The AP reports: Playing his best game playoff game in perhaps a decade, Antonio McDyess had 21 points and 16 rebounds to lift Detroit to a 94-75 series-evening win over the Boston Celtics on Monday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals… Boston’s Big Three shot awfully as did most of the Celtics, but the NBA’s top-seeded team stayed competitive for much of the game thanks to a stark disparity in free throws. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen combined to miss their first seven shots and finished 11-for-38 from the field… Detroit scored the first 10 points of the game and started the second quarter with an 11-2 run, but led just 43-39 at halftime. The Celtics stayed in the game by making 17 of 20 free throws in the first half while Detroit was 5-for-9… The Celtics fell to 1-7 on the road and 0-6 when trailing after three quarters.
InsideHoops.com Stat Notes: The Pistons shot 51.4%, the Celtics just 31.8%. Both teams shot 9 threes but barely hit any. The Celtics had 32-of-39 free throws, the Pistons 20-of-26. Boston had a few more rebounds, but the Pistons won the assists category, 27-12. And the Pistons only had 7 turnovers, the Celtics 14. The pistons won the blocks category, 10-3 (Rasheed Wallace 5 blocks).
For the Pistons, McDyess (8-of-14) had 21 points and 16 rebounds. Richard Hamilton (8-of-10) had 20 points and 7 assists. Rasheed Wallace (6-of-9) had 14 points, just 5 rebounds, but 5 blocks. Jason Maxiell (6-of-6) scored 14 off the bench. Chauncey Billups (just 3-of-12) had 10 points, 7 assists and 2 steals.
For the Celtics, Kevin Garnett (just 6-of-16) had 16 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks. Paul Pierce (awful 3-of-14) had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 turnovers with just 1 assist. Ray Allen (awful 2-of-8 but 7-of-9 free throws) scored 11 with little else. James Posey on 6 shots had 11 off the bench. Kendrick Perkins (4-of-6) had 10 points and 6 rebounds. Rajon Rondo (awful 2-of-8) had just 4 points and 4 assists.
