Well, that didn’t go exactly as planned. Rasheed Wallace is now 3-1 on his guarantees… and normally, three of out four isn’t bad, but you know… they’re guarantees. You’re supposed to go 100% on those. In defeat, however, Rasheed remained defiant… if also slightly conciliatory.
“I ain’t worried about these cats,” he said. “There’s no way in hell they beat us in a series. They played well. I give them credit. We lost. We shot 30 percent and they had to play their best to beat us.”
Yes, he was forced to eat a little bit of crow, but… Rasheed Wallace isn’t the kind of guy who’s going to be bothered by that. He even dropped in a “the sun even shines on a dog’s ass some days” quote. He just doesn’t care. Guys who show up to introductory press conferences wearing t-shirts that read, “FUCK WHAT YA HEARD” tend to not get bothered by a lot. In fact, Rasheed spirits remained so high that during the game, when the arena’s “Kiss Cam” zoomed in on Rasheed, he tried to kiss Chauncey Billups.
Here was Ben Wallace’s take on the game and the guarantee:
“We can’t let the man go out and predict a win and then go out and stink it up like we did,” Ben Wallace said. “That’s players, coaching staff, everybody.”
Well, since he brought up the coaching… credit Cavs coach Mike Brown for an adjustment he made, going to a smaller line-up and spreading the Pistons out, limiting some of their defensive ferociousness around the rim by keeping Rasheed/Antonio McDyess out of the game. But shame on Flip Saunders for letting him get away with that. You can’t let the Cavs dictate how these games are going to be played. You have superior personnel. You force your own mismatches. If the Cavs go small, you make them pay for it. You pust up damn near anyone on the court, with the exception of whoever LeBron is guarding, and you pound them on the offensive glass.
And when you have 8 seconds left, and you’re down one, you should have Rasheed Wallace on the floor for a tip-in attempt, bad ankle or not. I like Maurice Evans, but he’s not doing anyone a lot of good in that situation.
Game 5 is back in Detroit on Wednesday.
syzygy
There’s a reason why Flip has one of the biggest drop-offs between regular season win % and postseason win %. He never makes the right adjustments.
It’s also funny looking back to discussions earlier in the season when people said that LB held the Pistons back last year. There’s no way Detroit loses games 3 and 4 with Brown at the helm.
May 16, 2006 at 12:50 am
Need4Sheed
You gotta love Sheed, even in defeat hes awesome.
Couldn’t have said it better about Flip. WTF was he thinking the last two games, no matter I still know the Pistons are taking this series.
May 16, 2006 at 1:32 am
jerloma
This is why we need to stop paying any attention whatsoever to these guarantees. I don’t think half of these guys even know what a guarantee is. You can’t guarantee a win and then not back it up with anything. If you’re going to guarantee a win, say that you’ll quit playing basket ball forever if you are wrong. Otherwise your guarantee ain’t worth shit.
May 16, 2006 at 10:50 am
Sean
Looked like Sheed was a huge liability on defense for Detroit–couldn’t close out on an open shooter in less than five seconds.
May 16, 2006 at 7:06 pm
Rhondda Nunes
Certainly not Sheed’s best game.
I think the Pistons looked a little complacent; now that they know the Cavs are showing up & it’s a real series, they can cut out thinking they can cruise to the NBA finals.
& I agree with need4sheed.com, the coaching this year is making an impact compared to Larry Brown at the helm.Hopefully, Flip will rise to the occassion & at least go out with a Rick Adelman blaze of glory.
Or prove his detractors wrong with the Pistons winning the title this year.I still like their chances.
May 17, 2006 at 4:26 am