Detroit advances to NBA Finals
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – They have no catchy nickname. Not like the Bad Boys of 14 years ago, when nobody pushed around the Detroit Pistons. Their victories are often raw and unsightly, and never more than Tuesday night, when the game turned on a flagrant foul.
But beauty is in the eye of the winner in June. What mattered was not that the Pistons shot 33 percent, or missed enough short jumpers for a month or scored 27 points in the first half. But that at the end of the rim rattling, they were in the NBA Finals.
Richard Hamilton’s 21 points – the biggest of them scored in seething anger after a forearm from Ron Artest – gave the Pistons the final push in a bitter brawl, for a 69-65 win over Indiana and a 4-2 victory in the NBA Eastern Conference finals.
The glory days are back in Detroit, even if they came in a hideous package. They just won a series in which the losing team did not break 70 four times, and the highest score was 83. It was a defensive test of will.
“I don’t know how people around the country view it, but as a coach that respects hard play and effort, I was glad to be part of this,” said Detroit’s Larry Brown.
“It might have been ugly for some people, but my wife and I enjoyed it.”
It was a game that featured the lowest-scoring first half in NBA playoffs’ history, and a grimy display of tempers and taunting down the stretch. It was a game the Pistons won despite trailing by 14 in the first half, never leading until the final 3:57, in which one of the heroes was Chauncey Billups, who was 2 for 13. Somehow it seemed fitting the Pistons took the lead for good on two free throws from a flagrant foul.
“It was a heavyweight fight,” said Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal, who scored 20 points on a game knee. “Those guys, it’s just their turn.”
Do the Los Angeles Lakers look worried? They’ll host the Pistons in Game 1 of the NBA Finals Sunday.
It was the flagrant foul on Artest, with the score tied 59-59, that transformed the game and the series for good. He had chased Hamilton most of the night, and contained him the first three quarters. Trying to get free, Hamilton threw his backside into Artest, hitting him in the groin. Artest responded with a forearm to Hamilton’s face, protected by a mask after two broken noses this season.
“I think it energized me,” Hamilton said. “I’m happy I got hit. Sometimes it takes getting hit like that to get you right, ready and focused.”
Hamilton’s free throws gave Detroit the lead for good at 61-59. The Pistons also got the ball, and Rasheed Wallace slammed in a rebound dunk – a still irate Hamilton getting a technical on the play for confronting Artest.
Four points on one possession in a defensive slugfest? “That,” Brown said, “was almost a quarter’s output.”
It was hard to decide which was more astounding. The fact that Indiana could go nearly 11 1/2 minutes of the second period with only one field goal and seven turnovers, and still be ahead. Or the fact Detroit could shoot 23.6 percent the first half, 3 for 17 the first period, and be behind only six.
It would not get much prettier. Until the end, when the music to the Pistons’ ears was the crowd chant of “Beat LA! Beat LA!”