lmao @ the Celtics celebrating like "they won the Superbowl". That's just stupid. Sheridan's already sucking off Boston; predictable. If there was anything good to be gained from this game, it's the fact that the pundits will go back to ignoring us and letting the boys in blue fly under the radar again.
There's no doubt this game meant a lot more to Boston than it did to the Pistons; perhaps more than it should for a regular season game. The Celtics can have the glory, the accolades, the all-star appearances, the best regular season record. It's ok. All that matters is getting the win in June, when it counts; and this squad seems to finally have the hunger back - how they put it to use when it counts, though, remains to be seen.

This Celtic announcing team of Mike Gorman and Tommy "points" Heinson sre the biggest homers on the broadcast circuit and they have been that way for years. I have watched most of the Celtic games this year to see if they are for real and no matter how good they have been, Heinson will always find a fault with refs or the opposing teams players. I did hear him say the Pistons players were arguing among themselves and if they were, then I hope they ironed it not for the rest of the season. Gorman asked Heinson at the end did this victory mean something for celtics, but Tommy reluctantly said "no, there are still some Celtic/Pistons matches to come to decide who is really the best."...

In the pregame, the announcers thought that Ray Allen would be the key player

Dre,

Heinshon knows the show is not over. Yes, those announcers are big homers. We were brought up on Chick Hearn who was a real professional for the Lakers.

We need to let Maxiel have more play now in the offense. And we need to use Stuckey as a penetrating weapon...Boston coming out on our guards is not a new strategy.

OMG!!! Some of y'all are so clueless to basketball it aint even funny. I'm going to disregard most posts because most of y'all only come around to whine and moan after a loss, you're nowhere to be found after a 20 pt win where we play perfect basketball.

Haven't checked the boxscore but from what I recall, we really kept there big 3 in check. The game was loss because they outrebounded us, that's the only thing that is really fundamentally wrong right now.

Dyess played OK, dude never found a rhythm due to foul trouble, but he battled like a warrior in the trenches every second he was out there.

Davis going off was a result of pick and roll penetration. OK here goes:
KG picks off Tay for Pierce; Sheed shows on the pick; KG rolls; Dyess rotates to KG; Sheed is supposed to recover to Dyess' man (Davis) while Tay recovers to Pierce. Pierce did a fantastic job of fiding Davis open before the Defense recoverd to him, EVEN WHEN MAX WAS IN THE GAME!!!! Maxiel was getting burned by the Davis DumpOff TOO, so do not make Dyess the scape goat here.

The GOAT of the game (if you just have to pick one) IMO was Chauncey. As we watched the game we all new that when the Pistons were down he was going to try and be the HERO instead of the leader. True to form Billups starts Jackin up J's instead of running the offense. yet Rip and Tay did a great job of executing and moving the ball, which got the team open shots, which got us back to a 1 poss game, then BANG!! Big SHot wants to be the BIG HEAD HERO as per usual.

Stuckey had trouble getting the team into the offense today. When he's on the court with Rip or Chauncey he defers too much. Stuckey right now is not 100% comfortable playing the point - neither was CB pre-LB. While he's not a true PG, he is a true playmaker. He's at his best with the rock in his hands and an attitude of aggression, when he's not thinking about anything, just hoopin'.

In the end I'm happy we lost. This is a great Film Game, this is a game that can help Saunders down the road. Bos is not better than us, but they did outwork us just a bit tonight to get a meaningless regular season win. This team has not played its best ball yet and the best is yet to come. So go take your anti-depressants bring the negativity down a notch.

Lastly, Lee's right in ref to Amir-sort of. Today was a perfect example of what Lee's ranting about. Dyess in foul trouble, gotta go to a 4th big, and right now that big aint ready. Getting Amir ready means he checks in the game instead of Primoz. Primoz=Not very good, while Amir has the kind of talent where he can check in the game and get a block or two, a dunk or 2, he has the talent to do things in those situations that could have really boosted our team and kept Sheed and Max fresh because Dyess had foul trouble. Gotta hope Flip realizes this now.

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Play hard, Play smart, Play together, share the ball, have fun....Play the right way!!!!!!

Some midnite thoughts...

Points in the paint Boston 38-Pistons 14 ouch!!!! This is a stat that Joe should hang up on the bulletin board before the middle of the month checks are handled out. We know all of Big Baby's points were in the paint. Remember he was the 36th player selected in the draft and we didn't need anymore heavy 6"9' guys on the team, because we had Max and Flip would never have put him in the game anyway. Have to say it one more time. 4th qtr, Pistons 19 pts, Big Baby 19

Pistons close out on a 19-2 run to end first qtr to lead 22-12. Cheers around the palace and the Pistonforum/Network as the it appears that the streak will continue and the boston hype is to be brought to a an end. C's went over 8 mins without a FG until reserve Tony Allen stops the bleeding. Thanks to JMAX for sparking the big run along with Sheed. (pistons shoot 56%, Celtics 26%)

Well a funny thing happen on the way back from the beer run...after a pair of Max FTs, Both Stuckey and Afflolo were stuffed under the hoop by Celtics defense, but Max hits two straight jumpers to keep the lead to at least 9 points. At that point Max had 12 points but only scored 1 more point the the rest of the game..when he was in. Seems like once he had the run in with KG he never scored another bucket the rest of the game. Oh yeah, AA was yanked during a TO and I can't remember if he ever got back in again.

Celtics out gun the Pistons in the second qtr 29-21 as our reserves had to face the resurgent KG and Paul Pierce who started his parade to the FT line. Dice continued to throw up bricks and for some reason Rip wants to be the hero so he shoots and no one passes the rock to our designated sharp shooter Hayes. Halftime score Pistons 43-Celtics 41. What happen to our lead???

