Looks like another bloodbath on national tv delivered by the Piston again. The question of if they win. The question is by how many double digits. All of the Piston players better be playing rather than sitting out a couple of guys.

Tim McGraw and Def Leppard: Together at last!

they’re letting bosh get off early. bad idea.

i am feeling angsty this morning. i want the pistons to KILL this wussy team.

so blogsters: how did moon whiff on the oop sound in person? like BONK? or CRUNK? or FFFFTP?

HATE raptors. who’s idea was it to name them the raptors anyway? lame.

it was probably Isiah Thomas’ idea to name them the Raptors

i sort of remember isiah on tv talking about the name. i remember feeling embarrassed for him at the time.

i assume that moon dunk must have sounded different than the blown oop.

the defense by spellcheck on that last possession against ford was amazing. can’t believe nesterovic bailed that garbage out.

For a guy who wants to get fouled hard less than any other player in the league, ford should be careful with how hard he swipes at stuckey. You don’t usually see Stuck get that pissed after a foul — and it was a chop. I’m not advocating going after TJ, but you’d think a guy with his history wouldn’t be a fan of chops to the upper body.

The name was chosen by readers of Toronto’s leading newspaper. The team put together 5 or 6 options, the readers selected “Raptors” from the list.

I really like the idea of Stuckey taking the ball to the rack… it gives Detroit the scoring option they need.

Inversion table? More Arnie Kander witchcraft! “He’s a witch!”

Nice first half. Bench slipped the lead a bit but held the fort. Good times.

MikePayne, I remember them doing that here with the Washington Bullets. They put up a list in the Washington Post with a website you could go and vote on a name for the team. I think Bobcats was an option, I know Riverdogs was an option (don’t know why).. I remember it being a list of names that didn’t really fit, which is obvious because the “best” name turned out to be the Wizards

my bad… Dragons, Express, Stallions, Sea Dogs, or Wizards were the names for the Washington team.

bottom line: don’t let fans choose anything.

how did the fans of dc NOT select “stallions”?

Stallions is a horrible name. I personally think all of those names are horrible.

should be Washington Generals

nice flush by Prince… I bet the blogfest crowd is going nuts at that. that play gets me out of my seat when I see it live…

Hubie, the Pistons have no shot blocking other than Rasheed?

Blocks per 48 minutes:
Amir – 5.06
Theo – 4.10
Baby Eater – 2.65
’Sheed – 2.54

That Rip to Prince routine . . . surgical!

Hubie Awards . . . just keep the cameras on the Automotion.

joejoejoe, i had the same reaction to hubie’s comment. then i thought about it, and i think what he meant by “get rasheed out” might not have been “out with foul trouble” but rather “pulled out 15 feet from the basket.” in other words, maybe he was only dissing dice’s shotblocking ability…perhaps i’m reaching.

Forty – Maybe. I like Hubie. I just thought it was a weird comment. Plus the Pistons can switch if Rasheed’s man is a perimeter player and they have a small lineup. I just didn’t get the emphasis on the lack of shot blocking on the Pistons.

Starters played a bad quarter on offense. 15 points . . . blech.

right, it’s an absurd comment taken in the context of “the pistons bench has no shot blocking” — every big off our bench is a terrific shotblocker, to your point.

I like Maxey giving Bosh a little workout on the block

Sauce doesn’t like it when Amir is in uniform and Herrmann is in street clothes

not sure how the tiebreaker works with the lakers, but i know we have it with new orleans. so a win today may or may not clinch us…a win and a laker loss definitely clinches homecourt in the nba finals…

nice to see Rasho is still trying to hold onto that “full” head of hair by combing over his bald spot(s)

Bosh is having a nice game. Too bad Bosh’s entire team minus Rasho fails to handle Detroit’s bench, let alone their starters.

40-i heard hubie make that comment and shook my head. i love that old man, but that was a very, very misinformed comment.

yeah jack, it just depends what he meant…i was only painting a picture where you might give him the benefit of the doubt — hardly agreeing with any suggestion that the pistons bench can’t block shots (my guess is on a per 48 minute basis, we have a top 5 shotblocking bench…)

how would you like to be a raptor fan today? your team is fighting for a playoff spot. you might face detroit in the first round. and they treat what is a big game for you like an exhibition game, then their second unit beats up your starters in crunch time.

god it still pisses me off when I read the rumors that Detroit almost took Bosh and Josh Howard in that 03 draft… we’d be talking dynasty about now

Stuckey and Maxey looked soooo confident and under control today. Throw in Afflalo hounding defense and some daggers from Hayes and the bench is ready to kick some ass. Lets go PISTONS.

Hubie, the Pistons have no shot blocking other than Rasheed?

