Pistons At Heat ~ February 12th, 2006 - Page 4 - Detroit Pistons Fan Community

roscoe36 · #31 (**permalink**) 02-12-2006, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mercury

Micro,someone needs a beer or a nice massage...

I'll take the massage. I just had hot chocolate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mercury

it's all good bro (no I ain't patronizing.. just hepin' a friend)...

Appreciated. You have been the voice of calm and cool reason. I've noticed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mercury

this is a gr8 team... and a solid coach...

I've tried to keep it together when stuff has bothered me. But tonight, the boil came to a head. Maybe I'm completely off my rocker. Most losses have been discussed here with little passion. I'm seeing stuff I wish I wasn't seeing, or rather stuff that I overlooked when we were running all over teams.

Fact is, this squad can't play halfcourt with Flip's system. The execution is terrible. And they're not getting the stops on the other end like in seasons past. Like I said, I wish I wasn't seeing it, but it's happening...

Quote:

Originally Posted by mercury

did LB have this kinda record?... let's save the serious stuff for the playoffs.

I hope and pray that LB is further demonized this offseason as the Pistons roll to a title with Flip. Honest. Damn LB. But at this time last year, post brawl even with the coaching fiasco, this team cranked it up another notch and started taking names for their $#^! list.

If HCA is the goal, we better pull our bootstraps up. Spurs are traditionally a very tough second half team (and they are showing it again). At this rate, we're funnin' and gunnin' and still might not win HCA in the Finals.

Lee356 · #32 (**permalink**) 02-12-2006, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by themicrowave

I am still very angry about this game. Not that we lost, but how we lost.

I read somewhere (too much reading trying to find some closure to remember where) that with LB you had to play D to get on the court, with Flip you have to play "O".

This myth about the Pistons playing good defense has to be put to rest. They play defense in spots. There is no emphasis on defense from Sheed, CB or Tay. Their effort waxes and wanes game-to-game. The only guys playing with any defensive pride game in and game out has been Rip, Ben and recently Delfino.

How the heck does Wade score 17 straight without an adjustment? Without a timeout? Tay was left on an island, an island we know he cannot master as evidenced by last year's ECF.

In fact, with the exception of a few good regular season games, Tay's last great defensive stand was in the 2004 playoffs against Kobe. I'm not picking on Tay. I don't doubt he's giving a solid effort, but finishing the game with no fouls, and the coaching staff doing NOTHING to take Wade out of his game was STUPID.

Flip better get his act together. He better find a way to reign in these guys. CB's shot selection and offensive execution in the 4th Q has taken a dramatic step backwards since the New Year.

The players win and lose the game, but Flip is not making use of the bench (again no Hunter, after Flip mentions publically that LH will get run), Delfino taken out when all we really needed was to lock down Wade a little longer. Davis and Dice absent late in the game as usual, and THREE players with 40+ minutes.

And people think LB was too short and hard headed with his rotations...

I can handle losing to Utah, NJ, even Cleveland at home. I can understand dropping a game against Atlanta, and Indy is always scrappy without their main pieces.

But this was the Pistons game to win, and they folded. No stops, no execution, no clever substitutions, nothing. It was like watching water drain out of the kitchen sink after the dishes are done.

Still very, very mad. Either DW was proof positive tonight that Joe screwed up drafting Darko, or that Flip is not an adequate replacement as coach because this is the part of the season when the boys should really be hitting their stride and the rotation should be somewhat sorted.

Is Flip in over his head in the Eastern Conference? Are the starters running the show?

All I know is that we have dropped our last 4 against EC contenders. Miami, Indy, Cleveland and New Jersey. And that makes me ill. We've got 9 more games against these teams.

Anger is great, just shows what a great fan you are.

I absolutely agree that the rotations should be sorted somewhat by now. To me, Flip has wasted the season to this point on that score. Something about chasing regular season wins. And to me, whether you agree or not, the attempted inclusion of Evans in our rotation has not helped the process at all. In this game, Evans played four minutes. He had no role at all in this game. He has had no role in any game we really cared about.

But here we are, team turmoil as far as the rotations go. Not one fan knows who will or will not play the next game off the bench. Dyess might play 15 minutes, or 30. Arroyo, anywhere from 4 to 15. Delfino, Evans, Davis, Hunter, maybe none at all. Or anyone just might have a big role all the sudden. Who knows. For sure, listening to Flip will not give you clue one.

So what now. Simple. Forget homecourt. Do what Hubie Brown would have done. Play everyone extensively, from the rookies on up, and see who can contribute what. Then sort it all out. Flip still has plenty of time if he starts now. We need about 5 more wins to ensure we make the playoffs. Any more than that is just gravy. Lets get the team ready and let the rest fall where it may. Personally, I believe if we played the bench extensively, it would lead to more wins not less.

