Good win. Even though it wasn't a blow out, it reminded me of the 04-05 Pistons that won with defense and just kept the lead in the 8 to 12 point range for the whole game with no threat of the other team even coming close.

CB tried to show case court his skills on national TV with 18 pts and 10 dimes, but also had 4 TO's. The good is only took two 3 ball atempts. When is the last time Rip only took 8 shots in a game? 46 games this season now scoring in double figures. Just got that 10th point however in the last minute on a FT.

Webber looked good in the first half with 13 points to help Pistons to the 7 point halftime lead. 15pts, 13 boards and no techs for Sheed as he played a very good game down low.

Dice was the spark off the bench with 12 points and Hunter who dragged the offense down in the first half with three 3 point bricks, played some good defense in the second with 3 steals.

First in the conference with 1 game leads over Wiz and Bulls. Now 4-4 in the division, 15-9 on the road. 7-2 with Webber starting.

So far Flip is the coach of the month for February with Mike Mitchell of the Raptors

With five straight home games coming up, time to take advantage of the home cooking vs Celtics, Lakers, Raptors, Clippers and Spurs. Only the Celtics game is a gimme, but if they win all five then the team is BACK

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"Once you go Barack, you never go Bak" Mario Cantone 2008

Yep, looked pretty easy, as it should. Cleveland is not all that. They never have solved their point guard problem, and using an inexperienced rookie vs. Billups just shows desperation. James, not a factor, being held to 2 points in each of the middle quarters, and just human in the other two despite the attempted buildup by the national announcers.

Well, Webber got 15 and it just seems natural at this point. Got to love 7 for 10 shooting, with just enough rebounds for his minutes played you can't quite complain. Webber made another outside shot, but everything else was post scoring, what a sight for sore eyes.

Sheed did a lot of damage in the post himself, showed he is very capable of shutting down Ilgauskas, and cleared the boards all nite to boot.

Dyess was huge off the bench, hitting a bunch of outside shots. Delfino knocked down a couple himself and helped check Bron a bit in the 2nd quarter. (He did not do so well on that other guy-Pavolic (sp)) No Delfino in the 2nd half, nor Maxiell except for the last seconds of the game. But I won't complain, as Davis, Maxiell, and Delfino all got decent playing time in this one. With Hunter doing very well on defense, and Dyess being so effective, thats 5 bench players contributing, giving energy. Which makes it easier for the starters to maintain their energy level thruout the game.

Tay, if anyone did not notice, is above his career best scoring average, and continued to knock down his outside shots. Remember a bit earlier in the year when people complained about the misses-I said that was practice for later in the season. Prince developing his game. He has. He must be address on the perimeter, making his drives in, and all our inside play, easier.

Rip just continues to hit his shots. I wonder just how much of an improvement from last year there is. I'll check that after this post.

Billups is clearly hurting out there, and hurting us on D because of it. But he is running the offense pretty well-for the most part. He needs rest, that leg is nowhere near right.

Good to see Dale out there, but hey Pistons, do not leave the guy out to dry when Ilgauskas has good post position on him. Don't spectate, somebody come over to help a bit.

Despite the hype about James, this was over with about 5 minutes left in the game. We played stall ball for much of the last 4 minutes, perfectly good strategy when you are that far up. GO PISTONS!!!!!

A good win. The Pistons offense reminded me of running water. Whenever the Cav's tried to stop them, the Pistons just flowed right around. If it wasn't CB distributing, it was Webber. We had a variety of people get down on the low post. We had different people hitting the 3. The defense seemed pretty transparent but the commentators were talking about how the team defense kept lebron from attacking the basket. It seemed pretty easy for Pavlovic who ran layup drills on the Pistons D 3 times in a row.

Rip: The engine of the pistons machine...still. Didn't shoot as often as usual but boy was he active and all over the place. On one sequence he ran into a stationary JAmes and went down for a couple of minutes.


billups: I kinda think it was the lack of a dominant PG for the Cavs but CB basically controlled the whole game. He aslo made some good defensive plays on Big Z early on. He also got to the line a lot which points to a more active role in the offense.

Webber: I remember him outletting early while his man got a rebound and a put back. But otherwise, he rebounded ok. He really helps the offense. He had some great passes that never got converted. Tried to grab offensive rebounds...came away with 2. Took Full advantage of the opportunities presented.

Sheed: I saw him work the post consistently. Controlled out defensive rebounds and had a sweet putback jam. He took 3 3's which is good. 5-7 is too many.

Prince. I didn't really notice prince so much. it didn't seem like Tay was any more successful at containing lebron than anyone else which isn't to say he did a bad job. He did convert 66% of his 3's.

Mcdyess. You know I turn my head and when a I look back at the TV the ball is sailing in from mid range...Dyess!!! He's really been doing well for us.

Hunter. Say what you want...lins got 3 steals and didn't over dribble too much.

Delfino played 10 minutes. hit his outside shots...the best thing was the extra passes made to him.

