The team had four days rest and the coach wanted to get his key guys ready. I am ok with the minutes today. Now we can coast with the number one seed.

I am uncomfortable in that we were not handily beating Cleveland with a lot in our favor today. They hung around. We have let Chicago outplay us this year and the Spurs have beat us fairly soundly. We will be all out to beat a Miami with a Wade at 85%.

We are the only elite team that is hard to rate. I have watched the Pistons all year and can't figure out the team's level. I have caught glimpes of brillance but certain weaknesses/tendencies persist.

We still had that drought in the 2nd quarter.

We still allow too much penetration by dribblers at times.

Our guys seemed relaxed which is a good sign. They think that they think that they are still special so I am going on that. But the evidence is murky. Bring on the playoffs already. Has this team just coasted this year or have they taken a step backward stemming from last year's finals? Can they overcome not having Ben in the playoffs? Can Webber give more than he has been giving lately (is he coasting?). I am positive on the team but they must now go out and prove it. Can they take their game to another level?

So the Bulls, Heat & Cavs all lost tonight... looks like a restfull night.
Dwade played tonight

Main thing is locking up that #1 seed so the starters can rest next week. 6 more games to go with Phil, Tor and Boston as the final 3 games in which the bench can play most of the mins.

Thing is overall the team played better when Murray was out and Delfino was in. I know Murray had a couple of good games and all but he will do that sometimes. Does not mean you have to play him every game.

AFAIK, we did not lock up the #1 seed. Chicago is 4 games back, with 4 of their games to play, and 6 of ours.

Hopefully we lock it up tomorrow night.

__________________
To all of my friends, comrades and companions at PF.com

Thank you for another great season!

Nocioni and Wade return and both of their teams lose. Dwade had six TO's...maybe it takes 4 weeks for him to get his act together and they get bounced in the second round!!

Pistons magic #2 with six games to go!

Absolutely... in effect we will be playing the bench more (later) by playing them less this game... hopefully we'll get an overdose of bench PT the last three games.
I just hope our starters don't go into the playoffs rusty like last year... I'd like to see them play decent minutes the last game of the season.

Yeah, and he also had a near triple double in short minutes. And he got hit hard, by a huge center, in that arm. That hurt.

i thought he was 7 rebounds away from a triple double? you must be talking about his turnovers, he was 4 away from a 10 in that respect. pretty good for a first game back from a dislocation.

was it really a dislocation?

“If you play well, and you lose the ballgame, you can be satisfied,” said James, who made all nine of his free throws before missing two in the final minute. “We gave ourselves a chance to win against Miami, and we gave ourselves a chance tonight. That’s what you look at.”

Spoken like a man who will never get past the conference finals.

Yep, Wade only had 3 rebounds, but had 6 turns. Anyway, I went by what the announcers said, not the boxscore. I only watched the 2nd half of the game. At one point the announcers said he had 8 rebounds to go with his 12 points. Obviously they meant to say 8 assists. Later they mentioned 8 assists and never retracted the 8 rebound thing. Oh well.