Q’s rotations are a little puzzling. Why did CV, the only Piston to have a good shooting night, play only 16 minutes?

Joe K.:

CV picked up two quick fouls in the opening minutes, and Q didn’t put him back in the lineup until near the end of the second quarter. I still think he wasn’t used enough, but in the third quarter, Detroit was struggling to figure out something that worked.

Beyond that, I’m intrigued by the big lineup, although in the last minute or two of the game, when we could really have used a three, I might have put Gordon and/or Bynum in on the offensive possessions, as decoys if nothing else.

I’m going to be a broken record on this (plus it’s pretty obvious), but the lack of frontcourt players who can score is a huge problem for this team. When CV is out or having an off night, the offense degenerates into guards playing one-on-one (and only Gordon is a consistent three-point threat). That makes us predictable and relatively easy to stop, especially when Stuckey gets into his “I’m going to drive the lane and throw something up no matter what” mode.

On the other hand, this team has shown real, well, for want of a better cliche, character in the last few games. They are down two starters, they dig themselves into big holes, but they fight back. All the players, or at least all who get any significant minutes, seem likeable, and they are definitely trying hard on D.

Of course the injuries to Rip and Tay have exacerbated the roster-imbalance problems (BG having to play too many minutes, not getting any scoring from the SF position). One still gets the feeling that the individual parts are good but don’t quite add up to a properly balanced roster. But the effort is there, and I hope they get a W or two soon.

Of course I went to bed at 72-54.

I went to bed two nights ago when we were down 23. I made a joke to my wife when the game began that even if we were down 20 in the third, I would stay up. Of course we were down 20 at the end of three. I stayed up and I’m glad I did, even though we didn’t get the W.

This team is not ready to play a significant amount of time with 40% of the starters out. Nor ais this team capale of winning a significant number of games with Big Ben playing 25+ minutes. They are young and rebuilding, there are times when the youngsters look like something special, and other times when they look like freakin’ rookies (which they are btw). Q has a great foundation started, I just hope Jod gives him the time to finish building. When Rip gets back and IF Tay comes back, I suspect a nice streak coming, both the LA game and last nights game could have been won if we had one more proven shooter to put on the floor. That said, I Am of the belief that with Rip on the floor we would not have been down by 20 in either game.

Agreed, DJ, I just hope that they get Rip and maybe even Tay back before they bury themselves in such a deep hole that it hurts in the playoff hunt. The East is deeper this year; the days of playing .440 ball for the season and getting the 8th spot may be over. Plus, I think getting the 8th slot and getting killed by the #1 team wouldn’t be all that much fun / useful either.

Because even when Rip and maybe Tay get back, there is still going to have to be a period of adjustment for them, playing without ’Sheed and ’Dyess and some bench guys from last year, and playing with CV, Gordon, and the rookies. And the roster will still be somewhat unbalanced even if everyone comes back, and Rip coming back without Tay will still mean that CV is our only frontcourt scoring option.

Too early to worry about the playoffs, I guess, and nothing can really be done about it anyway, but just a thought.

V picking up 2 in the first 2mins was tough, but he rallied.

My problem was that Jonas played 30+ minutes, despite playing possibly his worst game of the season (4TOs, 2 missed FTs, and 20% shooting). Although I like his aggressiveness, he looked wild when he went to the basket.

The same could be said of some of Stuckey’s drives too.

If Kue was experimenting with his frontcourt, I would have liked to see less of Jonas and more of Summers, Max (who also shot poorly), and Wilcox.

What’s up with taking shots early in the shot clock? Stuckey and Charlie especially?

If the big lineup keep us in games, we need to go to this line before we’re 20 points down. Some of these losts could have been prevented, if we gave Daye and Summers more burn.

Bynum, Gordan and Stuckey all in the game at same time is a bad idea, Coach Q: small ball is for Curry, don’t be the next sucker to get Donald Trumped. Give Gordan and Stuckey their rest and play Daye and Summers.

I was at the game last night, Charlie H, and although I didn’t care too much one way or another about Jerebko at the start of the game, I was a HUGE fan of his about midway through. He was very effective defending Roy, especially as part of a double team; he was physical and inspired on the boards; he hustled like the 2002-2005 Stones. In short, he had a huge impact on the game last night, although I’ll definitely agree that he was out of control on the drive and his shot needs work. That being said, I think he was in the game so much because he was effective both at keeping the ball out of Roy’s hands and limiting B-Roy’s penetration.

I remarked when we were down twenty at the end of three that I remembered when a twenty point lead wasn’t sage against the Pistons. They played a truly inspired fourth last night and made the Blazers (and a pretty lifeless crowd) nervous.