In the East we have the Pistons vs. the Magic - not an intriguing series on paper, but if you take a closer look, there’s much more to it. It’s been a learning experience for the Orlando Magic team as a whole (with the exception of veteran, Grant Hill). What stood out to me the most was Dwight Howard - the man is a beast, but like Rasheed Wallace said, he’s gotta learn to do more than dunk. Howard seemed to be totally shut down in games 1 through 3 - in game 4 he finally relaxed; maybe that was a result of Dwight finally losing his playoff jitters, or the Pistons relaxed on the defensive pressure (which I highly doubt).Another interesting thing to see, especially for Piston fans, was the growth of Darko Milicic. Darko wasn’t a difference maker, but nonetheless, he was there and scoring. Some Piston fans hate the guy, but I see no reason to. Darko was an outcast - he came to the U.S. from Serbia Montenegro at 20 years old - there was really nothing he could do about his situation either. I don’t like the guy, but I also don’t hate him; actually, I am happy to see he is helping another team become successful. The guys seemed to hold no hard feelings - Rasheed and the guys were laughing with Darko all series.

Overall, this was a fun series to watch - we got to see the Pistons show their experience, and power physically and mentally. We also got to see a bench that has been huge for the Pistons - only making it possible for the Pistons to have a chance at the Championship. Even Mr. Charles Barkley himself admitted that the Pistons DO have depth to their bench. I really got into how we were almost “schooling” the Magic, literally. I saw Rasheed talking to Howard many times - probably telling him how to post up or something; one of the many reasons I love Rasheed.

Now the Pistons have to look towards the Chicago Bulls who have been surprisingly good as they swept the “defending champs” - A.K.A. the Miami Heat. I am not going to lie - I am slightly afraid of their depth, but I do know this series will be nothing like the Miami series. The Bulls almost remind me of an unexperienced Pistons team - has many great players who can all step up and score whenever called upon; the differential thing here, between the Pistons and Bulls would be experience. I was hoping the Bulls would beat the Heat in 6 or 7 games, but that didn’t happen, and the Pistons just have to go out there and play their game. It is of course going to be very interesting that the same man that drove the 2004 Pistons to a championship will be the same man that is coming to the Palace of Auburn Hills next week hoping to take his team to the championship. It’s still a strange sight to me seeing Ben in that Bulls uniform - it’s especially going to be weird seeing him playing against the Pistons in the playoffs.

In order for the Pistons to win this next series, they have to do many things:

• Keep Ben Wallace as far away from the glass as possible.
• Rebounding will be huge this series, so keeping rebounding as a priority is key.
• Play 5 versus 4 - get Ben Wallace to the line whenever he gets the ball and let him work hard to get his points.
• Nocioni isn’t as good as he’s been playing - I know for a fact Rasheed will take care of this man - especially since they had some feud earlier this season. (or last season - can’t remember)
• The Bulls score the majority of their points through jump shots (Deng, Gordon, Hinrich) - so keeping a hand in their face is key. Also, keeping the paint Bull free is important - if they think they can survive on jump shots only - fine; but no layups or dunks.
• Richard Hamilton will need to improve on his shooting - we survived without it in the Orlando series - but it won’t work against the Bulls.
• Chris Webber needs to be consistent - he really wasn’t there in the first two games, but the last two he started playing well - if he can grab 10 rebounds, and score about 10 points - that would be solid.
• Tayshaun has been great, his maturity and consistency has been great so far; keep it up.
• The bench has been good, but not great. Antonio McDyess has been struggling to get his shot - but he has been rebounding very well. If he can get his shots to fall again, we’ll be set for the bench.
• Delfino just needs to do what he’s been doing all season: hustle, hustle, and hustle.

Can’t wait for this series to start, it will be very fun to watch. I will be going to either game 1 or game 2 - so that will be even better considering it will be my first game this season!

Later guys.

RTD; Eslam Kersha.

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