I thought game was well officiated and players for the most part decided the outcome. We should have had another one of these games in SA and in Detroit with only 2 blowouts in this series.
MVP for Spurs was Horry and Bowen. Both played exceptional. Bowen had same impact as Horry yet nobody talking about Bowen. Of course Parker, Ginobili and Duncan were good too but we expect that out of them.
MVP for Detroit was Ben Wallace and Billups! Billups monster game!
I thought game was decided on free throws.
Duncan was 4-11 on free throws while Ben Wallace was 5-6. Going by how each player averages on line and what type of player each are,
I think that was a +6 pt advantage for Pistons. This game was very tight at end of 4th and very tight in OT. +6pt advantage was huge. Props to Wallace!
Look at key moments in game. 7min. left in 4th, all tied up, Duncan missed both free throws. With Spurs leading 88-87 with 1 min. left Duncan missed both free throws. Duncan was blowing the game and giving Detroit the win. 89-88 spurs lead with 33sec left, Ginobili attacked basket and B. Wallace grabbed Ginobili's left arm but no foul and dumped ball to Duncan who then was fouled. Duncan made 1-2 free throws but Ginoboli might have made 2-2 free throws. Just another example of Spurs almost blowing game and maybe getting bad break from Ref.
Another bad call by ref I thought was in OT where Pistons ahead 91-89 and Billups drives between Duncan and Parker. Refs called Parker foul when to me it looked like he got all ball but it was a 50/50 call at best. As a result of foul, Pistons go up now 4pts in OT. Stupid announces said Parker grabbed Billups, which was absurd. He swatted at ball, not even grabbing at billups.
2 more examples where Spurs almost gave game away was Spurs down 95-91 and Horry made great dunk to cut deficit down to 2pts. But he practically airballed the free throw to cut it 1pt. But should his shoulder might have had something to do with that. Then on next Spurs possession down 2pts, Duncan fumbles the ball on pass and turns it over. Didn't Ginobili have horrible turnover at end of 4th or OT? Just stupid. Duncan also missed easy tap in to end 4th. He was kicking himself for that.
Then with 40sec. left, Detroit up 2pts, they miss shot but get rebound, and miss shot again with 15sec. Then Horry gets to make wide open trey (which R. Wallace f***ed up) and then Detroit misses again at end. But why was RIP allowed to attempt game winning shot after throwing his arm at Parkers face? That was an obvious foul as it gets. Did the refs possibly allow Pistons to take 3-2 finals lead because RIP whacked Parker in face? Give me a break and get some balls ref.
Those were deciding factors in game and both teams shot themselves in foot on stupid mistakes or stupid execution.
This was great game because it was close and went into OT. But if you look deeper, both teams executed poorly. Especially Spurs with missed free throws and costly turnovers that really weren't forced by Detroit.
TouchdownJesus said:
At least after the question to Duncan about playing different, he said the difference was Big Shot Bob. I like Duncan and he's got a lot of class. He played like garbage down the stretch, but never fear with Big Shot Bob around.
I agree!
