I’m out of town for a long weekend. May you have good luck with your brackets (and avoiding the boss seeing you check scores all day long) — consider this your weekend open thread. For actual Pistons news, visit Need4Sheed, PistonsNation or Motor City Blogs.
NBA FanHouse
- Maybe Turkoglu Can Play For 2 Teams
- Celtics Reportedly Offer MLE to Rasheed
- Magic Say Goodbye to Gortat
- Blake Griffin: The Clippers Are Going to Be Explosive
- Report: Portland Lands Hedo
- Phil Jackson Confirms He'll Return
- Lakers Learned From Previous Champs
- Rockets Triple-Threat of Yao, McGrady and Artest Short-Lived
- Allen Iverson One of Five People To Think Memphis Sounds Nice
- RoundCast: Breaking Down Artest to L.A.
Latest Comments
- Gables on the post Who do you want to coach?
- LawyerBoy on the post Ben Gordon as The Microwave
- Illinois Piston Lover on the post Ben Gordon as The Microwave
- Ali on the post Ben Gordon as The Microwave
- Ali on the post Ben Gordon as The Microwave
- Ali on the post Ben Gordon as The Microwave
- LawyerBoy on the post Ben Gordon as The Microwave
the Boney World Tour is making a pit stop in Detroit next Sunday and Monday for Opening Day!
Does anyone want to loan your boy a couch or room for a night, so I can come up for the blogfest?
I’m gonna be in DC for Sunday nights game against the Wizz. Hope we can show some support for our boys on Easter.
sweet Jesse, there will be many others there. we could almost have a “blogfest” in DC without Matt
really? anybody got an extra ticket? i could walk there from work for crying out loud.
the wiz game that is
i’d promise to wear my jason maxiell jersey
Personally I’m looking forward to Boney’s taunt by taunt recap from the game. The last one was downright hilarious.
Checking scores? Get with the times Matt. Those office workers are watching the games on their PCs.
That was an awesome commercial.
http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/
wow, thats… really funny. i grew up on the garfield books, show and special and i’ve never laughed at any of them as hard as that.
Same here. I like lonely, schizophrenic, and bipolar Jon Arbuckle way more, lol.
This is totally random, but I just got back from Vegas and missed Maxiell’s block. That was kickass. Bring on the cRaptors — I’ll be there in Toronto on the 26th wearing some Pistons gear, and maybe I’ll grab some pics just to show the Canadian side of things.
“I can’t put my finger on it,” Billups said after Wednesday’s loss.
But he and several other Pistons suggested a remedy.
“At some point, we have to speed the game up,” Billups said. “They are a lot like us. If you walk it up and allow their defense to get set, they will cause you a lot of problems. They are long, athletic and they can rebound. They can really cause you problems if you play at a slow pace.
“I think we need to pick the tempo up and attack the basket.”
…WOOOOW!!! Finally!!! It really makes you wonder why its taken almost 10 months to come to this realization. What are the 5 steps to acceptance? Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. With the Pistons, it’s more like a 15 step program: Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Acceptance.
gosh, and you know who likes playing a faster paced game? the bench does, that’s who…
anyway…
we’re recalling samb evidently. i wonder what the purpose of that is. to give some bigs rest towards the end of the season? a musculer, expendable big to knock lebron on his ass in playoffs? i’m interested to see what, if anything, comes of this.
I haven’t been watching the tournament but I’m guessing that all things being equal the Pistons will go Small Forward in the draft because there are young players at every other position. With that in mind, I’d appreciate any scouting reports from the DBB nation if you see any of these players…
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Anthony Randolph, LSU
Tyler Smith, Tennessee
Bill Walker, Kansas State
Sam Young, Pittsburgh
Brandon Rush, Kansas
I would assume we’re recalling Samb early so that if anything happens to one of our other bigs he’ll be eligible for the playoffs. If anyone else remembers, we tried to add Amir to the playoff roster late last year but he was ineligible because we called him up too late.
