Best line of the game, Pistons up 100-98, Billups had just hit two 3 pointers, one of which was the extra long one.

In the Phoenix huddle, Mike D'Antoni tells his guys, "If they are going to make shots like that, God loves them".

Damn straight Mike.

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They are the archetype for dominance. They are the gatekeepers of the conference. They are the Detroit Pistons.

Great win. We paced ourselves the first half and then turned it on. Waiting to see us play at both ends for an entire game. That will come in the playoffs. Tay is ready for the playoffs now. Have to tip my hat to that Phoenix ball. Not many teams can stand up to them. They are exploiting the use of the 3-ball and playing small. They realize that they will probably never have a Shaq or a Duncan so they spread it out and exploit their quickness. Trouble is our athletes are better then theirs. With Rip and Tay at new levels and a better bench, this Pistons team can bring back all the glory.

Entertaining game this morning. The problem, if there is one, is that we are being teased....with the "I don't care how bad we play in the beginning...we will get them in the end" . So we don't know what team is going to show up from half to half. I am happy for the win, and it has now convinced me that we are not out of any game no matter what the deficit is. I only we wished we had put a stop to the Nets streak last Sunday.....I thing they are up to 12 in a row now.

The Sheed tech will undoubtably sit him out a game and end the fab five streak at 72 games or whatever it is. Maybe some quality time with the wife will calm his temper for the rest of the season.

The two negatives for today's game was the lack of defensive intensity in the 1st half which allowed the Suns to shoot over 70% and our FT shooting at on 55% > Ben 1-6 and Dice 0-3. If Ben is going to play down low he has to shoot better than 40% from the line. I think ABC threw up a graphic indicating he was only 28% over the past 14 games. I think we won 11 or 12 of them, so aint that mad, but I hope this is not a liability come playoff time.

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"Once you go Barack, you never go Bak" Mario Cantone 2008

Usually when the opponent shoots 68% in a half they run the other team out of the gym unable to comeback. Even with the last sec 3 the Pistons were still in a position to comeback given the 11-0 edge in offensive boards.

Credit Flip for making some half-time adjutments. The Suns did cooloff but the Pistons out-scored them by 20 in the second half.

Maybe some of the ABC guys took notes in this one to not annoite the Pistons opponents #1,#2 players as league MVP and runner up until the complete game is played out.

Well, I managed to record the game and watch it. Then I watched what I recorded. Man, is that a trip watching a game with rewind capability less than 3 hours after it finished. You notice so many little nuances.

The sheer amount of "arguing with the refs" footage is hard to dismiss. It's almost like a subliminal "look at the Pistons whine" hatchet job. There is hardly any Phoenix complaining, or shots of their coach talking to the refs.

And I have to watch it again, but I could have swore that Tim Thomas got 2 high 5s after hard fouling Ben. Isn't that kinda bizarre behaviour? I haven't seen an on court celebration for fouling before.

Any chance folks don't like our Pistons?

Whew, this one was a roller coaster. Collins18 asked in the chat if we thought the Pistons would win when they were down a lot. Motown and I replied that we "believed they could win".

Nice lesson for Phoenix to learn. Come into Zeke's house and try to punk our franchise player, you will leave with an embarassing loss. Because it was embarassing. The way the Pistons ratcheted up the pressure midway through the 3rd was amazing.

Lost in all of this was great supporting performances by Rip and Tayshaun. It seems like Rip is the only one who can get Ben going offensively, and we know that when Ben starts dunking, his defensive energy picks up as well.

And Joe's plan to have long players makes ball deflection and denial a piece of cake. When this team gets active defensively, they cannot be beat by anyone. And they did it tonight. Suns should be embarassed and ashamed to blow a 17 point lead.

Go PISTONS!

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They are the archetype for dominance. They are the gatekeepers of the conference. They are the Detroit Pistons.

Micro - I was thinking after that hard foul in the old days Lamb would have decked Thomas in return - but this is not the old days. Not worth a 3 game suspension and besides we don't have any enforcers.

Yes I think there is a degree of animosity from other teams to the Pistons namely as a result of the national support the Pistons get from other fans. Every game you see at least some Piston gear in the audience and a small degree of applause for the Pistons. That has to get to the other teams players. In the PHX game earlier this year I am sure there were some Piston fans down there bugging the Sun faithfull. And it has to be very frusterating giving up that kind of lead.

You got the points pretty close VTP. And the 3s. This team is a lot like the BBZ in the way they come out in the second half. I can remember many a BBZ game where they would be down 10 to start the the 3rd and be up 10 to start the 4th.
...Eventually Flip will have to admit he doesn't coach much. All he does is tell them to be on the same page. Cause whatever style game the opponent brings and trys to exzert the Ps can do it better.

I wonder how much is pacing and how much is just having your pre-game schedule thrown completely out of whack by the 1:00 start, which was really noon by anyone local player's body clock. I think it's easier for a road team to play at odd hours since they've already messed up their body clocks.

A quick look back at the schedule shows the Pistons winning two of three early starts (San Antonio and Phoenix, losing to Boston), and also beating Charlotte at 3:30 once.

I wasn't able to find quarter by quarter scores for past games anywhere to compare first quarters between games with early and regular start times.

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"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

one of the most entertaining games i've watched all year - and whoever i sold my tickets to sure got their money's worth!! lots of spectacular individual plays as well. ben was the catalyst, chauncey finished the job, and everyone else supported beautifully - especially tayshaun, who has been playing fantastic lately.

not much else to say