According to A. Sherrod Blakely, Chauncey Billups will return, but Antonio McDyess will not. You know what that means, right?
That means Jason Maxiell will be in the starting lineup for the third straight game. It also likely means a few minutes for Cheikh Samb who has altered the thinking of the Pistons as far as how much he will play this season.
He was expected to spend most of his time with the team’s D-League affiliate in Ft. Wayne, Ind. But it sounds like Pistons coach Flip Saunders has other plans for the 7-foot-1 rookie.
“His growth, as far as a player, both physically and mentally, has been short of astronomical,” Saunders said.
Should be a fun one. Kevin Martin doesn’t get much press on this side of the country, but he’s a superstar in the making — containing (or at least slowing) him will be key. As usual, leave your thoughts in the comments.
no blaha???
This is perhaps the lamest commentating I’ve ever heard… These guys are putting me to sleep watching my own team!
ditto. wow
That was an amazing shot by billups. Nice 1st quarter
anyone know where i can find a video stream of the game online? i don’t get this game in my area!
sean- http://tinyurl.com/3de6dk
You can go to nba.com and listen to it online, but I don’t know how to get the video online without paying for league pass.
Nice to have Billups back, he feeds our offense so much better. Afflalo is looking pretty solid so far.
The tinyurl that I posted is league pass but for free. Thats how I’m watching it
much thanks matt!
BS call on Samb.
Matt, will that link work for every game?
I thought that was a joke about Samb getting minutes. But I arrive home after driving back from Ann Arbor (ugh, depressing trip), and I click on the TV and freaking Samb is in the game. We’re actually using the bench these last few games. Am I hallucinating? Did we fire Flip Saunders while I wasn’t paying attention?
No it won’t sean. Go here when a game that is on league pass that you want to watch: http://85.92.128.155/~myp2p/forum/viewforum.php?id=4
The thread that is dated for that day, in its first post will be the league pass link.
Thanks again. I don’t get as many pistons games as I would like to see. This link will come in very handy.
Ok seriously. Whats going on with Blaha?
that link is moneyyy, haha
i need blaha. i cant concentrate.
whats with keepin the paint wide open???
THANKS A TON Matt!
I have one problem though, how come i can’t view the game. I must be missing some video tool because I’m getting the audio. But never-the-less this is great, i thought i was going to completely miss the game.
I dont know Diablo. All I know is it uses windows media player.
If our starters cant slow down the game down then we need to put some young guys back in to keep up.
Dear Flip Saunders….
When the other team gets on a sustained run in the middle of the 3rd, your team can’t drop a shot AND people are trying to impersonate MJ on the drive because they’re frustrated as hell?
THAT’S when you call timeout Flip. Jesus it’s like watching your mom coach little league.
*weeps*
Seriously guys, this is embarassing. We’re getting absolutely jacked the f’up by Beno and Miki? Really? REALLY?
This is hard to watch yo.
Thanks a million mat g.
Amir is +8, the highest for the Pistons so far. Put him back in.
I’m tempted to cut Chauncey some slack cause he’s hurt but even when he’s healthy, our guards play D like they are wearing cement shoes man. They get blown by more than a kite. Maximus is really struggling tonight. Just happy I’m getting to watch thanks to my new best friend. I just changed my will Matt G. the Mrs. is out and you’re it pal
E-double- YES!!
i dont think flip believes in the +/- on courty.
Amir so far this season has mostly had a +.
15 of 25 on the free throw line… nice work boys keep it up!! urrghh
why is nazr in there?
crap. I type that and he gets a tip in
Wow…im glad Kevin Martin missed that 3 and Tayshaun made his.
They need to get in the paint, our starters been popping jumpshots to no end. The Kings are a big team, we need Amir in there, and a little more Samb.
Bad call on Tayshan
Damn, my feed just froze.
Nazr playing solid right now.
right when i type that he fouls Artest.
Am I the only one who thinks, “Hey, it’s that guy from Hang Time!” every time they show Reggie Theus?
Quote from announcer: “Flip Murray pretty quiet until that individual effort …”
If Nazr gets 10+ minutes he can be pretty effective, it takes him a few to get in his rhythm.
Maxiell with the throwdown!
We can’t watch a Kings game without saying it: Kevin Martin’s jumper is hideous.
3 FTs from Nazr and can’t seem to drain one. =/
COLLAPSE!
wow some bs calls
The offensive foul on Billups is absolute bullshit. They had the gall to replay it on tv and say it was a clear call.
