Time for Some Home Cookin'

Hey, what’s up – This is A.C.

I kind of have mixed emotions about this series. I feel on one hand that we can beat this team and beat them handily because of the way we’ve played them on their home floor. On the other hand, I’m concerned because we played the same type of game twice in a row and we lost. Which tells me that they are better at a close game than we are, because they execute down the stretch. But we still stay with them...

But that third quarter, man. We seem to feel we can coast to the finish line. It’s frustrating to play such a great first half – our guys played a great first half – and to come out and give it all back in the first seven minutes is frustrating.

It’s true that we’re not getting any breaks, any calls, and maybe that’s a rite of passage; maybe we’re paying the price for being an inexperienced team in the playoffs. It’s tough. You expect to be treated fairly, but then when the tables are turned on you like that, it makes it tough. I remember when we played in Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals and we were down 3-2. I was driving to the basket and the referee, Earl Strom, was looking at me right in my face and Jo-Jo White grabs my arm and Earl Strom had a look that said, You better make it because I’m not gonna call it. And sure enough, I was able to get the ball up into the basket, but we didn't get the call; it would’ve made a difference…

The Cavaliers maturation period is in full-bloom now. Not just playoff basketball, but championship basketball. You keep your focus. You pay attention to the details. And you make shots. You have to have guys who’ll put the ball in the basket. The Pistons have enough talented guys, one through eight, who can carry it.

I’ll say it again, the Pistons have patience. Playoff patience. They take their time. Boom-boom-boom. They don’t rush anything. Not just running the shot clock down, but getting the shot they want. We end up taking a shot we don’t want. But they run the shot clock down and get the shot they want. Experience and execution. That’s what it’s all about. We brush a pick. They set a pick. If they’re gonna slip a pick, they at least make contact when they set it. We’ll anticipate slipping a pick and we’re gone before the defender gets there.

Our defense is just as good as theirs, but their offense is better than ours. It’s silly to think we can win grind-out games with them. We’ve got to score 90 or more points consistently to beat them convincingly. We have to open up the floor, force them to have to score. We can’t just eek out a game. We need the game up around 90 to force them to open up the floor on both ends.

When you look at the series as a whole, though, all they’ve done is hold serve. When you look at it that way, we just need to win our two games here, hold our serve now, and with our crowd behind us, we need to play it tough. We play them tough on their floor and it’ll be like last year. We have to win four straight. We can do it.