2. Worse, they lost four
straight games after winning the first two games of this series.
The Pistons -- who appeared to be heading to their third trip to the NBA
Finals in four seasons -- are the third team in league history to fail to
make it to the championship after winning the first two games in the
conference finals.
"It's disappointing," point guard Chauncey Billups said after the debacle.
"I feel bad for the guys on the team.
"We've had a great year, and for it to come to an end like this we put a
lot of work in, but it was a tough one out there today."
But this is bigger than losing to LeBron James, the NBA's next biggest star
since Michael Jordan, and the Cavaliers, a lesser team. This series was
never about the Cavaliers. Easily, the Pistons would have been moving on
if they played their basketball, did regular things, not phenomenal
basketball.
"Some of the key guys didn't play their best series," forward Tayshaun Prince
said. "We played up and down."
This was a team that had the best record in the Eastern Conference, a team
that won its first seven postseason games with a lot of focus and
determination. Add to that, the experience factor. They won so many big
games, especially on the road. It just didn't happen.
Pistons lack energy
Like last season, the Pistons simply seemed to run out of gas at the end.
Maybe, it's the roughly extra 100 games they've played the last five
seasons of making it to the conference finals every year. Maybe, it's just
that there was no more left in this group of overachievers who bucked the
odds, winning an NBA title without a superstar, in a superstar league.
It's an amazing feat, but you can't live on that forever.
The Pistons' magic clearly has run out. This is the second straight year that
their season ended in the conference finals with a Game 6 loss on the
road -- last season it was against Miami. They used to own big moments like
this, winning six straight Game 6s before the last two years in the
conference finals.
Worse, it's the second straight year someone other than the star of the team
was the player who killed them. Rookie Daniel Gibson scored a career-high 31
on 7-for-9 shooting from the field, including 5-for-5 from 3-point land. Last
year, it was the Heat's Jason Williams, who hit his first 10 shots.
No answers
The Pistons never seemed to have an answer in the biggest moments the last
two seasons. That's not an abrasion. That's a pattern.
Billups, who becomes a free agent this summer, wasn't sure if this run --
which produced a championship in 2004 and five straight trips to the
conference finals, the first team to do that since Jordan's Bulls -- was
officially over after horrid losses in early June back-to-back.
"That's not really up to me," Billups said. "I love the guys I play with.
"We love being around each other. We had some really great years, and if we
keep it all together, we can have a few more great years. Nobody's too old;
we still have a group."
Like last season against the Heat, the Pistons simply couldn't shoot the ball.
They shot a paltry 36 percent from the floor and were drubbed 31-16 in the
fourth quarter. Prince had a horrible series and went 1-for-10 from the field
in the finale.
But Richard Hamilton and Billups, the Pistons' two All-Stars, failed to play
to their levels in the conference finals for the second year in a row.
"Our shooters never really got into a rhythm as far as anytime in this series,
and you've got to give them credit for that," said coach Flip Saunders, who
failed to make it to the Finals despite getting to the conference finals for
the third time in four years.
"I didn't play my best, but I played my hardest," Billups said.
The same could be said about the Pistons as a whole. Imagine that.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070603/SPORTS08/706030346/1127
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