QD…From that list. I like Bill Walker the best. Great quickness for his size, and can get to the rim almost at will. He would have been a bigger name, but there were, um, complications with his high school transcripts. So instead of preparing for his senior year of HS, he had to get into college. He was a HS teammate of O.J. Mayo and was also a top five recruit out of high school. He went to Kansas State last year and played in about 7 or 8 games, and averaged aroud 11 or 12 ppg and 4 boards. He obviously had a better season this year. I have been a big fan of his for a while.
(all numbers approximated to memory. I am too lazy to look them up)
They’re probably just giving him some run in limited minutes like they did with Amir last year. I would be STUNNED if Samb has a jersey on for any sort meaningful game, playoff or no. He’s really toned down his foul trouble in the past two weeks. You may remember that rough stretch of 6-foul games, including the one in which he fouled out in 10 minutes. But lately, it’s just been 2 or 3 in 30-35 minutes per game. His stat lines have been consistent too, and would probably be higher if not for the fact that the D-League is full of guards that take as many shots as possible to inflate their stat lines.
Samb shoots for a high percentage, blocks 3 to 5 per game, rebounds consistently, and is chock-full of character. He’ll be totally B.A.
QD: While Yak covered Bill Walker, I’ll give you my (long-winded) thoughts on 2 other names you mentioned.
Sam Young has led a re-invogorated Pittsburgh team to a Big East title and a 4 seed in the NCAA tourney. It has certainly helped that Levance Fields is now healthy and that Jamie Dixon appears to be a really good coach, but Sam Young is an intriguing player. He’s a miserable free throw shooter (which irks me for draft picks) and he’s a strange size for an NBA SF (listed at 6′6, 215, think SG Kareem Rush’s size but also stronger), but he brings a boatload of strength and “big man” qualities to his 6′6″ frame while carrying the load on a solid NCAA squad. He does a lot of commendable things at 6′6″ like rebound well and block shots, but I’m not sure that he’s got a bright future with the way his frame fits (or doesn’t fit) in the NBA. He seems at best, destined for “Solid contributor” status in the NBA, with a higher likelihood of achieving that on a good franchise like Detroit. He’s a 23 year-old junior which worries some, but I feel that’s a stupid knock as evidenced by Al Thornton. Sam Young is definitely Pistons-mold material though, with his tenacity and strong defense. I’d be happy, but hardly ecstatic, if we picked him.
Whereas Sam Young’s game shows defensive strengths, most (if not all) of Brandon Rush’s (Kareem’s brother) praise comes when he’s on offense. He’s an absolutely excellent shooter, especially from beyond the arc. For a primarily jump-shooting player who spends most of his time around the perimeter, he shoots quite accurately. He has excellent quickness and likes to come off screens à la Rip. He is a good rebounder on both sides of the ball, but he is a little dangerous in terms of his penchant for committing TOs. He’s not proven to be as consistent of a scorer as Young, but he has to compete with so much scoring talent on his squad (Arthur, Chalmers, Jackson, even Sheron Collins). He’s just not gonna see the rock all the time. He has good, lean length at 6′7″ and could be a backup SG or SF who can hang on the perimeter. He was sidelined by a torn ACL, but he seems to have recovered his excellent agility. I think that Rush has the higher ceiling (vis-a-vis Young) in terms of what he has the potential to be in the NBA, but I’m not quite convinced he has the drive to achieve it.
Between the two, Young seems like the safer pick while Rush seems more like the “go for broke” pick. I’d take Young over Rush if I were at the helm, but both are qualified ballers in their own way. As for the other names yet to be discussed, I only know a little about Tyler Smith (solid all-around but not really dazzling at anything, and he’s kinda one dimensional on offense though solid on D) and I know nothing about Anthony Randolph.
# The Pistons recalled Cheikh Samb from Fort Wayne of the D-League and he went through Friday’s practice. In 19 games with the Mad Ants, Samb averaged 10.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and four blocked shots per game. His 11 blocks on Feb. 1 set a D-League record.
“It’s tough for big guys (in the D-League),” Flip Saunders said. “It’s a guard-oriented league where guards get the ball and they want to shoot all the time, so big guys don’t get a lot of touches. But I think it’s been good for him to get playing time and get on the court.”
I ask Flip:
How many touches does Amir get with the Pistons?
