Well...I'm shocked. Now I still think we can win the Series, maybe even in 5 but only if the way our Pistons played today was an aberration, a glitch, an exception, AN OUTRAGE.

I don't understand it at all. Certainly the Pistons couldn't be nervous. Could they be complacent already? I mean wouldn't the excitement of a new run to the possible Championship have them a little stimulated? Because the starters played like it was a meaningless game at the end of the season. Maybe Flip forgot to tell them it was their first playoff game. Maybe it's all his fault.

Anyway, I love ya Sheed. I love ya Rip, Tay, C-Bill, Dice. But you didn't look like contenders. Everything looked very disorganized and even lacking in confidence.Against the Sixers. Or was it just a very bad game for reasons we can not ascertain. Just a bad day maybe. You win some, you lose some?

But you guys looked like you shouldn't have made the playoffs today. So get it together. My entire living room is decorated like a Pistons sports bar. Don't make me look like a fool.

Play up to your abilities from now on. It's win or go home time. C'mon you guys.

P.S. Are you trying to sabotage Flip's job? Seriously, wth is going on? Come back to yourselves, I miss you.

P.P.S. Right now the Celtics are playing a very bad team. They appear to be taking them seriously and keeping their focus. Maybe you should turn on the game in the locker room there and see for yourselves.

Horrid coaching. Philly's guards killed us, and yet, our coach saw fit to leave out our best perimeter defender, Afflalo.

We gave up tons of offensive rebounds, and yet, our coach saw fit to leave out our best rebounder, Amir Johnson.

Our coach did see fit to play Hunter to start the 4th quarter, even though we have a long history of playing poorly with Hunter on the floor in past playoffs. And Hunter is nothing but older, much much older, than he was back in 04. Wrong guy to be out there. Nice he hit the triple in the first half. But even in 04, Larry Brown knew to only play Hunter for a few key moments here and there. Afflalo was the guy who should have been out there, not Hunter. No reason at all for this goof except Saunders has a vendetta against Joe Dumars and his orders to play the youth.

The question becomes, now that we witnessed the first game and how absurd Flip can choose to be, will he do the same the next game. Anohter question, if Flip does this again next game, should Dumars fire him on the spot.

Philly is a team that Detroit can beat with ease, if they play there best players. Shame on the fans who continually support Flip in not playing Afflalo and Amir. You know who you are. Your permission was gladly taken by Flip and abused mightily tonight.

Sheed played absolutely fanstastic in the first half. But who failed to notice he got no rest? Just a few minutes. He did a little in the 3rd, with what little he had left. And zilch in the 4th. Empty tank.

And Tay. Big shot to take late in the game. But who could possibly fail to notice that Tay got no rest in the 2nd half. Just a few ineffective minutes from Hunter. Yes, Hunter playing instead of Tay. What a dropoff, and one that was totally not needed. Afflalo could have been playing those minutes at backup small forward.

Maxiell was a monster. Tay played fine, until toward the end of the game. He is human. He needs rest. Tay was holding Iggy to near nothing, and getting a score for us here and there. But not anything in late in the game in crunch time as his coach forget something called rest.

Rip was so so. He scored here and there but nothing steady either. Can't say he helped much either way toward a win or a loss.

Flip did well in limiting the minutes of Dyess, who did well in his fairly short minutes. Dyess drew several fouls and got some rebounds. If only he did not take any outside shots though. Flip also did well in limiting the minutes of Hayes, who was a defensive liability with Iggy out there. But unfortunately, after a whole season, he still never figured out some alternative. Because he refuses to coach. Instead, he just fights Dumars. And the fight continues. Who will win the battle between now and Wednesday. If Dumars wins, the Pistons will win. Otherwise, we will see this same game repeated, only Philly will be even more full of confindence. Stay tuned.

A smile just went up in Cleveland, Boston Orlando as the sixers pulled the upset...Some guy named Stern was in the NY NBA offices was smiling too.

.This game was lost in the third qtr when they blew that 15 point lead as the starters wore down...and Flip played all but Dice the whole period. Then the three missed FT's by CB was also a killer.. In fact Mr. BS was just BullSht

Pistons win the first half 51-38 and lose the second half 52-35

I knew this team was a tough matchup, but this is a downer.... Sheed played great with the zoo crew in second qtr, but when they had Tay out there in the 4th with the zoo crew, it was just terrible....

Starters shot 34% for the game. They played scared at the end. Flip's job is safe. Joe saw the game and he'll trade players if we don't make it out of this series. However, like I stated before..Pistons in 6...It'll just seem LONGER...

Probably the starters were not ready as they haven't played all that much lately. We really looked out of sync. Doubt that this game is really true. Hope that it isn't true. If the starters don't play better, we can't go far.

Flip's on NBATV sounding like an idiot as usual...


ON Playing 3 guard lineup it was "to match the quickness of IGludola" ????

Again he plays to the other team instead of staying with what we do best. No way our bench has an impact in the playoffs...

Great cut to a steaming Dumars in his catseat..

Maybe Avery Johnson is on his way in trade of coaches with Dallas....

I have a funny feeling this is our last stand

No they won't. After horrible losses to boston billups answered "we are what we are". Take it as you want

Well, you know, on the bright side...

The Wings won!

You gotta be happy for Mo Cheeks.

The Wings won!

Flip DID play the bench (somewhat).

The Wings won!

I debated making a post about how we were going to get killed by their athleticism if we didn't play Amir, and killed by their perimeter players if AA didn't play, and how i thought this series would be super tough b/c of Flip's inability to adjust and Mo's willingness to use Young, etc. but i didn't want to put out "negative" vibes before the game.

I didn't watch the game, and i don't think i'm going to. I'm just going to go back and read the recaps. The fact that we were up 15 and lost makes me really upset. I thought we could lose but not this way.

It's only game 1 i guess, but if we continue not to see AA/Amir, we're screwed.

Also i briefly read "3 guard lineup" and match-up with Iggy's quickness. If that didn't include AA, i shudder to think who was out there.

edited to add;

I HATE FLIP SAUNDERS. Just thought i'd throw that out there for cathartic purposes.

Also, don't except much from Billups. Miller owns him, always has.

The Pistons can use any excuse that they'd like to, but it doesn't matter. This was a team that they should have beat.

Sure, they'll likely still win this series, but all of these extra games will start to add up over the course of the playoffs. While we're going 6 and 7 games, Boston will be going 4 or 5.

For a team that already likes to complain about being tired, that's not a good thing.