Great game and win!! Not sure if the camera scanned the crowd, but we Pistons fans were there in force decked out in Billups, Ben and Rip jerseys. The tone of the crowd was set after the first Clipper turnover midway through the first qtr when large bellow went out from seats behind the basket DETROIT BASKETTBALLL!!! The Clippers only had 7 turns so that cheer never really caught on especially since the Clipper fans booed those Pistons Fans. Didn't stop us from cheering the rest of the game though. Still a lot us were yelling for Flip to pull Ben out when it was evident that the Hack-a Ben was in place. Didn't Doc Rivers try that last season to no avail. Driving home, the Clipper announcer indicated that there were about 2000 or so Piston fans in-the-house. Normally the Knicks have the big fan based here too and show up enmasse for LA games.
Fun yes!! It probably is fun at Auburn Hills, but with the cost of taking the family to Staples, I STILL LOVE seeing them the best from from my home office, family room or bedroom HD DVR TV's. I watched the pistons-knicks game this morning just to get me in the groove!. Too bad, this was the marquee game of the night, but Shaq's return gets more highlight time. Some announcer on either NBA TV or ESPN said that Shaq was the face of the NBA
ben's free-throws have improved up to the high 50's and low 60's and i was expecting him to make the clippers pay for fouling him so many times. besides that everything was great 3 TO's starters AND the bench played really good. dice still doesn't have his jumper going so when he does arroyo and him will be killing the other team with the pick&roll. utah has not been playing well and it would be nice to end the trip on a winning note.
Palace Yes it gets pretty loud there. They even sell ear plugs during the playoffs. Mason has done a great job getting the fans involved. We have not had any audible cheering for the opponent since the 2001 1st round series against the Raptors. Surprises me that 2000 Piston fans were there.
I mentioned in the chat that you could see fans clapping when the Pistons would score. That has to be so demoralizing for the home team. Bad enough the Clips share a building, but to have an out of conference road team come in and split the crowd, **shudders** I went to a Lions game like that year's ago. Only the Bears fans stayed till the end . It made me ill to sit and watch the game with the enemy.
Hack-a-Ben Well, we know who shoots better from the line. As pissed off as people were about Hack-a-Ben, and it is a stupid strategy, nobody seemed upset about how bad Ben is from the FT line. It must have been painful to witness. Some strategic fouls late in games could hurt Detroit. I think they have the guys to overcome it, however. I think the other four guys simply get pissed off because they feel Ben is being picked on. Good for us.
I really loved how Sheed gave Dunleavy an ear full at the end about the Bang-a-Ben "strategy". The message sent was more than worth the T Sheed got.