Blocks per 48 minutes:
Amir – 5.06
Theo – 4.10
Baby Eater – 2.65
‘Sheed – 2.54
-————————————-

I think what Hubie was referring to was the fact that once you get Rasheed out of the paint, the Pistons won’t have anyone down low to block any shots with the STARTERS. Mcdyess will play good D but he won’t blocks too many shots and Tayshaun is usely playing around the perimeter so he won’t be able to get any rejects down low either.

Anyone wants to see the game again I got it up on bittorrent go here

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1321379

it is 788mb file in HD widescreen.

From the AP game summary:

“Detroit finished the game with its “Zoo Squad” — Jarvis Hayes, Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell and rookies Arron Afflalo and Rodney Stuckey."

Zoo Crew has a lot better ring to it.

HB. You my friend are a saint. Thankyou, thankyou thankyou!!

“Zoo buddies” also works for me. “Zoo pals.” “Zoo chums.” Send those ideas to the AP – free of charge…

The starters better be more focused going into the playoffs, or there’ll be a repeat of the ’06 and ’07 outcomes.

well if they’re not they’ll find themselves on the bench while a more focused (if less talented) player takes their spot.

Inversion table? More Arnie Kander witchcraft! "He’s a witch!">>

Last time I heard Arnie is a male. A witch is a female. A warlock is a male witch.

Some people are under the mistaken impression that when we play the second unit a lot in a game that we are treating it like an exhibition game.

Maybe it is just that the second unit is good. Why not play them? If they are good and can outplay the opponents, play them and let them earn their pay.

They are good. If we were treating it like an exhibition game we would play Herrmann and Samb and Dixon 25 + minutes each. None of them were even dressed today.

i agree. during the game hubie said something about the starters minutes going up to 40-42 per game in the playoffs. all i could say as our bench beat their starters was, “why?”

Mike – sorry to get nerdy, but:

In the Oxford English Dictionary:
“Witch (n) – A man who practises witchcraft or magic; a magician, sorcerer, wizard.”

Therefore, Kander is a witch. Or maybe a warlock. In any case, we all know he’s magic…

Oh no . . . singin’ Abracadabra by Steve Miller Band. Or, You Can Do Magic by America. Or, crap, they’re stuck in my head.

Y’all have probably seen this, but Stuckey cracked the NBA.com Rookie Ranking list.

Rob G.

I know your source is more accurate than mine but this is what Wiki says about a a Warlock

Warlocks are, among historic Christian traditions, said to be the male equivalent of witches (usually in the pejorative sense of Europe’s Middle Ages), and were said to ride pitchforks instead of broomsticks which normally witches would ride. In traditional Scottish witchcraft, “warlock” was and is simply the term used for a wizard, or male witch.1 A synonym is sorcerer.2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlock

Here is what Answers.com says about a Warlock

Dictionary:
warlock
  (wôr’lŏk’) pronunciation
 
n.

A male witch, sorcerer, wizard, or demon.

[Middle English warloghe, from Old English wǣrloga, oath-breaker : wǣr, pledge + -loga, liar (from lēogan, to lie).]

http://www.answers.com/topic/warlock

So I guess it depends on where you get your info. Your info may very well be more correct than mine, but Wiki and Answers are the two sources that I use to get definition and Encyclopedic type information.

Didn’t see the game, but judging from the witches/warlock debate, it must have been a snooze.

An analogy, and then I will be done with this:

The OED is to Wikipedia as the Zoo Crew is to the Raptors’ starting five.

I’m still in awe of how poorly Team Toronto played yesterday.

I thought Toronto was going to do well this year. I thought wrong.

Colangelo doesn’t seem to be a front office genius. Bargnani, to me, looks awful. I keep thinking Bargnani is what Darko woulda been for any team that selected him and gave him Bargnani-sized minutes back in 2003-2004.

Can someone explain to me why Chris Bosh is in a video of Pistons/Raptors from ’02? He was drafted in ’03.

Yesterday, I had a feeling that I hadn’t had since 2004 and before that since the Bad Boys years. “If our starters can keep it more or less even, our bench is going to outplay their bench.” And it happened that way. It was a nice feeling.

just read this and it made me very happy. from “The National Post”

http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=444954

Pistons’ kids pick apart Raptors
by Bruce Arthur

“The guys who broke open a tie game in the fourth quarter, in fact, averaged less than 23 years of age. They were the junior varsity, and they beat Toronto with ease. Billups told one Detroit reporter that the Detroit bench would probably be a playoff team, good enough that they wouldn’t face the second-seeded Pistons in the first round. He essentially said that the Pistons bench would be the sixth seed in the East.

And why wouldn’t he? Yesterday, that bench was better than the actual sixth seed in the East."

-Bruce Arthur

I still can’t believe the Raptors took Bargnani. LaMarcus Aldridge worked on with and was close friends with Bosh. Sure they play the same game, they’d still be a formidable frontline.