It depends on how many times he rebounds or deflects the ball.
More on AJ:
Current Roland Rating is + 4.5. This is the third highest on the Pistons behind Billups and Prince. He has the highest On Court Production among all Pistons players with 15% or more on court time of 12.0
Ratliff has a Roland Rating of 0.0 and with an On Court Production of -4.2. He is the only Pistons player with a negative On Court Production.
http://www.82games.com/0708/0708DET.HTM
According to Hollingers Rating system AJ has a PER of 17.88 which is the 13th highest Power Forward Rating in the NBA. It is also the 3rd highest PER of all Pistons players behind only C-Bill and Rip.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics?sort=per&qual=true&pos=pf&seasonType=2&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fhollinger%2fstatistics%3fsort%3dper%26qual%3dtrue%26pos%3dpf%26seasonType%3d2
C-Bill says that we need more speed on the court.
“At some point, we have to speed the game up,” Billups said. “They are a lot like us. If you walk it up and allow their defense to get set, they will cause you a lot of problems. They are long, athletic and they can rebound. They can really cause you problems if you play at a slow pace.
“I think we need to pick the tempo up and attack the basket.”
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/SPORTS0102/803210390/1127
AJ is by far the fastest on court player of all Pistons players.
The Pistons are also 16 - 3 with AJ in the regular rotation
They are 33 - 16 with AJ getting DNP’s or only playing in garbage time or less than 10 minutes a game.
This thing of playing Ratliff ahead of AJ is just plain dumb. People say that AJ gets into foul trouble. Yes he gets early fouls but he has yet to foul out of a game this year even when he has picked up early fouls and wound up playing over 20 minutes in the game. Even with those early fouls his Roland Rating and Hollinger PER are among the top 3 Pistons players.
This idea of playing Ratliff instead of AJ because he has more experience, even though he is a worse player is just dumb. Cowens has more playoff experience than Ratliff so if you follow the more experience route why didn’t we make Cowens a player/coach. Why, because he can’t play anymore.
Yes Ratliff has more experience than AJ, and is heavier, but so what. AJ is a better player and besides Ratliff has played basically for lousy teams during his NBA career, while AJ has played on nothing but winning teams in high school, in the D-league and with the Pistons. So AJ knows how to win and Ratliff doesn’t.
Playing Ratliff ahead of AJ is just plain dumb.
More on AJ:
Current Roland Rating is + 4.5. This is the third highest on the Pistons behind Billups and Prince. He has the highest On Court Production among all Pistons players with 15% or more on court time of 12.0
Ratliff has a Roland Rating of 0.0 and with an On Court Production of -4.2 is the only Pistons player with a negative On Court Production.
http://www.82games.com/0708/0708DET.HTM
According to Hollingers Rating system AJ has a PER of 17.88 which is the 13th highest Power Forward Rating in the NBA. It is also the 3rd highest PER of all Pistons players behind only C-Bill and Rip.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics?sort=per&qual=true&pos=pf&seasonType=2&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fhollinger%2fstatistics%3fsort%3dper%26qual%3dtrue%26pos%3dpf%26seasonType%3d2
C-Bill says that we need more speed on the court.
“At some point, we have to speed the game up,” Billups said. “They are a lot like us. If you walk it up and allow their defense to get set, they will cause you a lot of problems. They are long, athletic and they can rebound. They can really cause you problems if you play at a slow pace.
“I think we need to pick the tempo up and attack the basket.”
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/SPORTS0102/803210390/1127
AJ is the fastest on court player by far of all Pistons players.
The Pistons are also 16 - 3 with AJ in the regular rotation
They are 33 - 16 with AJ getting DNP’s or only playing in garbage time or less than 10 minutes a game.
This thing of playing Ratliff ahead of AJ is just plain dumb. People say that AJ gets into foul trouble. Yes he gets early fouls but he has yet to foul out of a game this year even when he has picked up early fouls and wound up playing over 20 minutes in the game. Even with those early fouls his Roland Rating and Hollinger PER are among the top 3 Pistons players.
