Anyone notice how every one of his jumpers was short? I complained all year that Tay was playing too many minutes and that it was silly not to give Delfino more PT and share the load. This is the time where all those unnesassary 40+ minute games start catching up with Tay. Sometimes it sucks being right.

He hit his open jumpers, and not the contested ones. That's pretty much par for the course for the way he's played all year.

But he looked just fine in the last round - only a few days ago - when he was abusing undersized and/or awful defenders like Murray, Snow, Jones, and James in the post. People were saying that he was emerging onto the scene, that he'd be a focal point next season, instead of realizing that he was just taking advantage of mismatches.

In this series he's outmatched by a similarly athletic power forward like Antoine Walker and shut down by an excellent, similar-sized defender like James Posey. Without the favorable matchup, he fades back into the periphery on offense.

What is worrying is that he seemingly can't stop anyone. Walker was bulling his way to the hoop and shooting over him, and guards were dribbling around him like he wasn't there. He's not out of gas, but he just might be useless in this series.

Wow, all that complaining finally paid off. j/k. I agree.

yup. i think tay is running out of gas a bit. he gets the other teams best player to defend and he had to carry us offensively in the cleveland series. i think delfino is key to our getting back to the finals. no he isn't as good as tay and no he isn't a vet but the guy can ball. he can rest tay for 8 - 10 minutes. he can be that spark off the bench.

One sub par game does not constitute burnt out... if he does this again Thursday you may have the beginnings of a legit concern.

I agree that the whole team looked sluggish/tired... just can't say that anyone is "running out of gas" as in they won't have the energy required to perform well in the remaining games.

If Tay has a good series will you be back on this thread saying... well maybe I overacted a tad?

Playing 40+ minutes per game in the regular season has nothing to do with Tay being tired last night. Playing 40+ minutes chasing LeBron around the past 2 weeks is why Tay was slugglish last night.

Actually, playing the extended minutes in the regular season probably prepared Tay better for the extended minutes against the Cavs. If it wasn't for Flip, the Pistons would have been eliminated already...

I am not assuming Tay is out of gas because of last nights game. Based on history Prince has pretty much disappeared this time of season. He did a decent job last year vs. Miami, but then he disappeared in the San Antonio series. I just don't understand why he needs to play 40 minutes.

i don't think so. if he doesn't botch a few layups he suddenly shoots 50% last night. he may have been a bit tired from the cleveland series, but rip/lindsey are the main ones checking wade and prince doesn't have to work as hard or play as many minutes against walker.

Per Tashaun he said he did not want to come out of the Cleveland games... said he was feeling good and wanted to play the full 48 (would have waived the sub off)....

It is reasonable to assume the starters are a little fatigued from the Cleveland series and playing long minutes yesterday... I just don't think it will be a dissadvantage from here on out (Miami will be in the same situation)...
We'll see if the minutes distribution will be excessive.... just too soon to draw blanket conclusions.

Good call. This is the only team I know of where the fans complain about burn out as an excuse in the playoffs. Tay had an off shooting night. So did 3 other starters.

Logic alert!!!

Leap of faith!!!

Tay's the 4th wheel (slowly becoming the third wheel) in a 4 man attack. What do you expect from the fourth highest scorer on a team night in and night out?

Tay was brilliant in the 2 games previous. Now he's suddenly all burnt out? PUSHAW. As Flip would say, "He's young, he can handle it."

After all, it's what all the young kids do. Play a lot of minutes.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."