Second half Flip decides to play the starters almost the whole 3rd qtr and KG who had three fouls in the first half doesn't get called for a single one in the second half?? No body attacked him, because the Pistons decided to take outside jumpers. Yeah they extended the lead to 3 by the end of the qtr, but the 64-61 Piston lead was a Boston defensive score and I wasn't feeling to comfortable with it.

We all know what happen the 4th...the Boston "D's" (Davis and Defense) took over and Flip lost control, because his players decided to abandon the paint on both the defensive and offensive ends. Dice was ineffective, Prince was ineffective, Primo was ineffective, Hayes was wasted and Billups (3-9 beyond the arc was ineffective when it counted.) The crowd was ineffective. Where was the hero of the first game Lindsey Hunter when we needed him? Sitting behind the bench in street clothes....other tha JMAX first half heroics, our bench was a no show....but so was some of our starters, the 4 total missed FT's by CB and Rip were uncharacteristic but stuff happens...

No need to fret, we will get them next time......we hope and let's pray the last game we play against them this year is a W...especially if it is in June

Time to get some shut eye...

Horryed

watched the game at my buddy's house, and it certainly was a weird one. i didn't like the refs early - before the game started we all picked the guy who we thought would make the crappiest calls, and we were right (scott foster or something). this ref looked like he wanted to make a name for himself.

i didn't mind the foul call on max when he went hard against garnett, but i did have a problem when they didn't call it a double technical, when i'm sure one of the refs saw that it was garnett who initiated the discussion. but the calls were pretty bad, and most of ours came after boston was in the bonus. boston had 3 more PFs for the game, yet shot 10 more free throws. i'm not excusing the lose on the refs, but i thought they did a horrible job by calling it inconsistently all night.

anyway, maxiell is a MAN and i'm glad he won't back down from anyone. he played a superb game tonight and saunder's 'tired' excuse was pretty lame. did max look tired to anyone else? not me.

i think a lot of you are overreacting to the loss, but i will agree that there are causes of concern. chauncey was TIRED and LAZY in the 4th, because stuckey didn't get enough minutes and chauncey played too many minutes. notice how well he's played when given the appropriate rest? he didn't have that tonight, and instead took ill-advised shots, made ill-advised decisions, and 9 of his 12 FG attempts were from long range. there was no reason to shorten the rotation today just because flip wanted to win the game - and in fact that could be a big reason why we lost. if you're going to develop your bench and get them ready for the playoffs, AND you've won 11 straight by spreading out the minutes, why deviate from what works?

it almost seemed like we were throwing this game away on purpose, because it's been rare this season that i've seen chauncey make such horrible decisions and try so hard to be the hero. rip was also trying too hard to create his own offense early. we had no ball movement and forced iso matchups rather than move the ball.

i thought the bench played just fine. stuckey had another solid game. he and afflalo forced the action early and seemed a little too excited, but at least they were going hard. afflalo's FG attempt under the basket was not smart, but at least he was under the basket and not launching a 30-foot 3-point shot.

prince kept pierce's FGs in check, but nothing else. the only reason davis had a 'great game' was because of dribble penetration - it's easy to make uncontested layups. sheed had a right to be upset.

dice had an awful game, but at least he played garnett tough in the post...he just got caught with some unfortunate (and iffy) foul calls. chauncey and rip had awful games. tay had an awful game. the only players who were solid tonight were maxiell, stuckey, and sheed, and even sheed missed some easy shots in the post.

why is chauncey playing the entire 1st and 3rd quarters? goodness, make some substitutions.

while i think flip coached a subpar game, i'm kind of glad we haven't really thrown a zone at boston in 2 games. if we save it for the playoffs that's perfectly fine with me.

The problem with this is this is what happens in EVERY ECF. Do you really think things will change? Billups has free rein to do whatever he wants and he's shown he will repeatedly made stupid decisions in the clutch and try to "take over". Flip can't prevent that. He has no control. Also in reference to Amir, you give Flip too much credit. Nothing will change. Amir still won't play.

And the playing the starters in throughout the entire 1st and 3rds (mentioned in another post) won't change either. Flip is locked into what he does.

The reason this is so concerning is because we repeat our mistakes over and over again, ISOs, lack of rebounding, Chauncey chucking. I feel like i'm watching the same movie 20 times.

I guess i don't have reason for optimism b/c while i believe we are the better team, and with a few adjustments we will be fine, I don't think these adjustments will be made. And the past backs up that point.

Had this game been played in March, I would be frustrated. But right now there are 3 players on the bench who are going to get better and more productive as the season goes along. The difference between the past and today is that this team is going to get better, in the past we were what we were. Stuckey, AA, and even Amir are going to get better and help in the obvious areas of concern....pts in the paint, rebounding, and limiting the starters minutes.

Oh and on another note, I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but as the season moves along, Ray Allen is looking like the odd man out. His #'s and FGA's are plumetting. Also he can not check Rip, Rip is so much better than Allen on both ends of the floor it's not even funny. We can smoke this team if Tayshaun leaves %%%%%%%% at home in the closet and forces Pierce to play more defense.

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Play hard, Play smart, Play together, share the ball, have fun....Play the right way!!!!!!

A three man front court rotation has not been getting it done for the Pistons. Thats what we have been trying since 04 and it has not been working in the later stages of the playoffs.

In this game we could have used someone like Amir who is a good rebounder and shot blocker. He could have made a difference. Davis's shots were very blockable. No excuse to let a role player like that score 16 points in the 4th quarter. But if we had someone in there scrambling for boards then the Pistons may not have let Boston back in.

Anyway, like someone else said - it was not a blowout. Just a frusterating lose because the Pistons did lose the hustle game.