CB, in general, should be coming in for the final 6 minutes of the game, after a good long rest. This is not a pro-Arroyo post. Nope. You can play Prince at point for all I care, but your starting point guard need not get overused to the point he can't make good decisions down the stretch. This is a mental game too. Tonight Billups may have some physical energy left in the tank, but I doubt his mind was that into things after getting zero rest in the 2nd half of the game.

mercury · #33 (**permalink**) 02-12-2006, 11:16 PM

Ok, I just read the 2nd part of your post (Micro)... some solid points there...
About Ben & Tay dissapering... no question LB got more outta Ben... this was noticed today against Shaq... he basically didn't have to work on "D" today... I'm not advocating Ben becoming the focal point (like LB tried) but LB brought out the untapped potential much better than Flip... it got Shaq in foul trouble almost every time.
As for Tay.. he's coming off a couple real nice games... I'll cut him some slack for this one (other than wussin' out on helping on Shaq)...there's definately an opportunity here for the next time we meet these bastards.

Hopefully the team came out of this somewhat healthy (that's still up in the air) ... Lookin' forward to a Nets azz kickin' on Tuesday.

Slippy · #34 (**permalink**) 02-12-2006, 11:16 PM

Bruddah HQ: You get my vote for best recap.

Micro: I agree 101%

Someone needs to come up to the team and tell them that they ain't the champs. Lets get back to playin' D fellas!!

mercury · #35 (**permalink**) 02-12-2006, 11:18 PM

Damn .. knew I shouldn't a taken Lee off the ignore list... I stopped reading when he was blaming this on Mo who played like 5 minutes tonight... whatever hater.

Laimbeer_84 · #36 (**permalink**) 02-12-2006, 11:19 PM

bah we looked terrible down the stretch other than a few nice shots. It had me pissed

for a while. But these are the pistons and they're gonna get a win before the all star break and then come back focused and ready to smash the competition. btw next game is vs the nets and jason kidd's kid looks like an alien and has a mustache at age 3! I hope he makes it to the palace so I can laugh at him when j. kidd blows his lame kiss at the free throw line and they show the obligatory shot of his wife and kid (i know its mean and vain but I hate j. kidd and as a result his family feels my hate too!).

mercury · #37 (**permalink**) 02-12-2006, 11:38 PM

Damn, just saw that last shot by Wade again.. I don't care if you're Artest... nobody coulda defended that better that Tayshaun... that Wade kid is a serious talent.

Guys this one is in the rear view mirror... good motivation for the future... nice slap in the face for some lazy play at times (hello Sheed) let it it go.. we got bigger fish.

max · #38 (**permalink**) 02-13-2006, 12:02 AM

Micro - I was mainly pointing out the offensive boards 14 to 9. Thats 5 more shot attempts and I bet all of were from Shaq stuffing back in missed shots.

Overall with the offensive boards and turns Miami had 14 more shot attempts than we had. Free throws were about equal 18 to 21 with Miami taking 3 more.

You are just not going to win too many games giving up that many more shots - most of the disparity was in the 4th quarter I would imagine.

All that and if Tay would only have hit that wide open 3 we would have won. With 2.whatever sec's left it would have been nice to have worked out a better 2-pt play but that 3 was a shot Tay should have made.

Warthog · #39 (**permalink**) 02-13-2006, 12:11 AM

I agree Flip hasn't subbed well. Nash gets his mandatory rest to start the 4th, and Chauncey needs it too. Even if he's not tired, it's a mental refresh, and gives a different look to the other team ... gotta keep them on their toes. I also think Dale Davis is going to need more practice against the big fella in the next 2 meetings - he's looked like a man's man in previous games, but he was defending Shaq like Ben/Sheed. he's there to bang, not back off, and someone's gotta tell him that.

But I like to look at the positives, so let's do so:

- 3 guys scored in the 20s today.
- 11 of 20 from 3-point land
- tayshaun grabbed 10 boards
- billups had a solid game
- mcdyess shot the lights out
- arroyo played solid again, bench held their own
- delfino proved again he is an excellent defender, and can guard the quicker/stronger players in the league like wade - if nothing else getting to see that is key for the inevitable playoff series
- we were up by 14 on the road against the 2nd best team in the east going into the 4th quarter
- prior to this game we were 6-1 against division-leaders

and on a sidenote it's a pleasure listening to hubie brown instead of bill walton's ramblings or espn's 48-minute lovefest of the pistons. hubie sticks to the game and provides valuable insight.

mercury · #40 (**permalink**) 02-13-2006, 12:25 AM

Warthog... Warped minds think alike (you too Motown) ...Agree with you, Hubie is much better on the ears than the guy who experienced the 60's too much :^) ...all around solid post.

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