1st half:


Sheed starts out working the post, airball, turnover, miss. Then he hits a pair of triples. Later, he does get us a basket by giving the ball up from the post to a cutter. Then later, he does score in the post, and hits a short jumper later. And another triple. Did his post game help us any? Well, it got us in the right mind set. Tay came on to do some good damage in the post. And, of course, just as important, all this trying to go inside meant few fast break ops for Dallas.


Defensively, we made them miss 16 times in a row starting from shortly before Maxiell came into the game (Dyess got his 2nd foul with 4 minutes left in the 1st quarter) to well into the 2nd quarter. We went up to a 26-17 lead. Pretty much all of it went away though due to us letting Hayes play, in a game where he has no place being. If you can't guard anyone, you should not be in the game.


Hayes did hit one 3. But who knows, just maybe whoever took his minutes could have made a bucket too. For certain, they could not have done any worse defensively. Dallas attacked Hayes from the moment he entered the game, and it scrambled our defense into non-existance.


Tay came back in for Hayes and we ended the half with a decent run and are up 6 at the half. This is a low scoring game, as Rip has not scored yet. In all, holding Dallas to 38 points in the half is some pretty good D.


Stuckey came in with 2 minutes left in the 1st quarter. He missed a couple of outside shots. He drove in a lot with mixed results. Not a lot of scoring. But Dallas was not hitting any shots while he was in for his first 5 minutes. he can play some good D.


Amir Johnson joined the subs to start the 2nd quarter. But Amir sat with 3 fouls just 3 minutes into the quarter. Not good, but again, Dallas did not score a bucket while Amir was in so it was not all bad. (Although, we did get into the penalty way too fast, and it hurt us later in the quarter.)


Billups came in for Rip shortly into the 2nd quarter, and played shooting guard while Stuckey continued to play the point. Afflalo did play some minutes later in the quarter though. (I think about 4 minutes in all. I don't think he took a shot.)
Good game so far. I predict we will not see Hayes in the 2nd half.


2nd half. Well, Hayes did play, not that it mattered that much. We had complete control of the game to go into the 4th quarter. Anyone else notice who was out there during that 10-0 run to end the 3rd quarter? Afflalo. Nice to see him first guard off the bench after a first half where he did not enter until late. Anyway, Hayes did not do too bad defensively in the 2nd half, or maybe we just found him better matchups. And he hit some shots.

Stuckey just continued to drive in again and again. It resulted in a career high 11 points for him. Nice game overall on offense, and good solid D. Oh, and the one drive, he came from the right and layed it up right over Nowitzski. Stuckey got some serious talent.

Yeah, Amir did not get in the rotation in the 2nd half. And this despite us having a big lead to enter the 4th. Not a good thing. I'll let it pass if its just once. In all, our four main youngsters we want to see get minutes, got minutes. Lots of them. Can't complain majorly on that ground today.

Maxiell is missing his outside shots all the sudden, but just like last game, he did plenty, especially on defense. When called upon to guard Dirk or Josh, he did very well indeed. Maxiell also tore up on the boards and got some slams.

Amir did get quite a few bounds, and a block, while in.

Rip put together a bit of scoring in that 3rd quarter, all of his 10 points I think. (Did he play any in the 4th - don't think so.) Rip also had 7 assists. Rip was scoreless in the first half, but I don't think he took that many shots either.

Who was shooting the ball then? Some guy named Sheed. He burned Dirk early and often in the post in the 2nd half. Lets call the first half a warmup for him. Between Tay and Sheed, we had plenty of postup power today.

Billups had a so so game. Of course, he did not play in the 4th quarter as Stuckey finished out this blowout win.

Fabio did look pretty active on D. His drive in looked great. Considering he sat the whole game until garbage time, hitting his 3 try impressed me.

I see Murray was dressed? I hope this does not spell some kind of trouble brewing. (No Brezec)(Trade maybe?)

To those who think Stuckey is not a point guard just because he drives in a lot. Hey, as a point guard, you do have to establish your offensive game. Once, if ever, the other team stops your game, then you pass off. I would not worry about Stuckey. He seems to pass the ball and pass it well whenever someone gets open under the basket.

GO PISTONS!!!!!

To answer a question I just read: Dallas was trying to go inside, but we just would not let them. They ended up settling for outside shots, and even these were heavily contested. A darn good defensive effort. (If you leave out the bad stretch for Hayes in the 2nd quarter, it would have been one amazing game.)

Stuckey played the point, even when Billups was in with him to start the 2nd quarter. Stuckey is the guy who was making the decisions on offense. He brought the ball up. Sure, he called his own number a lot. Good call. Until a team like Dallas, with poor defense, goes out and trades for someone who can stop Stuckey, he should charge in there and ram it down there throat every single time.

Good win. Good variety on offense. Sheed is a difference maker for our team it seems. When he is on, the team is at another level. Good to see Stuckey continue to drive. Glad they have stopped trying to make his game fit a mold.

My concerns for the playoffs? We are not getting much from that center position. If Dyss is not going to score, we would be better off with a big body because we are undersized.

Maxiel has to get that jumper back. He is so positive for us defensively. But we need him to be able to hit that jumper or teams will start to sag on him.

I concur here. We are getting boards from Dice, but you are right not that much scoring lately or stops. Need to give AJ some of those minutes for more development here prior to the break.

Hey, Dre,

How about those Lakers (I know not the place). I would now trade Odom as never felt he could score enough.

On the Pistons, right, Dyss is getting boards but we are giving up size to have him in there at center. That could wear us down in a playoffs. The advantage of Dyss is suppose to be that he can score and spread the opposition defense. We are going to have to contain Z on the Cavs. I would give Amir more burn but am hoping Joe is shopping for a big body. I would like Prisbilla...

Prizbilla is a good option, but i remember us pursuing him when Ben left and him not wanting to come here. He loves POR i guess, and i don't see him leaving or them trading him now that Oden is down.

Kurt Thomas has been discussed who i love, but we probably don't have what it takes to get him.

Wilcox maybe? Collison is serviceable, although his defense leaves much to be desired. Petro, i havent seen play much. It does seem like SEA is overloaded with bigs so maybe something with them.

I can't think of any other bigs at the moment.

AJ does need more time.

No Devin Harris and no Stackhouse.

We can defend and beat any team almost any time we want if they don't have fast guards. We did a real good job on Terry and the rest of the defense fell into place.

Exactly correct. Dribble penetration by quick guards is the Pistons achilles (unless you can double-team or zone and the opponents outside shots aren't falling).

I didn't watch the very end yet, but as soon as I left chat, things seemed to go well.

I hope everyone is sated with the play of the young fellas, and the defensive effort. It was refreshing to hear the sideline capturing a very vocal Flip Saunders working hard to keep his guys on track.

If we can continue to improve and play this level of defense, we are title contenders.

__________________
To all of my friends, comrades and companions at PF.com

Thank you for another great season!

Roscoe, make sure you watch the finish. Even the last couple minutes of garbage time were exciting, as all of the Piston reserves were making plays and having fun.