The 17-10 Cavs are 9-8 when Lebron scores 30+.

That said, I hope he has a great game.

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.

OK, folks. The Heat game had a lot of feedback, let's keep it going against Cleveland!

Btw, GAME CHAT IS OPEN!

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

Look Detroit is not a Cleveland type of town. They always play their worse game in Cleveland. Lebron is a SUPERSTAR and there is no getting around it. The only way you neutralize a superstar is by hitting a high percentage of shots. Neither happen today in Cleveland so when Lebron hits a step back fade away Three game is over.

Well The game had all variebles that remain the same even when LB was the coach, Billups had a bad game, they shoot a low percentage, and they have a high turnover game. That equals a lose in CLev.

I'm not worried about this lose I knew it was coming, I'm very happy about our November and December Start, If you look at the past two years Detroit has had one of the best record from Jan 1st to the Playoffs. This year will be no different I perdicting a 44-10 finish which would leave the record of 68-14. Thats right close too 70 but not quiet.

GO PISTONS!!!!

This game was more about Flip experimenting with stuff than anything else. One, lets see if we give Tay enoungh shots he will come out of a shooting slump. He didn't. Two, lets see if Delfino can guard James. He couldn't. Not that bad really, but not needed at all. Prince could have played a bit more until Bron came out of the game. Three, lets see if Evans can do better. No, he missed all his shots. Except for a few rebounds, he gave us no points, no assists, no ball handling at all. Worse, he was playing when Delfino should have been playing.

We fell in love with outside shooting. Got behind. To start the 2nd half we were not shooting any jumpers and were getting back into the game. CB decided to lead us right back down the wrong path. Missed another triple. Not to mention he threw the ball away several times. But that does not matter so much. You will throw the ball away on occasion trying to go inside. What killed us is everyone else imitating Billups, trying to be a hero from the outside. We needed to go inside in this game.

There is nothing wrong with trying some outside shots. But if they are not going, you switch up. Altogether, the Pistons failed to do that in this game.

Ben Wallace on many occasions guarded Wade just fine. Further pointing up the simple fact we could go big with Ben at small forward. This leaves Delfino as the shooting guard, where he should be playing, and Evans right out of the rotation. Or play Maxiell. Or Johnson. Got to change something because this experiment with Evans is not working. Evans was given a quick shot at guarding Bron and it ended real real bad. Bron lost Evans so easily and came in and scored at the basket with Evans no where in sight. Again, if Evans can't defend, don't play the guy.

Arroyo made some mistakes in this game. And missed a couple of shots. That pales in comparison to all the shots Billups missed and all the bad passes he made. But I suppose there will people who find reason to hate on Arroyo. But think about this. Flip is foisting Evans on Arroyo's unit. Not easy to work around that. Not that both Arroyo and Billups did there best at it. Hey, much easier to just remove the player than try to work around a guy not contributing to the offensive sets.

Dyess was off. Not good on a day where everyone else was too. Arroyo left Dyess as wide open as possible on one shot.

The only real effective play we saw in this game was the brief time we had Arroyo and Delfino in together with Evans over on the bench. I'd say if Flip wants to try an experiment, try Arroyo and Delfino in the backcourt, with Delfino bringing the ball up. Then if it bogs down into a halfcourt set, let Arroyo run that. And please remember, no Evans. That is too much to overcome.

I turned the game off with four minutes left in the first quarter. It was obvious that the Pistons didn't feel like working a second holiday this year, and I didn't want to hear the Cleveland announcers BS about how this "sent a message." Fact is, the Cavs are an afterthought during a tough holiday week.

Lindsey has really been missed. Not saying he would have changed this game, but we need a guy in the backcourt who really gets after it on defense instead of taking scenic detours around every pick.

That said, thanks for an incredible 2005, boys. Get some rest with your families and start next year strong!

I felt the same way, but we still should have won.

Minus 13 in the first half. He came in with us down 6, and left with us down 19.

In the 2nd half, he came in with us down 16. Note, we had managed to gain a few points while he was on the bench. Soon after he came in, we were down 20. At that point, we are down 20 with about 14 minutes left in the game. Not looking too good. And Evans is minus 17 at that point, not having contributed any defense, any points, nor any ball handling.

The other day Evans had a plus 4 game. But I pointed out that he was plus 20 when the game was really over and we had the game pretty much in hand. Well, this is the opposite. When the game was pretty much out of hand today, you find Evans at minus 17. As bad as we played today, if Evans had simply not played, we still could have won this game.

Tay did score that one on one basket for us shortly after Evans came in during the first half. But that was it, our only score. And Cleveland did not fail to score even once while Evans was in.

Man I really don't understand why you have a rager for Evans ya maybe he didn't play well today and doesn't have the best games but the team as a whole player for player today didn't bring it.Evans maybe can't guard his own guy like you say but I know he can't guard the other 4 on the court at the same time.He has shown flashes of good and bad he's on a new team and learning a new system.

I watched most of the first 2 quarters so no I didn't see the whole game but unlike other games you could just feel this one wasn't going to be a comeback for us we stank it up.

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