Pistons/Knicks, Pacers/Bucks

PISTONS

C: Jalen Duren – in better shape, doing what is asked. Also, to the outsider, his expectations appear to be communicated in fashion which works with Duren, different if not necessarily "better" for Jalen, also growing in capability of accepting such instruction. Out there for 78 games and now provably positive for an NBA defense.
F: Ausur Thompson – may need another year to tear the league up, suffered from some nicks and bruises down the stretch but played through the frustration. Not always without his ball-off-thigh miscues, but he's here, we're all here. Averaged 10 points and five boards in 22 minutes a contest.
F: Tobias Harris – don'tdisappeardonotdisappearpleasedonotdisappear.
SG: Tim Hardaway Jr. – talks and talks and talks and calls together teammates and there is a reason he starts. Piston fans will be happy to note that Hardaway Jr. now has more career points than Ben Gordon. Next year' he'll pass Josh Smith, and Brandon Jennings is like 4000 points in the rearview mirror. And, yes, Tim Hardaway Jr. uses his mirrors.
PG: Cade Cunningham – pushes a break off a defensive board like few others, if any other, leans into some of the NBA's tougher makes. Cunningham is only beginning to develop his sea legs (he's not yet 24) and he's already at 26-9-6.

Full sea leg development is like age 28 (although I'm sure there are some hemispherical differences).

The Pistons sent the other team to the line a lot this season, Jalen Duren is one reason why, Isaiah Stewart is another. Stew is also quite accomplished defensively, his minutes are often supreme, but he also doesn't mind shoving a guy ... Jaden Ivey was a big part of what the Pistons did and Dennis Schröder ably made up for the loss of Ivey, during what could have been a rather destructive stretch for the Pistons. Schröder finds his new teammates and gets to the line.

Malik Beasley is the hottest sauce on the market right now, 41 percent from deep, four three-pointers per game, most threes per game per 100 possessions/36 minutes ... Ron Holland won't be 20 in July and just spent 81 professional games making over 60 percent of his two-pointers against dudes, grown, dudes. I'm not rating his maturity or poise or precociousness but I am saying is Ron Holland has dunked people who have at one time rented a car ... Marcus Sasser could score 20 in a playoff game if the coaching staff cleared the route ... The Pistons had a lot of fun with Simone Fontecchio down the stretch last season and kept him front and center throughout 2024-25 because he isn't looking for his shot. Or, maybe he is looking for his own shot, then he goes to shoot and pump-fakes instead. The point is, he's moving the ball. Either unintentionally, or because the Pistons swing with Simone in the lineup.

We knew the Pistons would perk up with a coaching change. Monty Williams did not want to be an NBA coach but did the right thing in taking the money that Piston owner Tom Gores offered and re-offered until Williams accepted a job he didn't want. His affection toward the job was nil, Monty acted like it, the players responded, the Pistons stunk.

We knew the Pistons would improve because young players get better, but mostly because J.B. Bickerstaff really wanted to be there, and really wanted to help.

We did not know J.B. Bickerstaff, or any head coach, could turn this into the NBA's 11th-best defense. No outta-nowhere star, no gimmicks. The Pistons had the 13th-best point differential in the NBA, and Ron Holland is not a Rookie of the Year candidate. The Pistons were rarely in doubt of keeping a guaranteed playoff seed, and Detroit didn't get the sort of all-encompassing swoosh that the Rockets sucked in with Amen Thompson. Cade blossomed, Beasley took over with Ausur out, Duren stayed on the floor, Harris and Hardaway Jr. stayed out of the way until it was time to step in.

This was a team achievement, with Bickerstaff sowing through its roughest moments. He played Ausur. He worked Holland in tough spots, all season, spots where veterans would help his team's cause, immediately, spots teenagers don't belong.

The Pistons beat the Knicks in three entertaining games, and lost to New York in November to fall to 1-5, Detroit's low point in 2024-25.

