Sheed's one of those guys that you have to watch his minutes... he vaporizes with time.
They must of had some wobbly legs out there.

Another point to make about this game was that the refereeing was really terrible. Any game that long is bound to have some missed calls, but these guys were sucking all night long. Both teams had some very bad ones go against them. One really egregious call that benefited the Pistons was a ridiculous flop by Rip to draw Marbury's 6th foul in one of the overtimes.

Old Skool HQ had the best reference of the night in chat, saying "Mendy Rudolph is rolling over in his grave." Now that's old-skool!

Exciting game to watch, but plenty of bone head plays by the boys in Red to blow this one. Couldn't put it away in regulation as Naz misses several bunny/dunk oportunites in the last 50 seconds and CB makes several questionable decisions in the overtimes.

Marbury zips through the lane to make several floaters and layups in the paint to score 41. Although it was a triple-OT game, Pistons allow four Knick starters to score 26+ points including Curry starting off 8-8 from the field and Frye hit several uncontested jumpshots. In the OT Crawford came alive to hit several key jumpers.

Knicks score 66 points in the paint including 40 in the first half. However the Pistons responded with 60 in the paint themselves thanks to 27 offensive rebounds and timely put backs by Dice and Nazr. Despite the fact that he appeared out of his element in crunch time, Naz was still a force as Sheed pull a no show and fouled out prior to the end of regulation.

The Pistons had only 1 assist at the end first period and finished with only 22?? With 145 points you would expect more, but the Knicks had only 24 themselves. The knicks also shot 63 FT's

This was supposed to be a game that RIP celebrates a win with the 50+ points, but instead the game ends with him getting a tech and he goes home mad. He should be mad at his backcourt mate CB for trying to be the hero and making silly fouls. Rip had 37 points at the end of 3 periods, but only scored 2 points in the 4th period and 2 in the first OT before finally making some hoops in the 2nd OT. He should have scored 60!!

First time this season we have lost a game after leading after 3 (was 14-0) and the first lost on a back to back I believe.

Good play by Delfino and Dice out there tonight....Murray was awful for his stent in there> 4 mins, 3 fouls, 3 turnovers nothing else. keep him on the bench and keep Delfino and Blaylock ahead of him.

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"Once you go Barack, you never go Bak" Mario Cantone 2008

With the exception of Rips 51 this one can't be mesured in the boxscore, don't even look at it. Some may argue bad defense, but bottom line the NBA is full of great players who when they get it going offensively no defense can stop them. For our team that player was Rip, for their team it was Curry and Marbury. Bottom line was when buckets were needed a playmaker made them, and sadly for us we didn't make enough plays to win this one.

Don't sweat the rotation stuff, you never sub a player in OT, you go with your horses with the exception of those off/def subs to get stops or save a player in foul troule. In OT you ride a guy, because if they sit for a few they stiffen up and the sub has no time to get any offensive rhythm. But at the end of the game Big SHot lost this one for us, remarkably he lost it on both ends of the floor trying to make plays that screwed us into an L. Ahh well as Lee said he ain't perfect but he flat out Stunk it up tonight.

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

"....talk about this and that
how much money u done spent
swear u believe boy
it was all heaven sent...
chill now
u better bring the check around
its yo man 'OLD SKOOL"
and his DIRTY LOW DOWN!........"

iM GONNA do somethin different as I have resurrected from the Sith to my true self as OLDSKOOL HQ. I want to give the inside lines to what happened, yknow..."The game within The Game"....Tonight it was CB vs Marbury.
CB played his typical "Im gonna let my boy get his props cause Im gonna win in the end" game. Lots of NBAers feel that CB thinks he's more of a star than he really is. He goes to the basket only when he thinks he is gonna draw a foul. And he thinks he 'really is' an All-NBA defender.
I have people in this house who mcan prove to you that before Flipstone Murrayrock got here, the name u hear most out of my mouth is "CHAUN_SEEEEEE!" or "DAMNIT, CHAUNCEY!"
CB needs to go back to the LB films. I knew when Flip got here that this 'new' CB would arise. His stats on this game were horrendous for a team that still "only lost in 3 OT's".....
3-13 fg's...2-9 3ptFg...9-11 FT's...only 10 assists in 51 min and 137 FGA by team
I know he is due for a bad stretch but this team just lost to an Iverson less Philly team by 19 pts. What the hell is Flip doin? I dont know. But three people will keep us from our destiny in the long run...
Flip Saunders
Nazr Muhammad
and Chauncey Billups....

...the dirty Low Down...nuff said!

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http://casstechhigh.ning.com/profile/gregoryhollenquest =

microcap

Nights like tonight are maddening.

You see the Knicks, trading lead changes with the Pistons 20+ times and know that they are playing one of their absolute best games this season.

And on the other hand, you have the Detroit Pistons, unable to slow the Knicks, unable to build a big lead seemingly stepping through the motions until it was too late to pull one last rabbit from the hat.

