Tay was beat by TMAC totally. Tay is not even trying to shoot now from the outside. A sign of fatigue?


Billups was pretty awesome, hitting a ton of shots, but the shot that could have won the game, an open 3 with a few seconds to go, missed.
Rip was hitting from everywhere too.


Sheed got player of the game with 21 points and 8 rebounds. His 21 came mostly in the 4th quarter. He did hit some triples, one of which helped get us back in the game after being down 10 with just a short time to go in the game, but he did also do a lot of work around the basket. (Rip hit the other triple there.)


Three starters shooting well, and a fourth, Dyess, doing ok too. Can't complain about just one starter not shooting well.


JMAX had another pretty darn good game off the bench. He remains the largest part of our offensive rebounding game. He made a very impressive move on Ming, putting down the dribble, faking right and springing up left to make a jumper. And he makes his free throws when he is fouled.


No Amir. Its pretty clear Flip has Amir buried so far down the depth chart he will never see the light of day in non-garbage time. No more excuses. The ankle has long since healed. Just a matter of Joe Dumars not forcing his coach to play someone he wants to see play. But the good news is Afflalo did get to play in the 2nd half of this one, in a close game. Thats a nice change. Indeed, the game was tied until Murray thru the ball away, and then allowed Alston to hit a triple on him. Flip's response - pull Murray, and Afflalo. (and a third starter returned too - Dyess for Maxiell)This all triggered a 10-0 run for Houston. I will reiterate, the 10 point lead was mostly gotten with our starters on the floor.


Murray got the nod to play tonight supposedly because Hunter did not have a good game last night? Sorry, uh, I'll take Hunter. Now, Flip has not played much of late, so you can give him a pass for tonight if you wish.


Hayes has disappeared from the scoring column as of late. But it does not matter. He will get to play regardless of production. He is a vet. As long as it keeps Amir down, its fine with Flip Saunders no matter how bad Hayes plays.


This game had a very exciting end to it. Pretty good resiliency shown by our starters considering all the minutes they logged last night, and considering Sheed has had the flu bug to contend with.
Dyess took a knee apparently (to his thigh I think) but came back to play the last moment of the game. (But what was Dyess doing at the 3 line? No range there.)


Maybe we took too many threes. For sure the starters at one point in the 3rd were taking too many outside shots, as they were looking pretty worn out there. With Maxiell in though, they rallied big time to end the 3rd quarter, going on a 12 - 2 run. That and the near comeback in the last minute or so again showed a lot of moxy by our team.


Houston really should have blown us out in this game, but they could not make any free throws. They were on their merry way to set a new record for free throw futility until late in the 4th quarter. I think they started one for 16 at the line, with no starter making a free throw until late 4th quarter. How bad can you get?


TMAC killed Tay all game long, while Ming heated up down the stretch. This is a two man team for the most part.


Our starting lineup, in my opinion, should change, with Jason Maxiell starting. Our pattern of getting killed on the boards to start every game of late must stop. Glad to hear any other suggestions on this. I think Dyess is way overplayed. Another thing that would work, well two other things - would be to start either Samb or Amir instead of Dyess. Anyway it goes, Dyess has to go back to his bench role, with a lot less minutes. GO PISTONS!!!!!