I don't care what anyone says. I don't like giving away any games. We had these guys down and Flip went with the scrubs for the last 10 minutes and they were outscored 23-7 to close it out. You knew the scrubs were not going to hold the lead. This proves for certain that Hunter cannot lead a team down the stretch as we stalled when he entered the game.

At least he could have left in Dice or Flip jr. for offense, but for at least 3-4 minutes it was all about Delfino and everyone else watched. (3-9 for shooting ouch). CWebb was atrocius out there too going 1-9.

Lets just hope they can please the home fans with a couple of wins in these last 2 remaining games there.

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

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!!!!!

Dupree has been watching from the bench all year - usually in street clothes. He cheers on his teammates, doesn't complain and works hard in practice.

I don't mind Flip throwing him a bone in a meaningless game at the end of the regular season when we have nothing to prove.

Once playoff time comes, the next time Super DNP touches his uniform will be to clean out his locker.

It would have been nice to see Amir & company be part of a win, but like you said, that game really means little. Amir will have to settle for the fact that he was part of that very good defensive stand in the 2nd quarter.

Amir really didn't look comfortable out there. His dribbling was shaky. Good D, though. Amir stuffed Neck-4. I don't see why everyone's hating on Lindsey. Delfino was the goat, in my mind. He takes too long to make simple post-feeds and swing-passes.

The point guard perhaps should do something? Remember this, Kelser loves to point out faults with Delfino. Delfino could have tried to make that post pass, but it was not so clear whether it would have gotten thru. I guarantee you, if Delfino attempts a post pass, and it gets stolen, a whole lot of people would choose to hate on him for that. A point guard is suppose to get inside the defense and get an easy score for a teammate. Delfino did so late in the game, setting up Hunter for that three. Where were the setups from our supposed point guard? Between Flip and Hunter in that 2nd half, there was practically no point guard play at all from either of the guys Saunders has chosen for that duty.

I have no problem with Flips decisions here. If Billups was not hurt then he would have played all the starters for about 1/2 the game and used the bench for the other half.

These 4 games are a great opportunity to test the bench under real conditions. You can't get this kind of competition level in the pre-season. If the team improves by giving the bench guys some extra burn then its only going to help us in the post-season. Plus we get to see if Amir is ready for next season.

Up next are one more with TOR and BOS,Philly so we will not lose them all and the bench may actually improve.

The TOR starters could not hang with the Pistons starters ( minus Billups ) so the Raps had to realize that.

Sure. But, you've forgotten about Carlos' shot selection and pass-to-an-invisible-person in the fourth quarter that led to a SC violation. Carlos is as inconsistent as Rasheed, it seems. How is Lindsey supposed to help Carlos make a swing-pass? Maybe Lindsey's problem is that he doesn't tell Carlos to not take three-pointers four seconds into the shot clock. I really don't care about what Kelser says. I've never actually heard him talk about Carlos' faults. Most post-feeds are never entirely clear. But you're right about Carlos setting Lindsey up for that three-- and Lindsey actually made it. I'm a Carlos supporter, . . I just get confused at times over what goes through his mind when he dribbles the ball around the perimeter for ten seconds and then decides to pass the ball to someone in a position similar to his own.

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"There are no sacred cows." - Joe Dumars.

Official member of the impulsively created "Derrick Rose is going to be the next Antonio Daniels" bandwagon.

The TOR starters could barely hang with our bench. I was reading over some of the Toronto boards' post-game reaction, and . . well, . . most of the conversation amounted to Detroit's bench being just as good as our starters. Riight. Friggin' Dinosaur-fans.