Sports

2008 NBA Playoffs, Eastern Conference Final - Pistons vs Celtics

by Rob Walker | May 22, 2008 at 10:41 am

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While not my favorite sport (I'm more of a football fan, the european kind), basketball is one of those games that I tend to tune in to the finals, just because they get so intense. A friend of mine introduced me to the mechanics of basketball and once I started appreciating some of the subtleties, the game took on an entire new perspective.

The Eastern Conference finals start tonight as the Boston Celtics host the Detroit Pistons in a series that has seen generally lackluster performances.

The Spurs and the Lakers played on Wednesday night, with Kobe Bryant leading his team, the Los Angeles Lakers, to victory with 27 points. Their next game is Friday Night at 9 pm EST.

By this point in his lengthy playoff career, Rajon Rondo [stats] certainly knows not to get too giddy about a great Game 1 performance. After 15 whole postseason games, the Celtics [team stats] point guard is wise enough to know what he’s seen isn’t necessarily what he’ll get.

He might have outplayed Pistons veteran Chauncey Billups in the Eastern Conference finals opener, but he knows the former NBA Finals MVP won’t take that lying down, even with a bad hamstring.

“Definitely,” said Rondo, who had 11 points, seven assists and five steals Tuesday night. “There’s a lot of ups and downs in this game, especially in these series. So I’m sure he’ll be a lot more aggressive tomorrow night. I’ve just got to be ready.

Here's a good write-up of the road to the Eastern finals:

The Boston Celtics traveled a surprisingly rocky road to get to the finals of what many considered to be a weak Eastern Conference. In the first round, they played an Atlanta Hawk team that was only 37-45 in the regular season, 29 wins worse than Boston.

But the Hawks were resilient, and took the Celtics to seven games. It was Boston's 'Big Three,' of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce, who ultimately helped the Celtics pull through to the next round by leading the blow out against Atlanta 99-65 in game 7.

Although it was a must win game for Boston, the team was confident going into game seven.

The Detroit Pistons had some trouble of their own, needing six games to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers.

The 76ers got off to an unforeseen 2-1 lead in the series, but it was all Detroit after that, as the Pistons won three straight games to take the series and advance to the second round.

"Iknow I can make that push and I knew once I did, I could get the gameback under control, get it under 10 where we knew we could be instriking distance. In the first half, we were a little rusty, a littlesluggish and a little tentative. Second half, it wasn't there. It isbig for a young team to come back from 20 against the defending champs."

That is exactly what happened. Kobe Bryant led his young team back from a 20-point deficit to victory Wednesday night.

If you didn't watch the game, you are probably assuming that Bryant was a scoring machine the whole game; he wasn't.

The 2008 NBA playoffs commence Thursday as the Boston Celtics host the Detroit Pistons in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics, led by NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett, will face the Pistons at 8:30pm EST on ESPN. San Antonio is led by NBA All-Star Chauncey Billups.

The Celtics and Pistons are the first and second seeds in the Eastern Conference playoff bracket.