I remember how pissed I was at their stupidity because I knew it meant that the Bulls were going to get Aldridge and he was exactly what they needed to get to the next level…

Apart from a blowout or a total meltdown from the starters that require Flip to energize a game, all 5 players on the court during the playoffs will not be reserves. No doubt they play great as a unit but I would have liked to see more realistic substitution patterns as we prepare for the playoffs.

HAHA QD, until the Bulls dealt Aldridge for FUTURE HOFER TYRUS THOMAS.

i saw tyrus thomas make a jump shot yesterday. it was as shocking as it sounds.

It’s amazing how Paxson went from being compared to Joe D to being the dog of the East (outside Zeke, of course…)

Chicago’s media is terrible. It’s a form of dementia all its own.

So while we all agree that it is ludicrous to think that Flip would tighten the minutes up to 40-42 per game in the post-season, I don’t think it is all together that unrealistic.

Definitely not in the 1st round, and hopefully not much in the 2nd round either, but our bench bigs cannot handle KG, and I’m not entirely sure Jarvis can handle Paul Pierce.

Having said that, you know that Boston is going to be playing their big three around 42-44 minutes per game in both the Cleveland series (unless they’re blowouts) and the Detroit series.

Flip may have to tighten his rotation not because he wants to but because he’s forced to.

Either way, the idea that we could play through the first two round of the playoffs and likely have our starters average regular season minutes will be HUGE for the ECF and the NBA finals.

And as for the Wiccan argument over warlocks and witches, either is acceptable. Today’s Wiccan faith is a very open faith and as far as clearly defining titles that are gender-specific, it really isn’t a concern of theirs. At least thats what my one Wiccan friend told me…

James, what I meant by “realistic” was bringing one or two guys in off the bench at a time instead of replacing all the starters at once as has been happening during the last few games.

I think it’s about what JB and JM just said for estimates . . . early rounds if the team’s leading their opponent, the bench kids will get their feet wet. Against tougher clubs like Boston, or as the rounds advance, we’ll see some tightening of the bench, with some players like Maxiell and Stuckey getting the 10-20 mpg along with Ratliff, et cetera . . .

OH SNAP

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3346621

Carmelo arrested !

Oh well, Denver’s ridiculously soft with or without the newest media circus. 1st round exit.

if it becomes obvious that they’re not holding the fort i absolutely agree with cutting the benches minutes as the rounds progress. however, if flip’s rotation just starts to tighten on principle instead of based on the realities of the games i’ll not be pleased.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62498538@N00/2413153215/sizes/o/

i like this, gives respect where it’s due. you’ll find our own beloved greg kelser in the top right, meaning he’s both objective and knows what he’s talking about. check the bottom left…

@Danny,

The video appears to be from last year, when the Raptors made the playoffs after a five year hiatus. The highlights would be from the last time they were in the playoffs (relative to last spring), which would be 2002.

Kyle, Joel Meyers should be rated much worse (he has NO basketball knowledge) and Michael Smith should be ranked higher (anyone who can make a Clipper game entertaining…).

The most objective announcer is Bill Walton. His stupidity does not discriminate.

QD: As a fellow Los Angelino, while I agree that Myers’ knowledge is overstated in that diagram, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by his insight a time or two. He should be in the middle ground somewhere. I think NO basketball knowledge at all (see Tommy Heinsohn, Johnny Red Kerr, who are correctly-rated) is hyperbole.

Kyle, thank you for the link to that diagram, that diagram is most certainly where amazing happens.

Sauce: All they gotta do is beat Memphis tonight and they clinch a playoff spot. Shouldn’t be too hard. Of course, they have no shot of beating whoever is utlimately the #1 seed in the West. I never thought I would think this, but Carmelo is becoming more of a letdown than JR Smith. Carmelo can’t lead his team to a win, and now he’s getting in trouble with the law while JR comes out smelling like roses while playing Sixth Man of the Year-quality ball as of late. 12.4 ppg on the season in under 20 mins. per? Dude can fill it up.

Kyle: that diagram rocks. How did you stumble across it? I want to link to it but also want to give credit where it’s due.

i couldn’t tell you to be honest, somebody had left the link in the comments section of some blog article i’d come across. you can get to the guys other stuff from that page though, there is a link near the top. he’s a spurs fan. there are a couple unflattering photoshops of the pistons, but i have to admit, they’re pretty funny.

that chart isn’t big enough to have Steve Buckhantz listed on it… he’s the blindest of the blind homer.. he’s the one that yells DAGGER and NOOOOOOOOOOOOO ITS NOT POSSIBLE when another team’s player hits a game winner

Re: http://www.flickr.com/photos/62498538@N00/2413153215/sizes/o/

Poor Scott Hastings, he is below average.