Best part for me last night was watching Rip in the 3rd single handedly taking Indiana out of their offense. He switched over to guard the point and basically took the Pacer's point guard out of the game. Tinsley and Armstrong combined for one assist and two turnovers in the quarter and many times someone else had to bring the ball up which bogged the offense down completely.

For me that was the turning point.

Also liked Rip shoving CB off the line after he missed the first tech free throw.

anyone can tell me if the issue betweer Rip and CB on the free throw line something serious? or is it normal?

adonis, they were just joking around. CB missed the FT after Indiana was called for defensive 3 seconds in the first quarter, and the next time it got called, Rip and CB were pretending to wrestle each other on the line to see who would take it (Rip did, and he made it). They were both laughing while they "fought" to see who would take the FT.

It was out of character for them to do that. Certainly not planned.

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I have no inside information whatsoever, but both CB and Rip have missed some free throws lately, and given how well they usually shoot, I suspect it has been a subject of conversation.

And after CB missed the first tech it looked like Rip just stepped in and said if you're going to miss them, get out of the way. They were both laughing, but if you consider that Tinsley had eight assists and one turnover in the first quarter going against Billups, but got chased out of the game in the third (one assist and one turnover) by Rip, you never know.

Indy built the big lead by getting pretty much anything they wanted in the first with nine assists on twelve hoops, a lot due to CB not being able to keep Tinsley in front of him.

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You're not saying the FT line thing was an indication of anything serious, are you? They were clearly laughing and joking around about it.

I agree that Rip played better D on Jamal than CB did, but the entire team was playing much better in that quarter then they did in the first. Jamal also turned his ankle in the third quarter and had to leave the game.

No, no way to know. They both seemed to be laughing it off and I haven't read anything to indicate anything else.

CB doesn't however seem to me to be the type who takes well to a public dressing down, which you might argue is what happened when Flip switched his defensive assignment in the third perhaps because CB wasn't getting it done in the first half.

It happened in the Miami game too, when Rip switched over to JWill in the second half after CB got torched in the first. I generally like it when opposing players have to face different looks on D, which can throw them off a bit when they think they're getting comfortable, so hopefully Flip sticks to that and CB doesn't raise any fuss about it.

Agree. It's a nice change-up and it's great to see Rip out ball hawking.

It was a great 2nd half comeback. If you want to call it that as the Pistons were only down by 2. Comeback really started late in the 2nd quarter and continued late in the 3rd/early 4th.

What did Bird do to that Indy team? Pre-brawl 2 years ago the Pacers had us. The Pistons were not going to beat them that year. How could 1 event and Birds GM skills have changed a club to being so mediocre.