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Originally Posted by Lee356  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.
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.)
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.
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Good post Lee...a couple of observations. Hunter may not have played that much if Alf had not got into foul trouble. When Alf went out and Stuckey came in the first qtr, our offense stalled for few minutes and then it got worst when Hunter came in there to join Stuckey. In fact Stuck was only 1-5 in that first half missing 3 layups. The Pistons scored six pts in the first 9.5 mins of the 2nd qtr and then 9 pts in the last 2.5 mins when Flip brought Alf and CB back in. Unfortunately Alf picked up his 3rd foul, went out and theh put Hunter in. Hunter was part of the + at the time with 2 steals that led to a Billups bucket and a FT by Tay. After that as you indicated he was an absolute zero, especially in the third when they outscored us by 14..
I agree that both Sheed and Tay could have attached the rim more especially to open the second half when points were a premium..You would have thought the coaches would have made that adjustment?? Well if they did, Stuckey was the only player listening as he repeatedly took it the rim. Dyess played the entire 3rd qte and even though he hit four jumpers when the Pistons were struggling, his defense disappeared midway through the 3rd qtr.