First-half observations:

Sheed has built several houses in the first half with all his bricks.

Remember the song "Rudie Can't Fail" by the Clash? I like this tune better: "Rudy Can't Jam."

Glad to see Jarvis finally made a shot. Hunta still looking good. Amir looked lost to me in the first half.

One thing I hope to find under the tree at Christmas: Tay's offensive game.

I'm beginning to think the NBA's structured offense is restricting Darko's free-wheeling game.

^

I'm starting to worry about him. He looks off. Tired, hurt, ? It doesn't help that he's not taking/getting good looks either.

edited to add;
That was meant to be about Sheed, but i guess it applies to Tay too.

Actually, Tay did OK in the first half. 4 of 6 for 10 points. My bad. Sorry, Tay.

Random thoughts:

Clearly, AA was great tonight. The kid is SMART.

Rodney Stuckey makes his regular-season debut and hits his second shot.

Amir Johnson is pretty good - at commiting fouls.

Suddenly, the Pistons bench has leapers and penetrators.

One thing I don't understand: When Memphis began to fall behind, why didn't Iavoroni unleash Darko? Seemed like a good time to do it.

Brezec has more mobility and hustle than Webber.

Pistons let the Grizz hang around in the first half before blowing it open in the second. Odd game for CB...2-10 from the floor, but 10-11 from the line with 7 assists and no turnovers. He got the line several times in the 3rd quarter to help extend the lead to double digits.

Stuckey made his debut in garbage time and made some nice plays in the last 6 minutes, scoring off a rebound on his first miss and finding Jarvis in transition. Amir played several "real" minutes in the first half with JMax in foul trouble, but unfortunately he didn't make any sort of impact. The biggest story of the game was Afflalo, playing brilliantly well in regular minutes as well as in garbage time. He was incredibly aggressive going to the basket and making things happen in transition, played his usual strong D, got several boards, converted a bunch at the FT line (6-7)...it was awesome!

For the Grizz, our favorite Serbian gangsta struggled with only 2 points and 4 turnovers. Rudy Gay hit some tough shots but also somehow managed to miss two wide open dunks, of both varieties, one-handed and two-handed. The guy's got a lot of talent, but he somehow can't seem to dunk against the Pistons!

did you notice, whether flip jr was dressed or not? Flip jr surely demands a trade...

Will be interesting to see how lee and buddahfan try to find some "important" negativities, somehow they have to justify ther usual "fire flip" chant, right?

I didn't see Flip Jr., but he must have been in street clothes. All 12 active players for the Pistons played tonight, and with Stuckey finally getting out there, Flip Jr. was inactive along with Herrmann and Samb.

I think Cheikh got removed from the Mad Ants roster because D league teams can not carry players that are injured.

Pistons came out shooting in the first 8 minutes to build a 9 pt lead, but then stunk up the joint for the rest of the half comong back to take a 4 pt lead at the half. Billups and Sheed were 2-13 in the first half missing 6 3 balls between them. the grizz had 10 turnovers in the first half so that was one reason why the Pistons were able to hold on to the lead.

The pistons stretched it out to a 14 point lead at the end of three as AA came off the bench to spark a run. His defense and slashing offense work up the crowd and the disintrested Piston starters and garbage time officially started the 7 min mark of the 4th qtr.

Stuckey got his first official pt and scored bucket got a board and 2 assists. Nothing spectacular, but when everyone on the floor for both teams are fighting for minutes it hard to get some consistency out there. Afflolo played 20 minutes and half of that was with the starters. Amir looked kind of lost out there tonight so he definitely needs more PT to become effective.

Pistons defense held the Grizz to 34 % shooting and 67 points as Rudy Gay missed several Dunks on 4-14 shooting...

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

I kept looking at the back of the bench looking for Flip jr, but didn't see him back there sitting with Fabio. Maybe he thought he was going to be on the active roster and didn't bring a sports jacket and had to watch the game from the locker room???