Chris McCosky has a nice take down on the complacency argument, and finishes his post with this:
Why do we always look to pin blame on intangibles? The Pistons are a great team, no question. We are looking at all-star players out there. But all-stars miss layups and free throws sometimes. It doesn’t have to be about anything other than that.
And for those of you who want to blame Flip Saunders — go away. What, the Pistons lost because Amir Johnson didn’t play? The Pistons had two chances to win or tie the game in the final seconds. Both times, Saunders drew up plays that got first Tayshaun Prince then Rasheed Wallace wide-open shots. Both missed. The Pistons’ game plan was solid at both ends, solid enough to have control of the game for most of three quarters.
I agree with 85% of his post (read the whole thing if you haven’t), but his conclusion leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If all-stars sometimes miss layups and free throws, can’t coaches sometimes flub the rotation and make mistakes? Flip Saunders did a hell of a job this year and deserves to be in the running for Coach of the Year, but this wasn’t his best coached game by a long shot.
The loss isn’t on him, it’s not on Chauncey and it’s not on Rasheed. It’s on everybody.
Update: the Pistons didn’t just miss some layups, they missed 14. Ouch.
I don’t know their psyches as individuals, but players have routines. Some go out to party. Others lock themselves in some room, only coming out when it’s about time to get to the stadium. Whatever the individual does, I suggest doing a lot more of that tonight . . . just making sure there’s 8 hours of rest plus getting ready between now and “time to leave for the game.”
did not playing amir cost us the game? no.
is asking tay or sheed to take the game winning shot during their 40th minute of pt a good idea? no.
it’s not as simple as “if amir had played we would have won.” i wish people would stop boiling it down to that. sheed and tay can’t play 40 minutes. not when sheed is busting his ass leading the team on both ends and tay is busting his ass guarding AI.
max can’t play 30. not when we’re playing a running team.
saying we play amir and we win sounds dumb. but saying that we’ll be fine playing tay and sheed 40 a night IS dumb.
-i never bought the “accumulated exhaustion” argument. i don’t care how much rest they got during the regular season, if they keep playing 40 mpg like we have the past two years, the results will be the same as the last two years.
and really. all the flip defenders need to wise up. throughout the season we predicted the screwups he’d make. not playing amir until literally forced. choking up on the rotation the second we had a tough game (utah). choking up on the rotation the second the playoffs started. undermining stuckey for the diminished returns of lindsey hunter. he is what we’ve said he was all along.
if you’re trying to get the flip-bashers to shut up, then flip should stop doing exactly what we think he’s going to do. sadly, i think primarily what he’ll do is lose. i hope i’m wrong.
but hey, so what if we lose? we played it safe and flip’s job is safe, right? that’s all that matters in the end.
Kyle, Sheed blew a game-tying layup, but he was pretty stellar in minutes 1-39. I don’t think you’re correct in saying Sheed (or Tayshaun) for that matter, can’t go 40 minutes. Tayshaun is likely to struggle most of the series because he’s stuck guarding Iguodala. Traditionally, when Tayshaun has to expend a great deal of energy on the defensive end (ie: guard someone who is athletic and drops at least 20/night), his offensive production greatly suffers. I don’t think it’s a 40 min./game fatigue issue.
Kyle,
I guess you weren’t watching when Flip sat McDyess on the pine and went with Maxiell (I can the detractors hear it now, he rode Maxiell too long, blah blah blah). The fact is, that decision and his subsequent decision to keep Maxiell in the game, was a good one. The play he drew up got Rasheed a great look. Typical of people of your viewpoint to nitpick at Flip’s questionable decisions yet never give the man credit when it’s due. He’s due credit for Game 1, period.
Much has been said of the lackadaisical attitude the Pistons supposedly exhibit in the post-season. Wouldn’t this be reflected on the defensive end? Has anyone shown that the Pistons play demonstrably worse defense in the playoffs? Maybe this is so.
If not, perhaps the explanation is that the Pistons actually play hard throughout the regular season, whereas some teams only care when their butts are on the line.
