Pistons need to go inside

One game into the conference finals, Detroit has a lot to be worried about. There's the quiet night from Chauncey Billups and whether the lingering effects of his hamstring injury had anything to do with it. There's the elbow Richard Hamilton aimed at Kevin Garnett's head, which may result in discipline once Stu Jackson gets a look at the tape.
And there's the little fact that they couldn't get anywhere near the basket.
Partly, this is because of how they play. Detroit has been a jump-shooting team all year, as players like Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Antonio McDyess tend to shoot the mid-range J rather than go hard to the rim.
But tonight they took to extremes, especially in the first quarter. As you can tell by ESPN.com's handy-dandy shot chart feature, in the opening stanza Detroit attempted one shot in the paint.
One.
And even that shot came with an asterisk. It wasn't a sweet drive and dish or a transition layup, but a tip-dunk by McDyess of -- what else -- a missed Piston jumper. Take away that second-chance bucket and not one Detroit play produced a shot in the paint all quarter.
Two other attempts were at least from the general vicinity of the painted area. One other was a low-block attempt by Rasheed Wallace, and one was a short left-side try by Billups.
The rest of the shots -- all 16 of them -- were jumpers. Hamilton and Prince tried eight between them, none of which were in hailing distance of the paint, while McDyess launched five. And all but two of the Pistons' tries were 2-point Js -- the lowest percentage shot in basketball. It's no wonder the Pistons only made seven field goals and left the quarter down five.
While subsequent quarters weren't quite this jumper-happy, the overall result makes for pretty depressing reading. Only 16 of Detroit's 66 shot attempts came from within 10 feet of the basket. Eleven others were 3-pointers, leaving the vast majority -- 39 -- as 2-point Js. It's not a coincidence that they only scored 79 points.
The disparity was more glaring because of how many shots Boston got close to the rim. The Celtics took 29 of their 69 shots in the paint, whereas only 31 were 2-point Js. Even those jumpers tended to be closer in than Detroit's tries, as the shot chart shows. Overall, Boston had the edge in points in the paint by a 42-18 margin; Paul Pierce and Garnett alone matched Detroit's team total.
Because of differences in the two teams' playing styles, we can expect Boston to have an edge in points in the paint nearly every game; that part is no surprise. From Detroit's end, the idea is that the Pistons will make up for it with superior shooting and fewer turnovers.
If it's a 10 or 15-point differential, they can do it. But 24? Forget it.
In Game 2, Detroit has to get something at the hoop in order to have a chance. It's great that they have so many talented mid-range shooters who can bail them out at the end of the shot clock, but a steady diet of those shots isn't going to move the scoreboard much. If things are to turn out different on Thursday, they'll need to sprinkle in a few more layups with those Js.