No mystery: 'We played a horrible game'

The Pistons didn’t wake up Wednesday blessed with any great revelations, but there probably weren’t any to be had. There was no mystery to their Game 1 loss – they were too slow getting into their offensive sets, their defense was a step behind Boston most of the night, they settled for too many long jump shots and they didn’t get the type of performance they needed from Chauncey Billups after his long injury layoff.

“We played a horrible game,” Antonio McDyess said. “We felt we played a horrible game and we just can’t continue playing that way. I think tomorrow is going to be a little different.”

Flip Saunders admitted he expected some rough patches early and felt pretty good when the Pistons got to halftime trailing by only one. The flat third quarter – the turnovers, especially – did them in.

“We knew coming in that … we were going to be not as competitive early, but I thought we got to 41‑40 and got into it and we were OK. But the third quarter, when we should have jumped on it, we just didn’t. We didn’t get it done. We turned the ball over too much. We beat ourselves. We’re a team that, we came off of a playoff low of three turnovers and we had seven in the third quarter. So when it’s a close game, we turn it over seven times, we don’t give ourselves a chance.”

It’s safe to assume the Pistons will alter the way they defended Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett on the pick-and-roll play – Saunders said Garnett set screens a whopping 53 times in Game 1.

“Well,” he said when asked about that likelihood, “you’ll find out.”

Cleveland was very aggressive in defending Pierce on the pick and roll, trapping him more often than not. Of course, Pierce burned Cleveland for 41 points in Boston’s Game 7 win over the Cavs, so you have to be careful when choosing your poison with an All-Star.

Billups said he came out of Game 1 feeling pretty good physically and expects not only he, but backcourt partner Rip Hamilton, will attack more often in Game 2.

“I’m going to – I probably will,” he said. “I know with Rip and I not being aggressive and trying to score the ball, our chances, they go down a little bit. So I think that he and I both have to be a little more aggressive, and that’s not necessarily taking shots but just getting into the teeth of the defense. You know they load up, you know they’re going to be coming off on penetration, and (it’s important) to get guys easier shots and not fight the shot clock so much.

“The rhythm was a little bit off, but even when they don’t let you reverse the ball, then that’s when you’re going to take action, take seams. That’s just something that once you see how teams are playing certain things, that’s when you make certain adjustments. I think we’ll do a better job of that tomorrow.”

---

Questions and comments on Keith's posts can be submitted via the Pistons Mailbag. Click here to submit your question.

Click here to return to Pistons.com