Everybody wants Flip to crack the whip, but this is what happens sometimes. Period. A home team plays inspired without its leaders, while another team playing out the tail end of a busy stretch before the All-Star Game struggles after a long hot streak.

So now there's a coaching crisis? Lack of coaching time, maybe, since practices are hard to come by with this kind of schedule.

And overconfidence, sure, of the same kind shown by the pitchfork-wielding fans who a few hours ago were assuming a blowout.

But this is a rivalry game against a team that runs the same micro-managed sets over and over again, so you have to actually beat them instead of waiting for them to screw up at the end. (Remember? We used to be these guys.) All the earmarks of an upset were there, so I for one ain't gonna mind too much. Truth is, losses like this can do the team more good than wins such as the one against Philadelphia.

Everybody, including the Pistons, should probably just chill and watch the Super Bowl.

Ok... next

how can this happen? We lose against a team without 3 key players, including their biggest offensive threat? They get 24 offensive rebounds without their best rebounder? Who are Danny Granger, Scott Pollard or Jeff Foster to clean up the glass like that?
A worried fan...
(but still happy that these Pistons are so good that a loss against the Pacers feels like one against an expansion team)

You are not mentinoning Arroyo in too positive of a light here. Why? Depite our bigs being absolutely slaughtered on the glass, Arroyo handed Billups a three point lead to begin the 2nd quarter. If you want to talk about a momentum killer, why not diss Billups. We went 1 for 8 to start the 2nd quarter, after shooting nearly 60% in the first quarter, which was mostly Arroyo at point.

Arroyo and Delfino came in together early in the 4th quarter, and the lead got cut to 4 a few moments later. What the heck is wrong with that? Other than bringing Billups back to work his late game heroics, which did not materialize in this one, there was no reason at all to bring Billups back into the game.

Granger played only 20 minutes, Harrison even less. Hmmm...What was that about playing your bench? And it looks like Carlisle still has a problem playing rookies, even if he is producing.

And I just thought it was the feeling of dissappoinment the guys had to feel for being snubbed, yet once again.

I'm not suprise about this lose, I pened this in the begining of the month ae a potential lose. In the NBA there are games that aare scheduled loses and when you look at the senario of the whole thing 4 game in the 5th night on the road of a back to back it spells a dangerous game.

No matter how good this team is sometimes those things are hard to over come, Now we can break down every little thing about why they lost in game but the major reason is Indiana was waiting on this team two days to prepare for a team playing back to back is a way to beat your opponent and they wanted this game more than the Pistons.

Well we move on the Pistons should go 11-2 this month and we have to let Indiana spew all the WE can beat Detroit banter.

We lost the game on the boards. We lost the game on tiredness on the starters. Did i mentioned this 2 points in my pre game post?

Boards - Tay has 2 boards the entire game with the heavy minutes he had. No doubt that he did a decent job on Peja making him go 3-14 for the game but Tay did not box out on Peja. Peja managed to have 4 offensive boards.

Fatigue - All 5 starters played more than 35 min again on back to backs and 4 games in 5 nights. Even in this 4 games stretch, starters been averaging 36 min a game. That's ridiculous. Flip should have rested the starters more against the Sixers.

If Flip would have played the bench more minutes in the Sixers game, I'm very sure we would not have lost this game. Even though the game score were close in the Sixers game, I believe the bench would not have lost the game if Flip mix the subs minutes with the starters more. By mixing the subs with starters, he is developing the bench as well as giving the starters some rest. Where is the disadvantage in doing that, Flip? I understand players in a team need to play more together to build team chemistry, but our starters has played almost 3 seasons together for heaven's sake.

Even when the starters can play those heavy minutes as their age permits them to do so, coaches must not be afraid to use the bench when the starters are not playing well. Proven coaches like Phil Jackson, Chuck Daly, Lenny Wilkens, Greg Popovich and even Larry Brown will not hesitate to use the bench when the starters are not getting the job done in certain games.

There are 9 more back to back games in our schedule. Use the bench wisely. Arroyo, Delfino and Mo's game is improving and with more minutes, they can still improve. Dice, Hunter, Davis has proven track records. We can still develope Darko and JMax if necessary.

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DETROIT BASKETBALL

Or, maybe, Flip knows what Larry Brown knew? And there's "still time to develop darko?" Huh?
Look, the bench SUCKS. When you see the opposition pouring it on with their bench it's obvious. Either play them or dump them.
When your starting PG is yawning during intros, something is up.

Because we played a team with a legitimate BENCH, that's how. Indy just showed us the value of a "banger" or two. Something we ain't got. No way we could pull off what they did without 3 key players. I shutter to think how we'd look with Ben, Sheed and Chauncy on the shelf at the same time.