Well, to be fair, the Wizards were missing their best and third-best players.

But they are the Wizards.

1st half.
The starters came out smoking offensively, but they did not play particularly good D. Result? A high scoring first quarter with us ending up behind a couple of points.

Then we brought in Brick Hayes as the first guy off the bench. He made his first shot, an outside jumper that had zero chance of drawing a foul. Then he started his bricking routine. We fell further behind. Thankfully, Maxiell at least was in the game giving us some energy.

Then the actual bench came in. Hayes sat down and Tay came back into the game. Maxiell had played despite two quick fouls, and was now replaced with Amir. Sheed came in for Dyess. Afflalo came in for Rip. Stuckey came in for Billups. All the sudden, we had a unit with everything. Especially stellar defense. There was 10-0 run in there. And after Hayes left the game, we outscored them by about 24 points for the rest of the quarter.

Here is the unit that did the damage: Stuckey, Afflalo, Tay, Amir, Sheed. Stuckey got to the line some, and made some shots. Afflalo played awesome perimeter D. Amir did everything. A block. Bothering shots. Closing out on shooters. Scoring 7 himself. (A putback and the and one. A nice post move. And finishing a fast break led by Afflalo.) Amir even led a fast break ending in a score by Afflalo. Did I mention steals and knock-a-ways? Amir was in a word, totally awesome in this quarter. (Not that we have even begun to see what he can do yet.)
Sheed was doing pretty well too in the quarter. Tay was the glue guy, as always, just making everything click. What a unit.

Dyess did get some rebounds, hit some shots. More importantly, he even did about 7 points worth of damage at the basket, including one nice post move. (But he is a doorway to the basket.)

Tay and Billups both were hitting some shots too, and Tay scored some. Yep, clicking on the O. But I will object strongly to anyone saying Dyess had a great first half, since we played losing basketball for the most part with him in. His defense leaves a lot to be desired. (Not his fault as we insist on playing a two center system when the other team is too quick for it.)

2nd half.


Kind of predictable. Our starters try in vain to put Milwaukee away, but just can't find anyway to play defense with Dyess in the game, and Redd not being able to be stopped by Rip. Another high scoring quarter in the 3rd with nothing really happening.


One little difference though. Amir came into the game for the last two minutes of the 3rd quarter, and somehow we ended the quarter with a 26 point lead. Go figure.


The 4th quarter started out just like the 2nd quarter. With Jarvis Hayes in the game. Yep. Made a shot, and then started bricking. Now, we had a huge lead, so Prince did not come in this time. Milwaukee went on a 17-2 run.


A key play to end the nonsense? Amir runs a fast break, off a made free throw by Milwaukee, ending in a score by Maxiell. Then Stuck runs a fast break also ending in a score by Maxy. Disaster avoided. Herrmann comes in for Maxiell and now we are actually in garbage time. PS, Hayes then hit another shot, a meaningless one in garbage time.


Amir ends up with 13 points. Some of everything else. What a stat machine. His highlight of the 2nd half has to be when he tipped the ball to Maxiell (while Amir was under the basket fighting for a rebound) and then outrunning everyone to get a fast break score on the other end. Again, a lot more altered shots from Amir closing out on shooters.


Herrmann hit a three shortly after comiong into the game. then the new guy, Dixon, hits a three for his first Pistons points.


How did we do for playoff preparation in this one? Fantastic on playing the kids. Nowhere on replacing Jarvis. Nowhere on shoring up our sorry group of starters who just can't play any D. (As long as Dyess is in there with our otherwise very deserving starters.)
GO PISTONS!!!!!

WOW ...27 POINT WIN...I only called a 25. Does this mean I have to watch a lil pr0n before every game now?

Good win tonight. No need to head out on a west coast trip with three straight losses. Defense looked horendous in the 1st qtr giving up 35 points and then turned it up in the second by holding the bucks to 11.

Looked liked the pre allstar break team that would run up the score in the 2nd and 3rd qtrs and then let the bench experiment and give back half the lead in the 4th

tonights meaningless stats
33 assists, (12 by CB in 30 mins) only six TO's (3 of those by Max) season high 127 points...46 points in the paint, (probably the highest this season). 22 mins from Amir and he hit 6-7 from the floor and ran it perfectly. 23-1 @ 100 or more pts

Only negative > scrubs give up a 19-2 run in the 4th and team has given up 100 points in every game since the break. We will need to play better d on sunday vs the hi scoring Suns to win that one.

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

Lee has added Dice to his "usual" enemies list...Wow.

I have to go back and view my DVR, but if most of those 35 points scored by the Bucs in the first were with Dice patrolling the lane and only 11 were scored with AJ doing the same in the second, he has a valid point!!

Dyess is a fine player. He is just being misplayed. He is a good solid backup center. A starting power forward he is not by any means.

The 19-2 run against us was only because it was garbage time, and Flip would not embarrass Hayes by pulling him from the game. We were up by 31 before that run began. The very same run was poised to occur in the 2nd quarter, but Flip quickly pulled Jarvis out of the game, avoiding disaster at that point. Tay needs a backup. We ain't using one right now, cause I won't count Hayes as even playing on our side.

If you really think that in his substitution patterns flip takes into account personal feelings, then I think, you try to "read" too much from the game...

Michael Curry gave some great insight in the post-game on the Pistons woes this week. He said during winning streaks the Pistons have a tendancy to develop bad habbits on the defensive end as the shots fall all so easily. Unfortunatly that carries over when the offense is not clicking so well and we get this boom and bust trend that we have been seeing this season.

The 1st quarter started that way but the Starters really cranked up the D in the 3rd quarter and finally look to be back to playing the right way. Also great play by the bench in the 2nd quarter that gave us a nice half time lead.

Stucky and Amir just keep getting better. Two games in a row now when Amir actually changed the momentum of the game.


I feel a lot more confident now going into next weeks tough schedule.