Although, I think there’s way too much talk about the Celtics on this Pistons blog, this is from Charley Rosen’s Straight Shooting:

“In a recent game in New York, Eddie House got into Isiah Thomas’ face when the Celtics were up by 20 points over the Knicks.

That’s Eddie House, mind you. A journeyman backup who’s played with eight teams during his eight-year journey through the NBA.

But House’s taunting is unfortunately symptomatic of the Celtics’ attitude toward their stunning early-season success. After winning nearly all of their games in November and December, the Celts were acting as though they’d already won the championship. As though all they had to do was toss their jocks on the court and opponents should go belly-up.

However, since Jan. 9, Boston is merely 5-4 — and after routing the Knicks, they’ve gone 1-2.

Even Doc Rivers is upset, saying, “We’re pounding our chests and running our mouths.”

Indeed, the lack of a professional attitude might be even more damaging to the Celtics’ championship hopes than their lack of an experienced point guard or their thin bench.

Looks like Rivers has a lot of work to do before his team is playoff ready."

Man, the numbers are almost identical in this game. Seems like a slow-trotter of a pace for the night.

I’m gettin’ tired of guys like Foster getting any luck at all inside the paint. It seems like the only guy playing good D is Rasheed. Antonio sure as hell doesn’t have it, he never did. Amir fouls too much. Even Maxiell is a little foul-prone.

Nice shooting foul drawn out by Jarvis.

Don’t look now, but Stuckey is making some nice plays on offense

They’re tearing up Indy’s interior D now that the bigs are doing what they do best – fouling us.

PG4L, where are you? Dunleavy’s hung 18 on the Pistons in the first half.

I will have to say that this is probably one of the better sub patterns I’ve seen FLip manage of late. He’s really integrating everyone, and picking out good lineups that combine vets and younger players.

We are right back into position to win the game before halftime.

pistons clamping down and pacers making some errors.

its like the last orlando game when we shot the lights out in the first quarter/half..and then the lead shrunk in the latter game. ..And the dallas game we lost when dallas was shooting 75% in the first half, etc.. shooting is going to level off by any team. Pacers are no exception. It’s how a team responds to the other team shooting lights out that is key.

and pistons got that lock figured out pretty well, most times.

Hot damn. Nice buzzer-beater by Chauncey before the half. 2 point lead.

They’re not playing great D, but if Indiana’s D is as lukewarm as it’s been this year, hell yeah we’re gonna win this one.

beautiful dunk!

Good god. How is Duns Gone Wild shooting like there’s no tomorrow, and hitting them?

hamilton the easy layup man who thinks the ball will just go down without effort and nobody is trying to defend against him.

hamilton who does not learn from his mistakes.

6 points we could have had that we do not, due in great part to his complacency.

Man, Marquis Daniels should never stick that 3-ball. Amir’s gotta bother that guy out there. Perimeter D work in practice? Yes.

Lots of failed breaks leading to open 3’s for Indiana.

11/20 from Indiana from beyond the arc.

If the Pacers just had one solid guard or big man (J.O.= too injured aka part-time player and therefore sucks) they’d be a lot better.

Nice Amir slam on the put-back.

Ugly turnover and couple quick fouls. Amir post-up work in practice? Yes.

Now I know a lot of people bash Flip for his rotations (and I was one of them) but I have been very happy with them tonight.. I mean Amir’s already logged 10 minutes out there.. I just see that Rip has played 38mins.. Wow! Nearly whole the game.. Maybe Flip could use Afflalo a bit more to rest Rip in the future?

James, sometimes those minutes are listed wrong. You have to wait til after the game for accurate minutes.

im not sure where you are getting your number from, but Im seeing only 33 minutes for RIP. Afflalo has logged 10 all at SG. That adds up to 43.

There are 5 left in the game, to make it 48.

RASHEED FROM DOWNTOWN FOR SOME SWEETNESS

104-99

Rip is not the problem, minutes-wise. At all…

Anyone else think Jeff Foster is gay? I think he’s gay. No that there’s anything wrong with that.

TRAVIS DIENER MISSES HIS FIRST FREE THROW

GEORGE BLAHA JINX FTW

Damn.

And then Diener punks Tayshaun on the layup. 106-104 Detroit.

Now’s a good time to engineer the close shave win, players.

Everyone watching Prince chase down Deiner was thinking the same thing. Especially Deiner.

Tayshaun CLUTCH!

McDyess got away with a three ssecond violation. Is it just me or have the Pacers been getting no calls?

Detroit’s still got the perimeter D at top-notch.

They gotta resolve that interior situation though. It’s way too easy to score on the Pistons when they cut it in there opposite the side Rasheed’s on.