Go Dave Cowens! Getting T’d! That’s gotta be rare…
soooo our composure is gone… man this is hard to watch.
and the Kings don’t seem to miss FTs. =/
If there was ever a moment for Flip to give half-a-crap and draw a T and get thrown out this is it. He has got to step up and take a bullet for this team. F-ing Cowens got a T. COME ON FLIP. Pathetic.
What’s the deal with our free throw shooting and composure? If this trend keeps up, Flip should be worried about his job….
whoa. I just saw Santa wearing a kings jersey
flip is a chicken… (well u guys can choose ur own adjective, just keepin it pg) i hate how passive he is.
wow net wide open for the kings
Should of been a foul on Artest, Hayes might of got it if he soled it.
Christ.
*sold
Lots of nonsense calls as far as I can tell.
WTF. I was ok with the Laker loss, arguably a good loss but this is BS. We keep getting outhustled. Sometimes teams will have a great night and beat you but too often we are starting to look old and slow. I really wanted this win. I know it’s only November. Darn it.
Nonsense calls? More like nonsense basketball-playing-ability-in-the-last-4-minutes by the Pistons. Jeeze, that was painful.
When you’re down 10 with a minute left, every shot should be a 3. Chauncey should know better. Flip should make sure they all know better.
Anyone else starting to think that one of the core 4 might get shipped out to send a message to the rest of this team, Flip included? We suddenly look very old, disinterested at times, complacent all the time. I’m really concerned about this team. It’s hard to imagine Joe D isn’t thinking that it might be about time to shake it up.
The Anti-Flip comments are just sounding STUPID now. You cant blame him for everything.
Now you’re complaining that he didn’t get T’d up?!? That’s just dumb (especially since he was jawing at the refs just as much as everyone).
It seemed like the Pistons left the perimeter open the whole 4th. Kevin Martin even had a open shot from beyond the arc.
I didn’t see the game.
Did Beno Udrih look as good as he looks in his stat line (9-13 FG, 5-5 FT, 6 ast/1 TO)? And what is with Maxiell getting only 2 rebounds in 16 minutes? He’s only got 6 rebounds in his last 39 minutes (vs. LA, SAC). I wonder if Max’s fitness is such that he still hasn’t recovered from his 44 minutes the other night at Golden State.
Oh well. You can’t win ‘em all.
I’m with Darshan. What was wrong with the Pistons in the 4th quarter can’t really be blamed on Flip, as it was a combination of lack of composure and lack of effort (or athleticism, maybe?). We were getting waxed on the glass by Mikki Moore and we weren’t really being patient with late game offensive possessions. We get 3 FT attempts from Nazr and he misses all of them. That’s unacceptable. We still manage to get the ball off the rebound because Brad Miller can’t corral it, and we still don’t score because we’re not running the offense patiently. We were settling for contested shots and we were rushing the offense when we still had plenty of time (at around the 2-3 min. mark) to mount a comeback through smart half-court offense. That’s not the Pistons basketball I know. Maybe Ben Wallace isn’t the only one getting old and slow. The Kings? Really? Mikki Moore one board away from a double double? I know there are 72 games left, but turn it around now boys, I don’t have all holiday season.
From Other Matt:
“Anyone else starting to think that one of the core 4 might get shipped out to send a message to the rest of this team, Flip included? We suddenly look very old, disinterested at times, complacent all the time. I’m really concerned about this team.”
No. Its Sacramento. As far as I’m concerned, this is still the pre-season. Have you seen how much burn our bench is getting? Don’t expect to see that in February. Its a meaningless loss. Yes, its upsetting, but I cannot disagree with you any more. A loss to Sacramento and you want to light the torches?
Relax everyone. Its November. Flip is doing a great job exploring his bench. This is going to to take time, calibration. We are arguably the deepest team in the league, and we now have a great mix of veteran experience and young athleticism. This season is about change for us. And when you make changes, don’t expect instant results. Its for the better, believe you me.
With Dice out, Chauncey still hurting, Stuckey out, a lot of missed free throws and it being November, I’m a bit ok with this loss.
But I am getting a bit tired of Murray’s decision making. Parts of the game he looks like he understands how to be a pg and then he goes and does his 1 against 5 thing.
The Kings are a pretty talented bunch, and that is the worst court in the NBA for road teams. We were also short our best rebounder. This is not a championship caliber club, and ARCO is a place where championship caliber clubs win.
Maxiell and Johnson are not anything close to consistent yet. When and if they get there, we can start being disappointed at these kinds of losses.
