Pistons Roll Dice, And Magic Craps Out

Didn’t I just write about Antonio McDyess? Didn’t I just praise him for his monstrous offensive rebound late in Game 4 against the Orlando Magic — a board that kept a Pistons possession alive long enough for Tayshaun Prince to pull a baby hook out of his sleeve and beat the ‘Gic? Didn’t I just drone on about how his on-court personality is just about 180 degrees opposite of his off-court demeanor, which earns him the nickname McNice?

Guess I’ll have to write about him — and Prince — again.

Last night, in the Pistons’ clinching Game 5 win over The O, McDyess came up huge in the same way that Lassie used to when Timmy was stuck in a well. Again I have to chuckle at Orlando’s Dwight Howard and his nickname, Superman — for it was Dice who (again) donned the cape and swooped in to save the day. He jump-started the Pistons’ offense early in the fourth quarter when the Magic had opened up a fragile five-point lead by hitting two 18-foot jumpers in succession. Then he swarmed the offensive glass — either grabbing a board or inducing undersized defenders like Rashard Lewis into taking loose ball fouls. Dice was a big reason the Magic was in the penalty situation with 6:30 left in the fourth quarter.

I watched the game not knowing about the death of McDyess’s grandmother — a sad revelation that he received hours before the game. It was only in reading accounts that I found out about the heavy heart with which McDyess played. I missed the first half, so maybe it had been mentioned at the top of the broadcast. I don’t know. Regardless, it was hard not to think of McDyess’s boss — and the man who brought him to Detroit — Joe Dumars, who played an NBA Finals game in Portland in 1990 as the only Piston who didn’t know that Joe D’s father had passed away earlier in the day. McDyess knew his bad news, and Dumars didn’t, but the sobriety of the situation is almost the same, for Dumars was taken into a private room after the Pistons walked off the court as winners in ’90 and was given the news by coach Chuck Daly and GM Jack McCloskey.

As for Prince, what can you say? He’s racking up big-time blocks the way Michael Jordan did with big-time shots. You can add Hedo Turkoglu to Prince’s list of victims. But I gotta ask: didn’t Turkoglu realize who was guarding him? Didn’t he know that he had the equivalent of a velcroed octopus as a defender? Yet Turkoglu drove the hoop anyway, Prince matching him stride for stride, then tried a half-dunk, half-God knows what that Tayshaun EASILY disposed of. As far as importance, the rejection ranks among Prince’s finest, but as far as ease, it surely must be in the lower percentile. That’s two awful shots by Turkoglu in the clutch in that series. Thanks, Hedo!

So now it’s on to Boston, or home against Cleveland in Game 1 of the NBA’s Final Four. The Celtics, as one writer astutely pointed out, are apparently trying to become the first team in NBA history to win a title by going 16-12: 16-0 at home, 0-12 on the road. Don’t laugh. The Celts are 6-0 at home, 0-5 on the road in the ’08 playoffs. And as TNT’s Mike “The Czar” Fratello pointed out last night, they’d better figure out a way to win on the road, because sooner or later some team is going to steal a game in Boston. And if it’s Cleveland, then the Pistons may not have to worry about the Celtics after all.

No complaints here.

McNice’s Rebound Was Simply Nasty

They call Antonio McDyess, McNice — for his pleasant, courteous off-the-court demeanor and his overall reputation as a hard worker who doesn’t grate on the officials. He’s the anti-Sheed in that respect.

But there was absolutely nothing nice or pleasant about the manner in which McDyess snared a crucial offensive rebound late in the Pistons’ 90-89 win in Game 4 of their series with the Orlando Magic. McDyess’s grabbing of the carom — a result of yet another missed shot by Rasheed Wallace, who missed plenty of them down the stretch — enabled the Pistons to get one more chance with the clock having less than 20 ticks left in its arsenal. The Pistons were down, 89-88, and staring a 2-2 series tie square in the face. Their court general, Chauncey Billups, was styling in a beige suit, but of no use to the team, out with a hamstring injury. Sheed had gone cold.

Enter McDyess. They call Dwight Howard Superman in Orlando, but it was McDyess who earned that moniker, swooping in from nowhere like a super hero to grab Wallace’s miss and keep the possession alive. It was one of the most impressive, clutch offensive rebounds I’ve seen in recent years. McDyess simply wanted it more, and he got it. Tayshaun Prince made the rebound count with his running baby hook, and now Detroit has a 3-1 stranglehold on the series.

McDyess’s rebound, to me, is on par with Prince’s block of Reggie Miller in the 2004 Eastern Finals. Both plays changed games, and McDyess’s board just might have sealed the series for the Pistons. Certainly Prince’s maniacal effort on Miller changed the tone of that series with the Pacers.

There’s a time for nice; the playoffs aren’t it

Yet McDyess’s play hasn’t gotten the notoriety it deserves. Prince’s hook shot rightly was heralded, as was the team’s overall play minus Billups. Even Howard’s disappearing act (hey, he plays for a team called the Magic, after all) has gotten more ink than The Rebound by McNice. But no board there, and the Pistons probably don’t win that game. Simple as that.

All of which would make it criminal and injust poetically if the Pistons can’t somehow find a way to get McDyess his championship. He was brought here after the ’04 title, and came within minutes of winning it all in 2005. Who can forget the image of McDyess sitting on the Pistons bench, in disbelief, after the team blew Game 5 of the conference semi-final to Cleveland in 2006? That was the famous drive-home-in-my-uniform experience that McDyess confessed to. The Pistons recovered to win that series, but that display was merely one example of how badly McDyess wants that ring. This was a guy who wasn’t even supposed to be playing as much as five years ago, due to numerous knee injuries and surgeries. Yet here he is. And let’s not forget his comeback from a broken nose after Game 3 in the Philadelphia series a couple weeks ago.

Antonio McDyess is a nice guy. But when that ring is there for the taking, like Wallace’s missed shot in Game 4, don’t be fooled: Dice knows that Nice doesn’t cut it.