Vote for Murray for starting guard in the all star game.

Real Talk...he just made Travis Diener about $300K tonight. Flip had a great quote about Stuckeys D on Diener:
Flip: Play some damn D!!
Stuck: Coach I contested!!!
Flip: Contesting aint enough!!!!....Take it AWAY!!!!!!

Then AA straight locked the dude down to show Stuck how it's done....classic AA!!!!!

I'm so proud of Flip. By Jove I think he's GOT IT!!!!

Stucky wanted the minutes. He got three fouls and three steals in the second quarter in 6 minutes. I think he didn't want to foul out.

Yea Flipper has it alright. He wants to keep his job. Lets see what happens in close games.

The one thing I didn't like tonight is that Flipper inserted Stuckey for Hamilton in the second quarter, so C-Bill wound up playing way too many minutes tonight, over 33, whereas Rip who can run all night only got 29. I would have preferred Stuckey to have come in for C-Bill.

But I think Flipper is not that comfortable with Stuckey playing the point at this time early in the game. We shall see.

Rip had 9 assists tonight. He is averaging about 4.5 assists a game which is a little below his best year in APG of 4.9.

<p>That was easy.</p>


<p>Amid a lot of new stuff, hats off to Rip for one heck of a shooting display.</p>


<p>The best thing I liked about this one was both Sheed and Dyess going inside a lot. Kind of funny, the announcers going on and on about how great Dyess was shooting the outside jumper while he continually was going inside with the ball. He did make one or two outside jumpers. INdiana is a horrid defensive team inside so good job by the coaches to get the Pistons to take advantage.</p>


<p>Time to celebrate. Stuckey ain't perfect, but we had no dropoff in play when he came in to spell both Billups then Hamilton in the 1st half. We saw Stuckey do what Stuckey does, get inside, make the basket or get fouled and make the free throws. He also hit an outside shot. (or two?) His defense left something to be desired though in garbage time.</p>


<p>Hunter, Samb, and Murray were not dressed tonight. Hermann was dressed, and gave us one highlight, a nifty reverse layup driving in from the right baseline.</p>


<p>Afflalo still got 16 minutes, 4 of them at the end of the first half. The starters did not expand the lead in the 3rd quarter, maintaining a 20 point lead created in the 3rd quarter by a lot of hot shooting by Hayes. Thats two out of 3 good shooting games by Hayes so maybe he is out of his slump. Maybe like someone said, Herrmann being dressed might have put some pressure on Hayes to step up his game.</p>


<p>No defense was played for much of the 3rd quarter. Both teams hit shot after shot. (Rip most of ours, with Tay hitting some too.) We did clamp down just a bit to end the quarter, and I think we were up 24 when the 4th quarter started.</p>


<p>Much of the 4th was played by Stuckey, Afflalo, Herrmann, JMAX, and Amir. This group did well enough. Amir got 9 rebounds in the first 8 minutes of the quarter. At that point, Brezec came in. The lead got down to about 12 or 10 but time was running out just fast enough so we did not have to worry too much. I won't blame Brezec for this, since Stuckey not remembering to play D had a lot to do with it. It was quite a contrast to see just how Afflalo played D, at all times.</p>


<p>CB just mainly ran things right. JMAX did little, but he was in there most of the 2nd quarter while we pulled away.</p>


<p>In all, pretty good game. Amir was not really in the rotation, but yet he played 12 minutes, some of which was not quite garbage time as we let them back in just a tad. Afflalo still got some meaningful minutes even though was saw the beginning of a possible 3 guard rotation. Herrmann got his first bucket for us. Hayes broke out of a slump big time, and our starters were at least shooting great. (They could have played some D in the 3rd.)</p>


<p>GO PISTONS!!!!!</p>

This little gem is from the Yahoo game recap.

Like I said in the rotations thread, I suspect that Flip was planning on using Rip and Stuckey for a few more minutes in the 2nd quarter, with CB and AA finishing out the half, but Stuckey's foul trouble led to CB returning a few minutes early.

Yeah, I heard that too...LOL. Daniels had charged into CB after catching a long pass and turning right into him. Now if CB had slid under him and not given him any room to come down, then yeah, that would be grounds for complaining about a charge call because you've got to give the guy room to land. But Daniels already did that, and then he turned into CB for the charge because his momentum was carrying him forward. The Pacers announcers on League Pass were whining about how Daniels should have had "room to turn," which is moronic...that's not a rule!

Let's not get carried away lol. I'm trying...I'm REALLY trying to like Flipper. The early blowouts give the kids some great burn and even allow some experimental floor combinations.

Sincerely...Kudo's to Flip right now. The team looks great...very confident, with the bench playing a significant role and the starters getting rest. It looks to me that the team chemistry couldn't be better.

The only thing that bugs me about the fun is that Flip's coaching is not challenged as it would be in a tight playoff game.

January is a much tougher schedule for us than December, we'll see some nail-biters soon, I'm sure.

Fun win, that layup by Hermann was incredibly cool, I hope we get to see more of that.