At Indiana April 3rd, 7:00 PM
TV - (Local) TV 20, NBA TV


The Pistons fresh off of a 10-7 March and a playoff atmosphere victory against Miami, travel to Indiana to face the Pacers who are coming off a 2-14 March, and has a game against the Spurs at the time of this post.

This is an important game for both teams, to get the Pistons tuned up for the post season, and believe it or not, the Pacers have a shot at the 8th seed!

haha where'd that last picture come from? it looks like when you're beating up Glass Joe in NES Punch Out

Was watching the last Pacer game and Foster couldn't finish... sounds like he won't be a pain in our arse this game.

Chat is open!!!

http://www.pistonsforum.com/misc.php?do=flashchat

Another pathetic start for the Pistons, down 20-6 at one point, but they came back to only down 5 after the first quarter. An awful bench performance got them back down 12, with Delfino playing especially badly, but Lindsey helped jump start things to get the Pistons within 3 at the half. Then the starters lowered the boom in the 3rd quarter, 35-18, to get it into garbage time by 6 minutes left in the 4th. Tay and Rip both had big games, and no one played very many minutes; Tay at 31 was the only Piston with more than 30 minutes. Sheed hyperextended a finger on his left hand and didn't return...he probably could have, but they didn't need him. Pacers, man...not good.

Nice halftime speech by Flip. Whatever it was, it got our guys going and the game was over before Bird could get back from his halftime break.

Prince was the star of the game and everybody who played scored with the exception D Davis and Tinsley on the other side. (he did have 10 dimes though before he went down)

Magic # down to 5.

Chauncey in the locker room interview, "We came out, and we we're just bullsh..ing"

Claims that when they came back to the locker room, he had some words for his teammates, and some other guys spoke up as well.

He looked pretty ticked off. As ticked as "Smooth" can get anyways.

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

Another outstanding coaching job by Flip. He bettered last game where things were going reasonably well in the 2nd quarter and Flip leaving the subs in. This times, things were not going so well. We had a 14 point deficit after 8 minutes in the 2nd and Flip still left the bench in. Hunter, Flip, Delfino, Sheed, Webber. This group was in there as that lead was cut to 3 before the half. Rip, CB, and Tay were resting for the 2nd half. This excellent faith Flip showed in the bench, combined with the garbage time in the is blowout Piston victory means tomorro's night's 2nd of a back to back should be no problem. At least in regards to tired legs.

It worked. Of course, we had the added bonus of Sheed leaving early in the 2nd half, so that not only did we have a fresh Tay, Rip, and Billups in there, but a fresh Antonio McDyess too. Only Webber among the starters played both the end of the 2nd quarter and most of the 3rd quarter. This group won the 3rd quarter. Now, Tinsley did go down with injury late in that quarter, but we had already gained the lead at that point. Tinsley was ready to rotate out soon anyway, so no way I will take that as any kind of excuse from Indiana.

Sheed had a small bandange on his finger to start the game. He seemed to reinjure it right there at the end of the 2nd quarter. He came out with a bigger bandage on to start the 2nd half but left the game for good in the first few minutes. As far as I can tell, they don't think the injury is all that serious.

We started out badly. Good coaching by Carlisle. He knew the Pistons were a rather banged up group prone to slow starts. He ran us early and we were not getting back on transition D. It did not last though as Indiana is not really a transition team. Dyess came in early for Webber and that really helped our defensive speed.

Tay was the offensive hero. Indiana has nobody close to be able to guard him. They tried Dunleavy first, and all Pistons fans know that story. Might as well let Tay just go in and dunk uncontested if you are going to gaurd him with Dunleavy. But some of the other choices were pretty bad too. Armstrong? You got to be kidding. Tay had a field day. Still not making his outside shots though he did hit one 3. Most all his damage was inside. 24 points.

Rip was hitting his shots. Nobody else did a whole lot of scoring for us. Just a little here and there from the rest.

While in, Sheed did his usual fine defensive job on O'Neal.

Flip managed one drive in and dish. That was part of a comeback by the bench in that 2nd quarter. Actually, the first bucket in the run. Flip made some free throws on a few drives in, I don't think he made a shot. Delfino, the latest victim of the flu bug, missed his shots, but played his usual good D at least. He did not play until garbage time in the 4th.

Hunter made a couple of shots, got a couple of nice assists, and played solid D.

Why did we get so far down in the 2nd quarter with the subs in? A sequence of plays where Rip was overmatched by the Indiana shooting guard did not help. Flip Murray running the point did not help. The combination of Flip and Hunter together in the backcourt looked pretty bad at first, but like last game they seemed to get their act together after a spell.

Maxiell played in both halves, including about the whole 4th quarter. He made quite a few good defensive plays and had one tap back score. Rebounding seemed ok. He made one fall back midranger but missed a few inside shots and his first midranger. So so game. Note, he made that jumper after being in the game a spell, something he does not alway get the benefit of.

Dale Davis got in for just a moment to end the 2nd. Mohammed played in GT and did little of note. He did have one fast break dunk.

The lead hit 23 points early 3rd. It got a little scary there after our bench was emptied but the lead never got below 16 I believe.

Anyone notice how few threes we took? I hope thats a trend. Of course, with Tay owning the inside, why ever shoot a three. Probably just a fluke for this game. Ok, its down to 4 for that magic number to clinch #1 seed for the East. Hmmm, did Cleveland or Chicago play tonight? GO PISTONS!!!!!

I am beginning to think Billups is a big phony......as well as Tay....both of them were the biggest culprits in the slow start.........he came off very phony in that interview.....he should start by being mad at himself. This is the pistons history since 2003....he has been the starting point guard since 2003......how are you leading your team coming out of the locker room....Chauncey....came off as very phony in that interview...I just finished watching the first quarter again, everyone looked slow and disinterested including Chauncey and Tay.

I think what is going to happen now is that the team will fraction again as they did after the Orlando game late last year. They came out against Denver and had a 16 point lead and lost it and won the game due to a once in a lifetime shot....They should not overreact to slow starts.....