NBA Obsessed - NBA Basketball News

Detroit Pistons want redemption for last two years

by james on May 24th, 2008

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Rip Hamilton gives the secret password to victory to Antonio McDyess

The Boston Celtics had their way during the season winning everything in sight both home and away, but that does not mean that much now.

Detroit quietly went about their business. They were waiting.

Waiting for what?

The Detroit Pistons were waiting for this series. Boston Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons in the Conference finals.

This is the battle the Pistons want to win. They feel as if they underperformed the last two years, by being eliminated in the Conference finals by first Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat and then by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This year they knew it would be Boston, although LeBron James put a little doubt in that idea. You have to wonder what LeBron will be like with an actual team around him.

Detroit stole the home court advantage from Boston with the victory in game 2 and now we will find out what Boston is made of. It does not matter that Boston has not won on the road in the playoffs. They have beaten Detroit on its court during the regular season in a game that had playoff intensity. Boston knows what it has to do.

Detroit is still waiting. Antonio McDyess can hardly wait any longer. McDyess came to Detroit to win a title, an NBA title, and he has been so close for so long that the waiting is getting tougher. McDyess has been on fire. He wants that title.

Nobody’s taken the Pistons’ recent history of Eastern Conference finals disappointments harder than McDyess.

After last year’s Game 6 exit against Cleveland, he uncontrollably sobbed on a trainer’s table. Most of his teammates were long gone from the locker room, but he remained wrapped only in a towel.

He put off the simple formality of getting dressed. Why was that so difficult?

When you’ve quite possibly finished the last game of your career, you avoid all symbols of finality. The same sensation hit Chris Webber. He and McDyess were the last two Pistons to leave the locker room at Quicken Loans Arena that evening.

McDyess wasn’t sure if he could make the extreme physical and emotional investment required to make another serious championship run.

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Rip Hamilton is hitting shots, Chauncey Billups has mostly healed up his hamstring and dominating Rajon Rondo, Rasheed is Rasheed drawing another technical and then playing a technically amazing game, Tayshaun is guarding Paul Pierce and scoring in the clutch, but Antonio…Antonio just wants it. Flip Saunders put him on Kevin Garnett and Antonio responded.

“We know how badly ‘Dyess wants” a championship ring, Chauncey Billups said. “He’s played great, but he’s also playing a bigger role in the locker room. He’s been a great leader for us.”

The praise embarrasses McDyess. He’s a modest warrior. But Flip Saunders entrusted him with much of the defensive dirty work against Kevin Garnett in Game 2. He didn’t back down, relentlessly bumping and banging the Celtics star and making him work hard for his points.

Can Boston win one of the next two games on Detroit’s court? Not if it is up to Antonio McDyess. You see the Pistons are waiting, but McDyess is not.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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POSTED IN: Boston Celtics, Chauncey Billups, Detroit Pistons, Flip Saunders, Kevin Garnett, NBA Basketball, Paul Pierce, Rasheed Wallace, Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince