Oh well, there goes quite a streak for Afflalo. He played, even started, and we lost. Very unusual. Afflalo got into some foul trouble which limited his minutes in the first half. Flip left him after he picked up his 4th foul immediately to start the 3rd. Afflalo was put on guarding Ford, who is quite quick. Did not work out great, although Ford scored awful easy later with Afflalo not guarding him - giving Toronto the momentum big time going into the 4th quarter. (Not to mention a ten point lead. Afflalo did score five quick points to start the game, and then missed a couple of outside shots. He got inside on a cut and scored against traffic, and got the and one. A short jumper if I recall was his other score.

Hunter played quite a bit in the 3rd quarter. And we barely scored. Hunter was an absolute zero on offense. Call it rust if you want. I personally will not be so kind. But our defense did hold well with him in.
Amir was by far and away our best defender in this one. He played quite a bit. About 8 minutes to end the 2nd quarter and the whole 4th. By the end of the game, we see him getting a couple of outstanding defensive plays against Bosh. Also, Amir was often called to guard small forwards, and it seemed that this was just way too easy for him. He is quicker than they are, much more lengthy and athletic. Amir got one dunk off a cut and that was it for his scoring. He missed an offensive rebound putback try and missed a hook shot. He needs to play a whole lot more and get the rust off his shots around the basket.

JMAX did not play much. Theo got into the game a lot in the first half but not in the 2nd half. His one hook looked pretty good but managed not to stay down. He had a nice block.

Sheed did far too little work in the post. At least his one trip there resulted in an offensive rebound tip in by Stuckey off his miss. Now, Sheed was in there along side Amir as we made a game of it late in the 4th. Why Dyess starts over him is pure mystery. Dyess did hit 4 jumpers in the 3rd quarter as we were letting the game slip away from lack of defense.

Hayes did hit a shot I believe. Why he plays at all though is another mystery. Amir can play his small forward minutes and give us some excellent defense. (And probably start scoring inside for us if we gave him some shots and ran plays for him.)

Billups scored here and there. Hit a couple of threes late. Should we have busted it inside more toward the end. Probably. But it almost worked. We did not hit all the threes we took, but we hit several. Toronto simply found answers.

Stuckey had a career high, mostly going to the basket. Defensively he was so so.

Tay? Where was he. A shot here and there. But this is Toronto, a weak inside defense. Why was he not going inside. Sheed? Same question.
In all, this was 1)a very entertaining game watching some of our young players get to play. And watching a near comeback at least. 2)A pretty darn good game for getting our bench ready for the playoffs. Yes, even Hunter playing helps toward that, even though him playing himself into shape tonight probably lost the game as much as anything. (Though note, Hunter played little in the 2nd half when the game was lost. We had a one point lead mid-third quarter. Billups and Stuckey were in the backcourt as we lost the game. My comment about Hunter playing losing the game has to do with how he disrupts our offensive plan something fierce. Hard to recover even after he gets off the floor.)

I hate losses as much as anyone. But this game did get us toward our goal of winning in the playoffs. What we need going forward: Rest the starters. Have them fresh for the playoffs. Give Stuckey, Afflalo, and Amir a ton of shots. Play Amir as backup small forward. Play Hunter some, not a lot, and play Theo. Get the bench deeper.

Conversely, leave Dixon, Hayes, and Herrmann out of the equation. Yes, it would be a good idea to play Samb some. You can't go wrong getting a shotblocker into the game upon occasion just to give the other team pause when they around the basktet thruout the game. (Make sure Samb is still off the floor before shooting that ball near the basket.)

One more obsevation. No, Hunter did not have to play in this game. Note that Flip did not use Tay as a guard in this game. He could have. We had Stuckey, Afflalo, Billups, and Prince dressed. Hunter played strictly to knock some rust off his game. Not to help us in any way in this particular game.

Again, this was a good game. Good for playoff prep. Which is what matters. If things continue to go as they did tonight. (But with less Hunter playing of course for most games) the Pistons are going to be rip roaring for the playoffs.