I enjoyed the game, good thing the garbage time wasn't any longer - they were really giving up the lead at the end there. Of course it looked like Toronto was playing all or most of their starters until the very end. What does Mitchell (or any coach) say to his team after a loss like that, where they just plain got their butts kicked??

I've got to say I was a little surprised, and somewhat disappointed that the reserves didn't get in earlier in the 4th. For most of what I saw of the game (missed only the first quarter) Dyess, Arroyo, and Evans were playing well. I couldn't see any harm, up around 15 points, in subbing more liberally from the far end of the bench with 6, even 8 minutes to go in the 4th. It was clear that the starters were able to do pretty much what they wanted. So that if subbing produced a drastic loss of the lead -- say toronto got it down to 6 or 8 -- you put the starters back in and that's that. But flip put Chauncey back in at one point (and i know he did drain a triple to put them up 17) when they were still up 14 -- like he was nervous or something.

I can't say I'm one of these purists that expects that guys are going to perform at the same level whether they get in midway through a quarter when there are still 2 or 3 starters in or in the final 2 minutes, when everyone on both teams seems to be just running around like chickens with their heads cut off. In that sense, the lead might, ironically, have been better preserved if Flip had gone to the GT roster *earlier* in the 4th quarter.

Whatever. They're 23-3, they're fun to watch. but you know...a forum breeds complaint...

Evans, Delfino, and Dice built up the lead in the 2nd, starters lost it in the 3rd, and Evans and Dice got it back.

Only weakness on this team is the inconsistancy of Ben and Sheed. Dice needs more minutes, and DDJ need more PT.

Free DDJ

The first 3 subs in the game were Arroyo, Dyess, and Delfino. We had about a 7-0 run right there before Evans came into the game.

What a good game - Bosh had a great night tonight. He made Sheed look a little slow on his footing. The Pistons did dominate tonight though, man its so good to see a game - its been a while since the last whooping.

Arroyo impressed me tonight. He looked a little more on the tip of his toes kinda and that double pump shot in the paint was great as well as that little floater. He should drive more often cause his shot isn't developed well enough yet (take some pointers from Chauncey! You got the ability too!)

I'd still trade for Mike James. Tonight was just a situation where they know how he plays cause they've played with eachother before - usually Mike has his game on a lot better than this.

Evans played a great game, showing the range at key moments which was definately a good sign. I know at Christmas it was a little embarrassing missing that dunk - he made up with it for tonight's performance.

The starters were amazing. We get stupid Canadian announcers (its equivalently bad to American hockey announcers) here but they made a pretty good quote when they said, "They may not be the best five starting. But they are the best starting five."

And Darko was non-existent. I don't remember this incident with the padding of the stats...maybe it was cause I was watching the Leaf game in the end hehe

GO LEAFS GO!

PS Anyone else have a heart attack when Ben was down? Ben NEVER goes down. That had my quiet for a good while.

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good playin hurt, my bruddah

good job lee, darko could learn from your example

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Just got back from the game after waiting out the crowd, which was slow to leave. Let me just say that the Palace parking situation is pretty much a joke. Very slow getting in and outta there.

The guy sitting next to me starting calling for Darko in the first quarter, which was laughable. Darko did play very well for the 1:25 he was in there. Seems to me that if they want to develop his offensive game that Flip would run some specific plays for him, which didn't happen. For Darko, this is old hat. He's getting the same treatment from Flip as he did Brown (I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with how he is being handled because I don't have all the information). He got a dunk and made a nice pass. He brought decent defensive intensity although Villanueva made him look silly on one play.

It was a tough game to watch for me. Bosh was George Gervin/Jamal Wilkes silky smooth and just plain sick. The guy dropped a bunch on Detroit tonight and didn't break a sweat doing it. He is very sound fundamentally. I kept telling my companions that the guy could be coming of our bench. Speaking of Toronto's bench, some of their guys looked guy, including Calderon and the foul-prone Villanueva.

I really think Sheed could have gone off in this one with Bonner and Rose on him (at times). The Sheed-Rose matchup was pretty interesting. Rose did nothing with Sheed on him.

I thought Rip would have a good game and he had an efficient one. He sat for a long time in the second half. Not sure why.

As others have pointed out, the Detroit bench came in and added some intensity for the lethargic starters. The bench played extremely well. Evans, especially, brought mad hops and the kind of pestering around the offensive hoop that drives opponents' nuts.

I agree with bballjay above about how late the bench got in. That was ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Get those starters outta there, Flip.

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"I don't believe there's any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is, that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can't completely ignore. - George Carlin

was at the game...basically the pistons would dominate for awhile, then get bored and toronto would creep back in, then we'd assert ourselves again, repeat.

toronto kept their starters in unnecessarily long when it was obvious they weren't going to win the game.