PISTONS 95, BULLS 85 EASTERN CONFERENCE – 2ND ROUND – DETROIT WINS SERIES 4-2
Back on October 31, 2006, the possibilities seemed limitless.
A mind-boggling 42-point blowout of the defending NBA champion Heat suggested the Bulls’ potential was whatever they wanted to make it.
After a slow start, more chest-puffing victories over the Mavericks, Spurs, Pistons and Suns came with frequency. Dreams flourished.
Then came the first-round playoff sweep of the Heat. Remember that? It seems so long ago after Thursday night at the United Center. The Detroit Pistons snuffed the Bulls’ planned storybook season with a 95-85 victory in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, winning the series convincingly 4-2 before a crowd of 23,030.
When it ended, the Bulls shook the Pistons’ hands and then their own heads, the hurt of elimination too fresh for any perspective on progress.
“It’s hard to think about growth right now,” guard Kirk Hinrich said. “This loss just really stings.”
The Pistons are heading to their fifth straight Eastern Conference finals, the first team to do that since the 1992-93 Bulls. The Bulls, for the third straight season, are left to ponder what might have been.
“Almost all the time in a seven-game series, the best team wins,” coach Scott Skiles said. “They’re the best team right now. They deserved to win.”
Hinrich and Ben Gordon, often the engines that drive the Bulls, picked rough times to have rough games.
Hinrich wore a wrap on his non-shooting left wrist and discolored his double-double of 11 points and 11 assists with 3-of-13 shooting.
Gordon got hot late to score 19 points. But much like the rest of the team, he failed to hit big shots at big times.
This is never a good sign: P.J. Brown led the Bulls with 20 points.
The Bulls shot just 33.3 percent in the second half, 30 percent in the fourth quarter and 37.3 percent overall.
“We started missing some shots, and the ball stopped moving for us,” Hinrich said. “That usually spells trouble for us.”
Richard Hamilton scored 23 points, and Chauncey Billups had 21 to lead the Pistons. Whichever backcourt scored the most points in each game won.
“I can be as impatient as anybody else,” Skiles said. “But I do realize we’ve gone from one of the bottom five teams in the league to one of the top eight in three years with predominately young players. That’s not easy to do. We’re back to more than respectability. But we want to take the next step.”
The back-and-forth nature of the series got encapsulated in one game with the Bulls dominating the first half and the Pistons taking over the second.
The game turned in the third quarter when the Pistons erased a 48-43 halftime deficit with a 12-1 run that eventually grew to 16-4.
“I just thought right at the start of the second half we let up,” Skiles said. “We didn’t have the same juice. We looked slow for four minutes. Those hurt us.”
Perhaps it hurt, at least a little, as Ben Wallace watched his old team — not his new team — move on. “I can tell you this: I’m proud of the fight these guys put up night in and night out,” Wallace said. “There was a lot of hype and expectations because I came here. And they had my back every step of the way.”
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3 POINTS
The Pistons outscored the Bulls 31-21 in the third quarter to take a 74-69 lead, and Chicago could not crank up the offense in the fourth.
Chicago was off target after shooting 57.3 percent in Game 5. This time, they were 28-of-75 (37.3 percent).
The Bulls and Pistons tied six times in Game 6. There were five lead changes. [ AP, REDEYE ]
ON THE WEB
– Chicagosports.com’s message boards: Bulls. Pistons. Game 6. Discuss.
– Post your photo in Bulls gear. Chicagosports.com/getyourbullson.
– More photos from Thursday’s game.
