Agree lp, AMir should have been in there in the second part of the third, but as you can see Flip still does not trust him in crucial situations. He only had one foul??

At least Flip recognized that CB was thinking about Bourbon Street in the third and brought Stuckey in to start the comeback. CB finally came back to the ATL in the 4th and scored 10 straight points to solidify his all-star status and put this one away in the W column.

The bench did their thing for the 3rd or 4th straight game in a row with 31 points and Stucky had another excellent game. If he had not missed those 25 games, the Pistons would have been sitting at 48-3 (with only 3 losses to the bulls )


Credit the 4th qtr defense from both the bench and the starters that won this game, holding the Hawks to 14 points after they had given up 58 in the previous two qtrs. I said in chat at the beginning of the 4th that we would need about 92 to win and I was right on. Nine in a row baby and hopefully an allstar close out W vs the pacers tomorrow at home for 10!!!

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

I like Stuckey more every day...

I'm happy he recognized that and played AA extensively as well. It's just so frustrating we recognize everything and then it takes him a year and half to do the same. Baby steps i guess.

edited to add;

Stuckey had an interview on NBATV, and mentioned we were going for that #1 seed.

Atlanta was 15-5 at Home so its not like they were pushovers that the Pistons should have blown out.

Great execution in cruch time, thats all that matters in the end. Well rested starters. Even with the Refs picking on Sheed.

Stucky is looking like he may even be better than Wade someday. Going to get to the point where he will be hard to take out of games.

Max, I think they are 15-11 at home.

Good win. Nine in a row. CB missed his first 8 shots, but still helped us by getting to the line some. Then he took over the 4th quarter to win it for us, attributing his good showing to getting plenty of rest from Stuckey in this game. Billups hit a three to tie. Another to go ahead. 12 points in all in that 4th to end up with 16 in all. (4 made free throws earlier.) Billups also had a very efficient 8 assists to no turns.


Its questionable if Rip should have been in this game, as he did not seem to me all that recovered from the food poisoning he ws suffering from earlier today. But he still managed to make some shots. A clutch fast break layup against 4 defenders was his highlight.


Afflalo got plenty of time, including some defensive sub ops in this close game. Afflalo played some good D, hit an outside shot and made some free throws. He also had a nice drive and dish inside. He came in very early for Rip in the 3rd as our starters were not getting it done. We lost the 7 point lead we started the 2nd half with.


Stuckey hit an outside shot or two, got to the hoop for a layup here and there. 5 for 8 shooting in all. Two nice passes for scores too.
Amir scored 6, only playing the last 7 minutes or so of the 2nd quarter. Four of his points came on offensive rebound putbacks. He got to post up once at the end of the quarter, missing on a difficult hook shot.
Hayes hit one outside shot that I remember. He did not seem to have much impact on the game.


Maxiell did some board work, drew some fouls. Not many shots. No outside shots that I recall for him.
Tay did not do that much in this one. One important hoop going inside was his highlight.


Josh Smith did a lot of damage against us. None of our bigs could stop him consistently, as he has come up with a quite effective hook shot that looks pretty hard to block. Probably would have to double team the guy a lot in a playoff series if he can keeps making that shot. Amir had a turn trying to stop him to, and Smith got past him for scores.


Dyess hit a shot or two, not really a whole lot from him other than contending with some pretty good inside offensive players in Horford and Smith.



How would I grade this one on preparation for the playoffs? About a B. Amir did get a good stint in the first half. Stuckey played a ton and more importantly was counted on to play late into the 4th in a tight game. Afflalo ended up playing plenty after coming in there early in the 3rd. Maxiell keeps getting all the minutes he can handle. Hayes, like him or not, played enough minutes to keep Tay from getting overplayed. Thats a ten man rotation pretty much. To earn an A, yes, Amir could have played a few minutes in that 2nd half. Now, grading for the last few games as a whole: A +. the last nine games as a whole: A. It ain't been perfect. Been some C's in there. But a couple of A+ 's to balance those out. I say we remain on the right road. Championship ahead.

GO PISTONS!!!!!

I see I forgot to mention Sheed. He had a monster 1st quarter. He did good work inside and great work from the 3 point line. I see we got outrebounded badly in this one. Amir had 4 rebounds in his 7 minutes including 3 offensive boards. Maxiell had 2 offensive boards. Our starters: 2 offensive rebounds between them and just 10 total rebounds. Sheed ended up fouling out after getting 3 quick fouls to open the 4th quarter. When he fouled out, I think it was a makeup call as the refs missed a foul call on us a second earlier. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Good thing Sheed did not pick up a tech there as there was little wiggle room in our lead at that point.

They have beaten some very good teams at home

Lakers
Mavericks
Suns
Jazz
Cavs
Nuggets

Atlanta Hawks - Schedule - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

yeah I heard that too...he must be listening to Flip a bit too much. I will be happy if we finish one game behind the Celtics in the regular season and a game ahead of them or whomever in ECF and Finals

Glad they pulled this one out. Looked bad at the end of the 3rd like they were out of sync from foolin around too much. Be a real game tomorrow against the Pacers who also are coming off a back2back and against the Celts to boot.