As many people picked up on, Flip Saunders is rapidly derailing the team. Sure we beat Miami, a team minus Shaq, Haslem, and Mourning. No, Marion did not play this game. Miami hung close with us with good shooting, but good shooting because of one uncontested shot after another.


We managed to win the game, getting enough offense from Billups, going inside a lot, Rip, making a lot of shots, and Sheed doing a lot of damage from around the basket and midrangers.


Dyess hit some shots. Hayes had a decent game. Tay hit some key shots down the stretch and got about 14 in all.


Afflalo did not do much in this game, and yet he was in there those last few mintues of the 3rd quarter as we built an 11 point lead. Good D. His reward? Just like the first half, he sat down and watched Rip play the whole 4th quarter. Afflalo was used in some end of game situations in this tight game.


Maxiell also did very little in this game, was also part of that run that gave us control of the game. Defense wins.
Amir played some decent D while in his two minutes, got one score on a post up move.


Stuckey did play 15 minutes, which is acceptable. This kept Billups to 33 minutes. Stuckey's highlight, besides picking up a few loose balls, was a fast break layup just a few seconds after Wade layed one in on the other end.


Considering the amount of rest the Pistons have had this past week, the minutes the starters played were not that bad. The problem is how little time Amir Johnson got in the game. Lets review this. In the past 6 games now, Amir has gotten into the rotation for both halves of the game 3 times. This is standard Flip derailment mode. He is pretending to play Amir Johnson. Nothing more. Just pretend. Probably to keep his job.


I wonder, how many fans does he think he is fooling? Does he think its like some slight of hand trick that nobody will notice. Yes, Flip, we all noticed. You did not play Amir enough to matter. All us fans can hope really is that Dumars will fire you. No way you will change. No way the Pistons have a chance to win a Championship this year, because of you and your insistance in derailing a good thing.