Good balance as our bench outscored theirs by 8, and our starters outscored theirs by 7.

Tough night for Chandler, with 17 points and an eye-popping 22 boards going for nothing. David West was a brick-tacular 3-15, CP3 only 4-14, and Pargo a horrendous 1-8 off the bench, including at least a couple of baffling off-balance runners that had absolutely no prayer of dropping.

Well, another fantastic 3 quarters of basketball. Only this time, it was the last 3 quarters. We were down 15 in the first half. Some good play from Maxiell, like two monster putback slams, and lots of Hayes taking advantage of small N.O. guards trying to guard him in the post, got us back into the game. Our starters played much better in the 3rd quarter, got a double digit lead, and N.O. pretty much just folded up their tent and went home about maybe 6 minutes before the game was over.
The Pistons played just an 8 man rotation, with Mohammed getting 5 minutes to start the 4th. No Murray, Amir, nor Afflalo.


Hunter did nothing too well, but nothing too bad either. He was effective enough to spell Billups in each half, and thats it. Good enough.
Billups got to the line a lot down the stretch, and Rip got player of the game with 21 points. Both our guards were playing some serious D those last 3 quarters.


Tay did not shoot at all in the first quarter, and never did get anything going at all.


Dyess had a pretty darn worthless first quarter. His play picked up considerably when in with the subs later in the 2nd quarter. I am thinking Dyess really does not like to take shots away from Billups, Rip, Sheed, and Tay in the first quarter. Dyess did hit an outside shot or two, but what I liked most was when he did go inside here and there. Dyess may have lost some ability vs. before his knee surgeries, but you know, just maybe there are less really good post defenders these days. Dyess should not sell his inside game short. And darn good job - after the first quarter, of going after the rebounds.


What a difference a month makes. Now Jason comes in for added rebounding. No, No, No, Jason is not better all the sudden. He is simply getting regular, every game, no games anymore, minutes. His comfort level has risen from the steady minutes. Knowing your role well allows you to concentrate on your mechanics. Note, when played a lot of minutes last year, we saw the same Jason Maxiell as we have seen the last few games. We just did not keep playing him good minutes.


I am not too upset about some of the youngs getting shut out in minutes tonight. They played just last night. Its not like they will gather rust from not playing one game amidst a furious schedule. Altogether, Pistons management has done quite well these past five games. Lots of player development, and five wins.
GO PISTONS!!!!!

Just want to add a few things that we take for granted when they happen.

The leadership on the floor for the Pistons was awesome. Sheed, Chauncey, Dyess. The Hornets melted down and the Pistons looked like pros. CB's shot was off, so he adapted and picked up a ton of fouls in key situations. Once we were down, the Pistons were rebounding and playing D as their way to get back in the game. It is great to see that down in their gut, they KNOW how to play the right way. Sheed's unselfishness on offense set a tone and it was contagious.

We just beat a team with a "true" PG and a "true" center, on the road, after being down double digits early.



On a side note, nothing against BW, but you gotta admit that the Bulls quit on Chandler 1 year too early. He's a productive mofo.

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"I’ll just say this: We’re not talking to teams about their second- or third-best players." Joe Dumars talking about his plan to get other teams' 4th best players.

Didn't learn it from Saunders.

I think the coach should get a little credit here for making some adjustments against a good team on the road when we came out shooting as cold as the weather in Detroit and were down by 15 early playing our 4th game in 5 nights.

A little credit, but not too much or maybe only a very little credit like $.02 worth. LOL

I agree. Blame and credit are two sides of the same coin. The team has been playing well and Flip IS a part of that.

I still think you gotta get PT for your developing guys because you might have games like this...or even a string of them...where you can't find room for them. So get them in as much as you can when you can.

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impressed yet???//

I gotta give Flip some real credit here. AA got zero run tonight, zero. But I ain't mad about it (AJ and Delfino fans should take note). Flip did something really cool, he went big on the perimeter playing Tay and Hayes at the same time. No way the Hornets guards would be able to guard both of them in the post and it worked. The lineup of Lindsey, Hayes, Tay, Max, and Dyess/Sheed was pretty effective, I cant wait until Stuckey replaces Lindsey in that equation, we will really be something to reckon with at that point.

Going with Hayes instead of AA was pretty smart as this team needed the scoring of Hayes more than they needed the things that AA offers us. This indeed was one impressive win. On the road vs a really good team, offense not really clicking, mostly the whole teams shot was off and not to mention that whole 4 games, 5 nights in 4 cities on the 2nd night of a back to back......IMPRESSIVE!!!!!

Also one other thing. This team started out playing bad early - nothing us Pistons fans haven't seen before, a slow start. Tonight however we did not have to wait until the 4th qtr for this team to pull out the win. This team got the game under control in the 2nd qtr and never relinquished it, that might be the first time I've seen them do this under Flip.

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

by coach I meant Uncle Sheed not Flipper. LOL

All of these subtle improvements have taken place since Flipper acknowledged this last summer that Uncle Sheed be the real coach here.

Last year this was a loss. No doubt. Maxiel and Hayes start us going. The starters re-group and just plain outclass that bunch. (By the way, I wanted us to spend the money and get Chandler when we lost Ben).

The Maxiel effect is what I call these last few games. His play makes it so much easier for the starters. This is a very good trend...