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Jason Maxiell, Rasheed Wallace

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Friday night, they pull out the old armor, they tug on the rusty helmets, they lift the familiar swords. But if they fall, it is over. Know that. This annual drama, this thrilling but maddening Pistons attitude ends tonight if the Celtics win. All good theatre runs its course, and the Pistons Entitlement Show of the past four years has become a feisty but weary act. It might have one great performance left. It may still hold a championship. But, like a Broadway hit with dwindling box office, it is being watched by its backers very carefully. And a curtain hangs overhead wrote Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom.

"We're going to come out and we're going to fight and we're going to scratch," Chauncey Billups said well after midnight following the Game 5 loss at Boston. "We're going to claw and do the things that we've been known to do."

Sounds good. Sounds strong. But ask this tough question: What things have the Pistons "been known to do?" Since winning the NBA title in 2004, they have been known to: 1) Steal playoff games. 2) Throw away playoff games. 3) Win strong on the road. 4) Lose ugly at home. 5) Go longer than needed against inferior teams. 6) Oust challengers in seven games. 7) Watch certain stars drift off the stage. 8) Stay cool. 9) Lose their cool. 10) Face elimination. 11) Say they like the pressure. And 12) Get eliminated anyhow.

Much has been made of the six straight trips to the Eastern Conference finals. And it is impressive. But if the Pistons bow out tonight or Sunday, they will have lost four of those six. That's nothing to hang your hat on. There has long been a feeling that these Pistons are defending champions, even when they are not defending anything more than "Eastern Conference Semifinalist."

Source: Detroit Free Press

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Friday, May 30, 2008 8:02 am EDT
Don't worry about Game 6, there will be a Game 7
Chauncey Billups

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The Boston Celtics survived, but they will not forget this. They can't. They have flirted with disaster too many times in these playoffs, raised too many questions about their mettle down the stretch, and though they go to Detroit with a 3-2 lead, they also have to come home and do this all over again. Do you really think the Celtics will close out the Pistons at the Palace on Friday night? I don't see it happening. This series has been too close, and the Celtics remain 1-7 on the road in the playoffs. This is the same Celtics team that could not close out Atlanta or Cleveland on the road in Game 6 wrote Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg. And are you telling me the Detroit Pistons can't win Game 7 in Boston?

"We can't worry about a Game 7 right now," Chauncey Billups said. "We've gotta worry about Game 6."

If you think the Pistons are finished, you shut off the television early in the fourth quarter, when the Pistons looked finished. You didn't see Boston come oh-so-close to one of the great chokes in NBA history. The Pistons almost came all the way back from a 17-point deficit. That will stick with the Celtics, who needed seven games to beat the lowly Hawks and came within a few shots of blowing Game 7 against undermanned Cleveland.

Source: Detroit Free Press

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Friday, May 30, 2008 7:58 am EDT
Players who flop to draw fouls will be fined by NBA
David Stern

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According to Newsday, NBA commissioner David Stern will institute a policy next season in which players who flop in an attempt to draw fouls would be fined. According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Stern dismissed giving referees the power to assess technical fouls for flopping or incorporating a point system in the same manner as flagrant fouls.

The source said flopping has been one of Stern's biggest pet peeves when it comes to the game. The source said his intention is to hit players in the wallet early and often, starting with the preseason. The hope is by midseason players will have gotten the point. The league will use NBA officials who already keep tabs on games throughout the league to monitor flopping. Those individuals will present to the league videotape of plays that are viewed as flops and the league will determine whether or not to assess a fine.

Source: Boston.com

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Friday, May 30, 2008 7:56 am EDT
Collins, Bulls discuss coaching opening
Doug Collins

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Doug Collins, who guided the Chicago Bulls and a young Michael Jordan from 1986-89 but couldn't get them past Detroit in the playoffs, has talked with the team about returning as coach.

"I have spoken with Bulls management recently about their head coaching vacancy and will resume conversations after the conclusion of my work for TNT in the Western Conference finals," Collins said yesterday from Los Angeles, where he was working Game 5 of the Spurs-Lakers series. "There is no agreement in place."

During a pregame interview on TNT, Collins said he talked with Bulls general manager John Paxson and team owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

"I have not been offered. I have not accepted," Collins said. "Jerry Reinsdorf has been a friend of mine the last 20 years, so he and I have spoken on a lot of occasions over the last 20 years . . . the whole thing is there's interest on both sides."

Collins added that as soon as the Western Conference finals were over, "we've agreed to sit down and talk to see exactly what is there."

Source: Associated Press

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Friday, May 30, 2008 7:54 am EDT
Pistons not sure if Hamilton will be able to play
Richard Hamilton

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The Detroit Pistons don't know if Richard Hamilton will be healthy enough to play against the Boston Celtics Friday night in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. Detroit's leading scorer strained his right elbow in the final seconds of Boston's 106-102 win Wednesday night in Game 5. X-rays were negative, and Hamilton's arm was in a sling as he left TD Banknorth Garden.

"If we had to play [yesterday], I don't think he'd play," said coach Flip Saunders, whose team didn't practice yesterday. "It would be different if it was the left arm, but it's his right arm. The shooting arm. The golden arm."

Hamilton will be a game-time decision. If he cannot play, Saunders said he would probably insert rookie Rodney Stuckey at shooting guard.

Source: Associated Press

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Friday, May 30, 2008 7:48 am EDT
Bryant comes up big down the stretch for LA
Kobe Bryant

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For more than six months, the Los Angeles Lakers had proven they were more than a one-man team. Luke Walton, like the half-dozen other players who had helped turn the Lakers into the best team in the Western Conference, knew he was capable of making a difference according to the San Antonio Express-News.

