Big win tonight, as the Pistons dominated pretty much from the beginning. CB finally got it going with his shot and filled it up early, and the other 3 of the top 4 starters also produced with better than 50% shooting. The first and third quarters were +22 for the Pistons, so it was all about the starters dominating.

The news off the bench was AA backing up Tay at the 3 in the first half and doing a nice job on both ends. Maybe that can be a new look for them going forward?

Don`t act like you don`t know D4E, that`s why the Pistons won, and why we will not be eliminated in the first round!!!!!!!!

That was a great game by the Pistons from top to bottom pretty much. I feel like they finally played playoff basketball for 4 whole quarters.

but worrisome is how Dice plays now.Sixers were not able to exploit undersized pistons under basket. What is bad that pistons turns ball over too much, it is actually uncharacteristic for them. But in spite of negativities they routed opponent and that is remarkable.

Get ready for red wings game

Dawn of a new era.

Tayshuan Prince's Pistons.

I like.

PS No one benefits more than Chauncey.

They did that in Game 2 as well, but I guess we all wrote that off after they sucked for all of Game 3 and half of Game 4.

Most excellent. Mercury summed it up best. Just about everything you could ask for. Well, you know me though. Always something. Amir still has not joined the rotation.

Billups had it going from the beginning nailing some threes in the 1st quarter amongst many points scored. He ended up with about 20 points. Rip scored 20. Sheed scored inside and out and scored about 20 himself. Tay was quiet on the scoring front, until the 4th quarter where he heated up and ended up getting near 20 himself. Thats 3 games in a row where Tay shot a high percentage. (They mentioned that the last two games Tay had set a record for shooting percentage over the course of two consecutive playoff games.)

Maxiell started again, and it worked out great. Young Mr. Yound could not do much against JMAX, and then Dyess came off the bench to match up with Evans, keeping him from having any kind of a game really. I think JMAX ended up with game high in minutes, but nobody got to 40 in this one.

Afflalo played about the last 7 minutes of the 2nd quarter, at backup small forward. How did he do? He knocked down a shot from the lane. He knocked down a shot from just inside the line. Iggy went after him a couple of times and could do nothing against him. In contrast to having a field day with Hayes, against Afflalo Iggy got nothing and his coach just sat him down for some rest. Result: Tay got plenty of rest in the first half.

In the 4th quarter, Afflalo played backup shooting guard, giving Rip the 4th quarter off. He was not so spectacular as a defensive shooting guard, as Williams did score on him some. (But Afflalo was contesting the shots quite well.) Of course, I think Williams is actually their backup point guard, and it was really a compliment to Afflalo to let him guard the guy.
Stuckey was not great on D. He did get to the hoop with a couple of nice drives (one on the "fairly" spectacular side.) and had some assists with alert passes.

Maxiell led us in boards with 11 and had some spectacular blocks.
I did not catch who they named player of the game, but it had to have been Sheed. Sheeds utter dominance of Philly inside on both offense and defense (a record tying 7 blocks) was pretty incredible.

I am sure many of you flipped over to the N.O. game, and maybe caught a glimpse of greatness in the making. Way to go Paul. A monster triple double. Me, I did not start flipping over until the Pistons were up about 27 late in the 3rd quarter.

The Pistons pretty much coasted in the 4th, but Tay's many buckets there were needed to keep that nice comfy lead. (Which got just a bit less comfy as the 3rd ended as Carney nailed a triple on us.)
To review, here is our rotation now: Billups, with Stuckey backing him up. Rip, with Stuckey backing him up - but Afflalo did so for the 4th quarter. Tay, with Afflalo backing him up. JMAX, with Dyess backing him up. Sheed, with Dyess backing him up.

This rotation did slaughter Philly tonight, and I imagine will do so again next game. But I would feel more comfortable watching us operate with a 9 man rotation, which would be more immune to foul trouble or a minor injury. Further, if Afflalo played backup to Rip, it would allow Stuckey to concentrate more on his defensive assignments as a point guard. Playing Amir as a backup to Tay would allow this, and Amir could also play some at power forward.

A bit more on the game flow. We were up about 14 when Afflalo came in. Its not like we were miles ahead and Afflalo played as an afterthought. Flip planned this. Good plan. We came out in the 2nd half and traded baskets for a moment but then started padding on the lead with Rip getting hot and Sheed adding some more scoring. For the game as a whole, we were outstanding on D as far as defending the middle, particularly with Sheed and Maxiell paired up in the 1st and 3rd quarters. Our perimeter D was not great. Tay did his usual excellent work on D, but Iggy managed to hit some tough shots on him. Miller was held in check ok. Green and Williams did enough scoring to make it not quite a laugher from end to end. (Though, it was a laugher mid to late 3rd on.)

GO PISTONS!!!!!

Nice win. Not going to repeat what I said after game 4. As long as we keep the offense opened up, Philly is in trouble. They were trying to come out on our shooters some later. We may need to counter this. Mainly, we have to keep Rip and Billips head on that they are not D. Wade but great shooters (and players) in their own right. I still cringed every time they go into the lane. Once in a while ok. But those Billips bombs and that Rip jumper are nice. I liked Sheed's variety today. And can he defend down low.

Yes, this has been Tay's Pistons. He has looked like the leader to me. What do others think?

On rotations, I liked Afflalo's minutes. Still waiting for Stuckey to figure it out. We are going to need Theo in the next series to help with Howard. I wouldn't mind seeing Amir with a few minutes on Lewis to jam up his shot. Our bigs will be tested next series.

Sounds like they have the Sixers figured out and all they need is to keep it up one more time.

Just looked outside my window to see the Pigs Flying. This rotation with Max starting, Hayes -out- AA- In...........is a LeeDuJour rotation if I ever seen one. For years I've been calling 356, my CrazyUncle, but....but.......LEE IS(was) RIGHT.....100%......ABSOLUTELY...RIGHT!!!!!! Ai Dios Mios!!!!!! Man cut on the heat............it's freezing down here..........."Luci....cut on the HEAT man!!!!!"