12-27-2005, 10:31 PM
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| Member+ | | Last Online: Today 12:10 AM Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Flint
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| game report
I am ill at the moment. Seemed to have picked up a nasty little cold Christmas day. But here is my best anyway.
Ok, the starters came out good, but seemed to go completely flat. Then in the 2nd half, same thing. Came out good but went flat again, letting the Raptors right back into the game. Definitely a case of the starters just overlooking a weaker team between two bigger games on the schedule.
We shot a lot of threes. We started out 8 for 12 on the 3's. By the end of the game, I guess we made about 3 more in 11 more tries. Hey, it still came out in our favor big time altogether. Flip apparently just told the guys to keep right on shooting them if left open. Rip hit one. Tay too. And Evans. And the usual suspects, Sheed and CB.
The bench came in and ran the score up for us real nice. This started with a good run with just Arroyo, Delfino, and Dyess in the game off the bench. And Toronto not even scoring so much as a point. (Toronto had been on a tear just before Arroyo got into the game.)Dyess hit his first 4 shots. I think he only missed one for the game. A lot of points and rebounds from Dyess tonight. Something like 13 and 11.
The Pistons scored over 30 in the first quarter. It was the defense of the starters that just seemed to vanish midway thru that quarter. Same old theme. Their bigs scoring on us, grabbing offensive boards and scoring on us some more. It was quite a contrast when the subs came in and just shut Toronto down.
Evans played a darn good game, although he was in there in the 4th quarter as Toronto made a run, forcing all of our starters to return. (Except Ben who had been shaken up by a shot by Dyess across the mouth. Gee, I guess Dyess is pretty desperate for playing time. lol) Evans hit his triple. And he scored around the basket several times, once off his own dribble. The trend of Evans moving the ball like that the last few games is great. And he also moved without the ball well a time or two for scores around the basket. The Pistons experimented a couple of times with Evans helping move the ball up. Pretty ugly stuff, but I guess a guy has to learn sometime. Also, this is something new for Evans, scoring around the basket several times in the same game. Remember when I mentioned he posted up last game and missed. Even though he missed, that was practice. Today, the practice payed off as Evans managed a few times to just rise up and hit a short jumper around the basket.
Now, Arroyo and Delfino did great for us in the first half. There reward? No Delfino except garbage time in the 2nd half. Arroyo hardly played in the 2nd half. Pretty obvious they are giving Evans more time to do some on the job training. Perfectly ok. Evans getting better means the bench getting better.
Arroyo hit a little push shot over Bosh. Delfino hit a long two. Arroyo had 4 assists in his 12 minutes.
Arroyo fed Darko for a dunk in garbage time. Evans fed Maxiell to give him a post up attempt. Man, Maxiell sure needs a lot more of those attempts. And preferrably in the 2nd quarter. Get the guy in the game Flip. And Darko.
Tay ended up scoring about 20 points in this game. Going inside a lot. Yes, he could do even more if we were not shooting so many triples tonight. But can't complain about Tay at all. Long arms for defense and lots of height to constantly overmatch the other team's guards.
Rip scored plenty. Inside a lot. I mean driving inside a lot. Man has he gotten good at it. That triple and some midrangers too. And of course, if he goes inside and gets fouled, he makes his free throws. Just an excellent game by Rip.
CB got 13 assists and 21 points, mostly on 5 triples. What can you say. When the team needed some scoring to get them out of a funk there at the end of the game, CB comes thru.
Sheed seemed to have ran out of steam by the end of the game. Play Darko coach. This is a bit rediculous.
Man am I getting a headache.
Now, in the 2nd quarter, the bench played a whole lot. Kind of like the tale of two coaches. No problem in the 2nd quarter, but in the 4th quarter, there we see Billups play about the whole thing. Worse, we even tried going small again. Arroyo, Rip, Evans at small forward, Dyess, Sheed. Just does not work. Again, experimentation going on here rather than just tyring to win the game.
We played the unit of Arroyo, Evans, Delfino, Dyess, and Sheed extensively in the 2nd quarter. They did so good, you wonder why they just did not finish the game up. That good. Lots of scoring, and Toronto scoring precious little. During this stretch, Evans I think took and made one triple. Sheed might have taken a couple. But mostly, with these guys on the floor, the ball is seen going inside over and over. Very effective. And very little fast break ops for the other team off our misses. That is, if we don't get the offensive rebound and they don't get the ball at all. Just in case you wonder why our defense is so good with Arroyo in. Arroyo does not take threes. That helps your defense. I could think of more, but I think I will instead pop some motrin. Good nite all and GO PISTONS!!!!!
Last edited by Zoso : 12-27-2005 at 11:24 PM.
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