This idea of playing Ratliff instead of AJ because he has more experience, even though he is a worse player is just dumb. Cowens has more playoff experience than Ratliff so if you follow the more experience route why didn’t we make Cowens a player/coach. Why, because he can’t play anymore.
Yes Ratliff has more experience than AJ, and is heavier, but so what. AJ is a better player and besides Ratliff has played basically for lousy teams during his NBA career, while AJ has played on nothing but winning teams in high school, in the D-league and with the Pistons. So AJ knows how to win and Ratliff doesn’t.
Playing Ratliff ahead of AJ is just plain dumb.
Don’t forget steals
I’m sure Samb is just getting called up to get big league experience instead of D-League experience.
Boney/Kyle: I’ll be looking/listening for on sunday.
Boney: I’ll be in section 117… does that give me a view of security tossing you from the building?
Kyle: Samb is MUSCULAR???!
JesseC, security won’t toss me from the building… not from THESE seats! If I was to sit near the WIZ bench maybe… but since it’s Detroit’s bench? I can’t complain (that and the fact that someone pulled some major strings to give me the hookup… I’ve got these seats for the Detroit game and the Boston game too)..
I know the TV will hear me yell “Ball don’t lie” so if you’re watching, and you hear someone other than sheed? likely it was me.. especially if it’s kind of a hoarse yell
SWEET 16!
Sparties for the win!
how to beat cleveland
so simple . . .
from yahoo sports after the Bucks beat cleveland
Nobody on Cleveland could stop or keep up with Williams as he raced up and down the court. Brown even faulted himself for not finding a way to slow him down.
Run baby run
use this lineup - stuckey, hayes, rasheed, amir and tayshun
First… nice win spartans. that was a good basketball game. Now if only the other university would oblige us. I absolutely love it when sheed is out there with stuckey and amir… its like papa sheed and his merry smurfs. We need to get tayshaun more involved.
IsraeliPiston,
damn right. you know, i think a month or two ago i said that that exact same lineup could run with any team in the league. i still stand buy it. but i, like most of us, doubt we’ll see them get any real run. not when stuckey’s minutes will be down to 5 a game once the playoffs started and amir will be dnp-cd’s straight through unless all the bigs have 4 fouls on them.
we need to accept the fact that cleveland’s defense may be as good, if not better than ours. in a situation where both teams are locking down defensively, their one king beats our flush, because he can score ANY TIME HE WANTS. we, however, CAN’T, period. we need to get easy buckets. that means either chauncey and rip get to the free throw line a lot, or we push the ball and get some transition buckets. considering how wary the ref’s are becoming of those ball-fake/lean-in style fouls, rip and chauncey can’t get it all done. we neede easy buckets, which means pushing the tempo. we can. but we probably won’t. sigh.
i mean why play the bench, they suck, that’s why they’re on the bench. i’m sure the starters can get the job done. same job they’ve gotten done the last few years. sigh.
the bucks ran all over cleveland and we can too!!!
we need to have a big lead coming into the 4th
The optimist in me says the Pistons are saving some trick in case we play cleveland in the finals
Lets hope so
tricks and not just trick
It’s game time baby!
Saw Tayshaun in then DC ESPN Zone last night. Here’s hoping their crappy food is actually some sort of professional athlete super fuel.
QD beer run alert: Hubie Brown is color man on tonight’s game.
Hubie is the best, alot better than Walton.
Nice steal and put in by Amir.
Amir Amir Amir!
stan stan stan!
What happened to this team? Their magic seems all but gone.
We look a lil bored tonight. 40 pts in a half is not scaring anyone. 28 pts in the paint to our 10 is ridiculous. Oh well. Another half to go.
I know I heard at least one “high percentage” and one “now (blank) is upset” so far.
Defense has been horrendous.
terrible showing. 1st quarter featured unbelievably open looks for our frontline that they completely blew. when sheed isn’t interested in playing, we are a horrible, horrible team.
sometimes, just sometimes…
i f-ing hate rooting for this team.
At least Golden State is in L.A. tonight, should provide some fierce competition, unlike this sub-par effort that Detroit is giving.
Pistons will probably pull this one out, but the energy was yet again missing. The clouds on the horizion are looking very dark…
Okay, exactly what did Sheed do to get that technical?
