Fresh off their Game 4 win, the Pistons elected not to practice Tuesday. Detroit coach Flip Saunders said he thought a day of rest would better serve his team before Wednesday night’s Game 5.
He said, in hindsight, he thought his team played tired in Saturday’s Game 3 loss, and he didn’t want a repeat of that problem.
“Sometimes you don’t realize it, but for 8:30 games, you get done so late,” Saunders said. “We got in at 3:30, and guys to their place around 4 in the morning.”
Saunders held a short practice that was mostly a film session Friday, but the next day the Pistons played flat. So they did nothing Tuesday while the Celtics held a practice in Boston.
Fatigue could become more of a factor as the series continues.
“The first thing with fatigue, it starts wearing on you emotionally,” Saunders said. “First thing you start seeing is a change in how teams play a little bit. I thought we looked fatigued in Game 3 at times for some reason, and their shot selection [in Game 4] was a little more frivolous than what it was in the other games. That happens with fatigue and it happens with pressure.”
Pistons forward Antonio McDyess was the star of Game 4 with his 21 points and 16 rebounds. Equally big was his job of slowing Kevin Garnett, who had torched the Pistons in all six of their previous games this season. Garnett missed 10 of 16 shots in Game 4 and scored 16 points. Saunders called McDyess an “underrated” defender and had a lot to do with that by using his superb footwork to front Garnett and his strength to push him off the block.
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