Hey! Where's the hype? Bomb these cats back to hurricane ravaged Florida.

The Pistons' finely tuned machine goes head to head with Riley's Frankenstein Experiment.
Isn't this why we got Mo and Davis?

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One last kick at the can...

Best Game Pre-Cap / Recap
We're going to hand out some posting awards in the New Year as voted by the membership.

Here is the scoop.

Write your best pre-game analysis or post game wrap up.

No plagiarising, and linking images will be worth ZERO points. You need to provide TEXT to be considered.

Offer stats, humour, insight but offer YOUR TAKE. Make it original and you might end up on the receiving end of some Pistons or forum schwag.

All 'caps from the preseason through to the end of calendar year 2005 are eligible. Multiple 'caps do not count, keep it to a single post please. Your 'cap must be posted no later than 24 hours after the game has finished.

Please don't post or PM questions. Give us your best work (meeting the above conditions) and you will be eligible.

C'mon folks. Someone step up because it is likely a two man race between lee356 and LanierFan. I've got a bunch of interesting (and rewarding) competitions planned, but the participation has to be there...

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

Thank you for another great season!

Nice analysis contest.....

But I'm passing this one. But I'm up for the next contest you got planned. I'll see this one first, being that so few Pistons games reach my part of the world. THis one is.

My analysis for this game....

Pistons should make buckets, defend the goal and keep the Heat from scoring. We win BIG.

Hehe

Good call Slippy. Riley's like, I can wheel and deal too. Sure but are you a chemist?

They are a roadblock. Shaq will round in shape as the season progresses for a playoff run. Wade works well off of Shaq. With this team, the question is how well we contain those two. We don't match up that well with either. On the other hand, the Heat are a team thrown together, not playing at last year's level, Shaq's a year older and at least we know Wade's game now. Wonder if we see Davis on Shaq. How will we guard Wade?

We saw two things in the last matchup between the two teams. One, Davis could not guard Shaq. Not at all. We will see take two on this tonight.

Next, Evans was suppose to have guarded Wade well for a quarter last season. His claim to fame so to speak. But in that first game this preseason, we saw not one lick of ability on Evan's part to guard Wade. Guess we will see take two on this also.

Now as for the abilities of Ben, Dyess, and Sheed to guard Shaq. Pretty much a given that Shaq will score or end up at the line every time. Occasionally, we might deny Shaq the ball. But too occasionally. We can expect serious foul trouble to set in early.

We play Miami three times yet before the playoffs, so we got not just this game to figure things out. But still, it would be nice to see if Darko can check Shaq at least a tad better than the other 4 bigs. And its not even out of the question we could throw Maxiell on the big fella. Why not. He can foul someone just like Davis can. Heck, I bet Maxiell is stronger. Can't hurt.

On Wade, Rip will guard him quite a bit and do so so at it. Tay will guard him too and do ok again but not that great at all. Rip's a bit quicker and a little better at following Wade vs. Tay.

Once in a while, we will see Wade matchup with Arroyo or Delfino. I do not expect much from either of these two on that matchup, but the more they can do the better.

About our best bet to contain Wade well come the playoffs is to return a healthy Hunter to the team. This past series with Miami, Hunter shut down Wade pretty darn effectively.

Our best bet on containing Shaq is to sign EC for the remainder of the season. However, if Darko can give us 10 to 15 quality minutes on Shaq, that won't be needed. I'd still sign him anyway as depth is grand.

Lets say that as I suspect, Davis is completely ineffective vs. Shaq. Next game we play Miami then, activate Acker who can at least Chase Wade a bit for us.

We can try playing them like we played against the Fakers during 2004 NBA Finals. Let Shaq and Wade do all the scoring and stop the rest of the team. In addition, with our improved offense this year, we can get a 'W' here, no problem.

Another important note is that our bigs, esp. Sheed and Big Ben has to stay out of foul trouble or get Shaq into foul trouble.

penetration, penetration, and penetration

i think that the only thing that can really hurt the pistons on the defensive end in this game is letting wade and/or williams get into the paint consistently...as we've already seen this year, the pistons can be vulnerable on this issue and the price is monstrous games for opposing bigs. in this case, in addition to the danger of easy dishes and put backs, the pistons need to be aware of kick outs to posey and walker for threes.

offensively, i think we are in better shape than last year, not only because we are an improved offensive team, but especially because i think they really lost defensive power with their moves last year.

go pistons