Even I have to admit that playing Amir in the second and third would have been a good thing.

Go Fabio! I like that guy.

The negatives from the game - Maxiell can be taken out of his comfort zone by the double team and he is not "experienced" enough to learn what to do. (Flip's thinking) I better not play him in games where the opposition brings a double team or even if there is a chance they could bring a double team. Max's minutes are reduced tonight!!!

Well, there's some silver lining. People managed to find positives in the game. I was kind of struggling with that, especially knowing Flip's tendencies not to look to past performances. How many times last year Delfino came in and had a good run in the first half and then never came off the bench in the second? Well, who says that good play by Hermann and Afflalo will earn them any additional playing time? Back to the bench they go. And stay there.

^

Afflalo is the most upsetting one to me b/c he did actually EARN the time. Amir just makes me mad, and Hermann we'll have to wait and see if he plays.

I can sum it all up with this statement: This team has a lot of depth and a coach who does not know how to utilize it.

We're only 35 games into this; I'll be interested to see how Flip uses the personnel the last 47 games. It would be insane to fire the guy with the team having won 74 percent of their games. The media would blow the story out of proportion and it would make it even tougher to get a quality coach here.

To outsiders, it would appear that Flip is doing a good job. As Pistons fans, we know better. After a game last night, a coach who gave a crap would do a little shake-up in the lineup. Tay has been underperforming on offense. This starting 5 is way too comfortable and Flip has allowed that to happen.

I'd wanna see a fiery coach who gets in the players' faces a little (Laimbeer) and lets them know if they are lackadaisical, the bench is where they will reside. If Laim was the coach, no way would they be launching that BS from the outside all the live long day.

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"I don't believe there's any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is, that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can't completely ignore. - George Carlin

Laimbeer would have called a timeout 2 minutes into last nights game and ripped the starters a new ARSE last night. I can see the image in my mind of Bill telling them they are all a bunch of prima donnas that didn't deserve to be in the same building with the Mavs playing like that (spitting while he talks the whole time)

The bench at least got plenty of PT tonight. Ten guys played at least 13 minutes (yes, I know Amir wasn't one of them). And Flip played the subs most of the 4th quarter when he could have kept the starters in for a final surge.

I'm giving Flip some credit for bringing in Herrmann in the 2nd quarter. He really got into Dirk's head, causing Dirk to try to force up some crazy stuff at least a couple times hoping to draw a foul. It reminded me of Sideshow Bob matching up against us when we play the Cavs.

The most confusing thing to me is why Flip doesn't sub in the 1st and 3rd quarters like he did in that 2nd quarter. When Flip called that timeout midway through the 3rd quarter I thought for sure we'd see a substitution. It seemed like the perfect time to bring Herrmann back in. But alas the lineup was unchanged. So what did they talk about during that timeout? The starters hadn't been playing with any fire up to that point, so why did Flip think anything was going to change after that timeout? They continued to play like the paint was roped off, firing up lame jumpers.

This kind of game I've come to expect *at times* from this team over the last few years. The kind where I'm yelling "the jumpers ain't falling, take that s**t inside!", but the players on the floor aren't listening. During the regular season I can shrug them off, but it seems like we see at least one of these per playoff series, maybe more when they don't have that chip on their shoulder.

Here is what I noticed. Herrmann was very good about staying close to Dirk's body on the shot and not reaching upward. You could say that he was up in his grill.

Dirk is tall enough to get his shot off against almost everyone and he is very used to seeing hands up near his release point.

Herrmann's technique was sort of the same as what Bowen does and I think that it threw Dirk off. Pretty sure he'd get used to it after a while and start hitting again.

But it is good to see the tenacity. And at least we have a guy who seems to defend a little differently, which is good if you are looking to stop a forward who is on a roll.


One thing that I thought was strange was that Herrmann and Hayes were out there together almost the whole time. It was almost as if Saunders didn't want to make Hayes think that he was losing PT to this guy.

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"If I'm sitting there arguing with the officials, I'm giving an alibi for the team." MC

I have joined a Warriors board since I live in a bay area, and they have similar views of Flip - good regular season coach that doesn't have what it takes to finish the job. Not good at adjustments and gets flabergassed when going gets tough. And quite inflexible to boot.

Hmmm... Nice to know Flip isn't fooling people. I'm sure Wolves' fans know about him, too.