Well, tonight the Kool Aid ran out and the Ps had their first loss and arguably a premier team that was healthy.

Some persisting weaknesses have been bothering me, but it was inappropriate to bring them up when we were winning.

* McDyess cannot seem to find his rhythm

* although points are easy to come by on the break, our half court game consists almost exclusively of Rip moving for a J or CB spotting up.

* the bench is terrible. Darko still does not seem to know where he is going, Arroyo and Delfino cannot defend penetration, the bench as a whole seems to be unable to generate any defensive pressure.

* slow starts against teams, relying too heavily on late game heroics

* Sheed still has not established a game that is any better than last year. Don't get me started, but he still looks a little flabby and flat-footed out there.

It's still early but man, you had to know that this high scoring, high flying ball wouldn't last and at some point the Pistons would have to come back down to earth and play Detroit basketball. Has our identity been compromised? Where are the lockdown first quarters like we had in 2004 during the sub 70 streak?

Most surprising has been an inability for the Pistons to control the paint. Atlanta has been putting up a bigger fight lately than the Pistons mustered tonight against a very good Dallas squad. That game against the Spurs in Dec. just got circled a second time on my calendar for good measure.

__________________
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."

All valid points, and I agree with all of them, my friend. But I'm not worried at all. I think the team is still better this year under Flip's system.

They will be fine! Do the Alfred E.Newman ("What, me worry?") I'd rather see a 40 point loss to Dallas after a victory in Houston than a one point loss to both. They ain't perfect. Chill and enjoy. If they lose two more in a row I'll hop on the worry wagon with ya and keep ya company.

Dice is in a funk...can't hit his shots on one end and picking up cheap fouls on the other. I hope he works out the kinks over the season's course.

I haven't seen enough post-ups or drives to the rim from Tayshaun. How many plays do they run for him? When I think of the possibilities of Tayshaun getting the play with Ben & Sheed watching his back, I almost salivate.

Not much post-up from Sheed either. Tho his 3's are deadly, he seems to be out THERE more than in tight. Without him shooting in close, the beauty of Ben's boards and thunderous put-backs goes away.

Arroyo's still dribbling his butt off.

Maybe I'm just too critical.


On the plus side:

I like MoE's energy. I like Delfino's drives to the rim AND his outside shooting. I like that Darko is looking more comfortable out there and looks like he's having fun...his stare-down with Mutombo and subsequent grin on Friday was priceless.


Sad to say: WDIV is now replaying last nights game

__________________
"What you drive, drives America.
"http://www.levelfieldinstitute.org/

Micro all valid points that we should be concerned with. As easy as it appeared that we got those 8 wins, we could be 6-3 with out some great 4th qtr heroics by the starters. The 10-12 bench points per game have been masked only because the 'stones were undefeated. We need 25 consistent points by them per game and some decent defense. Those guys couldn't stop the Dallas bench at all (although they had Jason Terry out there trying to pad his stats).

hasn't fully been given it's chance yet. we have been winning games so it has been more important to win than get the bench in tune. our starters have been playing great so the bench minutes have been very low. i think people are too hard on the bench. delfino and arroyo stop dribble penetration just as good as rip and chauncey do. darko is still a shot blocker and still is hanging in there against the best bigs in the league, shaq, mourning, dikembe. his offensive game is needing a little work but i think that's more the coach needs to run some plays for him. evans is hitting the 3 point shot very well and rebounding well too. if anything our bench needs more minutes and more minutes as a unit. to develop that chemistry and define who is the leader among the second unit.

mcdyess is the one bench player i'm worried about. he seems to be getting his minutes based on being a proven player. the bigs behind him are outplaying him right now but he still gets the major chunk of the minutes. i know what mcdyess can do and want him to get going but if another guy has it going that game let him have the minutes. the pistons are an unselfish bunch except maybe jmax they don't mind if the other players have good games as long as we win.

I've been worried about our bench for the past 2 seasons. Hunter is looking more and more valuable with every passing game.

How nice would a Michael Finley off the bench be looking right now? SA's and Miami's benches got deeper and tougher, ours got younger and less experienced.

Barring a Joe D. trade, I'm more worried about our bench this year than last.

8-1 start i think we miss lindsey sooo much. putting up over 100 pts yes we are sorely missing lindsey. lindsey makes us tougher defensively but then that is going to suck the life out of us offensively. the offensive explosion is what is making this team much better than last years team.

our bench is looking kinda bad right now because our go to guy mcdyess can't hit the side of the barn right now. that's messing up the offense for the rest of the guys on the second unit. also arroyo is the main ball handler with no help out there so it seems like he over dribbles our second unit needs delfino.

i think the only difference between our bench and other teams is that other teams play thier bench. flip needs to start putting the bench on the floor so they can contribute. we are also a healthy team so none of our bench players never really get extended minutes because of injury. other teams have gave thier bench players lots of development minutes because of injury and suspensions in the case of indiana. don't sleep on our bench they are just getting started.

By your argument, we have sacrificed defense to get our increased offense.

The record says 8-1, but the defense has not been there. On nights like the last two, when shots are not dropping, defense gets you a win. Anyone who thinks the Ps will run and gun all over Miami and Indy (or Cleveland) are kidding themselves. It's going to take the best defense in the East to get wins.

__________________
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."

I'm sure this won't be popular. But that never really bothers me anyway, so....

I'm already thinking about who we can get at the trade deadline for McDyess. He looks horrible. I'd rather see Darko out there relying on his insticts, which BTW need to get better, than Dyess lumbering around like an Atlzheimers patient.

yes. we sacrificed a little bit of defense for a whole bunch of offense. yes. lindsey somewhat stops other teams guards but he also stops us to a halt also. i'd rather have arroyo stopping the other guard sometime and us scoring on the other end instead of lindsey. truth be told there aren't that many contenders with super quick guards on them. dallas gives us trouble because they are willing to go small and josh howard and daniels give us trouble. chauncey is already our solution to small guards he punishes them. now rip will have to start punishing small guards as teams have caught on to this and put smaller quick guards on rip.

on nights like the first few games of the season when your defense and offense is clicking the pistons are pretty much unstoppable. actually i do think we can run and gun with the other teams. we have a lot of quality offensive players especiallly our second unit. defense wins games but you still have to put up points. in my opinion lindsey only stops 2nd unit inexperienced guards. he's good for spot defense only at this stage of his career.

last night wasn't a normal night. dallas just flat out couldn't miss. they were hitting from inside and from outside. even if our defense was on them they still were hitting the shots. chalk last nights loss up. nothing to worry about.