Are you kidding me?????????? The Nay-Sayers of this board found bad in this game? We played great D (8 points in 1st quarter) Great Bench work. Yes Mo missed a dunk but Ben avg. about 20 a game sometimes. They all showed great energy. Rip was off, but he will almost always be against bowen. AM was awesome.

Lets please remember we just beat the defending champs and the 2nd best record in the NBA by 15. No we didn't play a perfect game but we had a great win. Lastly, who did scottie pippen say would win 70 games?

I'll take the win good effort on the boards.But like everyone else has said it didn't seem like the teams were always into the game maybe wishing they were at home with family.No Manu so it kind of lost a little thunder.Timmy has that plantars peanut thing with his feet like Sheed had when he first got here so he wasn't at full throttle.

I liked that we shut Finley down for some reason his pickup by the Spurs doesn't scare me as much maybe playoff time I'll be more concerned or he'll choke.Rip got shut down by Brooce,bad back or Deja Vu?

A win, best record in the NBA but I don't think this game answered alot of questions about this team.Right now I think Miami will be a much better test and I'am looking forward to it.

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When they announced the starting lineups before the game on TV, one guy on each team did it. C-Note did it for Detroit and proclaimed himself the "best point guard in the league." I liked that. I thought Arroyo played a lot. Seemed that way. I thought he played very well and seemed to be thinking with a little more forethought. He made a great pass to Tay on a break, which had me cheering. He'll always commit a few dumb fouls, but nothing too awful today. I thought he represented well today. He seemed to be more in control today and really rose to the occasion. Looked to me that Bowen continues to own Rip and something needs to be done about it. Parker's success proved how much trouble Detroit has with the dribble-penetrators of the world (Wade, B. Davis), but the Pistons shut him down in the second. Nobody on the Spurs looked good to me at all. Finley tried to post somebody up and do a turnaround at some point, and I was laughing because I knew there's no way he can shoot that shot, and of course, he looked bad on it. Strictly a jump shooter. Sheed got hosed on a few calls as usual. I don't think he'll get many calls when he has the ball because of all his complaining, but I think the complaints help him get fewer things called on him when he's on D. He's right a lot about his complaints, too. Overall, I thought the guys stepped up when they needed to today. Not a great game from an aesthetics standpoint (LanierFan mentioned this), but the rebounding was such an advantage, and I thought Ben was a monster. 21 rebounds. 21-3. Hard not to smile.

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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

The ESPN sideline guy interviewed Dumars during the game and asked if he thought the Pistons would make any trades this season. I think Dumars said, "I hope not," but it did not sound very solid. Clearly, Joe D. didn't want to deal with the question but it didn't sound as if he was ruling anything out either.

Disgust too strong, my bad. But making fun of the kid aint right. This team is going to win 70+, time to start enjoying the ride.

Two problems with glorifying this win too much. No Ginobili, and Tim Duncan is suffering with a foot problem. We still were not ahead much to start the 4th. And our offense did not go well at all. We basically won on the strength of our rebounding, and thats it. Other than Dyess, nobody shot too well, although CB did hit some very timely triples toward the end of the game.

The game started out with Parker doing a lot of damage breaking down our defense. But heck, you know a team is going to have a real hard day if they are going to try to make a living of getting past CB, then contending with Tay, Sheed, and Ben inside. The Pistons cut Parker's water soon enough, and basically, SA had nothing after that. Duncan did have an ok game for sure, but nowhere near a dominating game with that foot problem.

Rip was missing his shots. How much credit to give Bowen on that? Well, maybe Bowen was making Rip think a little too much. We have seen Rip hit those same shots on his good nights. Maybe this was just a bad night. Or maybe Bowen has gotten into his head a bit.

Tay is not being too aggressive. Seems he is more concentrating on extending his range than anything. I'd call that important. Not everything a guy does in a game is strictly toward winning the game at hand. Maybe next game Tay needs that range and has it.

Sheed continues to do damage from the post. Its hard to remember, but last couple of years Sheed working in the post was a rare occurrance in comparison. And he still hits those threes, and its still amazing that streak of him getting at least one three is still going. Someone should check to see just how long this streak is.

Ben was well, active, on the boards. A 20 rebound game. Combine that with 13 for Dyess and you got utter domination of the boards, especially the offensive boards. But remember, Duncan is hurting. We can't count on this happening at the end of the season.

Dyess continues to hit outside shots. And occasionally cut in for an easy one. And tonight, he was rebounding everything in sight.

