They say its hard to beat a team twice back to back. Kind of like the playoffs. For some odd reason, what made the game so easy last night, going inside a lot, was abandoned for this game.


Dyess, according to the announcers, was having this great game checking O'Neal. Its not like he was doing that poorly, but Sheed and JMAX each did far better when they checked him. Meanwhile, Dyess was settling for long jumpers, which he was mostly missing, getting few rebounds. And when he went into the post, he shot and missed a fade. Not very impressive. I won't blame it all on him though. He played way too many minutes in this game. He especially got way too little rest in the first half due to some foul problems.


In contrast, JMAX was a beast in this game. All Indiana could do was foul him to stop him, and JMAX kept making his free throws. Just imagine if anyone decided to give him some help, Indiana would have been in serious foul trouble.


Stuckey got to play major minutes in this game. He only played point in the first half, with Afflalo spelling Rip for 4 minutes between the 1st and 2nd quarters. The most obvious observation about Stuckey - he is making his jumpers. He makes them whether he pulls up or takes a set shot. His triple and another jumper were part of that flourish to end the 3rd quarter. I guess we can forget the scouting report that says he has weak jumper. This is great news, as it makes his drives inside just that much more effective. Now, he got blocked a couple of times going in, but he kept driving in and got some good results. A made layup. A dish to a teammate under the basket. A foul drawn to end the 3rd quarter, and of course he made his two free throws. Afflalo did not play in the 2nd half as Stuckey played most of the 4th quarter. (Out a the 5 minute mark about) and spelled both Rip then CB. I don't recall Rip getting hardly any rest in this one altogether.


Hayes hits some shots early to give us a boost in the 2nd quarter. That was about it for him.


Billups did great on scoring, three times catching them asleep and laying it up, and he kept hitting his jumpers. Some of these over a defender off the dribble.


The hero though was Rip Hamilton. Thats Rip HAMilTON. Remember yet again, Rip led the league in 3 point shooting in 2004. Man can he shoot the ball. A timely 3 from Rip put this one away with about a minute to go. Rip was also murder off the dribble in this game.


Can't remember Tay doing a whole lot offensively. Sheed just kept shooting outside shots, making very few.


To sum, youth was served a bit at least. Stuckey is getting the time he needs to help us in the playoffs. Hunter again was not dressed; Fabio was. Amir did not get to play. Afflalo had his minutes cut to 4. They plan to send Samb down again to the D-League soon. Yeah, sure, its 8 in a row. Great. More could have been done in this game to prepare for the playoffs. 1) Rip could have been rested more by Afflalo. 2)Amir could have played a bit so that Dyess had some rest to improve his play before he came back in in the 2nd quarter. On a scale of A to F, I'd give Flip a C for this one.





GO PISTONS!!!!!