Pistons Slappy

The biggest moment of the Miami game last night was Ben blocking Shaq's jump shot, then deflecting the ball down court for a run out. Awesome.

Early the Pistons suffered from Williams beating Chauncy into the lane time and again; it's a familiar sight where the opposition has a slashing point guard. Later it was Duane Wade slashing at will and making defended jump shots. But each was invisible on the floor when the other was hot, and when Wade got in foul trouble Williams didn't do much at the end. Once again the Pistons won in the face of lower field goal percentage and being outrebounded by hitting more 3's and getting more free throws.

The Dodger's youth, the comparison is the Frazier-Reed-Bradley-Monroe-DeBusschere Knicks. Who won two championships during the 1969-73 era [the first without Monroe, who eliminated them in the eastern finals in 70-71; why did the Bullets give him to the Knicks? more research is needed.] The Knicks were a perimeter team, hitting the open man. It was the era of clutch and grab defense. No one could really create a shot.

[The Dodger was defeated in searching for history of when the loose ball foul was introduced, when quarter limit of fouls was reduced from 6 to 4 and the two in the last two minutes was introduced, when they stopped shooting common fouls below 4 per quarter, and when the 3 to make 2 on shooting fouls was eliminated. The best site, found below, is silent on this matter although it has a lot of other details.

http://members.aol.com/bradleyrd/apbr-faq.html

The Dodger believes it was the time of the loose ball foul, and 6 per quarter without the last 2 minute limit. Mike Riordan used to come in to give fouls in the the last two minutes.]

The Knicks basically played with 6, with Dick Barnett coming off the bench at guard. [Who started at off guard before they got Monroe?] They would work the ball deep into the clock, then take a jump shot. Reed had a bit of a low post game, but mostly pulled the other center out to the foul line by reliable face-the-basket jump shooting. DeBusschere was the power forward, but his offensive game was to spot up in the corner, shots which would be 3's today, and crash the weak side following jump shots. Bradley had a limited game, but moved without the ball and sank open jump shots. Monroe and Frazier were not particularly slash to the basket guards.

These are about the roles of the current Pistons. Ben has less of an offensive game than Willis Reed had. Rasheed is way more offensive than DeBusschere and Prince has a real slashing game compared to Bradley. Guards are pretty much similar in role.

The Knicks beat the Lakers with Wilt Chamberlain twice in that stretch.

These days Shaq seems to be the only center in the league with a back-them-down low post game.

The Dodger swears of Pistons posts, but probably will give in again soon.