good game plan - eliminate shaq and make everyone else beat us. dice still looks horrible (how many wide open passes are you not going to expect and how many balls are going to bounce off you??), but good job flip staying with sheed/jmax in the 4th. it was funny seeing shaq guard max on offense, and realizing just how massive shaq really is.

afflalo looked already, although made a few rookie mistakes, like not closing out on the shooter (the result of a double-team which the pistons won't use much of anyway), but when he played man-to-man defense he was solid. his shot looks fine too. flip murray and nazr did their jobs adequately, nothing special, but didn't hurt us.

hayes was fantastic in this game. i don't mine the 3-9 shooting...he made a couple timely 3s, played very good defense, and got a couple steals from shaq as he tried to go into the lane. he and tay also sucked in one-handed rebounds that reminded me a little of ben. i have a feeling hayes will also be backing up rip vs. afflalo/murray, which is fine with me. also, most of his missed shots were when he was forcing it, shooting on the run, etc., basically dumb shots. once he settled down he was fine.

anyway, congrats tay, congrats rip on the baby boy, and congrats pistons on the W.