With that defensive effort CB has got to be exhausted.....

Seriously, I agree Roscoe, If he can maintain that defensive intensity it will increase his value in this contract year, maybe.

I don't mind over-using the starters in a big game like this one. It's all those games that we don't take seriously that would be candidates for injecting hungrier players.

Commentary on the game mentioned the idea that the pistons were switching into a zone and the Dallas players were having trouble adapting to it so that's why they were shooting it from the outside.

I tend to believe that the team that seizes the initiative early is the one that looks good and aggressive. Dallas ended up reacting to us. Its also why those slow starts hurt us. We don't come out looking to play lazy but the other team puts us on our heels and we end up looking that way. The hard part is reversing that.

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I started out last night trying to chart the defense played each time down the court. First thing I figured out is how hard that can be. Anytime an announcer said something about what the Pistons were in I would watch that possession five or six times (thank you DVR) to try to be able to recognize it better in the future. Got to admit at least once I watched a possession over and over and still didn't see the zone.

Anyway, seems like I was seeing at least three different defenses and they moved between them pretty effortlessly, often it seemed based on what Dallas was doing. They seemed much more aggressive in the zone, much better than matching up on the perimeter, than earlier in the year and much better able to box out than in the first games.

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"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

How about Flip Murray's performance?

2 points
5 rebounds
4 assists
3 blocks!!!
3 turnovers
2 fouls

All this on 1 shot attempt in 20 minutes. He wasn't exactly a chucker in this game and he seemed to play some Piston D. His box score looks like a roll of the dice in Yahtzee.

I was able to watch from P's 42 Mavs 32 til 52 - 44...
We stole the ball and Sheed gave the ball right back to CB and wanted to set a pick for him but CB blew it off. CB told Sheed to go stand in the corner. It worked this time as Sheed hit 5 of 8 from 3.
Thanks for the caps peeps.