[ 王 ] Celtics put damper on Pistons

[Loj (Zoo Crew)]

Iverson held to 10 in his Palace debut as Boston uses balance and rides big
second quarter to decisive victory.
                                           Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

AUBURN HILLS -- It started out like Allen Iverson dreamed it. The sellout
crowd cheered wildly when he was introduced before his first game at The
Palace as a member of the Pistons.

The ending, though, was more like a nightmare.

"Yeah, I didn't dream it up like that," Iverson said after the Pistons were
booed after losing to the defending champion Boston Celtics, 88-76, Sunday.
"In my dreams we won the first game I played and in my dreams I got that
ovation, but we won the game. But this is the way it is. I have to be able to
accept what happened and move forward."

Nobody expected a seamless transition. Nobody expected a core group suddenly
dissolved after playing together for six seasons -- two-fifths of the
starting unit is new -- could pick up the pieces and find a new groove
quickly.

But nobody could have expected the transition to look this bad.

"Don't put this on the trade or on Allen," coach Michael Curry said. "Put it
on our offense. Boston got up into us and we have to be better when teams do
that to us. I am not up here to talk about how long it's going to take for
everything to look smooth."

Smooth? Right now the Pistons would settle for slightly bumpy. The offense is
completely out of sync, and yes, the Celtics' swarming, smothering defense
had a lot to do with it.

"We have some work to do," Iverson said. "But that wasn't the scrubs we were
playing out there."

The Pistons shot 25 percent in the first half, scoring just 10 points in the
second quarter. They didn't make a basket for the final 7:33 of the first
half and it never really got better. The Pistons finished shooting 34.7
percent with 17 turnovers and just 14 assists.

"Obviously it's going to take time," said Iverson, who had 10 points (4-of-11
shooting) with four turnovers. "It's a different look and a different flow. I
am a totally different player than they are used to playing with. We just
have to get used to each other."

Richard Hamilton was 0-for-8 and managed just three points. Hamilton has been
held without a field goal only one other time as a Piston -- it was Jan. 6,
2005 against Memphis. In that game, though, he made all 14 of his free
throws.

Rasheed Wallace finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, but he missed 13 of
17 shots.

"Yeah, Boston executed great on defense and it was just one of those games,"
Hamilton said. "We don't get frustrated with it. We know that it's going to
be great for the long haul, so we just have to keep playing, keep working it
out."

Tayshaun Prince was the only gun firing on this night. He scored 23 points
with eight rebounds.

"We didn't do anything right," Prince said.

The defense was just as bad as the offense. For the second straight game,
they could not contain dribble penetration. Through three quarters, when it
mattered, the Celtics outscored them 32-16 in the paint. The Pistons, because
the offense was so erratic, had no floor balance and consequently got beat
often in transition.

Reserve Tony Allen scored 23 points, most off the dribble. Kevin Garnett
scored eight points and Paul Pierce seven.

"The harmony didn't look the same with this team," Garnett said of the
Pistons. "I'm not taking away from A.I., he's a great player. But when a
team's cohesive, man, and they are joined as one, it's different."

The Pistons' bench without Antonio McDyess is just as scrambled as the first
unit. Through three quarters, the Celtics' reserves outscored the Pistons',
26-8. The Pistons' bench players made just one of nine shots to that point,
with four turnovers.

"That second quarter (with the reserves on the floor) is what I've been
concerned with," Curry said. "We have to find a way to get something going
when we take our scoring big (Wallace) out of the game."

That was the role McDyess played, anchoring the second unit. The Pistons were
outscored, 30-10, in that second quarter. Jason Maxiell finished the game
missing all five of his shots and making three turnovers. The Pistons got
four points off the bench from their frontcourt players.

It didn't help, either, that the Pistons lost Rodney Stuckey for the second
half. Pistons released a statement saying Stuckey experienced symptoms of
dizziness and that he felt lightheaded. He's expected to travel with the
Pistons to Sacramento.

                                                       http://0rz.tw/fc50m

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