So now you can be t’ed up for not doing anything? terrible, terrible call.
ERRONEOUS!!
“high percentage” pass to Max
Silly me, thinking the Pistons would pull this one out, that’s what they used to do. They also used to play with pride and focus. Change isn’t always a good thing.
After a timeout, Detroit gets a turnover. Sad when the fans want the win more than the players. Someone needs to inform these Pistons that they are playing a very arrogant brand of losing basketball right now.
Now I’m gonna go roll a blunt and forget that this night even happened.
Better defense in the second half but missed a lot of open looks. Both jump shots and Sheed in the post.
This team better start picking it up. It’s time to start playing a hard 48 minutes every time out.
This game sucked.
i don’t want to be slammed for being a naysayer (god forbid), but 10-7 since the allstar break should have everyone on this message board concerned. the starters come out with zero intensity which infects the reserves. our rotation has become a complete mess because we’re stuck with a coach who can’t figure out how to utilize the talent at his disposal. our best players spend more time bitching than they do leading. it’s getting to the point where i’m not worried about orlando in the 2nd round. or boston or cleveland in the ecfs. i’m worried about toronto, washington, or philly in the 1st round. we should be much, much better than this with 13 games left.
that game absolutely sucked. it was the worst game I have been to since, well, 2006’s visit to the Verizon Center. The only thing that saved this game was pre-game dap with Chauncey and Tay.. Sheed didn’t even come out until the layup line before the game… usually he’s out there with his practice jersey on backwards, bombing left handed 3s.. you could tell right away something wasn’t right.
Best seats I’ve ever had though… I could hear Cheikh talking to Dixon, pretty interesting conversation between an african dude and the newest member of the Pistons… anyway, I don’t know if anyone heard my “ball don’t lie” yells but my voice is hoarse… sheed was very pissed when he came out after the 2nd foul, he sat all the way at the end of the bench and was just fuming.
lol, Washington didn’t even do anything all that special, and Detroit crapped that bed real nasty.
Shooting out of slumps, el-oh-el. Lovin’ the refusal to post-up on this team, it’s namby-pamby fronting itself as motion and they can’t see it.
From the ESPN recap:
“We didn’t even much at all run our normal plays,” said Detroit’s Tayshaun Prince, who scored 13 points. “We were running pretty much stuff just to get some movement or whatnot, just to not having guys standing around. Usually, in crucial situations during the game, we usually go to our bread-and-butter plays, but we didn’t run no plays at all tonight, really.”
I appreciated the full court press Detroit dusted off, but standing around is basically what Detroit does despite Flip’s motion bread-and-butter, which has to be rather irritating for the coach.
So says the high basketball IQ, re: “didn’t run no plays at all tonight.”
Ugh.
it seems to me that for the next few games Flip should sit all of the starters - sort of like eye of the tiger - let them watch players like Afflalo and Herrmann and Amir play super hard all the time.
The second thing is that Flip needs to grow some balls - re lindsey hunter - I will ask Dumars — re the starters - when they stand around and “don’t run no plays” — sit their super highly paid behinds down and let them watch the youngsters
My feeling is that all the Starters want to do is avoid getting hurt ala Dirk - easiest way is to avoid the paint on O and on D
Easiest way to avoid getting hurt is to stay on the bench
The good thing about that game was that they actually tried, and Flip came out with something totally different. Mainly Full court press from the start coupled with alot of running.
Bad thing is that Washington was on fire, and oh yeah… we lost.
Btw, that Sheed Tech was a bunch of donkey manure. I think it’d be attrocious if the league doesn’t rescind that.
Calm down guys. We all know we could have won this game if we wanted to. Its the final 10-15 games of the season, who cares right. Orlando won’t catch us for the 2nd seed so its all good. We have games to blow. I just wish someone would tell those idiots from Boston that they can coast the rest of the way and pretty much still have home court throughout the playoffs. These bumbs still play every game like its the 7th game of the finals man. Did you see how intense they looked during their sweep of the Texas triangle last week. These guys just dont get it. You cant play all 82 games like their important and then expect to carry that intensity over throughout the playoffs too. Don’t get me started on those darn Houston Rockets man. 22 games in a row. Thank God their streak ended before it was too late. You don’t want to end the season on that type of roll. That’s a recipe for playoff disaster.
