DETROIT – The Pistons already have made history this month, becoming the seventh team to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the NBA playoffs.
To move on to the NBA Finals, they would have to make more history.
They are attempting to become the third team to overcome an 0-2 deficit after losing the first two games at home. Game 3 is Thursday night at New Jersey, with Game 4 there Saturday.
“We’re in a hole, but it’s certainly not impossible,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “We have to bounce back and keep fighting. We’re in a situation where it’s really a couple of tough losses. I really believe this team is going to keep fighting, and we have to find a way to win.”
When trailing Orlando, 3-1, in the first round, the Pistons fought back with three straight victories. In the second round, they clinched the series with a Game 6 victory at Philadelphia.
Now they have to win at least one game at New Jersey in the Eastern Conference finals, and the Nets have won eight straight playoff games.
With six more points – three in each game – the Pistons would be sitting on a 2-0 lead in the series.
The Nets have scored 164 points in the two games, the Pistons 160.
Neither team has shot well – New Jersey 39.5 percent; Detroit 38.8. The main difference has been the Nets’ performance in the fourth quarter. They outscored the Pistons, 30-19, in Game 2 and 21-11 in Game 1.
“We wouldn’t think that we would be down two games to nothing playing two games at home, especially losing each game by two points,” guard Chucky Atkins said. “Right now that is the situation, and we got ourselves into it, so we have to get ourselves out of it.
“I don’t have the answer to what has happened to us in the fourth quarter. I thought Game 1 was just one of those games, but Tuesday night it seemed like New Jersey is really picking up their intensity, and we have to do something different. If I knew how to fix the fourth quarter, we wouldn’t be sitting here down 0-2.”
In both games, the Pistons have held double-digit leads late in the third quarter.
“I don’t know if our intensity level or aggressiveness goes down when we get ahead of those guys, but when we get a lead it seems like everything changes,” Atkins said. “I don’t know if we become more passive or what, but right now in the fourth quarter we’re not getting it done.”
Cliff Robinson, who didn’t get a rebound in 38 minutes Tuesday in Game 2, said the Pistons have lacked a killer instinct.
“We don’t put teams away, we don’t finish the game,” Robinson said. “
We seem to relax once we get up and don’t finish the job. I think New Jersey has been in this situation before, and they realize you can’t relax. They have come out feeling good about what they are doing, and it shows. Even though we get control of the game, they do a good job of not giving up.”
The Nets agree with that analysis.
“We keep fighting and working,” said Kenyon Martin, who has destroyed the Pistons inside.
“We’ve been that way all year, and we’re not going to stop now. We’re not thinking of a sweep or anything like that, we just want to win the next game.”
In an effort to shake things up, Carlisle started Tayshaun Prince at small forward Tuesday in favor of Michael Curry. But Prince, one of the team’s go-to guys in the playoffs, wasn’t on the floor in the fourth quarter. He had six points and three rebounds in 25 minutes.
Carlisle wouldn’t say Wednesday whether he would start Prince on Thursday night or go back to Curry, who didn’t play in Game 2.
Corliss Williamson played small forward most of the fourth quarter.
“It’s frustrating because I thought we had the tempo in both games,” Williamson said. “We’ve taken the hard road all year. Nothing has been easy, and we’re in the same situation again.”
—
(c) 2003, Detroit Free Press.
Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
—–
PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):
Pistons
AP-NY-05-21-03 2035EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
