Sunday, April 27, 2008

Back to Earth (Sixers-Pistons Game 4)

Ouch.

The Sixers had a fairly substantial lead at halftime (46-36), but even at that point this game didn't have the same feel as the last one. The shots the Sixers were hitting seemed to have a much higher degree of difficulty, and the defensive rotations didn't seem to be as crisp.

Then, after halftime, the Pistons stepped up the defensive pressure a little bit more, and the Sixers' offense (which looked so good in game 3) ground completely to a halt. The Pistons had basically eliminated the halftime lead within the first two minutes of the second half, and the Sixers never managed to regain control. Rasheed Wallace draining threes (4-7 for the game, 3-3 in the third quarter), the Pistons asserting a huge advantage on the offensive glass (15 to 9), and Richard Hamilton getting hot in the fourth quarter (7-21 for the game, but 6-8 in the fourth quarter) didn't really help our chances.

Final score: Sixers 84, Pistons 93.

It also didn't help our chances that Igoudala was again completely overmatched by Tayshaun Prince. Quite frankly, it didn't really look like the other Pistons were giving Prince much help, and Igoudala still couldn't get anything going. He did have 6 rebounds and 5 assists, but he shot only 4-16 and had 5 turnovers. Not a very pretty boxscore line. Igoudala is a nice player, but I sure hope that his performance in this series convinces people not to overpay him this summer.

Oh well. At least Igoudala had a monster dunk early in the game that we can watch over and over again on youtube. (No one has posted the video to youtube yet, but I'm sure someone will post it soon...)