Rasheed stole the show tonight. Hats off to the Pistons.

The announcers just called Sheed the “quiet leader” of the team. Huh?

kevin, i heard them call sheed quiet, as well, which makes no sense, because if he picks up a tech they’ll talk about how he has a hard time controlling his mouth. seemed odd to me, especially since indiana’s crew should be as familiar with detroit as they are any team in the league.

also,

i’m not sure if knocking someone as gay then quoting seinfeld is a big hit on your blog, but i’d just as soon stick to basketball skills on DBB. you’re a writer, can’t you think of something a bit less cliche if you want to insult someone?

“you’re a writer, can’t you think of something a bit less cliche if you want to insult someone?”

Yes. I’m just curious as to whether he is gay. Do you think he is gay? I can’t be the only one who has considered the idea.

I stand corrected. If you’re actually curious about his identity, then excuse my presumption of ignorance. There have got to be a handful, if not dozens of players if you look at even conservative statistics about sexual orientation. I suppose he’s as good a candidate as anyone else…

Re: Jeff Foster— when I see him play basketball, or any other player for that matter, I’ve never found myself asking “I wonder if he likes to sleep with dudes”.

I didn’t see the game, but it looked like the bench played well. Amir was +8 and Afflalo was +8 as well. While undoubtedly these were good matchups for them, the +/- numbers are encouraging.

Yeah, the bench played well. Amir kept some balls alive that he didn’t show up in the stats. Maxiell was solid. Hayes hit some big shots. Stuckey was aggressive. Afflalo played hard.

They trimmed the lead a little and by the time the starters got back in the game, they were out of their malaise.

Amir did benefit in the +- from sheed’s “couldn’t miss” second quarter, but he still played very well and had an impact on the game.

Amir’s best moment came when Stuckey drove to the lane and left one wobbling on the rim, Amir burst in unblocked from the free throw line and slammed it back in.

imo this was stuckey’s best game as a Piston.

flip used the bench amazingly. for some damn reason we played better with at least 2 starters on the bench. that first quarter made me sick watching “the best starting five in the nba” walk up and down the court.

Sauce, your hyperboles are making you seem a bit Walton-esque. McDyess and Amir had excellent games.

Some things that didn’t show up in Stuckey’s stat line. He was 3-5 from the floor. One of the misses was a layup he should have made. The other, he drew the defense over enough for Amir to get an easy putback. So he was really 4-5.

He had two assists and no turnovers. But it’s really 21/2 assists because one pass led to Maxiell getting fouled right at the basket.

He got lost a couple times on defense. Left someone wide open for a three on the break. It wasn’t his man but he should have known to pick the guy up.

But, yeah, it might have been his best game so far.

As you can tell, I’m watching Stuckey the way everyone else watches Amir.

I’m going to try to watch Samb’s D-League games online this weekend.

I watched the game on delay last night and although I wasn’t “up” for this game against the Pacers, I have to say it was very entertaining. I was surprised to see a lot fewer comments about Sheed’s play than I expected. I can’t recall the last time he actually DOMINATED the competition like that. He was calling for it, getting it and there was nothing a Pacers big man could do.

It was also great to see the bench play up to their potential. Here’s to taking the Lake Show down a notch on Thursday!!

Q Dog

Well, I said that if the Pistons could win 4 out of their last five this month, I would consider them back on track and out of their funk. A win against L.A. on Thursday is all that’s left.

Good to see Flip give the bench some more time with a little bit of a tweak in the rotation. Stuckey and Amir both looked good last night, J-Max had an off night but that doesn’t really concern me. His energy level disallows him from having more than a couple of games struggling.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d like to see the Pistons refuse to shoot a jump shot until Sheed has had at least four or five touches in the post. He’s just too good in the paint not to use him and settle for jumpers. Plus, if Sheed starts drawing consistent doubles, I’d say a team is going to have to shoot the lights out to beat us because we’ll be putting points on the board with Rip and Chauncey getting open shots due to the attention given to Sheed.

Kyle: “Sauce, your hyperboles are making you seem a bit Walton-esque. McDyess and Amir had excellent games.”

Sauce: That hurts. I hate Bill Walton. Thanks for the sick stomach. Next week I expect allusions, connotations, and innuendos.

Rasheed >> McDyess (missing darling) >>>>>>>>>> Amir

^^Baby Eats

A winner is diagrams.

THE EBLM WILL NOT LET THIS DENNIS RODMAN WANNA-BE TAKE MORE MINUTES BEFORE THEY GET EATEN BY BEN WALLACE TWO-EEUU. Leftovers for worms!

MORE BABY EATING LESS AMIR HYPE

3.6 MILLION! <—— (should be Maxiell’s scratch)

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