NEW YORK

C: Karl-Anthony Towns – big men can't win, and I hope he wins. Even though he's on the Knicks. Referees are wildly inconsistent with big men, one of the few basketball hallmarks I do not enjoy, that and referee replay. Pretty much anything with referees. What is enjoyable is KAT, all the time, 24 and 13 amid an impossible time for bigs.
F: Josh Hart – turned in an off year in his first full season with the Knicks and responded with the finest year of his career, leading the league at 37.6 minutes per game, more than Karl Malone averaged in 1997-98. Malone ranked No. 31 in minutes per game that season but the Jazz were a less professional outfit, Jerry Sloan running around with his tie loosened, top button undone.
F/G: OG Anunoby – turns the ball over once every 27 minutes which is rather selective for someone who bursts toward the goal as much as OG. Scored 16 a game against the Pistons this season but managed only six free throw appearances in 111 minutes.
G/F: Mikal Bridges – if this series goes six games, Mikal will pass Taj Gibson and Thaddeus Young for all-time postseason minutes played. Bridges is already past every role player born in the 1980s: Markieff Morris, Fred VanVleet, Patty Mills, Patrick Beverley, Joe Ingles. Bismack Biyombo. Mikal already played more regular season NBA minutes than Andrea Bargnani and, I'm happier to note, Kendrick Perkins.
PG: Jalen Brunson – if this series goes five, Jalen Brunson plays five games in 11 nights and sit for however long it takes Boston to beat the gnatty Magic. Good stuff for Knick fans.

The cruelest part of Thibodeau's repeated playoff failures is the way the NBA playoffs are set to favor shorter rotations, especially in the early rounds. Tom Thibodeau's players just have to get there, sometimes they don't get there, they try too darn hard in the regular season.

They're here, though. Mitchell Robinson talking shit, we know Cameron Payne can form a huddle. We gave Thibs shit all year because he deserves it, but he also coached his tail off again. Furthermore (furthermore!), he finally has a front office which understands him, hence the lineup full of players who are eager and more importantly able to go 42 minutes.

Miles "McDeuce" McBride may not be a pure point guard but he scores and turned it over 101 times in 236 career games. Jalen Suggs had more turnovers than that in 2024-25 and Jalen played 35 games.

Precious Achiuwa played the part of the stalwart bench performer down the stretch of 2024-25. Save the season? Not quite. Hero. Definitely.

Mitchell Robinson will average 6 fouls per 4.8 seconds in this series:

When Cameron Payne performs on Saturday he'll have worked as many career playoff games (59) as Joel Embiid, which, fuck.

Landry Shamet made 40 percent of his free throws this season and yeah I'm jealous and you might be, too. Did the guy with the ninth-most minutes on your favorite team hit 40 percent of his threes?

Bulls fans, without looking, already know our No. 9 guy is Dalen Terry. Already he didn't hit 40 percent of his threes.

SAT, MON, THU, SUN, TUE, THU, SAT

Knicks in five close games.

ON THE SUBJECT OF MIKAL BRIDGES

In 1996 A.C. Green was well on his way toward breaking Randy Smith's NBA record for consecutive games played when, uh, J.R. Reid did the best he could to end that streak:

The Suns had a game in Salt Lake City the next evening and Green wanted to play in it, wanted to keep the streak alive, even if he was missing a few teeth.

So he checked in, for a few seconds, and checked out. Played another NBA game, consecutively.

Afterward, Suns coach Cotton Fitzsimmons made no pretense about Green's appearance in the game. "I'm going to try to keep the streak going," he said. "That's only fair."

"It's my opinion that A.C. shouldn't be sitting out just because somebody took a cheap shot at him," Fitzsimmons said.

When it was suggested that Green's streak had been tainted, Fitzsimmons flared. "I don't care what anybody thinks," he said. "I'm the coach, and I decide who plays."

Cotton reminded reporters that he coached Randy Smith in Buffalo, and kinda sold Randy out in the process:

"I kept his string going," says Fitzsimmons. "He had a pulled hamstring and we worked around it. If I can do that for Randy, I can do it for A.C."

Smith had his best year under Fitzsimmons, his second All-Star season, set a career-high in points per game and minutes per contest, even worked 97 combined minutes on a back-to-back performance in Buffalo and Indianapolis. But Smith also worked but a dozen minutes in the fourth game to go in the season, possibly with that hamstring, who knows but ol' Cotton?