It's enough to shake your faith in Detroit Basketball.

This game had it all. Clutch baskets, big plays, questionable calls, and three overtimes.

At the end, the Pistons inability to close out an opponent, to put their foot on the throat of the Knicks and choke them into submission was why they lost. It's a tired routine we have seen many times.

It was Chauncey Billups inexplicably jacking up 3 pointers early, in the middle and at the end of shot clocks during the late game. It was his inability to stop dribble penetration from Marbury, whom he was probably too busy taking notes from on how to finish at the hoop.

It was Nazr Mohammed unable to convert tip ins during overtime with stone hands.

It was Rasheed Wallace fouling out after never really starting the game from a mental standpoint.

It was Flip Saunders also cruising in a kind of semi-retarded haze benching the Goon Squad and allowing Wallace to foul out when he could have been a late game factor.

It was one of the most incompetent referee crews I have ever observed.

We learned a couple things this game.

Flip Murray is possibly the worst player on the Pistons.
Chauncey Billups is in a dangerous funk.
Will Blalock is only a stop gap at backup PG.
Carlos Delfino is making a case as the most valuable bench player on the Pistons.
Antonio McDyess can still play a power game if he doesn't lean exclusively on his turnaround jumper for scoring.
Tayshaun Prince is too much in love with open jumpers even when they are not falling.
Nazr Mohammed is limited, but very valuable.

Here are the Pistons 2nd thru 4th scoring options and their sum shooting stats.

Tay 4-16, 1-7 from 3
Sheed 4-14, 0-4 from 3
Billups 3-13, 2-9 from 3

That's 11-43 and 3-29 from 3. And yet between Rip, Nazr, Dice and Delfino, we almost won this game.

The brightest point in what was a disappointing loss had to be Rip Hamilton. Entering tonight's game, his previous career high was 44 points. Tonight he had 51, seemingly scoring at will, avoiding 3 pointers and slashing to the basket. That's the 6th 50 point game in Pistons history.

Here is the history of the Pistons single game scoring record that I could chase up

Jerry Stackhouse - 57 points
Kelly Tripucka - 56 points
Dave Bing - 54 points

I'm pretty sure George "Bird" Yardley scored 50+ as well for the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons.

Anyway, it's late and watching that game was exhausting...

My Good Guys: Rip Hamilton, Antonio McDyess, Carlos Delfino, Nazr Mohammed

My Bad Guys: Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace, Flip Saunders, Flip Murray, Tayshaun Prince

Pistons player of the game: Rip Hamilton

Yeah, I cracked myself up over that one!

Gotta give credit where it's due. The Zekes played with composure and great resolve. Damnit !

Good performances, bad performances, frequent whistles, fatigue, MSG crowd, prooved no match. We played above it all, almost. I can see committing the foul once, on the three point try. CB lost his head in the heat of the moment. But, how did he not learn from it. How did he loose recognition of time/score/situation, again.

Is this a burn the film situation ?

Great game, unfortunately we lost. I'm glad I couldn't get tickets, woulda been pretty po'ed sitting at the Port Authority after that loss, knowing I've got an hour ride home.

Props to:
Flip Saunders, good substitutions. Can't believe I'm saying this.
Rip, en fuego, until the final OT.
ScarFace (CD), great game, simply great in all aspects. If this doesn't earn him more PT, nothing will. He may be a streak shooter, but his form isn't broken (like LH), he simply needs the confidence.
Dice and Nazr, both strong games

NorthFace:
CB, poor decisions all game, bad shots, bad fouls.
Flip Murray, haven't seen that bad of a 4 minute performance in awhile. Did everything wrong, lackadaisacal, bad shots, turnovers, just horrible.
JMax, totally outmatched by David Lee. Big slow guys, JMax does well, young fast medium guys, JMax gets crushed.
Entire team in OT, we got away from team play, and it was one on one bball. I can understand that from Rip, he was on fire. But not one pass from CB and Rip to anyone else but themselves in OT.

Bottom line:
Delfino needs more PT with the starters, Murray needs out of the lineup, Jmax needs to be played only when matchups are right, and Flip needs to keep on doing what he's been doing the past couple of weeks.

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One more thing. Don't believe the hype that Isiah is dumb and the Knicks are bad.

Isiah is pretty good and the Knicks are loaded with talent. Sure they are paying for it, but MSG is the largest owner in the NBA. They can afford to overpay everyone.

The problem with the Knicks, is that last year, LB did zero team building and this season, Zeke has basically had to start development from scratch.

Marbury is the butt of a lot of jokes, but he has always had the kind of game he showed tonight. Jamaal Crawford is the best guard in the NBA that no one talks about. David Lee, Channing Frye (when he plays well) and Renaldo Balkman comprise a super promising front court and Eddy Curry is on the verge of being the next Shaq, bullying his way in the paint and dominating every player smaller than him (which is most).

If not by the end of this year, next season the Knicks will be a handful every single night for opponents.

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