I'm just sad- last night, I dreamed that the Pistons would lose this one and it came true. I mean, what's wrong with these guys? They consider themselves as contenders and get beaten by the Cavs, who are far away from being a thread TWICE? No bench, wack play by Sheed and Tay- and, the saddest thing, got beaten with their own weapons (defense).

Why we shouldn't worry:
The Cavs played there best defense all season, and kept the Pistons to 33% shooting. Rasheed got hurt. Chauncey didn't do anything. The refs sucked at the end and called a big call by not giving the ball back to the Pistons. Verajao had the game of his life. Even though all this happened we lost by 1 possesion.

Now what I'm worrying about is Chauncey and Tayshaun. Chauncey has had only 1 big game this entire postseason. Mr.Bigshot had 2 crunchtime shots and 1 was a 3 he bricked, and the other was a charge on a drive. Chauncey has dissapeared and he needs to take over in Game 5. As for Tay he played great. Every time we went to him he scored or got really close to scoring. So why doesn't Tay get any plays called for him? Flip needs to give the ball to Tay to make Lebron play D, and not only that Tayshaun scores more than 50% of the time on him.

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"That's the end, man." Rasheed Wallace

Exactly, gazoo.

That was my pick as well and why I'm not going to panic (yet). Even though we're clearly playing horrible as an entire unit, which is just blowing me away.

It really is unbelievable to sit here and watch the starters as well as the bench struggle so badly against an inferior opponent like this. I really expect them to turn this around when they bring it back home, and then close it out when they go back to Cleveland. Of course that's assuming Flip actually learns how to make adjustments by then. Let's hope his incompetent assistants can try to be some sort of help here instead of sitting there like bumps on a log.

And what exactly has happened to McDyess? I'm not trying to single him out here, really I'm not, especially with how the rest of the team is playing so bad at the moment, but he was playing so well towards the end of the season, and now all of a sudden it's like he can't do anything right. It's quite surprising, as many things are right now, but to me, this one really sticks out.

I want the Antônio McDyess from last postseason back. Lord knows we could use him right now.

Looking at this the day after it is clear that the Pistons underestimated the Cavs after the first 2 games. They need to re-focus on playing smart ball. Stop settling for the quick jumpers and use the shot clock to move the ball and get the offensive flow going. They also need to manufacture baskets early in the 5th game by going to the hole and getting everybody on track. Their is no doubt that they are the better team, they have to start playing like it. Pistons in 6!

Another thing, Sheed just SHUT THE F UP and play! No reason to promise anything or distract from the task at hand. Give your opponent credit for beating you and move on.

Postgame Press Conferences.

Flip
LeBron
Rip
Mike Brown

All in MP3 audio.

Apparently Ben was interviewed in the locker room but only had an expletive laden tirade to contribute. Most of it was "beeped" out. Thank goodness someone was mad.

Attached Files

	podium-presser_rip_5-15-06.mp3 (1.66 MB, 4 views)
	podium-presser_coachbrown_5-15-06.mp3 (3.52 MB, 1 views)
	podium-presser_flip_5-15-06.mp3 (3.39 MB, 3 views)
	podium-presser_lebron_5-15-06.mp3 (3.56 MB, 1 views)

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To all of my friends, comrades and companions at PF.com

Thank you for another great season!

i just can't agree with you that we didn't focus on defense, when we forced a slow, half-court game and held the cavs to 72 points. and i can't agree about mo playing poorly either.

mo forced lebron practically out-of-bounds to hit that 3 at the end of the half, then he comes up with an important offensive rebound at the end of the 3rd quarter to limit the cavs getting an extra shot, and then he gets a steal late in the game and gets us 2 free throws plus the ball back. i agree with micro, if mcdyess keeps playing timid then let's see some dale davis...there's no way he lets this easy shiz pass in the lane.

as for my other comments on the game that i previously typed up and put on DBB:

We played 2 of our worst games of the year and almost won. Milwaukee would have beat us by 30 points playing as poorly as we did.
For some reason we feel like playing an isolation offense when that hasn’t worked for us all year. Notice when Rip worked hard through screens he got layups. I don’t know if Flip or Chauncey is calling the ‘wait until 12 seconds left in the shot clock to run the play, and just pass once and shoot a contested jumper’ style of play, but it needs to stop.

The other odd thing is McDyess. He’s gone timid for some reason, taking extra pivots and nearly traveling instead of just putting up his money shot which is unguardable, as if he’s scared to shoot. We look like the Cavs in the sense that no one wants to shoot the ball.

In any case, people forget that the Cavs won 50 games and aren’t pushovers. The Pistons were as arrogant as the fans (whether we want to admit it or not), so hopefully they take care of business and end this in 6 games. Hopefully New Jersey steals one on the road, takes care of home, and forces a Game 7. I was looking forward to Dick Bavetta for Game 5 but it looks like he has to go take care of the Spurs at home for their Game 5 and make that a series.

Zozo and Warthhog, I am also wondering what is going on. How bad can an offense look in a playoff game? Dyss bumped knees with someone in game 1 or 2 and that may be the problem there. We put pressure on ourselves with that game 3 giveaway and we didn't respond to it. Why we think we need to slow the game down is beyond me. We have the athletes. Are we THAT worried about Le Bron in the open floor? And I am not buying that Cleveland is a very good team. I hope this was all a mirage. Otherwise, they are into our offensive game and we lost with our own grind.

Just read Flip: we are playing not to lose instead of to win. Like I said, we built our own pressure cooker and got fried in it. We need to come out and just play and have fun. Flip also said that the offense was too tentative. That is an understatement.

Mo Evans is playing well by every measure. Evans is 2nd on the team in the Roland Rating, 3rd in production, and 5th in on-court +/-. I would also argue that his D has been pretty good. When Evans is in the game, we are allowing an eFG% of 43.9%.

On the other hand, Lindsay is sucking. He's last on the team in Roland Rating, last in production, and last in on court +/-. The Pistons are allowing an eFG% of 55.8% in the 96 minutes that he has played. There is no hiding it, he is hurting the team right now.

I think Tay needs to guard LeBron one-on-one and the Pistons can't let the others guy beat them because that's what's happening now and Flip hasn't adjusted to it. I'm fairly certain Tay can hold the King to under 40 points. This is why Sideshow Bob has suddenly looked like a star. LeBron's supporting cast isn't that good. They're so wide open because of this Prevent LeBron Defense. It worked fine the first two games but now it's time to try something else. Ol' Flipper has been slow to adjust.

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"I don't believe there's any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is, that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can't completely ignore. - George Carlin