But late in the third quarter of Thursday's Game 5 of the conference finals at Staples Center, Walton and his counterparts realized they wouldn't be the ones to take the Lakers' final step back to the NBA Finals. All it took was one look at Kobe Bryant to understand that.

"We saw it in his eyes," Walton said. "He wanted the ball."

And when Bryant got it, he did exactly what the rest of the Lakers knew he would. Bryant scored 22 of his 39 points in the final 13:42, ending the Spurs' season and lifting the Lakers to the championship round for the first time in four years.

Source: Express-News

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Friday, May 30, 2008 7:26 am EDT
Happy ending all that is missing from Lakers' script
Jordan Farmar

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From Finished to Finals. The most improbable Hollywood twist in a franchise built upon them took another spin Thursday, an entire city now whirling in its wake. From Loons to June. Months after they began a season with one whining diva and seven dwarfs, the Lakers are bringing a legitimate fable into the NBA Finals. From Shock to Awe. With a 100-92 victory over the San Antonio Spurs, the team that began the season as an NBA joke is now just four wins from an NBA championship wrote Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke.

No more punch lines, just punch, a dozen playoff wins in 15 playoff games. No more laugh track, just tracks, huge and imposing, most recently on the backs of the defending NBA champs, who were buried Thursday for the fourth time in five games.

"We have so many ways to win," said Jordan Farmar, shaking his head in the wonder that envelopes his city today.

They seemingly used them all in the Western Conference finals clincher, a game that was a metaphor for a season. The Lakers won after a horrendous start left them trailing in the second quarter by 17 points.

Source: Los Angeles Times

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Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:08 am EDT
Lakers winning games on the glass
Pau Gasol

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There's a basketball axiom that claims "rebounding wins championships." For the defending NBA-champion San Antonio Spurs, that statement has proved to be true in this year's Western Conference finals against the Lakers, who have consistently dominated Coach Gregg Popovich's aging Spurs team on the backboards according to the Los Angeles Times.

Except for Tim Duncan's steady rebounding, the Spurs have been outworked by the Lakers at retrieving missed shots. That was evident in the Lakers' 93-91 victory over San Antonio on Tuesday, which gave them a commanding 3-1 lead heading into tonight's Game 5. Despite Duncan's game-high 17 boards, the Lakers out-rebounded the Spurs, 46-37, with Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant each grabbing 10. And thanks to the Lakers' overall edge in rebounding, they were able to control the basketball for crucial stretches of Game 4, especially in the fourth quarter.

So, how are the Lakers' getting this done? Although the Lakers lack a monster rebounder, they have a group of hard-working big men willing to bang bodies underneath the basket. In four playoff games against the Spurs, Lamar Odom is averaging a team-high 10 rebounds, followed by Gasol, who is averaging nearly eight, while Bryant and Vladimir Radmanovic each are grabbing nearly six. Reserves Luke Walton and Ronny Turiaf are also averaging six more rebounds per game off the bench.

Every time a shot goes up, the Lakers are boxing out San Antonio players around the basket to grab the rebound themselves or open up an opportunity for a teammate. And with the height and long arms of players like Gasol, Odom, Radmanovic and even Turiaf, the Lakers have built a high wall near the rim on missed shots, which has prevented smaller San Antonio players from getting cheap rebounds.

Source: Los Angeles Times

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Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:03 am EDT
NBA said Fisher fouled Barry
Brent Barry

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Talk about a late whistle. Twenty-four hours after he collided with the San Antonio Spurs' Brent Barry with Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on the line, the Los Angeles Lakers' Derek Fisher was called for a foul.

"With the benefit of instant replay, it appears a foul call should have been made," said a statement by NBA spokesman Tim Frank.

With the Spurs trailing by two, Barry, a 95% free-throw shooter in the regular season, would have been given a two-shot foul, giving the Spurs a shot at overtime in a game in which they never led. Unfortunately for San Antonio, the admission does nothing more than set the record straight. The result will not change, the Spurs still trailing 3-1 in the best-of-seven series after walking off the AT&T Center court Tuesday night 93-91 losers.

Game 5 is tonight at Staples Center.

Source: Los Angeles Times

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Thursday, May 29, 2008 9:35 am EDT
Perkins makes biggest contribution yet to Celtics
Kendrick Perkins

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In the first half of Game 5 last night, all you could do was watch Kendrick Perkins. The Celtics center demanded it. He used his 6-foot-10-inch, 280-pound frame to back his way toward the basket and then pull away for a jumper. He maneuvered around bodies for rebounds. He continued his consistent play in the Eastern Conference finals, taking over the first half before finishing with career playoff highs of 18 points and 16 rebounds in the Celtics' 106-102 victory.

At halftime, Perkins owned 13 rebounds, two more than the Pistons as a whole, and 12 points, as many points as he scored in Game 3.

"Coming into this series, that was the No. 2 of the things that we felt we had to do to win this series," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "No. 1 was ball pressure. . . . [Perkins] went out and did it, and I thought that freed everyone else. He was sensational tonight, played with great energy. That's three games in a row that Kendrick Perkins has been absolutely phenomenal."

Perkins did most of his damage by limiting the Pistons' second-chance points. He loaded up 11 defensive boards for the game, while the Pistons were limited to just five offensive rebounds. As a team, the Celtics pulled down 31 defensive rebounds (42 total), compared with the Pistons' 25 total rebounds.