Ok, all sarcasm aside now. WTF is going on. 10-7 since the All star break. Last night I saw our regular 9-10 guys. I didn’t see much experimenting. I didn’t see Herman or Samb out there. With the exception of Sheed (foul trouble) all the starters played 30-40 mins last night. If you are going to tell me we’re coasting and experimenting thats fine. Play the starters 25 mins…..PERIOD. This is BS. Either rest the guys and get the bench ready or if they play, give a shit while you’re playing. This non-sense about not showing our best plays or our bread & butter…..are you kidding me. All opponents have to do is watch film of the 60-65 games you did show your battle plan. Someone help me here. Am I crazy??? This is absolutely ludicrous thinking. Starters playing regular minutes but coasting. Not running our regular plays. We still think we can turn it on & turn it off. I always thought you wanted to end the year playing your best. Not coasting. Maybe I’m the crazy one here. We’re the NFL team that blows off the final 3 games cause we have the division wrapped up and expect to turn it back on for the playoffs. If we do get the finals, we could have home court. But at this rate, we may end up with the 4th or 5th best league record instead of 2nd. WTF???????????????????????????? Its not that we lost guys & gal (PG4L), its that we are playing like we don’t give a shit and coasting like we’re just going to have playoff opponents bow down before the great Pistons. You let teams get confidence when you let them beat you like this. Washington & Cleveland don’t think you’re coasting. They think they beat you at your best so now they have increased confidence that they can beat you. I have a headache now.
Yesterday was my wife’s birthday. took her to the game. She said, “I want a Rip to Tay alleyoop and a win for my birthday!” She got the one, but the other didn’t happen. My wife came home and cried. Thanks a lot, Pistons.
E-Double:
WTF indeed.
I got a beef with having anything locked up, as well as tanking, and everything in general with going through the regular season motions . . .
The Giants played New England like it was a playoff game in the final game of the regular season (NFL). They treated every game with importance. It showed. Nobody expected them to win the Super Bowl, but they did.
I feel the starters believe they take every game seriously, but the demonstration argues otherwise. It’s not that they had a bad game - it’s that they didn’t appear to really fight through it with enough energy. This is after having days off in between the loss to Cleveland and this last loss to the Wiz. And there’s no answer for this kind of random energy outage that most coaches can fix. I doubt if any coach can really fix it.
E-Double PS:
Yeah, the whole ‘hiding the battle plan’ is total crap. You hit it - every team, if they’re wise, has access to any and every game of the opponent they could possibly choose. Scouting reports are what they are, so teams know everything there is to know about every player on the roster. They’re not going to be surprised in the slightest, like Detroit wouldn’t be, in a playoff scenario. To me, statements like that bleed false. They’re spinning the reality. The reality is that they have trouble running certain things on offense, and there appears to be no answer for it at this time.
Let’s see if the boys bring it tonight against Phoenix. We don’t even have to wait 24 hours in between games. I see no reason to even evaluate the Washington game for long-term impact just yet. If the Stones are able to snap Phoenix’s seven game win streak (preferably in convincing fashion), then maybe the Pistons really do just get bored or take nights off or whatever. If that’s the case, we’ve got to accept it and move on. Even if the Pistons aren’t able to beat Phoenix tonight, it doesn’t mean they’re cooked. Teams catch fire and cool off rather quickly in the NBA. Momentum shifts, ask the Western Conference’s 5th place Houston Rockets.
The Pistons have beaten San Antonio, Phoenix and New Orleans since the All-Star break. They destroyed Phoenix and New Orleans in those two contests. 10-7 doesn’t mean anything to me if we still get up for those games that we need to get up for. I’m not even sure that there’s been a game yet this year that this squad felt particularly compelled to get up for. And while I don’t enjoy watching that, I understand and accept it.