In a podcast decades later, Green (a dedicated, pious person) called his return "miraculous."

A.C. kept the streak alive, took the record, but the 1996 turn was a little token'y: Green worked an average of 5.2 minutes per game in 10 contests following his whap from Reid, after working about 35 minutes per game through the first three months of the season. But he set the record.

So, no, Mikal Bridges does not bother me. Watergate bothers me. Very much so, still.

INDIANA

Lost to Bucks three outta four times, lone win was this wild affair.

More football plays, please.

C: Myles Turner – he's always been made to feel on edge and now he has reason to, the Pacers may excise Turner in the offseason due to payroll concerns. The problem is that it is a bad time to let loose of this basketball brain, Myles knows what he needs to do and how to get there, he is 29 and won't ever be better than this spring. Everything else from here is mercenary shit, it would be nice to watch Turner play free and easy if this is his last go 'round with the Pacers.
F: Pascal Siakam – managing a bum right elbow but don't worry it's only his shooting elbow it's not the elbow he hooks guys with in the post. Pascal is awesome, I'm excited to watch him go to work.
G: Andrew Nembhard – is the reason everyone else gets to lunge into the passing lane and pick up steals. That isn't a dig at anyone else in this starting five, that's how the Pacers play defense. Lots of talking and lots of he can't throw it there.
G/F: Aaron Nesmith – Pacers' deep threat has to splash in spring.
PG: Tyrese Haliburton – gaining in strength as the season moved along, will have fun taking advantage of the space between games, extra time off and the same opponent. Cut down in turnovers and it kept the Pacers (who emphasized defense, jumped from No. 24 to No. 13 on that end) in the top-ten offensively.

Bennedict Mathurin disappears far too often for my taste but he gets out of the way when head coach Rick Carlisle recognizes as much and dumps him from the lineup. Mathurin tries, he's working toward becoming a two-way player. He can do a late of damage in a series like this, making Bucks have to bend their knees and chase someone young.

Obi Toppin turned into a coach's favorite and for good reason, he runs and runs and runs, runs and then runs. In a league forever begging the big to clear, Obi (double-figure points in 19 minutes off the bench, 69 percent on twos, 36 on threes) is someone to have on staff.

Ben Sheppard earns minutes among all these similarly-sized people because he competes defensively and makes quick decisions with the ball once the ball ends up in Sheppard's hands, decisions which rarely end with Ben shooting the basketball ... T.J. McConnell needs zero help gathering steals. His heist movie is a major disappointment, only good for the first two-thirds, T.J. assembles a crew and then tells them all to go home. If I could suggest an homage:

Jarace Walker dips in and out of Carlisle's evenings and his butterfingers are often the reason why. Defense a little iffy but he shoots 40 percent from deep. Still, not yet the sticky scorer we'd like to see ... Tony Bradley is here and I promise he's played well, I promise, same as Thomas Bryant, all season. Bryant was great this year and Bradley showed up late and provided terrific minutes and you don't believe me, do you?

Johnny Furphy. I just wanted to type "Johnny Furphy."

We knew the Pacers would be in the thick of it, if everyone stayed healthy.

We didn't know they'd hit 50 wins without some dramatic jump, an Obvious Guy, someone to point to as the reason the Pacers piled win atop win, moved closer toward the all-around ideal the roster has in its future (if it continues coalescing). Walker and Mathurin are not stars yet, Obi Toppin is not a Sixth Man candidate, nor is McConnell. Turner and Siakam gave up numbers and did less so that the team could do more, Haliburton wasn't nearly as ball-dominant in his first season as a fully-fledged NBA superstar.

SAT, TUE, FRI, SUN, TUE, FRI, SUN

MILWAUKEE

C: Brook Lopez – shared a starting frontcourt with Reggie Evans in his first NBA playoff game but that's OK because Brook was spelled by Andray Blatche.
F: Kyle Kuzma – stepped up a bit in Dame Lillard's absence and shoots 33 percent from deep as a Buck. Does not look uncomfortable out there, but that's me, watching safe from my chair. Still not the answer, but it is hard to complain about an easy study with championship experience.
F: Giannis Antetokounmpo – worked 67 games, scored more points on two-pointers than Bub Carrington scored points in 82 games. Scored more on two-pointers than Kawhi Leonard scored all season.

