I imagine D12 will have a little extra "pep" in his step after getting snubbed from the ASG. Especially considering it was Sheed who took his spot.

Yes he is amazing. ORL did well with their pick. I am sure they will find someway to blow it in the future but at least for now they can say they finally have a future star after all the bad moves.

Pistons are rolling again. Pistons 108 ORL 89

This is a big game for Detroit in the sense of keepimg ahead of the pack. I hope All-Star selection hang over don't get in the heads of the guys. Orlando will play hard and will give Detroit a battle for most of the game. Detroit will pull this game out and I have the score 96-87 Detroit.

This game is a must win!! The next three before all-star week are must wins very important to keep infront of Dallas and San Ann. GO PISTONS!!!

Since yall bored with this matchup...ITS PISTON DAY ON ESPN CLASSIC!!!!MY BRUDDAHS!

http://www.pistonsforum.com/news/853...hat-debut.html

Room probably won't start to fill up until halftime for a snoozer like this...

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Top story. How is Arroyo doing. One, he was plus five in the game, but only played in the 1st half. A few assists and a few rebounds. One fancy pass, resulting in a layup for Delfino. Fine defensively. Why he did not play in the 2nd half, who knows. Perhaps Flip sensed a blowout that just never happened. We were up around 14 points for most of the 4th quarter. Bottom line, bad coaching by Flip to play Billups over 40 minutes in a game pretty much in hand by the start of the 4th quarter.

I noticed that the only time our bench gained on Orlando was when Arroyo and Delfino were both in the game. Evans scored a couple of buckets, one on a fast break with an assist from Arroyo, and one on another fast break with an assist from Delfino. Delfino did not shoot a whole lot, missing his two outside shots and hitting two inside shots. His triple was an airball. Yes, he absolutely needs to play more and get more shots. Just before he caught the flew, he was hitting those triples. Do not listen to Kelser. Triples are absolutely part of Delfino's game.

While CB got to little rest, can't say the same for the rest of the starters. Dyess played plenty to spell Ben and Sheed, while both Delfino and Evans played plenty so that Rip and Tay did not play too many minutes.

Tay started the game shooting 0-10 I think. Close to that anyway. He finally had a tap in, and then made one outside shot in what was pretty much garbage time. Oh well, Tay had just averaged 25 over the last 2 games, time for a bad game I guess.

Rip was getting inside early, and hit a couple of triples in the 2nd half. A second half where we really turned up the D. A pretty much tied game to end the 1st half, the game was quickly decided to start the 3rd quarter. Orlando still only had 17 points for the half midway thru the 4th quarter. Quite a contrast between Sheed's two halves of play. In the first half, he shot 2-9. He ended up with 26 points, hitting 5 triples. Anyway, between him and Tay both having bad first halves, it was a good thing our defense was holding at least in the first half.

The other team had one weopon working well, a lefty shot from Howard from the left baseline. The guy hit 5 of them in the game. Pretty impressive. Howard had a double double for Orlando in the first half alone.

CB did not score a whole lot, but notched 14 assists. Rip scored 23. Just steady. Ben hit a free throw to complete a three point play off the usual one per game lob from Rip on a pick and roll.

Dyess hit a couple of buckets in the first half. Can't remember him hitting any in the 2nd half. Note, this has been a pattern for Dyess of late. Maybe the stepped up minutes equals no legs in the 2nd half for him of late. Just a theory.

No Darko, no Davis, no Hunter. Arroyo and the rest of the bench (except Davis I think) were going to get a minute at the end of the game, but there was no stoppage in play, and they sat back down without getting into the game.

Did we get any closer to winning in the playoffs tonight. I doubt it. Flip is still not playing the bench as much as he should. In this game, the bench should have been in force for the 4th quarter with that huge lead. If by any chance they could not have held it, the starters could have come back in. Most likely, they would not have had to. Just one more example of an opportunity for Flip to use his bench which he did not take. Also, there was no reason at all Billups had to come back in for the last 3 minutes of the 1st half. Let the poor guy get some rest. All for now. GO PISTONS!!!!!

boxscore comments

Got to commend our point guards. Another high assist, low turnover game. The Pistons lead the league with just 12 turns per game. The Pistons were under that again with 11 tonight with 26 assists. Arroyo turned in another game, his 21st, with no turnovers. Thats 40 games now with none or just one for him. CB's 14 assists were certainly something to write home about. His 16th double digit assist game this season. (Although Arroyo had a higher assist rate per minute in this game.)

In contrast, Orlando had 17 turns to just 11 assists, pretty bad. Hedo had four straight turns himself at one point. But this type of performance is pretty common out there. Just has to make you appreciate our Pistons all the much more.

Our bench got 59 minutes. Three of our starters played between 32 and 33 minutes, about right. Sheed and CB each played 42 minutes, definitely a bit too high. Still better to see some starters get rest than none.

Ben's 10 rebounds did not keep up with the what Howard got, 17. So Ben remains behind Howard in the battle of the boards this year.

We got outboarded again, though barely, 42-40. Ben had double digit boards, though, to go with double digit assists from Billups and Sheed and Rip scoring in the 20's. So we won with a balanced, all-star attack. As for Tay, the odd man out, hey, as Kelser was saying, he was the guy hounding Hedo into all those turnovers.

Seeing the 4 rebounds for Delfino reminds me to mention he was really a force on the boards tonight. None of those boards were of the easy variety as I recall. GO PISTONS!!!!!

Keep in mind that Billups was taking it pretty easy this game. I would have liked to see some others in there too, but I don't think we burned CB out. Sheed and Ben were doing all of the hard work on D trying to stop Howard from scoring and grabbing all those boards. 12 rebounds in the first quarter?!? I've never seen anyone do that against us.

I agree with the "play delfino more" sentiment. I love what he brings to the table with his defense, rebounding, and overall offensive game. Though I do agree with Kelser, that I'd like to see him cutting to the rim more often. He definately has an outside shot, but that should always be the 2nd option when you can get to the hole like he can. Once he learns how to keep the ball away from shotblockers and draw contact he'll be a monster. I just wish he'd get a solid 20 minutes per night. He definately deserves it. If Tayshaun can go out there and stink up the joint (and do absolutely nothing on the glass as well), I don't see how Delfino can't get 5-10 of his minutes.

True, this game in and of itself won't burn out CB, but the fact that its been par for the course all season - but especially lately - is what concerns me.

It seems as though Flip thinks "Well, the bench can't screw up too bad if I give them a few minutes in the first half." But then the 2nd half comes around and its "Nope, this game is just too close and too important to take a chance with the bench".

No matter how effective the bench plays when they're in, Flip seems like he just can't wait to get the starters back in there.

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