I understand concern and frustration with a “flip a switch” mentality or a “taking nights off” mentality, but like E-Double said, Boston is playing every game like it’s the NBA Finals. Where has it gotten teams in the last couple years? Knocked out by lesser teams prematurely. If we’re running a marathon, it’s okay to run at an inconsistent pace as long as we’re there in the end to finish with the best time.
I took my wife to the game last night and right as the game ended she said, “This was really neat but I wish the pistons would have tried harder.” She’s probably touched a basketball 10 times in her life and she knew exactly what the problem was.
*The lady sitting right in front of me was a HUGE Piston fan. She was from PA and said she’d already seen 3 games at the Palace this year. She also had one of those E.S.P.N. signs that said:
Easter
Special
Pistons
iN town
I’ve said this before. The problem with the Pistons no-star system is that there’s no leader to hold everyone accountable the way Jordan did.
Larry Brown’s control-freak mindset provided this during the two Finals runs. I’ve been a Flip defender but he doesn’t fill that need.
Rasheed and Rip are too emotional. Tay is too quiet.
That leaves me with two candidates: Chauncey and Joe Dumars. One of those two has to step up and start laying down the law.
I don’t think Chauncey will do it, so I’m calling for a more active Joe Dumars in these coming weeks. He needs to call this team out.
It’s time to start bringing every night.
Effort and coaching are important, but sometimes Detroit seems limited in terms of what they can and can’t do. Look at the “points in the paint” stat from last night. Even during their championship year, the Pistons didn’t have a consistent post offensive player: ‘Sheed plays there when he wants to and Corliss could sometimes post coming off the bench; now we don’t even have Corliss, and much as I like Maxy and Dyess, they aren’t consistent post scorers (and neither is Ratliff, or Amir, or Jarvis). Effort on the offensive end can get more open shots, but nobody on Detroit is going to dominate down low, except maybe Rasheed in 10 minute spurts.
At least Detroit used to have an excellent interior *defense*, but we haven’t seen much of that lately. Maybe that’s energy, maybe that’s losing Ben, maybe that’s rule changes, but lord, all those back-door cuts and other plays that led to dunks last night? Ugh.
So, too often we’re left taking jump shots and the other team is taking higher-percentage shots. That’s a recipe for losing at some games when the jumpers aren’t falling, and a tough way to go in the playoffs. Are we really going to rely on ‘Sheed hitting three consecutive three-pointers just to get close (as we did last night)?
I know, I know, just two games, Flip is still figuring out rotation issues (Stuckey didn’t look good last night, fwiw), nothing much is at stake. But I’m still a bit more worried than I was last week.
Now, if we pound the Suns tonight, I’ll feel better.
LawyerBoy, I understand where you are coming from in terms of Boston, and you and I agree on most topics. But Sauce is on to something here. The NY Giants had nothing to play for during that final regular season win. Absolutely NOTHING. But they played their asses off and didn’t rest their starters and they didn’t COAST. Low & behold, look where it got them. A damn ‘Ship. They knew they could hang with the Patriots because of how hard they fought them in that regular season game. Every freaking time we “Coast” against a Cleveland or Washington, we just give them confidence man. The most dangerous thing in sports is a ‘CONFIDENT’ athlete or a confident team man. If you add desperation and hunger to that confidence, then utt-ohhh, watch out. Lets kick ass tonight Pistons. Damn…….my headache is back again.
E-Double:
Remember how Dallas coasted against Golden State late last year in the regular season? That should be the appropriate example from the NBA.
Sauce, I really like what we’ve done this year as far as the bench, youth, resting the starters and the record. I just don’t want to blow it by mis-managing how we handle this last 20% of the season, you know. Lets kick ass tonight and I’ll put down the suicide pills.
E-Double, your comment stating that The Giants had “Absolutely NOTHING” to play for strikes me as short-sighted. The Giants wanted to stop the Patriots’ undefeated regular season. They wanted it badly. They blew a comfortable 3rd quarter lead only and went down in defeat. This didn’t raise their confidence against the Pats or produce momentum. The confidence was always there and the momentum came with each consecutive win in the playoffs. The Giants just went out and got the job done in the Super Bowl. That’s what I hope/believe the Pistons will/can do.
