| game report
Ok, thats more like it. Not good enough. But more like it. Ben was still kept out there too long, especially on a back to back. Flip does not know what he is doing with Ben. Much more of this, and Ben is going to have some bad games from dead legs. But other than that, he did pretty good.
Arroyo came in with time left in the 3rd quarter yet, and just stayed right out there. Evans and Dyess I believe played about the whole 4th. Our bench got 39 minutes in the first half too.
Our bench scored quite a bit. Dyess had around what, 13 or so. Delfino 11 I think. Arroyo 6. Evans 3. Darko 2. Note, each game of late, Darko takes one shot. Just one. And always cans that shot. Just to show us fans he can shoot. Start believing it. Nobody without serious talent comes out in garbage time for several games in a row and hits their only shot attempt.
In garbage time, the team tried to go to Maxiell as much as possible, but JMAX did not get any points for us tonight. Delfino took it in for a fantastic reverse dunk in traffic. Lucky for Minny none of their players went thru the hoop with that one. And that one shot by Darko. Madsen was up on Darko. Madsen is too short. So Darko did just what he does in practice, a nice high arcing shot. Swoosh, nothing but net. Sweet string music. We want more.
Tay was our big scorer in the first quarter. A couple of 3's, a pull up jumper on a fast break, a cut inside. On this cut inside, two players challenged him but he threw it down strong and got the and one. Some shorter jumpers. And one rebound followed by a drive all the way down to the basket for a score. Tay flat out had it going on. So many times, other teams just don't have an answer for Tay.
Rip scored right around 20. Good efficient scoring. Hitting midrangers, and getting right to the bucket too. Yep, he kind of reverted back a bit to the turnover prone Rip, but hopefully that is not a trend.
Arroyo played for a few minutes with the starters to end the 3rd. (Dyess came in too at the end there.) Basically, this unit did not look comfortable with each other. Kind of to be expected though since Arroyo has played so few minutes like that. But a trend just might be developing. Thats 3 times now recently Arroyo has got such time. The Pistons need him to do a lot more of it.
Sheed had his outside shot working tonight. CB scored some. The starters took a 10 point lead to start the 3rd and ran the lead to 22 at one point. I think Arroyo came in at 16 up. We had a 20-2 run in the first half, started by Arroyo at the end of the 3rd, and carried on by Billups until around 3 minutes left in the half. Evans was playing some good defense during this run. Thats twice he has been quite effective defensively vs. Minny.
Arroyo hit, I don't know, a leaner I guess, as he got away from the defense pretty close in. He hit one outside shot after that. He just barely missed a triple after that. In the 2nd half, he got to the line and made both free throws. There is another trend, Arroyo has not missed a free throw of late. I think he has canned 10 straight now. Delfino also made both of his.
Delfino also had a very impressive drive in in the first half. He came in from the right, and hooked it in lefty after passing the hoop. Quite impressive. And then a triple.
Evans only hoop was in garbage time. Still nice to see him hit that pull up jumper though. He also made one of two at the line after he got headhunted. He did some rebounding for us and had a couple of steals too. Still no positive effect from when he handles the ball, although they keep letting him work on it with several touches.
Dyess got most of his from the outside tonight, two or three off the usual pick and rolls between Arroyo and him. I guess you could say pick and pop. (I use to call them pick and rolls whether I rolled in toward the basket or rolled out to the perimeter.)
Man, I love seeing Delfino getting back into the rotation. One exciting ball player. I noticed he often was the first option to bring the ball up in garbage time. He uses that height to see over the defenders and make the long lead pass. If nothing there, the ball goes to Arroyo for him to bring it up.
I was saving Ben for last, then oops, I forgot him. Ok, Ben certainly did not have a forgettable game. But we fans of Detroit do often forget him, as what he does he does so darn consistently. Tonight, he went a few notches above his usual. Around 16 boards. A few blocks, a couple of steals. On one trip, I think he came away with 4 offensive rebounds. I think that ended in a triple by Rip. (It was Rip. I think it was a triple.) Ben did not score in this game. Arroyo gave him one last alley oop attempt just before Ben left the game, but he did not convert the pass. Oh well, we don't need Ben scoring points. I liked what Ben did on that sequence. He kept kicking the ball up, breaking the heart of the other team and making them defend us thru another set.
Ben did try to score a few times, but had no luck going inside against Garnett for instance. Hey, I still like him getting the practice anyway.
More on Arroyo. Despite what some might perceive as some problems on Arroyo's part on his decision making, he himself was not having a bad game. Those starters do not know Arroyo, just as he does not know them all that well. Still, Arroyo took a tie game, or was he down a couple when he came in, and handed CB a 4 point lead when he came back in 6 minutes later in the first half. And when he came in in the 2nd half, the lead went up, not down. Arroyo was not doing that bad. Billups too occasionally can't get any plays to work. What does he do? He hits some shots of his own. On three occasions, Arroyo did just that, got his own offense going. Arroyo still slipped some assists in there. And here is the kicker. Anyone notice any 3's going up while Arroyo is in? Not many. The play keeps going inside. Contrast that to Billups running the show last night. Triple after triple try. Please, please look for the positives sometimes.
Thats about all I can think of at the moment, except GO PISTONS!!!!!
Last edited by Lee356 : 02-01-2006 at 11:42 PM.
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