Pistons versus Bulls

has been an interesting series, just as I blogged earlier that it would be. The interesting part, however, is how easily the Pistons have beaten the Bulls in their first two games at the Palace.

Detroit has had slow starts in first quarters, even first halves, during the regular season. But in this Bulls series they have gotten off to early double-digit leads and have increased the margin from there.

Pistons' guard play is overwhelming the guards of Chicago. In the first game the Pistons offense went to Chauncey Billups early and forced Ben Gordon to play defense, something he did not have to do too much against Miami, resulting in early Gordon fouls. In game two Richard Hamilton joined the scoring and put pressure on Kirk Hinrich. In addition the Pistons have had superior play at the other three positions.

And during the weeklong layoff after the Miami sweep by the Bulls and Orlando sweep by the Pistons, Chicago sports talk shows had been looking ahead to the Bulls in the conference finals.

We will see how the Bulls respond at the United Center on Thursday. If Detroit wins Thursday, I doubt that Chicago will win the fourth game.