You know, the bench did ok. Good enough anyway. But playing Dupree? That was maybe the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. I will not blame the loss on Dupree of course, but man, we could have dressed Dale Davis and be talking about a Piston win right now.

Message to Joe Dumars. Anyone who wants to see the Pistons win it all this year, get this message to him somehow. Call on the radio. Whatever. We have no backup point guard. Bring up Blalock, it will improve the team by a lot.

Our point guard play varied. First, nothing whatsover from Flip Murray the first five minutes of the game. He finally did get to the line, and missed both free throws. Oh well, at least it was the first ok he did in the game to that point. Flip Saunders went to a zone about then to hide Flip Murray's poor D, which worked, and Flip Murray rallied to play decent as a point guard for a while. We started a major run. The zone held extrememely well.

Then Hunter came in, and struggled. But then he rallied to do a few good things. Trouble. Then Flip came back in and we had a Flip Murray, Hunter backcourt. Again, we stalled out at first, but then rallied a bit with the same backcourt.

Then came the 2nd half. Flip Murray and Hunter had used up all their tricks. Absolutely horrid play from both point guards in the 2nd half. Flip Murray could not play D at all and we used the zone less.

Anyone that understands the playoffs knows this, the other team has like 7 games to adjust to what you are doing. Hunter and Flip's bags of tricks are very limited, we are going to get killed in the playoffs whenever Billups sits. Foul trouble or injury to Billups will lead to disaster.

Meanwhile, down in the D-league, we have an actual point guard, a four year college player from a good program, just playing minor league ball.

What we could have been seeing all nite long is Blalock getting inside their defense and giving us easy shots. And Blalock often finishing himself with a bucket. More next post.

Amir did ok. Only one bucket, on a cut to the basket. Of note, this was one of a couple of good passes from JMAX. Amir got two blocks, but I don't know if the official scorer gave them to him. One time Blaha announced Tay had stole the ball, but Amir had snaked his long arm around and blocked the ball to Tay. The next block Blaha initially credited to JMAX, but later gave Amir some credit at least. But it was Amir. Amir also had a steal. On defense, he was very active. He chose the wrong direction here and there, which is natural when you are finding out your role, but he was always moving his feet.

We lost the game on a missed call by the officials. Toronto kicked the ball. Now of course JMAX then proceeded to throw away the pass after picking up the ball, but the kicked ball should have been called.

JMAX did not have a great game. OK, not great. Part of that is real simple. Those post shots he took tonight, he should have been taking those shots all season long in game time conditions. He still managed to do some damage around the boards. And upon review, I see that shot Amir Johnson offensively goal tended was going to go in.

Dyess played a lot in this one, shot 4 for 5 in the first half and kept up some pretty good shooting in the 2nd half.

Rip was on fire, moving very well to use picks and screens. 24 points in 26 minutes ain't bad. He is ready. Sit him next game. Bring up Blalock. Billups is suppose to play Sunday from what Blaha said. Billups did not dress for this game.

Tay hit some threes, but he looked exhausted in the 2nd half. He probably should have came out sooner. Of note, Amir Johnson played as a small forward in this game, usually playing with Dyess and JMAX. Now put Delfino at shooting guard and you got something.

Forgot to mention the offensive rebound off a missed free throw by Amir. Expect that a lot with this pogo stick of a player.

Webber did not do much. Played too long. I know they say he needs to play himself back into shape right now, but just maybe he needs a game off. Maybe rest is what he really needs. Having the flu ain't no picnic. Webber and Flip Murray did connect on a couple of plays, each giving the other an easy score inside.

Delfino had a brief good stretch in the 2nd quarter, getting inside for some scoring. He missed all his outside shots. But he needs the practice so I say keep shooting. He tried in vain to help with the ball handling skills, but hey, you really need two guards out there who know what they are doing for things to work. Delfino alone can't fix how bad Murray and Hunter are as point guards.

All in all, disregarding two things, not having a point guard and letting Dupree play, Flip coached a good game. The bench needs the practice, and it got a lot of it. The starters got some burn to keep reasonably sharp. Only three games left, still time to fix our main problem, having no backup point. GO PISTONS!!!!!