Nice games from Lindsey Hunter and Flip Murray. They both played better as the coach didn't divide the team into strict units and inter-mixed the players.

Too bad about Mo Pete hyper-extending his knee. He was having a good game (double double) and now it looks like he could miss the first round of the playoffs.

We looked like the Raptors tonight with two guards getting double digit assists (Hunter and Billups).

With Amir Johnson putting up 8 and 6 in 13 minutes, you gotta think this kid has something to contribute next year. As much as we want to see more burn for Maxiell and Johnson, perhaps one more year of growth and refinement behind Wallace and McDyess could allow us to have a proper transition to the next generation of Pistons.

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

And, Flip Saunders has to be pretty happy that we got through without any injuries, played defense and executed our way to 31 assists and only 11 turnovers.

Sure it was an exhibition, but as exhibitions go, it was a nice beat down. Now I feel like we are headed in the right direction as the playoffs approach this weekend.

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

That game was 5 kinds of pretty!

Not much of a game. Toronto did not play Bosh nor Parker, two guys who hurt us last Friday. They were already missing some guys to begin with. Not much competition.

The starters came out slow on D in both halves. In the 1st half, Flip just suffered thru it, and the starters did manage to play just a litttle D to get an 8 point lead going. In the 3rd quarter, Flip just caved in (which I approve of in this case) and started bringing subs in early to replace starters who obviously did not want to be out there.

Good floor game by Billups? Not. The ball went inside precious few times. Sheed had at least one shot in the vicinity of the hoop, Webber about two. Lots of outside shots, with Sheeds triples being the highlight of the starters night.

The bench came out and expanded the lead greatly in the 2nd quarter. However, the outside shot remained the theme. For the game, Amir only got 12 minutes, and he only got to post up maybe twice. JMAX got to post up just a bit more than that. Amir had a decent game for short minutes. About 4-6 from the line, and made a couple of shots. One on an offensive rebound, one on a fast break dunk. JMAX just got some dunks and made about 2 of five at the line. JMAX has got to improve his free throw shooting. Maybe just shoot jumpers and see how that goes.

Delfino made some shots, got rebounds, made a nice pass into Mohammed to get him on the scoreboard. (Otherwise, Mohammed was pretty terrible-guess he can blame this poor performance on the flu, but really that is just how he plays.)

Hunter and Flip scored about 25 points between them, and probably got plenty of assists passing the ball back and forth between the two. This did not impress me much. Two gaurds getting shots, while two post players are starved for shots. I think even Delfino was told to shoot just to ensure Amir was frozen out of this one to make sure he could not look all that good.

Hunter played good solid D in this one. Still got shot over a time or two for lack of height and ups though.

Dyess made 5 of 5. Time to let him rest for the playoffs, ditto for Webber who made a couple of shots. Tomorro night, we need to see a lot of Davis, Amir, and JMAX.

Dale Davis has still not got off the pines in these 3 games where the bench is suppose to be getting featured. By the way, I see someone is claiming I said Davis could guard Shaq. Sure he can, but not very well. He provides depth at that position, but is in no way like EC who could actually seriously slow Shaq down.
I got my picture taken with my favorite announcer before the game, and shook Kelser's hand too. I was there with a group to cheer on Mo Pete, a Flint native. I hope he is alright after his leg buckled there.

A pretty meaningless game in all. Still a lot of fun to be at the Palace and cheer on the Pistons. GO PISTONS!!!!!

Hunter did have 3 assists to Murray, but he also had:
2 assists to Delfino
2 assists to McDyess
2 assists to Maxiel
1 assist to Prince
1 assist to Wallace
for a total of 11 assists.

Gee, Hunter looked like a pretty fine point guard in this game.

There you go. The team finally decided to win one of these. Hopefully this can aleviate some of the playoff anxiety around here about the makeup of the team. I was starting to get worried myself.

Fiddy two wins, I'm happy. Don't even like an odd number.
But this is an odd year. Maybe 53 is more suited.

Gosh all fishhooks Mr Wizard - maybe there is a backbone in this team after all. For an end of the season game I thought the concentration was there. Though Nazr threw up some of the ugliest shots I've seen in a while.

Heard anything about Dice? He seemed to be making trips to the locker room during the game. Have the flu-like symptoms struck again?

The two assists to Maxiell were inside shots. The rest from the perimeter. Note, Amir was on the floor with Hunter for 12 minutes-where are the assists to Amir. What impresses me is assists like the one where Delfino got inside the D and dished to Mohammed for a dunk. A nice, high percentage shot. In the playoffs, a guard who can't get the ball inside is pretty worthless. Perimeter defense will tighten up in the playoffs, especially if the point guard is not a threat to get the ball inside.

we looked great. 66 bench points vs. 44 for the starters. tons of assists. our bench making shot after shot. flip murray actually running an effective fast break.

one more to go, then playoffs baby!! and i'm loving the golden state / dallas 1st round matchup.