Also, what the hell happened to our free throw shooting? 19-33? That’s more or less the game right there.
certainly not flip’s fault for all those missed free throws. in the 3rd, i saw 2 missed free throws followed by a wide open 3 miss followed by another 2 missed free throws. that would have extended the lead to 10 going into the 4th. embarrassing basketball that had nothing to do with the strategy or game plan coming from the bench.
Hey, I stand by what I said. That was the absolute TEXTBOOK moment to call a timeout and he didn’t. IMHO that game was lost right there as the Kings turned a 60-64 deficit into an 8 point or so lead. The Pistons fell apart and for several continuous mins were confused/awful at BOTH ends of the floor. That would be when your HS coach would call time and say “Dear Team, wake up” very loudly. I do however see your point, I mean Flip clearly isn’t a HS level basketball coach.
Amen, Mike Payne, Amen…
It’s silly to panic especially when Stuckey hasn’t had a chance to step on the court.
This is what we wanted. Sacrifice some wins here and there to give the bench some minutes. We’re playing Cheick Samb for G-d sake!
Yes, it’s a game we should have won, but I’ll take 6 wins every 10 games (that’s still a 50 win season). The Celtics can have home court advantage. I’d rather have the better draft pick anyway.
i agree with Quick Darshan…before the season started we were all complaining that the bench hasn’t developed and we need to develop it. After this game ended i’m happy what flip s. did. He is playing the bench and i don’t mind that. he is playing the bench more and now i love that his is doing this. Once February comes we will be thanking him 4 trusting the bench in close game situations. We knew before the season and even in the pre-season that the bench was going 2 lose some games, but again when playoff time comes then we would be thanking him and we would have trust in the bench. I still look forward 2 the bench playing when Wednesday comes, but hopefully we can come out with a W.
LET’S GO PISTONS AND LET’S GET THAT SHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2007-2008 IT’S OUR TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL BOUT DETROIT BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry guys, I wasn’t panicking. It was just frustrating to watch what happened. I didn’t get a chance to watch the Laker game Friday because I was traveling. I fell asleep just before halftime of the Warriors game. So the last about 6 quarters of basketball I’ve watched have been un-impressive.
I don’t hate Flip. I’m impressed our bench has been getting as much burn as it has been. I do wish he’d step in and get T’d up for Rasheed every now and again. Give Sheed credit, he’s kept his bitching in check and I think only has been hit once this year. Still, last night you could see it coming a mile away (at least I did). In those instances, I’d prefer Flip step up and take the bullet because we’re sure as hell going to need Sheed down the stretch.
Maybe the “trade one of the core four” was a knee jerk reaction, but I was pretty down about the game last night. After driving halfway across the country to stand in the cold and rain and watch Michigan get waxed by OSU, then driving home and listening to the Steelers (my fav. NFL team) get beat by the freaking 1-8 Jets, I’m pretty bitter. So that’s my bad. It’s just frustrating sometimes when we piss away games like this. So that comment is withdrawn.
That was some lopsided calling there. I seen a half dozen or so bad calls against us. Then Sheed gets a tech for running to the bench? Running to the Bench? Seriously? Then the assistant coach gets a tech, come on now. There were five fouls and two techs on the Pistons in the last four minutes of the game.
I’m not going to dog on Flip to bad this game. He played the bench at least, what we been asking. Like PG4L said, some well place timouts. At what point during the Kings 10-1 run in the 3rd does he call a timeout? He didn’t. I don’t blame Saunders for the loss though.
Our biggest problem seemed to be a major lack of defense in the 2nd half. That could have to do with the foul calls though, you tend to back off on D a little when you start racking up the fouls. Our second biggest problem was our lack of inside scoring (at least for the starters). Whenever we are down we always go back to the endless contested jumpshots. We needed to do what the Kings did, have some guys take it to the basket, mix up their defense like they did ours. When someone drives to the basket they will usually have a few opponents get in the paint to block them, which would leave some outside shooters open. When we keep shooting jumpshots, we make it pretty easy for our opponents to set up their defense.
In the end though, this clip from Detnews makes me feel better. “Considering all the elements — playing eight of the first 10 on the road, playing without Richard Hamilton (two games), Chauncey Billups (two games) and Antonio McDyess (three games) — the Pistons aren’t likely to get overwrought about their 6-4 start” Then add Stuckey being out the whole regular season so far and 6-4 is far from a bad start. Imagine having the Bulls(2-7), Heat(2-8), or Knicks(2-7) start. Now we have 4 home games in a row to look forward to.