Maxiell got 5 minutes. I heard he got a dunk but he whole stint was when I was in the little boys room. damn. I missed it.

The defense is still susceptible to slashers who are not Wade and Lebron. It seems we are able to focus on one person and discourage attacking the basket but anyone else...today it was pavlovic...can get in easily and either score or dish off for a score.

However, we did play scrappy enough and came away with loose balls and turn overs.
Lets get amir involved!

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the first time I saw CWebb;
my impressions:
he's extremely slow and I wonder if he can still dunk
his jumpshoot- technique is horrible, but who cares, he drains them at a nice %.
Good passer, as everybody knew.
With the current style of playing, he can help any team in the league for at least 2 more seasons since he doesn't rely on his athleticism (which is good). The saddest thing was seeing him boxing out Ilgauskas who just knocked the rebound away because Cwebb couldn't get his butt up in the air more than one inch.
Besides;
Tay plays way too much, there are many moments you don't notice him being on the court. Delfino played decent in the minutes given and still didn't get more. Why is that?
JMax had a sweet dunk and would have deserved some more minutes too. He lost the ball once when being under pressure by several Cle players in the zone.
Davis didn't look like an experienced vet when Ilgauskas easily faked and made the shot for a possible 3pt- play. The fake even wasn't that good.

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I'm a wannabe- GM, but I stand to it.

Best thing they did today was to finish quarters - dominated in the last two minutes of all four.

It would have been nice to have seen a bit more bench. This is a pattern from last year - play the starters into the fourth trying to make a big run and force garbage time, and when the run doesn't come you're stuck with playing the starters most of the second half. Rip or Tay has to start coming out of the game about the eight minute mark of the second and third along with Sheed or Webber. That at least gives the coach some options.

Seemed like a lot of unforced turnovers today. This isn't a team that plays well in the early afternoon.

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"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

This Pistons team does not only have 5 players that you have to defend, but they have 5 players who make each other better.

Chauncey Billups- Solid game. Made the right decisions, got the ball inside. Ran the pick and rolls very well.

Rip Hamilton-Solid as well. Didn't score a lot, but got to the line. He's added that to his game over the summer.

Tayshaun Prince-Very good game. Made LeBron pay for poor defense, and helped stop LeBron every quarter.

Rasheed Wallace-Dominance inside. He shot outside jumpers well too, but this time he went inside first.

Chris Webber-Solid. Good at communicating on defense based on the mic.

Dice-Good spark off the bench.

Lindsey-Great defense, and hustle

Dale Davis-Good job at controling the inside

J Max-Didn't play much, but had a nice dunk

Delfino-made open shots

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"That's the end, man." Rasheed Wallace

Dre and Lee,

I would call this game as winning with a quiet dominance. We put them in the Piston grinding machine as we did Dallas. Good to see that it is still there--I was beginning to worry. Stern may not like it but who cares? Less than 90 points usually does the trick in the regular season.

Right all, with Chris, I don't worry about us getting bogged down in the offense as much. We saw a further glimpse of just what a Chris-Sheed tandem can do offensively. Watch out!

I still cringe when I see Hunter and Delfino on the floor together--we often do not generate enough scoring with that duo. Everyone likes Delfino but he has to learn to finish better. I could see Hunter's value when he was on the floor with Chauncey and he could focus on defense.

Good to see Dice take those jumpers. That is his game. He shoots jumpers at a good percentage and can do it against the good teams. He does not convert as well inside. Good to see players used to their strengths.

Maxiel would have been huge. Too bad he didn't get enough minutes.

I don't know. The starters want to be out there more in a game like this. Besides 5 guys did play off the bench.

Its mainly those Tuesday night road games against the Hawks that can really wear down a team if the starters play too much. In a playoff type game like this Flip would have had a hard time sticking to the plan. Would you guys have really wanted to see a closer game or the Pistons lose because Flip wanted to limit the starters mins.

Nice win. Total dominance, won every quarter. Won every stat except for one extra block and offensive board by the Cavs. Won total rebounding by 7.

What was up with that lame "DETROIT TUNROVER" comment by the Cavs PA announcer? Total bush league - He needs to get his own gig. Thats one thing about the Palace staff, they will never make fun of a teams home court bit.

Fun game to watch.

A few late notes:

1. The Cavs involved Webber in as many screen situations as they possibly could, eventually leading Flip to bench him in favor of Maxiell at the end of the game.

2. Maxiell played adequate defense, but his defensive rebounding remains subpar to atrocious. One uncontested rebound in light traffic that came right at him in the final minutes of the game slipped right through his fingers.

3. With Snow on the bench in favor of some rookie, said rookie got torched. Excellent game from Billups.

4. Terrible game from Rip at both ends. Still managed to play 37 minutes...

5. ...as did all the starters except Webber. Flip went with his seven-man playoff rotation.

Too bad it wasn't a CBA game. Detroit would have gotten some extra points for winning those quarters.