Whether we won or not, San Antonio's open looks were not going their way at all today. I'm happy with the win, there's just a few things we could clean up:

1) Parker's dribble penetration. Though there's not much to stop it, our interior defense needs to knock him down. Everytime a slasher comes about, our defense falls apart. We're lucky Ginobili wasn't playing this game as he would be doing the same thing...

2) Duncan's pick and roll with Parker. Whenever Sheed tried to get in front of Duncan to deny the feed, Duncan would roll to the basket with success. Maybe rotate someone over, or just double Duncan with our center (because Rasho/Nazr suck), because Parker's jump shot is his weak part of his game.

3) Prince's post game. EVERYTIME Prince got the ball in the post, he was doubled and collapsed on. Either tell Prince to make quicker moves on the post on Ginobili/Finley or have multiple open kick outs for an open look. THIS MATCHUP HURT US IN THE FINALS.

4) Bench development. I'm impressed with Arroyo against NVE and Dice against Horry. Even Evans showed signs of "Hey I'm better than Delfino" with the way he brought much-needed energy to a slow game. But Delfino got doghoused today. He got choked by the Spurs defense on a drive and didn't get back on D. After that play, we didn't see him the court the rest of the game until garbage time. Solution: Someone remind him that Spurs' defense isn't afraid to collapse on a slasher and have him take the Rip role off screens instead. As long as Bowen isn't on him, I'm sure Delfino can get a good shot or pass.

5) Rip vs Bowen, Prince vs Ginobili. The small forward defensive stopper seems to be a key. If we were ever have a chance, Rip needs to find a way to shake off Bowen because Bowen gets into his head. I find that Rip seems to rush his shot with Bowen on him, and we all know Rip tries too hard when he puts the ball on the floor. Maybe have Rip pump fake when he receives the ball to get fouls on Bowen, I don't know, anything. Rip needs to score at least 15 a game in a seven game series. On the Flip side, Prince needs to be the Bowen guy and deny Ginobili on every level: 3-ball and slashing.

Defensive roles:
Billups/Hunter on Parker
Sheed/Ben/Davis on Duncan/Rasho/Nazr
Prince/Hunter on Ginobili
Rip on Bowen

Dice on Horry
Arroyo on NVE
Delfino/Evans on Barry/Finley

Darko = Oberto i.e. useless

As you can see, with the development of our bench swingmen, we can hang 7 games with these guys without a question.

Prince NEEDS to find his post game against the Spurs, whether a quicker move or a multiple options on a kick out (via slashing or open 3).

The difference between San Antonio's defense and Detroit's defense: San An's not afraid to double and we rely heavily on rotational defense.

the problem is tay usually posts and ben wallace's man doubles him. we need to have a scorer there for the kickout. when tay gives it up to ben it's basically making us have to setup our offense again with lots of time off the shot clock.

Shaq is so fat this year he can't even jump anymore. The guy will be worn out or injured again by playoff time. He will not be a consideration.

I would worry more about Indiana and Cleveland than the Riles Roosters.

Evans had two taps to teammates, and yet a third where we almost got the ball. Pretty darn good game by Evans, and in general, it looks like SA is a good team for him to play against. Lots of so so offensive players Evans should be able to guard ok.

On Delfino doubling Duncan. Gee, Duncan had darn good position there. Nope, I am not going to fault a guy for doing something perfectly natural to do. Should he have? Questionable. If thats the worst thing you can say about a guys 4 minutes stretch of play, thats pretty good.

Our bench in all put us up plus 10. Thats plus 6 in the first half, and another plus 4 in the 2nd half. Now, I am only counting until Sheed sat with foul touble with about 7 minutes to go in the game. Dyess was still out there, but it was for foul trouble vs. the normal bench rotation. Still, great job by the bench all the way.

