In the end — and it was The End for the Bulls’ 2006-07 season — it was the basketball equivalent of a no-hitter by the Detroit Pistons.
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And the Bulls’ flaws that lingered below the surface in two thrilling playoff wins over the Pistons this week were exposed again in defeat.
Yes, there’s still work to do for the Bulls, but they are drawing closer.
“Those guys are tough, man,” Pistons guard Chauncey Billups said. “It wasn’t easy.”
The Pistons, in finishing off the Bulls 95-85 Thursday night for a 4-2 margin in their Eastern Conference semifinal, pitched a virtual shutout to open the fourth quarter.
The Bulls, who reached the conference semis for the first time since 1998, made only one field goal, missing 10 of 11 shots to open the quarter, and the Pistons steadily and relentlessly pulled away. They led 85-73 with just over two minutes left by the time the Bulls made their second field goal of the fourth.
The Pistons dominated the rebounding down the stretch after the Bulls had outrebounded them in the last three games. Also, with jump shots not falling and the Pistons pressuring, especially Billups practically face-guarding Ben Gordon, the Bulls had no one to go to inside and open the floor, slow the game and find an easy inside shot.
And they were too small in the end as coach Scott Skiles employed small lineups in an effort to produce scoring and get back in the game.
“Experience has a tendency to help out,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. “You’ve got to give the Bulls credit. They were down 3-0 and made this a tough series.
“There’s no question having been here, our guys know what it takes. We have guys to make big shots and big defensive stands.
“It’s a hell of an accomplishment to go five straight years to the conference finals.”
The Pistons do so as the favorite to get to the NBA Finals by beating the winner of the Cavaliers-Nets series.
“I haven’t thought about that,” Billups said. “Our goal is to win the championship. The conference finals is on the way. Maybe one day I’ll look back on getting there five straight times.”
For a while, the Bulls put that milestone in doubt, coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the series in hopes of setting up a Game 7 Monday night. The back-breaker, however, was blowing a 19-point lead and losing Game 3 at home.
“We didn’t want to face that [Game 7] challenge,” said Tayshaun Prince, who was the Pistons’ principal scorer down the stretch with eight fourth-quarter points and 17 for the game. “We felt the pressure was on them tonight.”
And the Pistons employed that pressure to smother the Bulls down the stretch like the Pistons of the late 1980s.
In the end it was the Pistons’ big guard tandem of Billups (21 points) and Richard Hamilton (23 points) who made the difference against Gordon and Kirk Hinrich, who combined for 30 points but shot 10-for-31.
After the Bulls took a 48-43 halftime lead, the Pistons took control of the game, outscoring the Bulls 16-4 to open the third quarter and then 11-4 to open the fourth.
It was the Pistons’ best defensive stretch of the series.
“When the ball was inbounded in the second half we were flat-footed,” Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. “We’re not a finished product yet.”
The Pistons, meanwhile, went back to basics.
They practically abandoned the zone defense that had been so effective in the first two games and played almost exclusively man-to-man, constantly pressuring the Bulls into 37.3 percent shooting after the near 60 percent barrage in Game 5 in Auburn Hills.
The Pistons also went extensively with Billups instead of Hamilton on Hinrich to thwart the Bulls’ pick-and-roll and limit Hinrich’s penetration.
“Their last game was phenomenal,” Saunders said.
“The way they shot the ball, I don’t know if anyone could have beaten them.”
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The Bulls shot only 30 percent in Thursday night’s fourth quarter, most of the baskets coming late after the Pistons had drawn ahead by a dozen with just over two minutes left.
The Pistons also dominated the second-half rebounding, 30-16 and 16-9 in the fourth quarter as the Bulls couldn’t mount a serious comeback.
“That team challenged us,” Billups said. “They fought us hard. They played great. You give those guys any space, it’s trouble. We learned that the last game at home. We didn’t want this thing to go any longer. We wanted to lock in.
“We know who we are. We play defense. We gang rebound. Offensively, we share the ball. A lot of people hurt you different times of the game. It’s why we’ve been dominant.
“Those guys pushed us. It’s human nature sometimes when you get a cushion to let your guard down. But a lot of it was the Bulls. Those guys are tough. They don’t have much playoff experience, but I’m sure they grew up a lot in this series.
“I look forward to battling them for a lot of years.”
The feeling is mutual.
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