Anything but boring to watch this game. Seattle went up 15 as we could not stop them at all in the first quarter.


In contrast, Seattle was shut down in the 2nd quarter, especially the first half of it where they just scored 1 point. Similarly, the Pistons enjoyed about an 11-1 run early 4th. This was not all Amir Johnson. But people watching the game, many of them, had this to say about Amir - he continually was in the right place helping us out on defensive end. (While on the offensive end he did take quite a bit of attention to keep him off the offensive glass.) On that defense, Amir continually shadowed the ball, cutting down on options for the ball handler, and did with while never failing to get back to his own guy. (And only once failing to get back to play help out D near the basket when a Seattle player drove in. Amir is quick, lengthy, and as much as that, sharp in his decision making about where to be. Pretty darn good stuff from Amir tonight.


And yes, it did delight me no end to see them go to Amir on a pick and roll that he helped decide by patiently making his highly contested shot. He got a bit beat up for his effort, but he made the shot.


Maxiell also showed some people just how good he is, when not called upon to do it all by himself. Anyone watching the games lately knows what I am talking about here. Time after time, Maxiell comes in to play along side Dyess after Dyess is already worn out. In this game for instance, Dyess played the first 15 mintues, with Maxiell in there for the last 9 of those. Maxiell does not look so good under these circumstances. But later, paired with Sheed, and later still with Amir, Maxiell looked pretty darn awesome on D. Doing his role, just his role, very well. Jason also hit a couple of shots and made some free throws.


Dixon got into the game. Between Afflalo's 4 minutes and Dixon's 8, Rip did get some rest in this game. Normally, I would say it can't hurt to play a guy to see what he can do. But hey, I have watched Dixon play all season, so why have not some Piston scout taken the time to watch some film on the guy. Sure he is a decent backup point guard, but he is really nothing special. A streak shooter with decent but not exceptional defense. Afflalo should keep his minutes. His D is exceptional, and we really need more D played for Detroit.


Hayes only played in the first half. He gave Tay 9 minutes of rest, played decent D and hit a couple of shots inside. One sequence for him was quite impressive as he stripped a guy driving in on him, took the ball all the way down and got to the basket and put it in. He also scored on a cut to the basket that took some skill to finish. Not a bad game for him at all. I suppose if he had hit either of his outside shots to go with his other play he would have gotten some 2nd half minutes. But, me, I think Amir could play a bit of small forward; Tay should have gotten some rest in the 2nd half.


Rip did miss a lot of shots. But he gave us a lot of energy too, making Seattle work pretty hard to follow him around to stop him from easy buckets.


Billups hit a big 3 to give us an 8 point lead upon returning to the game midway thru the 4th quarter. He scored quite a bit in all. Yet Stuckey could be said to have outplayed him tonight. Stuckey put some serious defensive energy into that 2nd quarter, and was out there during our run to start the 4th also. Flip Saunders continues to give Stuckey all the time he needs of late to get ready for the playoffs. Good job Flip on that.


Tay played his usual fine game. Lots of points, lots of D. But playing the whole 2nd half when there is a game tomorrow night too is of questionable value.


Sheed hit a couple of shots, played fine D for much of the 2nd half along fine defensive players like Amir and JMAX.


Dyess was almost certainly the biggest minus player for us. He took some fairly useless outside shots. Other than that, he just kept better defenders off the floor by him being in the game.