I watched just how good Bowen was guarding Rip. Pretty darn good. Rip tended to rush things it seemed whenever Bowen was not guarding him. Its like, oh my, wow,no Bowen, better shoot the ball now before the guy shows up. Yes, it appears Bowen has gotten in Rip's head a bit.

Duncan has been suffering from Plantar Faceitus (sp) since training camp. This is curable over time. Lots of stretching. No overdoing it. More stretching. Stretching before you walk in the morning. And more strething. Been thru it. Now, with the Pistons way ahead of the Spurs, I wonder if they just shoot now for best record in the West. In other words, work more on Duncan getting his foot better vs. winning every possible game. But you know, even with Duncan just doing half way ok, SA beats us in this game if Ginobili is playing. Finley was just plain bad.

So Delfino gets the ball into Maxiell on the left. Maxiell is fouled and missed both free throws. Arroyo gets the ball to Maxiell on the left again. Maxiell has his left leg forward, threating to drive by his guy to the right. His guy is off balance. Maxiell pivots back on his right foot, gets darn good elevation, and nails a jumper. Sweet. If he could have made his free throws, that would have been 4 points in a minute. About the most important thing Maxiell can do right now to earn floor time is too simply improve his free throw shooting. Kudos to Delfino and Arroyo for giving Maxiell those reps.

C'mon, Lee -- TWO recaps? Competitiveness is often an admirable trait, old chap, but it simply isn't done. Bad form.

I say give it to ojay, even though he wussed out and added a follow-up.

The competition is retroactive to Sept 1 and runs through the end of this calendar year.

Appreciate the contributions of basketbills, ojay, lee etc but I was hoping for a bigger turnout. Keep on going.

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

Thank you for another great season!

Man a brotha' was in church yesterday praying for the preacher to pick up the pace so I could see the game. Only missed TP's first 6 pts.

Injuries are part of the game so I don't give a flying flintstone about who was hurt for them, they lost, and they'll lose again.

On xmas day, we played Piston ball. We have been fussing about our rebounding and defense, we finally get a game where we dominate the boards, play suffocating D, win the bench war and y'all make excuses for the other team........UNBELIEVABLE

The Spurs are 2nd best team in the league, the defending champs, and we beat them making them play catch-up the whole game.....c'mon. Folks try to understand, these 2 teams have battles not games, the defense throws off the rhythm of both offenses making it difficult to can jumpers even when you're open. Funny how we forget that we all felt that we lost that series because we couldn't shoot the 3 and stretch the D, so we pined for JoeD to get Finley or a player that could shoot the 3........we ALL felt as that was the differnce in the series last year. Well lookie here now,it seems as if this time we were the team to hit the "TIMELY" trey's and WE WON. Seems as if it wasn't an issue of us not being ABLE to stroke the 3, but just NOT shooting it enough to get comfortable with it. Look folks get used to it, neither teams offense is going to look good in one of these battles.....it'll always be about Defense and Rebounding....and that's what we did,and that's how we won.

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Play hard, Play smart, Play together, share the ball, have fun....Play the right way!!!!!!

If Ginoboli retired right now, SA would still be the 2nd best team in the NBA. So having him out is not the deciding factor.

I agree with Greg, style points do not matter when these 2 teams go at it.

The good news for the Pistons is that when Bowen shuts down Rip, we have other options. That is the benefit of balance.

Homecourt is more of a deciding factor, and that is why we are busting our collective asses to get it.

I re-watched the game on my Tivo and noticed something big. Yea, Tayshaun was doubled every time he tried to post up, but they were doubling off Ben, Sheed, and Dice. Those 3 alone combined for 15 offensive rebounds. Seems like every possession they would double, we would make one or two passes and launch a shot. If the shot didn't go in, the Bigs that went to double were out of position, and our guys were gobbling up those easy boards for put-backs or kick outs. So, I think it really ended up hurting the Spurs in the end. It may hurt Tayshaun's numbers, but we'll kill them on the glass because of it. Gotta pick your poison.