| game report
14-2. Best start in franchise history. Congrats Flip Saunders.
Sheed has really. I mean really. Really stepped up his post up game this year. And his 3 point shooting is off the charts compared to his previous career numbers. And did I mention he is confindently knocking down those free throws better than ever too. Man is Sheed serious about erasing the stink from how last season ended.
GS played GreenLight. Why? The guy did hit some shots, but Dunleavy made the Pistons eyes light up anytime they saw him defending. This guy is no way worth good money. No way he should be on the court, at least in any tight games. And if you can't be on the floor at the end of the game, should you even be a starter? Well, Tay did get his when he chose, and CB was scoring, Rip was scoring. A whole lot of good O. But some of it was just poor D by GS too.
Tay got all his pretty much inside. Or at least close in. His shot over Dunleavy in the last minute or so was crucial in winning this one. Great to see Tay doing that clutch shooting. These days, we got 4 guys who we can count on to take that clutch shot. Four is a lot.
Ok, now for the bench. Dyess hit a shot. One shot. I am talking about outside shots. Still a pattern of no multiple outside shots made in a game. Happened only one time the last month. But Dyess played enough in this game to give Ben a good long spell in both halves, Sheed a long spell in the first half, and then at least another short rest for Sheed in the 2nd half. Now, in the 2nd half, 4th quarter especially, Sheed was our hero. We could not keep him out of the game too long. But Dyess did what a bench player needs to do, spell the starters.
Evans played the most off the bench. He hit one jumper, a midranger on an assist from Arroyo. Evans was completely open for this shot. So it looks like maybe he can hit a midranger afterall, as long as the shot is completely unchallenged. Still would like to see him be able to rise over people and hit a midranger. He has the ups for it, just has not shown the ability to hit those yet. Thats it for Evans shooting. His 3 shot was off badly the one time he got set. Another time he hurried one and that missed bad too. Evans did get a couple of assists by passing the ball out from the post.
On defense, Evans guarded Baron Davis extensively. Now, Baron Davis never scored at all before Evans started guarding him in the first half, so you got to wonder what is going on there. Evans was in guarding a guard, but providing no ball handlng for our team. GS was going small, playing both Baron Davis and Fischer at the same time, allowing us to go small like this.
In the 2nd half, Evans again guarded Davis, but GS scored every single time down at the end of the 3rd quarter with Evans on Davis. Not doing so well for us. GS started off badly offensively in that quarter, but ended up scoring 29 points in that quarter with a very poor defensive finish by us.
Evans though redeemed himself on this account by being part of the first half of the 4th quarter, where GS did not score at all. We had Arroyo, Evans, Tay, Dyess, and Sheed out there. (I think actually it was half and half between Tay and Rip.) Good defensive stint by our subs there.
Arroyo, as usual, ran our offense very well. In both halves. Indeed, he took a slight deficit and handed off a slight lead to Billups when Billups came back into the game. Coincidentally, as soon as Billups came back in, GS scored two straight times after going scoreless for the quarter up until then. Arroyo hit the only shot he took, a well, er, about 19 feet, right? For the game, the Pistons had very, very low turns. Great job cherishing each posession.
On defense, Fischer scored on Arroyo a couple of times, but then Arroyo simply started forcing the ball out of Fischer's hands by guarding him starting just after the halfcourt line. In the 2nd half, Arroyo used the tactic of getting under Fischer's legs. Altogether, a rather effective defensive effort on Fishcer after a shaky start. Arroyo guarding Davis did not happen much, and I doubt that looks like a good matchup for us their. Indeed, even though on the face of it Evans did not do much, the fact that he spent a lot of energy guarding Davis meant he was at least contributing that energy.
Arroyo had quite a rebounding game. And he was very effective at triggering some fast breaking. Darn good game altogether for Arroyo except for Fischer burning him a couple of times early.
Again, great start for the Pistons. And for this road trip, not a bad start at all as far as keeping the starters well rested. All three of our subs that did play each played significant minutes. And we won. Man, 14-2 GO PISTONS!!!!! |