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I'll be a little late, have some stuff to take care of first.

A lot tighter first half this time around. Indy keeps scoring in the 2nd quarter.

I don't think Flipper knows how to defend his own play book.

Pistons had an unusual thing of late, a close game...they closed it out 98-92 over the Pacers after being up only 1 with about 2 minutes left. Some good clutch D, CB going to the hole for a big layup, and Rip hitting a clutch 3 were enough to overcome a desperation Indy 3 and a bad Pistons turnover in the final minute.

Rip and CB led the way with 24 and 17 points. Dice and Sheed threw up a lot of bricks, but they played good D down the stretch on Jermaine. JMax had a big 12 points, Jarvis stayed hot with 9 points and actually outrebounded Tay (Hayes had 6 boards in 17 minutes), and Stuckey made a big impact in the 2nd half in particular, leading a big run near the end of the 3rd quarter to give the Pistons a 6 point lead going into the 4th.

AA got lost in the shuffle with only 4 minutes in the first half...it probably would have been better to get him back in there for Rip near the end of the first half. Rip had a great game but played almost 39 minutes. But the good sign of Stuckey's impact on the rotation is that in a game that was close all the way, CB played only 34.5 minutes.

Saunders has the Pistons playing as good as any team in the league right now.

8 in a row for the boys from motown. A close one all the way until the Pistons defense stepped up and the Pacers missed about 7 buckets in a row down the stretch.

28 points from the bench as Flip went to an 8.25 man rotation with Alf getting 4 mins and Max, Hayes and Stuckey getting 16 mins plus. Difference in the points were at the ft line where the Pistons shot 28-34 to the Pacers 21-26. The rest of the shooting stats were almost even. This was the type of game that we were losing to Cavs last post season.

Good win as Pistons continue their dominance over the eastern conference and the Pacers fall 2 games back in two quick days.

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

I know we won, but this game was awful.

Flip's rotations were way off. We got killed by quicker players that Afflalo was handling but inexpicably got taken out, and never put back in. I get the whole wanting to have Stuckey out there with a vet which was fine even though Rip is not exactly the 2nd ball handler you should be going to, but then when Billups came back in, Rip stayed in.

Indiana made adjustments. Yes, they gave a better effort, but they did alot of things we had no answer for. And the 4th quarter play-calling wasn't good. Shades of the ECF of the last 2 years.

I'm probably being harsh, but the only other game i can recall this season in a tight 4th quarter was BOS, and we almost choked that one away. Flip still has yet to prove he can coach in a tight game.

What?

How did you get there.

O"Brien has Flipper's play book.

How many points did we give up against the Pacers (over 96.5 game) in two games vs all the other teams (in the low 80s) during our win streak?

So I repeat myself: Indy averages about 15 points more a game against us than the other teams that we have beaten during the winning streak, therefore, I maintain that Flipper doesn't know how to defend his own play book which O'Brien at Indy is using.

Flip hasn't had that much practice this year in close ones as they are beating their opponents handily, but he is 2-1 in games decided by 3 points or less.

I think that tonight is a game that AJ could have played. Dyess should not be getting 37 plus minutes in the second game of a back to back. So AJ should have played 5 - 7 minutes tonight. This however, is not putting him in the regular rotation but only using him in special situations, besides garbage time.