Orlando fans need to relax and enjoy, because they can win game 3. Usually the way these series go, the home team of the favored team (that would be the Lakers) will win big at home and be lucky to scrape a 1 point victory on the road.

Consider that Orlando had the ball and a chance to win at the end of game two and it bodes well for the Magic to win game 3. Especially look for Dwight Howard to have a big game on the home court.

Dwight Howard needs to reach out and take this game

On the other hand, Magic fans better put away the knives if the Lakers pull out game 3, because then all that is left to play for is respect. That does not win many titles.
In the mean time, please don’t blame Stan Van Gundy. He is doing everything he can.

Coach Stan Van Gundy pulled out everything imaginable from his bag of tricks on Sunday, and somehow the Magic almost turned the Finals on its ear before losing in overtime.

Van Gundy is desperate enough now in a series of must-win games that he might resort to the ol’ “Picket Fence” from the movie Hoosiers, the Ted Williams shift or the Veer. Well, he could always use the World’s Tallest Line-up, where every player is at least 6-feet-10.

“I’m not sure I’ve got another lineup to throw out there that you haven’t seen now, OK, unless I’m going to play like Dwight [Howard], Marcin [Gortat], Tony [Battie], Rashard [Lewis] and Hedo [Turkoglu]. I don’t have another one now,” Van Gundy said.

“We played with no point guard. We’ve played big. We played conventionally [with point guards]. We’ve had Rashard at the three [small forward], we played Hedo at the one [point guard], two [shooting guard] and three.
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The Orlando Magic were expected to just roll over the Philadelphia 76ers with ease. Who on the 76ers was going to be able to stop Dwight Howard? Turkoglu was going to have a shooting hey-day, whether hey-day is a word or not.

It has not worked out that way and that has caught the attention of many.

Now we have to start the blame game. Hmm, how about the coach? That Van Gundy guy, yeah, him. He gets a little worked up over a lot of nothing. It must be affecting his team.

But he can coach.

Will Coach Stan Van Gundy rip his hair out over the way the Magic are playing?

Nobody cares if he can coach; he is making the players nervous.

But he can coach.

How can you say that when the 76ers are hanging in there?

He is not the one shooting the ball or trying to hang onto it, but he ultimately may be blamed for what happens.

Van Gundy’s loud, in-your-face coaching style was particularly good for the Magic during the regular season, spurring an otherwise mellow roster to some clutch, cold-blooded victories. Winners of 59 games, the Magic have been among the league’s best road teams for two seasons, and twice beat the Lakers, Cleveland, Boston and San Antonio this season.

But it’s the playoffs that matter most, and so far Orlando has looked like anything but a dominant team capable of rolling through the Eastern Conference and contending for the NBA crown. A massive offensive slump, due in part to injuries, hit late in the regular season and carried into the playoffs, making a once-formidable inside-out attack look rather ordinary.

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It would really help if hyper coach Stan Van Gundy could put the 76ers away. To Van Gundy’s credit, he never admits to being perfect or even close to it.

Van Gundy has taken the criticism about his coaching antics in stride, admitting in classic self-deprecating style that he is hardly a coach without faults. He even joked last week that his kids played a game in which they tried to think of a person who had a less important job in society than their dad’s and couldn’t come up with one. Cracked Van Gundy: “They were humorous at first, but then it turned serious. & They finally conceded that at least I don’t do anything illegal.”

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Tayshaun Prince blocks Hedo Turkoglu with the game on the line

Image details: Orlando Magic v Detroit Pistons, Game 5 served by picapp.com

Hard to believe it came down to Hedo Turkoglu at the top of the key and Tayshaun Prince guarding him with the game on the line.

In game 4 you will remember that Hedo Turkoglu went to his left after a jab step to the right and found his way blocked by Jason Maxiell in what looked like a charge. It was later noticed on tape that Maxiell had a foot on the circle and that would make it a foul on Maxiell. Turkoglu missed the shot and the Pistons won by 1 point.

This time with the playoff series on the line, Hedo went to his right on Tayshaun and there was no one waiting. The Pistons were up by 3 and Tayshaun was going for the block. It looked like Hedo was going to score the basket and get the foul. That would give him a chance to tie the game.

So Prince rose inch for inch with Turkoglu, as if taped to his body, and he pinned the would-be jam against the backboard and off the rim. It caromed away, the game was safe, and moments later, the Pistons were headed to a familiar place, the Eastern Conference finals, for the sixth straight year.

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Defense.

Defense by the Pistons won the game.

At halftime the Orlando Magic were shooting 54%. You do not lose many games if you shoot 54%. By the end of the game the Orlando Magic were still shooting 48%. This did not include the multiple fouls on Dwight Howard taking away a lot of his misses and moving them to the foul line where he shot 6 for 15. That is right, 6 for 15 at the line.

Detroit only shot 36% for the game.

The Detroit Pistons missed 64 percent of their shots and had a rookie filling in for an All-Star at point guard.

It didn’t matter.

Detroit set an NBA playoff record with just three turnovers and made just enough shots and stops to advance to their sixth straight Eastern Conference final with a 91-86 win Tuesday night over the Orlando Magic in Game 5 of the second-round series.

Richard Hamilton scored 31 points, made victory-sealing free throws late in the game and Tayshaun Prince had a key block to help Detroit eliminate Orlando.

The Pistons are the first franchise to play in six conference finals in a row since the Los Angeles Lakers went to eight straight in the 1980s.