McCoskey is wrong to call complaints over minutes intangibles. I pointed out in my first comment after the loss that the Pistons shot crappy and turned the ball over more than I would like, also tangibles, but minutes are highly tangible and fatigue is a pretty recognized concept in sports. The record for 400 meters isn’t simply 4x the record for 100 meters — it’s proptionately slower because of fatigue.
I love the players on the Pistons but Tayshaun Prince isn’t superhuman. It’s like a pitcher throwing 110 pitches vs. throwing 121 pitches, how much zip is on that last fastball? Unlike baseball, in basketball you can swap out players to pace their effort so they are at a reasonable pitch count in crunch time. A 10% reduction in minutes (from 40 to 36) isn’t a linear reduction. Those 4 fewer minutes are your least physically productive (and arguably mentally focused) minutes in the game.
joejoejoe: +1
I don’t want to see the starters logging 24 minutes. I don’t want them playing 40. On some nights, they won’t have it as an individual. Of all, they can’t ALL have a bad night at once. Rasheed was the only starter that put up a great effort. The rest did an average to poor job in the 1st half, then turned into a putrid foursome in the 2nd half. That was waaaaaaaaaayy too crappy for their level of talent. Philly’s a solid defense but there’s no way they shut down four of our five starters.
Sauce1977: +1
We had a big lead in Utah, Amir didn’t play and we lost the game.
We had a big lead against the 76s, Amir didn’t play and we lost the game.
There wasn’t one game this year that we had a big lead and Amir played in the rotation and we lost.
Not one and he played in the rotation for close to 30 games.
Cognitive dissonance.
Amir will prove all those doubters out there wrong.
The fact is that our starters are not that good anymore. They are old and slow. Pistons fans and writers are living in a fantasy world if they think that our starting lineup supplemented with Theo Ratliff and Lindsey Hunter coming off the bench can bring us a ECF title yet along a title.
Cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling when a person begins to understand that something the person believes to be true is, in fact, not true. Similar to ambivalence, the term cognitive dissonance describes conflicting thoughts or beliefs (cognitions) that occur at the same time, or when engaged in behaviors that conflict with one’s beliefs. In academic literature, the term refers to attempts to reduce the discomfort of conflicting thoughts, by performing actions that are opposite to one’s beliefs.
In simple terms, it can be the filtering of information that conflicts with what one already believes, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce one’s beliefs. In detailed terms, it is the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, where “cognition” is defined as any element of knowledge, including attitude, emotion, belief, or behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance states that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to reduce the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions. Experiments have attempted to quantify this hypothetical drive. Some of these have examined how beliefs often change to match behavior when beliefs and behavior are in conflict.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
Mike
Too dorky. -1
Mike,
+1 for raising the intellectual bar. Don’t agree re: starters not being that good anymore, tho’.
Mike: -1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_retardation
Amir Johnson is not magical pixie dust that makes the Pistons scores higher than their opponent.
I love the kid, truly. But your line of thought? Its ridiculous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridiculous_(album)
LB,
“Typical of people of your viewpoint to nitpick at Flip’s questionable decisions yet never give the man credit when it’s due. He’s due credit for Game 1, period.”
i’ve never criticized his ability to draw up an offensive play. i criticize his ability to manage a team through 48 minutes of basketball against high competition. i know our pride says we’re as good as everyone else, and we are, but we don’t have a superstar who can dominate a game for 40 minutes. sheed, as good as he is, isn’t kobe or lebron or kg.
sheed played stellar for 39 minutes. but it was in his fortieth that we asked him to make the most important shot. then he blamed himself for missing it. it’s not fair, he deserved to be put in a better position to succeed.
you were right about one thing though:
“He’s due credit for Game 1, period.”
you’re absolutely right. and it was a loss, period.
p.s. has anyone wondered, that maybe, just maybe, they got used to playing smaller minutes? got used to playing harder earlier, knowing they’d get a chance to rest before the the end? got used to playing with certain “inconsistent” bench players who complimented their game?
And for those of you who want to blame Flip Saunders — go away. What, the Pistons lost because Amir Johnson didn’t play?>>
We will never know.
Will we
The game was close enough and Maxiell played poorly enough in the second half, Dyess didn’t show up in the second half that Amir might just have made the difference.