If the Pistons had a chance to stop the Celtics from going 73-9 or 72-10 (as some Crack Staff would’ve liked you to believe was possible at one point this season) on the last game of the season, I would sure as hell hope they went full force. Playing in an end of the season game where you already have a playoff spot and playing for pride so that you don’t become the answer to a trivia question that includes the word(s)
“undefeated”, “record”, or “only” are way different situations. I don’t think it’s fair to say the Giants had nothing to play for.
Anyway, as long as Boston and Cleveland see each other in the conference semis (Cleveland would need a strong finish and a collosal collapse from Orlando to overtake them at this point), I’m not going to sweat (unless that series goes less than 6). Let those two beat each other up while we enjoy the perks of a relaxed schedule in the first two rounds (read: Cleveland coasting into the ECF last year). That’s just where I’m at right now. We all know real well that LeBron James can will his team to a win. We all know (I hope we’d admit) that Boston looks mighty impressive. Watch them go at each other, and then pick apart the scraps. I like that outlook for now. Now tonight boys, it’s payback for Shaq. Sauce may’ve loved Shaq’s welcome of Amir to the NBA, but most of us don’t appreciate it. Time to stop the Suns’ winning streak.
Matt… on a side note:
As I was entering the plush “Acela Club” prior to game so I could pay my $14.99 for my bleu cheese hamburger I passed by 2, count em, 2 females that had a “Jason Maxiell eats babies tshirt” on. Both had the ones with the red rings on the collar and sleeves (I’m assuming those are the “ringer” tees?)…
anyway, that was the best sight of my entire night… oh, that and the fact that I walked past a cute chick (who smelled nice too) who was wearing a Curtis Granderson jersey… any chick that sports a Granderson jersey is my kind of chick (especially if she looked like that!)
I didn’t love Shaq’s welcome, but it’s standard old-school behavior that I tend to respect. Plus, Amir didn’t get hurt, so it’s not like Shaq was trying to maim him out there.
LB, I get what you’re saying, but I don’t want to see a game six against Orlando, which is the likely conference semis opponent. I feel like Detroit has shown plenty of underachieving in the past (6 games vs Chicago, a game 7 nail-biter the previous year against a weaker Cleveland club) to warrant my sweat. I think you should be sweating too.
PS: We haven’t even seen what Lindsey can do on season-long fresh legs or how Jarvis and/or Amir being part of the rotation (hopefully in the playoffs too), can give teams different looks when we’re on defense. I’m just not ready to give up on us so easily. Frustration, I understand, but we gotta give these guys a chance to do what they do best, win.
Sauce, I was just ragging on you (like everyone else does from time to time) for your (often warranted) Amir skepticism. And yes, I do agree that we should of course love the old school bruising Shaq gave Amir. The original Bad Boys were the ones who made it famous. I just wanted to feel like I had a beef against the Suns.
I don’t think going to six against a well-focused, determined Chicago team is such a disappointment. That team had hunger, general skill (ie: lots of scoring punch) and a coach who was connecting in a strong way. Skiles got the best anyone possibly could’ve out of that team last year. They were a legitimately solid team when Skiles had their ear.
I don’t think going six (with 4 decisive victories) against Orlando would be such a diasater either. Seven would be unacceptable. Six would still be (very) mildly annoying to me, but understandable. Ficw is what I’m shooting for and what I think is also most plausible. In the other series, can Boston stop LeBron in the playoffs? I have no idea, but I know I can’t wait to find out. If that series isn’t drawn out to six or seven exhausting battles, then yes I will be sweating (unless we’ve decimated the 7 seed and then Orlando). For now, no need to wipe my brow.
*Ficw = Five
LB, I’d be fine with 5s in the first two series if Detroit rolls up at least 2-0 and the 1st loss is close. Chicago coming back and pounding Detroit 2 straight games, with one in our building . . . that was almost as massive a disappointment as getting pushed to a comeback series win against Cleveland in 2006. The only greater disappointments, of course, are series losses, then series embarrassments.
Well, I do feel better now after the Suns game. Sure, beat the team with the better record on the second game of a back to back that goes into OT (as opposed a game after three days’ rest) and so it without a starter playing. That makes perfect sense.