Pouncing on Opportunity (NBA Live 06)

[Mark.]

Pistons manage to squeak out close win to open playoffs.





Boxscores:[Knicks]|[Pistons]

Rasheed Wallace had a great offensive night, and Ben Wallace made the important stops on Defense,
and the Pistons took their first game of the playoffs.
However is didnt come as easy as many had predicted it would against the 8th seeded New York Knicks.
The Pistons struggled for most of the game trying to slow down the New York guards.
Ben Wallace managed to do a good job on hunting down penetrations that managed to get through
but often this would result on him having to leave Eddy Curry unattended.

A big factor in the Knicks performing so well had to be the pass first mentality that Stephon Marbury suddenly seemed to adopt.
Instead of forcing shots Marbury was often seen hesitating on taking his own rather than giving the ball up.
Jamal Crawford took over as the main focul point of the Knicks offense, especially making some clutch shots to keep them in the game.

Rasheed Wallace led all scorers with 26 points on 10 of 19 shooting, he also added 6 boards.
Ben Wallace had a stellar defensive game with 14 boards, 8 blocks and 3 steals.
Jamal Crawford led the Knicks with 22 points and 6 assists.
Stephon Marbury had 14 points and 9 assists, while Quentin Richardson added 18 points, on some big 3 pointers.


Ben made some big plays on both ends, wether it be the posterization of Knicks players or the big block on D

Stephon Marbury has been mkaing it tough for Billups on the offensive end || Steve Francis' only shot of the game was this missed dunk, they will have to get him more invloved

Rose has been a solid contributer for the Knicks since they acquired him, however he needs to score in double digits this series || Sheed was hard to stop for the Knicks frontcourt


Next up: Game 2 @ New York

[KIG1]

Wow that was a closer game than expected. You still got a win though and my prediction are up to par....?

Anyways G/L in game 2 bro.

[Tuomas]

Well the Knicks are good in paper = good in NBA Live. How about the other series?

[Mark.]

Wow that was a closer game than expected. You still got a win though and my prediction are up to par....?

Anyways G/L in game 2 bro.

Yeha your predictions are fine now, was a bit mroe close than I expected, lets just say we must have been tired or something

Well the Knicks are good in paper = good in NBA Live. How about the other series?

Yeha when I did a dyansty with them they were way to easy to win with for the Knicks.

Ill post the results of the other games soon

[Mark.]

Round 1 Game 1 Results

WEST

92 @ 97

101 @ 116

90 @ 93

92 @ 108

EAST

90 @ 96

94 @ 81

82 @ 104

93 @ 124

Note: Sorry but I cant be bothered updating the bracket after every game played, ill update it at the end of each round

[Jugs]

Shit I'm Late.

East: Detroit

West: Blazers

Memphis 2 Minnesota 1
Houston 1 San Anotonio 2
Dallas 1 Portland 2
Phoenix 2 Denver 1

Detroit 2 New York 0
Philadelphia 1 Cleveland 2
Miami 2 Indiana 1
New Jersey 2 Boston 1

[Arcane]

nice victory over the knicks but they did seem to make it a bit of a challenge.

[Jing]

thats pretty sick mark, espically the ben dunk and the sheed shot. look at how far ben is jumping and how high sheed's leg is lol

[Arcane]

WEST

Memphis 2 Minnesota 1
Houston 1 San Anotonio 2
Dallas 2 Portland 1
Phoenix 2 Denver 0

EAST

Detroit 2 New York 0
Philadelphia 1 Cleveland 2
Miami 2 Indiana 1
New Jersey 2 Boston 1

[Buckley]

East: Detroit
West: Dallas

Minnesota 2 Memphis 1
San Antonio 2 Houston 1
Dallas 2 Portland 1
Phoenix 2 Denver 1

Detroit 2 New York 0
Cleveland 2 Philadelphia 1
Miami 2 Indiana 0
New Jersey 2 Boston 0

[Cornerthree]

Nice win, great pics...

[Keo]

Nice victory in game 1. Damn, Francis with one shot attempt in the whole game.

[Mark.]

Pistons roll through to second round with emphatic win





Boxscores:[Pistons]|[Knicks]

Rip Hamilton scored a playoff and career high 50 points to lead the Pistons to the second round of the playoffs.
The Pistons led from the start with a 10 point scoring advantage in the first,
the lead never got smaller, and as Rip Hamilton lit it up in the 4th the lead extended to over 20 to stay that way.
This game was totally different to game one in Detroit as the Pistons controlled all facets of the game.
Rip's 50 came on rather weird circumstances, as he never really got that hot,
however he was continually given open looks as the Knicks seemed confounded by the Detroit half court sets.
Once the fourth Quarter came about, Rip finally caught fire and went 8-9 from the field.

Ben Wallace was once again a key factor for the Pistons as he recorded 13 boards, 4 blocks and 3 steals.
Chauncy Billups once again controlled the offense well with 11 points and 10 assists.
Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford tried to keep the Knicks in it with 22 and 21 points respectively
Marbury once again supprise all with his pass first mentality with 10 assists,
but when it became apparent they werent going to win it like that he took more shots, but it was to no avail.

Larry Brown, Knicks head coach, and head coach for the Pistons last year wasnt supprised with the outcome of the series:
"I told the boys we had nothing to lose, we arent quite there as a team yet, and to play so well in the first game was great.
What Flip has done with the Pistons is amazing, he has made them in to a dangerous offensive force as well a defensive."

The Knicks will move on to face the winner of the 76ers and Cavs series, which either way will be a tough challenge.



Both Ben and Dyess shot well from the field, mainly cos most of their shots were layups or dunks.

The battle of the PG's was once again intense, both players had 10 assists, while Starbury scored more, but with Hamilton hitting 50 Billups' shooting wasnt really needed.

Hamiltons big shooting night || Rookie David Lee got a bit of burn in the Knicks undermanned front court, both his FG's coming on Dunks.


Next up: Round 2 Game 1 vs Cleveland/Philadelphia

[Jugs]

Wow, Rip Hamilton ripped the Knicks up. Great win and good luck in round 2

[The X]

congrats on the wins, keep them rolling

[hova-]

Nice round 1 !
Close 1st game (with new court I saw ) and 2nd game just maazing blowout, Rip was on fire !!

Keep it on, youll make it !

[Anthony15]

lol, did u make Rip shoot almost every shot? Nice round 1 thou!

[Keo]

It was definitely Rip's day. Good job taking care of the Knicks. Come on Philly!

[Jing]

shit man 50 points, thats a really big game

[KIG1]

Way to be Mark. Rip was amazing in game 2!! Lets hope you can sweep so my predictions are right

[Marquis]

Good series agaisnt Knicks. I hope that you will face Cavs in conference semifinal, lie in real life

[rongotai]

Wow very nice

Rip absolutely dominated

[kibaxx7]

Fuckin' late...

WEST

MEM 2 MIN 1
HOU 1 SAS 2
DAL 2 POR 0
PHX 2 DEN 0

EAST

DET 2 NYK 0
PHI 1 CLE 2
MIA 2 IND 1
NJN 2 BOS 0

[Arcane]

congrats on advancing to the next round.

[RKO]

CONGRAGULATIONS on advancing to the next round, but it looking bad for the Detroit Pistons aganist the HEAT....