Our bench operated differently form last game. Arroyo and Dyess came in first. They came in with aobut 2 minutes left in the 1st quarter, and were the only subs until about 4 minutes into the 2nd quarter. Then, Arroyo sat and Evans came in. Again, just two guys out there from the bench. But then Delfino came in for about 4 mintues and we had 3 bench guys out there. Arroyo hit a shot that just barely caught the front of the rim and crawled in. He also had 4 assists to one turn. His one turn was a traveling violation. His most dramatic assist was a repeat of last game where he hits Tay with a long pass for a fast break bucket. Real good control of the ball as usual, and the announcers mentioned that Arroyo is now top 5 in the league in assist to turn ratio. (That 8 assist game to 0 turns just now moved him from 8 to 5.) That is quite an accomplishment. We should be very proud of Arroyo for this, as of course we should be proud of Billups for leading the league in this stat.

Our bench did fine tonight. Indeed, SA did not score at all for quite a stretch there after Arroyo and Dyess came in. We went up what, about 12 points or so before SA finally did score. The 2nd half again saw the bench have no problem rotating thru. But Tay got no rest in the 2nd half as Delfino did not play any except a minute of garbage time in that 2nd half.

Delfino did nothing special in his time on the court. He did attack the basket once but could not make the shot. Still like to see him attacking like that keeping the other team on its toes.

Evans got tore up by that lousy national guy, Bill Walton. Evans missed two wide open triples and an uncontested dunk attempt. But what does Bill Walton know. Hey, that is the first dunk attempt like that Evans has missed this year. It happens. No big deal. And missing two triples. So what. You can't expect a guy to hit one of two triples every time. The guy would have to be about the best triples shooter in existance for that. Get a life Bill Walton.

Evans, for the 2nd game in a row, showed us something more than spot up shooting. He dribbled in from the left right thru a couple of defenders and layed it in. Good job and I hope we see more of that. (Last game it was a dribble away from Davis and a pull up jumper made.) Evans also had an offensive rebound, an offensive rebound tap back, and a tip to a teammate.

Dyess played right thru to the end of the 2nd quarter. In the 2nd half, we pretty much put in all three of our bench guys at once, with a little bit of time to go (like a minute I think). Thats Evans, Arroyo, and Dyess. Sheed was in a bit of foul trouble, so Dyess played well into the 4th, but the other two were out with 8 minutes to go in the game. In all, the bench gave the starters plenty of rest except for Prince. And the bench did fine as far as keeping leads in this game. In other words, they certainly did their job. The bench both kept leads ( and actually extending it), and provided rest for the starters for the most part.

Tay had a day off, and he only played 29 minutes in the last game. And he has rest time before the next game. Playing a bit too much today is not going to hurt him at all. Heck, he probably needs the work.

Merry Christmas everyone. 22-3. Absolutely number 1 in the power rankings tomorro. GO PISTONS!!!!!

Now for the bad part. Darko did not play. Clock is still ticking. We are not ready to play a healthy SA team in a 7 game series. And we won't be until Darko is getting some time in the rotation. Five minutes every other game is about enough. Just like he was getting the first 14 games of the season. Come on Flip, these regular season wins are not going to win you a championship. Having your roster ready will.

I think Darko is done as a Piston. If Joe were smart he would be shopping him right now while he can still get an NBA quality player for him.

DMC does not have a Piston attitude toward the game. He is all about himself and not the team. I believe Joe D. would have gotten rid of him last year but he was hoping a change in coaches might make a difference. Clearly it has not.

DMC is taking up space on the bench that could be used by someone with a Piston attitude and some ability.

Dumars went on to say that he hopes that the group of players he has can get the job done.

When asked if this season is justifying Flip coming here and Brown leaving, Dumars said its not a matter of justification. Brown did a great job, we are deeply appreciative of the championship he helped bring us, and that Flip is here to finish the job Brown started.

These regular season wins with SA and Dallas nipping at our heels for best record in the league will help towards winning us a championship as homecourt would have last year with the short bench Larry played.Two 7 game series on the road killed us Darko had nothing to do with it then as he will not this year.

Prove me wrong Darko prove me wrong.

Hate to be you. Simply put, we got 96 minutes of Big Guy Time, for 3 guys. 32 min per. Obviously Ben and Sheed are playing more, but as Dice gets better, his min go up, their's go down. Flip doesn't need to play anyone else. Not unless its GT, or he feels they can challenge for pt. DD, if he hasn't done it now, he's not going to do it. JMax, maybe, Corliss type player, we'll see. And Darko, really believe he has the ability, but again, Coach has no reason to play him, unless he's better than Dice.

Feel bad for the kid, play better than Antonio McDyess, and you can get pt, otherwise ride the bench. Still a DHOF member, so DMC, prove you're better than Dice, and get yourself some PT. Either way, Pistons win.