PISTONS, MAVS, SUNS COMPLETE CONFERENCE FINAL LINEUP
With the Heat watching, the Pistons and Cavs were still wrestling for a place in the Eastern Conference Finals by the time game 7 rolled around in Detroit. Prior to game 3 of the series, the Cavs hadn't even won a Conference semis game since 1992 and now they were embarrassing the team with the League's number 1 regular season record, thanks mainly to LeBron James. However, the Pistons haven't gotten where they are without the ability to get results.
In the first half the Pistons started by going 7-0 up(taking over two minutes to do so) and there were two periods of over a minute with no points in the first quarter, with the home side the beneficaries. Finally Le Bron and the Cavs started to nibble into the Pistons' lead but points were still scarce and by half time the score was only 40-38.
Late on in the third quarter though, LeBron was pretty much shut down which meant that the Cavs were killed off. Of course that was never going to mean the match got particularly better, this is the Pistons we're talking about! It did mean though that thanks to LeBron having no real backup for the second game in a row, "Detroiit Basketbaaaall" fans were able to see their team do what they do best, get a result while sending neutral fans to sleep. Final score 79-61. Pistons win the series 4-3.
Out West the Spurs and Mavs took their heavyweight rumble back to San Antonio. Jason Terry was back from suspension for the Mavs but with the Spurs back on homecourt, Avery Johnson's crew looked to have blown their best chance of winning the series back in game 6. Still, the two sides met with the title on the line and the Mavs were certainly capable of winning on the Spurs' turf.
Well the first half was a Mavs show with Dirk Nowitski and Terry combining to to flatten the Spurs despite neither side really going on a hot run untill the Mavs put on a surge in the second quarter. The Spurs hit some half decent form late on in the second quarter but by half time the title looked to be fading away with the Mavs up 64-50.
Tim Duncan had other idea though as the Spurs exploded into action in the third quarter on a 18-6 run with Duncan running the show on the inside with Michael Finley and Manu Ginobli on the outside and in the fourth quarter a Ginobli three pointer put the Spurs up 104-101 with less than a minute on the clock. A Nowitski drive forced a foul though and the resulting free throw was all the German needed to force overtime with the game tied at 104.
In the extra period it was Jerry Stackhouse who stepped up for the Mavs, first opening the defending champions on offense before blocking Ginobli and Finley three pointers on defence and effectivly winning the game single handed. Fine by the Mavs - the final score being 119-111, the series won 4-3 and the NBA title is now up in the air.
In Phoenix the Suns and Clippers went head to head in the third Conference semi game 7 of 2006(the first time this has happened since 1994). Most of the Clippers opponents must be wondering what hit them as LA's lower-profile side has pulled off their best post season run since their former incarnation the Buffalo Brave took a Conference semis series to seven games in 1975 while the Suns must be sick of LA by now.
Well the Clippers started with a 4-0 run but the Suns soon swung things round and though the underdogs eventually pulled level before the end of the first quarter, the Suns then blew them away at the start of the second and though the Clippers had the odd nibble, the Suns led by Steve Nash and Shaun Marion came into half time 65-57 up.
And from there the Suns simply hit top gear and torpedoed the Clippers with three pointers thus stretching their lead to double figures in a style that the visitors were never going to match. People may complain about the Suns relative lack of defence but if you can match most opposition two-pointers with threes then you are always going to win the game. Final score 127-107. Suns win series 4-3.