Not Too Good Detroit

In this morning’s New York Post, David Smith from Long Island City writes to the Editor:

I disagree with your claim that all of America welcomes the pope. There are people here who do not believe in him or what he claims to stand for.

Please don't lump everyone in by suggesting all are "looking forward to see him." I definitely was not.

Well, that is the sort of bitterness one can associate with Piston’s fans this morning. Well, probably not. But it was a good win for the Sixers- goes a good way to validating what they and the coach have done since Christmas.

I’m not crazy; I don’t think the Sixers are better than Detroit. But the last ninety-seconds, with the Sixers up 3-4 points, the Sixers forced the “rebounders” off the floor as the Pistons brought in the “shooters”. With Detroit’s big people off the floor (at least on offense), the Sixers were able to force a series of one-shot-and-done possessions in crunch time. Bascially, they were killed all night on the boards except when it mattered most- as the Pistons were forced to disarm.

The NBA is about match-ups and the last two minutes- determing scenarios that you can repeatedly exploit enough to win four times. And the Sixers seem to have, based on yesterday’s outcome, come up with a viable, repeatable scenario to close out games against these characters. Hopefully, with two of the next three at home, they’ll be able to play that scenario again, square this series through four games- and make this a best-of-three: a more miracle conducive experience!

I have less on the Flyers. It was disappointing to let Washington off the mat- except it really more that Washington got itself off the mat the past two tilts by matching the Flyers effort level. It was a road loss- and probably it was too much to expect to run Washington out in four straight games. But the bad loss in Game One makes this a series again. The two remaining games are toss ups- so I like the Flyers simply because they only gotta one flip rather than two. Of course, last week it was three games… trouble is increasing here.