I had a ton of fun watching this one at the Palace in some very nice seats. The game was an obvious lopsided win for us from the start, yet the excitement of watching us prepare for the playoffs kept me very into the game.


Lets start with Tay. Full of energy tonight. He hit several threes in the 1st quarter, but impressed equally with his board work in the 3rd quarter. He did not play in the 2nd quarter, and you could tell. He seemed to have boundless energy in that 3rd quarter. Got to love it.


Rip was our lone starter who played well into the 4th quarter. Kind of wonder what he was doing there in this blowout game, but hey, Afflalo had about 14 minutes in the rotation and another 4 minutes of garbage time. So Rip getting some extra shooting practice in did not stop Afflalo from getting a decent amount of minutes.


Stuckey got some real good minutes for the 2nd straight game, and got 13 points for the 2nd straight game. Stuckey scored in a variety of ways, but his two assists to Amir for dunks were maybe his best highlights tonight. On the one assist, I was like, who is he throwing it to? Who can go that high up to catch a pass. Amir streaks thru the air and dunks it. Gee.


Dyess worked inside some. I always like that. And as this current setup continues, with Dyess getting enough rest, watch as he gets better and better going inside with the added energy.


Sheed did not do that much. A few shots made here and there. Billups hit a few shots. Hayes did some scoring and did not look bad on D for the 3rd straight game.


Maxiell? He came in and got an offensive rebound immediately. The guy brings some serious energy. I liked that even though we were clicking, both Afflalo and Maxy came into the game early in the 1st quarter. We kept the slaughter going, and in a sustainable way. And unlike the last Charlotte game, where we brought our starters in for the last five minutes of the first half, this time we kept the bench out there. Amir did come out with his 3rd foul though with a couple minutes still left in the half. The result of all this: We stomped them out the gate, and stomped them every minute of the 1st half unabated. Very impressive stuff.


How bad was the slaughter? We were up 20 at one point, in the first quarter. We still had them doubled up on the score well into the 2nd quarter. Charlotte only scored 7 points in like the first 9 minutes. But don't think our bench played all these mintues just because we were ahead. We were ahead in the game the last time we played Charlotte. The coach is getting it right now, playing the bench in the 2nd quarter. The whole 2nd quarter, just as he should be doing in mid - February. In the playoffs, yeah, maybe you need to play your starters more. But not now. Got to love it. We are on the road to a championship as long as we stay on this road. And there are no deter signs ahead as far as I know.
GO PISTONS!!!!!