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Rasheed Wallace made some huge shots and played excellent defense. Antonio McDyess was on fire with 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting mostly on set shots from the foul line extended.

NBA Playoffs Rip Hamilton factoid Rip became the all time Piston playoff scorer taking over that spot from Isiah Thomas.

With his 11th point, Hamilton broke Isiah Thomas’ career playoff scoring record of 2,261 points and he did it in 110 games—one fewer than Thomas needed to set the mark. “That’s a great honor because Isiah is Detroit basketball,” Hamilton said. “To pass one of his records is crazy because I haven’t been here that long.” … Hamilton is four games away from breaking Bill Laimbeer’s franchise record of 113 playoff appearances source

Now Chauncey Billups can heal up for the winner of the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers.

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Hedo Turkoglu misses over Jason Maxiell with game 4 of the Orlando Magic vs. Detroit Pistons NBA playoffs on the line

Image details: Detroit Pistons v Orlando Magic, Game Four served by picapp.com

The Orlando Magic had great chances to win game two and game four of the second round series with Detroit.

In game two, Rashard Lewis had the ball with seconds on the clock and Orlando down by 1. He chose to drive to the hole and put up a funky shot while guarded by McDyess. Rashard sort of tried an up and under layup trying to go under the outstretched arm of McDyess. The ball rolled off of the front of the rim and Dwight Howard missed the put back.

Why did Orlando choose that particular play?

In game four, Hedo Turkoglu had scored several points in a row and he was red hot. Orlando again had the ball in the waning seconds down by one.

Down by one with 8.9 seconds left, Hedo Turkoglu bled the clock at the top of the key, then drove into traffic and missed a lay-up at the buzzer.

It seemed a curious decision.

“I was reading the situation,” Turkoglu told the Sentinel. “I didn’t want to rush and force a bad shot. Maybe I was holding it too long instead of going right away. I’m just upset that I couldn’t help the team. I think we can all say this one is our fault.”

Coach Stan Van Gundy shouldered some of the blame.

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Some of the blame? Stan Van Gundy should be taking more than some of the blame.

The play was strange in several ways. First off, Hedo had driven to his left about 50 thousand times in a row. Tayshaun Prince was guarding him, an excellent one on one defender. Hedo faked to his right with the same right footed jab step. Tay took the fake and Hedo was off to the races. Maybe the Pistons wanted him to go left, who knows.

Then, Jason Maxiell was waiting for him, just like the Pistons knew the play. Go left and run into Maxiell. Hedo put up a funky shot and from there the game is history.

Second off, the Magic have a play with a high post of Dwight Howard. You remember him? Yeah, he is the center on the Orlando Magic known as Superman. He used to be a main cog in their offense until game 4.

Hedo would come off of a high screen by Dwight Howard and have several options. It is their bread and butter game breaking play. Two times now they could have used it to win games and instead called for one on one drives by three point shooting forwards.

Stan? What are you thinking?

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Chauncey Billups is the leader

Image details: Orlando Magic v Detroit Pistons, Game 2 served by picapp.com

Now Orlando winning game three of the Detroit Pistons / Orlando Magic series was no surprise. They almost and probably should have won game number two in Detroit.

Orlando Magic 111, Detroit Pistons 86

The Pivotal game will be game 4 in Orlando. Should Orlando win that game convincingly and Chauncey be playing below par, then this series will change momentum and Orlando will be the favorite, even though the series will be tied 2 – 2.

Chauncey hurt his hamstring in the game.

Point guard Chauncey Billups played only four minutes Wednesday before straining his right hamstring in the opening quarter. After slipping under his own basket, Billups stayed down for a few moments before he stood and went to the bench, where strength-and-conditioning coach Arnie Kander assessed the damage.

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Chauncey is the player that brings the confidence for Detroit.

“Losing Chauncey was huge for us,” said Richard Hamilton, who scored 24 points. “He means so much to our team. To not have him out there made a difference. We fought back, but we just couldn’t get the win.”

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Chauncey does have a backup and his name is Rodney Stuckey. He is actually a pretty good player.

Forced to take over the primary point guard duties, Pistons rookie Rodney Stuckey played 34 minutes, scoring a playoff career-high 19 points. At one point in the third quarter, Stuckey orchestrated a 12-2 spurt that cut Detroit’s deficit to three. He scored six of those points, drew Magic point guard Jameer Nelson’s third and fourth fouls and made four free throws.

Orlando gained confidence in this game. Even though it was a game 3, a game the Pistons typically lose in any 7 game series.

So you could make the argument that Wednesday night was just the Pistons fighting off a collective yawn. Or you could argue that the Pistons’ oil light is starting to flash and the air bags are about to deploy.

I don’t see a complete crash in their immediate future, but this suddenly looks like a six or seven-game series. A lot will depend on Billups, who limped to the locker room with a towel over his head in the first quarter.
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Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis came up big.

Nelson seems to be maturing into a consistent point guard before our very eyes. He’s done that before, only to revert back into Jameer. But he’s never played this well for this long.

Then there’s Lewis. Welcome to the playoffs, Money Man.

The Magic are paying him $118 million to take them to the next playoff level. He’d made 12 of 52 3-pointers before Game 3, when he hit five-of-six. The biggest came when Detroit had cut the lead to 67-64.

The series just may hinge on Chauncey Billups and his hamstring.

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