Antetokounmpo is outrageous. The Pacers are twice the team Milwaukee is and the Bucks may win in five because Giannis saw lanes nobody else thought available.

I also came across this, in a guitar forum, extolling the virtues of using less-common, "middle" pickup configurations (the "pickups" on a guitar pick up the sound vibration from the strings, pickups are spaced on different parts of the guitar body to provide different tonal variations).

"Middle" as opposed to the more popular "bridge" (very trebly) and "neck" (full of warm bass) positions. You can combine the positions for an idiosyncratic pluck, but you wouldn't want to build a team around it:

The most notable user of a middle position on a Fender Stratocaster-styled guitar, as referenced in the image, is Jerry Garcia. There are some who will argue the guitar sound on 'Europe '72' is as good as any small forward who has ever played the game, but don't ever give one of those people a ride.

This is not the first time I've considered ascribing basketball positions to a Stratocaster's five-way pickup switch. "Rolling the tone" off the point guard position, with its modern wiring, that scans. And as someone who uses the middle position most when he plays his Stratocaster, its do-it-all abilities are an apt comparison for Giannis. Antetokounmpo is unlike any other small forward, a Strat middle pickup is a valued, cherished, unique tone.

The most notable user of the bridge position for a Fender Stratocaster-styled guitar is, of course, Al Jardine.

F: Taurean Prince – worked 80 games and hit 44 percent of his threes, NBA teams dream of two-way production they won't have to worry about. Attempted 48 free throws in in 2166 minutes.
PG: Ryan Rollins – 48/45/87 as a starter, 10 points per game, ran the ball up and got out of the way.

Very nervous about Damian Lillard, his blood clot and quick "recovery." Did not care for what ESPN relayed upon announcing news of Dame's availability in this series:

Doctors have told Bucks officials that the speed of Lillard's recovery has never been seen before, but it occurred because of early treatment, detection and specialists working on him before a formal diagnosis, according to sources.

We knew this was in Buck management. This is a win-at-all costs organization, who decided to fill its swingman depth with Kevin Porter Jr. this season. Compassionate shit.

The move worked, Porter was instrumental in keeping Milwaukee's head above water as the club navigated its separation from Khris Middleton, Doc Rivers' restructuring of the rotation, Pat Connaughton and Delon Wright and MarJon Beauchamp fading from the rotation, Andre Jackson Jr. dropping out of the starting position. Rivers did a great job this year, whatever, the Bucks lost me when Milwaukee added Porter.

Bobby Portis averaged about 17 and 10 in his first three games back for ragin' out on 'roids, he's rarin' to roll, up since 7 AM for this 8:30 PM game, don't ask him why. No nap.

Bobby might be a bad influence, but this next part is for our youth.

Kids, coaches won't care if you don't pass if you can shoot from deep (like Gary Trent Jr. in 2024-25, making 41 percent of his threes). Coaches won't care if you never give the ball to your teammates if you never give up the ball to the other team. Gary Trent Jr., for instance, turned it over only 42 times in 1893 minutes this season. That's a one turnover every, well, kids, you do that math.

A.J. Green drew seven shooting fouls in 73 games, shot 27 free throws in 1659 minutes. That's another thing, kids. If you can hit threes, nobody will ask you to shoot free throws. So just practice those bombs.

We didn't know if the Bucks would get here, this is a veteran team and a lot had to go correctly and we are happy to see them attempt their revenge. We hope it is a healthy one.

Pacers in six.

Here is some Quo, for the youth.

ROCKIN' ALL OVER THE WORLD

When it came time to film the promotional video the bass player wouldn't fly in from his home in Australia so they had to use a stand-in who didn't know how to play the instrument. Luckily for the replacement, he only had to learn three notes.

Thank you for reading!