The two we won don't really inspire much confidence.

Although the defense at the end of games has been better. The offense is still confused.

I thought the offensive execution in crunch time tonight was pretty solid. CB's dumb turnover in the last minute certainly wasn't Flip's fault.

We won and are now at 8 in a row. Looking good to me.

They say its hard to beat a team twice back to back. Kind of like the playoffs. For some odd reason, what made the game so easy last night, going inside a lot, was abandoned for this game.


Dyess, according to the announcers, was having this great game checking O'Neal. Its not like he was doing that poorly, but Sheed and JMAX each did far better when they checked him. Meanwhile, Dyess was settling for long jumpers, which he was mostly missing, getting few rebounds. And when he went into the post, he shot and missed a fade. Not very impressive. I won't blame it all on him though. He played way too many minutes in this game. He especially got way too little rest in the first half due to some foul problems.


In contrast, JMAX was a beast in this game. All Indiana could do was foul him to stop him, and JMAX kept making his free throws. Just imagine if anyone decided to give him some help, Indiana would have been in serious foul trouble.


Stuckey got to play major minutes in this game. He only played point in the first half, with Afflalo spelling Rip for 4 minutes between the 1st and 2nd quarters. The most obvious observation about Stuckey - he is making his jumpers. He makes them whether he pulls up or takes a set shot. His triple and another jumper were part of that flourish to end the 3rd quarter. I guess we can forget the scouting report that says he has weak jumper. This is great news, as it makes his drives inside just that much more effective. Now, he got blocked a couple of times going in, but he kept driving in and got some good results. A made layup. A dish to a teammate under the basket. A foul drawn to end the 3rd quarter, and of course he made his two free throws. Afflalo did not play in the 2nd half as Stuckey played most of the 4th quarter. (Out a the 5 minute mark about) and spelled both Rip then CB. I don't recall Rip getting hardly any rest in this one altogether.


Hayes hits some shots early to give us a boost in the 2nd quarter. That was about it for him.


Billups did great on scoring, three times catching them asleep and laying it up, and he kept hitting his jumpers. Some of these over a defender off the dribble.


The hero though was Rip Hamilton. Thats Rip HAMilTON. Remember yet again, Rip led the league in 3 point shooting in 2004. Man can he shoot the ball. A timely 3 from Rip put this one away with about a minute to go. Rip was also murder off the dribble in this game.


Can't remember Tay doing a whole lot offensively. Sheed just kept shooting outside shots, making very few.


To sum, youth was served a bit at least. Stuckey is getting the time he needs to help us in the playoffs. Hunter again was not dressed; Fabio was. Amir did not get to play. Afflalo had his minutes cut to 4. They plan to send Samb down again to the D-League soon. Yeah, sure, its 8 in a row. Great. More could have been done in this game to prepare for the playoffs. 1) Rip could have been rested more by Afflalo. 2)Amir could have played a bit so that Dyess had some rest to improve his play before he came back in in the 2nd quarter. On a scale of A to F, I'd give Flip a C for this one.





GO PISTONS!!!!!

The team still seems to have trouble getting into any offense as soon as the defense starts pressuring late in games. That has been the problem in the ECF the last 2 years. Guys start holding the ball, and they end up forcing up a tough jumper at the end of the clock.

True, but that didn't really happen tonight very much at the end. Bad execution near the end almost cost them the Boston game, but tonight, the Pistons went on a 6-0 run after Indy got within 90-89 with 2 1/2 minutes left.

Nuttin better than a double header sweep!

Could not agree more. Dice was even missing badly from the FT line. he is playing way too many minutes and it will reflect in the playoffs. This reminds me of C web. He was a shadow in the playoffs and i think dice will soon be a shadow as well. He needs to play less than 30 mpg.

Both teams played tough defense down the stretch and yeah the Pistons held on to the rock a little longer than they should, but at least they were able to score when the Pacers couldn't. Blowouts do allow the younguns to learn, but they need games like this to learn how to execute at crunch time come playoff time.

Agree, Flip should have played Aj and Primo in the first half as well as giving AA more minutes in this back to back situation. No need to burn folks out now. Dice was definitely off tonight and he needs his rest for the Bucks game and the new years eve party afterwards at the Palace.