Of Playoffs and motorcycle movies: a Pistons convo with Matt Watson

May 25th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

After watching the Pistons pull out yet another close game last night, I got the feeling that, besides the close nature of these games, the Pistons were having to work much harder each possession than they did against the Bulls. Like, MUCH harder. So as I was about to write about this novel concept and backhandedly insult the Bulls (and their oh-so-photogenic head coach), I decided to chat up Detroit Bad Boys’ (and FanHouse’s) own Matt Watson on the subject. After all, he would know better than I, and could provide me some expert insight before I got to writing.

Well, a conversation that started about the movie Torque progressed into something probably more interesting than I would have written, so I’ve reproduced it for you here. As I told Matt, this serves at least two purposes: 1. Preventing me from having to actually write anything, and 2. Granting Postmen space to someone who actually knows something about anything. (This is rare, so enjoy it.)

Anyway, here’s the convo. If the spacing is screwy, it’s because changing it would completely ruin the prevailing ethic behind this idea, which was laziness.

Matthew: so, i’m watching this ice cube biker movie that came on after the pistons game … it’s oddly entertaining

PostmanE: that’s triple x the sequel or something like that, right?

Matthew: no, it’s worse than that

PostmanE: oh god
“from the producers of ‘fast and the furious’ and ‘xxx’”
so you know it’s good!

Matthew: the only saving grace is that the female lead is hot

PostmanE: very nice
i was actually getting ready to write about this for the postmen, so i might as well bounce it off you — is it just me, or do the pistons look like they’re playing harder this series?
i mean that as a credit to the pistons
essentially, they were so much better than the bulls that they cruised a majority of the time in that series and still won handily

Matthew: well, yes and no. they’re still up and down from quarter to quarter. i don’t know if that’s them not playing hard or a credit to the cavs defense, though
cleveland does match up well with chauncey, though. chauncey is used to be so much more stronger than the opposing point guard, and while he could probably win an arm wrestling match with larry hughes, hughes has a lot of length to contend with

PostmanE: yeah, i think the cavs are much better equipped to guard them than the bulls were, especially on the perimeter
and the bulls, minus lebron, could probably get shots easier
but just watching the flow of this series compared to bulls-pistons, i get the feeling that the pistons are being forced to play a bit more urgently, and not just because both games have been close

Matthew: that i do agree with
it’s a blessing in disguise, since they won’t get fooled into taking a game off

PostmanE: that’s probably true too … they respond to that much better it seems than to a team they can chill a bit against
i was just watching the game tonight and thought, ‘damn — i actually thought the bulls had a chance’
they just got toyed with for a couple games, and then left in the dust

Matthew: i just hope lebron stays passive in cleveland
during that third quarter when detroit was storming back, LBJ took one shot

PostmanE: yeah, i don’t get that at all
is that brown’s fault for pulling him back? because why would lbj temper himself?

Matthew: no idea
honestly, sometimes i think he just doesn’t care
i mean, i doubt that’s actually it, but i don’t know what else it could be

PostmanE: it’s very weird
maybe, in his head, he feels like because he’s so young and detroit is a better team than cleveland all around he has a buffer zone before he really has to dominate and win constantly
like, in five years, he’ll start to get anxious

Matthew: right
what sucks is that he was awesome in the playoffs last year
but has coasted this year

PostmanE: but he’s like any recent 22-year old college grad that says “eh, i can afford to live at home for a year or two, mom will cook for me, and i can play videogames all day”
instead of being eager to start a career

Matthew: that’s a good point
maybe he thinks he accomplished enough last year to wait until he actually has a good team
(btw the way, this movie is getting awesome-er)

After that, we started talking about Torque in much greater, and no less ironic, depth. Let’s just say: that movie is effing RAD. Flying motorcycles and fire and stuff! Can’t beat that, no sir.