PISTONS, SPURS GO 2-0

 

 

In the East, the Pistons managed to win Game 1 well enough thanks to a second half comeback. The Cavs still had the possibility to turn the series on it's head if they won Game 2 in Detroit and their early first half display in Game 1 was promising. However, the Pistons are always going to be more than capabple of taking care of business on their home court so the expectation was for another home win on this occassion to allow the number 1 seed to keep control of the series.

The Pistons were definately the better side throughout the 1st quarter with the Cavs never managed to take the lead throughout the entire quarter. Pistons led 20-16 with a quarter down. Less than a minute into the second quarter though and the Cavs had swung it round. Now there was a game though the home still still had the edge, just about. However a Daniel Gibson three pointer mid quarter stung the Pistons who were completely out of it for the rest of the half. Cavs up 50-38 at half time.

Early on in the third and the Cavs were easily maintaining their lead when there was a two minute drought and the PIstons went on a comeback run which cut the deficit down to three before the Cavs responded. After another couple of goes the Pistons finally broke through but the Cavs came back to lead 63-60 with a quarter to go. The Cavs stayed in the lead early on in the fourth but finally broke mid quarter and though they made one last fight of it late on and were still leading with a minute on the clock, a Rasheed Wallace jumper secured a 79-76 win for the Pistons with another clutch play from the Cavs going wrong with LeBron and crew getting chased back to Cleveland for Game 3

In the West, the Spurs had run the show for the bulk of Game 1 against a Jazz side out of their depth, allowing the home side to get away with dropping their guard in the fourth quarter. The Jazz theoretically could have pulled off a miracle in Game 2 in San Antonio, anything can happen in a game of basketball but it was pretty unlikely. The expectation was more along the line of another straghtforward Spurs win to help secure the series.

Sure enough the Spurs had no mercy, opening the scoring and though the Jazz came back to tie the came multiple time, including at 21 late on the the 1st. Manu Ginobli was able to see the Spurs out of that quarter with a lead. Then in the second quarter the Spurs just tore the visitors apart. The Jazz never came close at the home side were up double digits by mid quarter! The Jazz weren't able to get back from that before half time, by which point the Spurs led 58-41.

The Spurs were up by more than 20 early on in the third but then the Jazz attemped some form of comeback later on even if they were still down double digits with a quarter to go. The Jazz comeback went up another notch in the fourth quarter and it didn't take the visitors long to cut the deficit to single figures though the efforts of Bruce Bowen made sure that the Spurs kept the scoreline ticking over. The best the Jazz were able to do was cut the deficit to seven and the Spurs chased them back to Utah for Game 3 to the tune of 105-96.

Let's see if the change of scene affects anything.

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