Max was minus 22 i think in the first half.... that 2nd quarter was just brutal..... does any other team in the league play all 5 starters as long to start a game before starting to sub? If/When things then go bad with the bench your forced to overplay you starters when you do this wholesale sub pattern.... just a sad lose.

Well, well, well, everyone, exept max, is blaming flip for this...As max said, rooks are not "magicians". Seems like this forum expected from bench a sort of explosion but instead of they see rookie mistakes and therefore try to blame flip for this. Let's see your argument: flip sr "is holding stuckey's hand", instead of letting Stuckey penetrate, he forces stuckey to follow "playbook" and that doesn't suit to stuckey.
This explanation is extremly popular, but for me it represents narrow-mindness.

Imo, stuckey's recent woes has nothing to with flip and his playbook. Stuckey's woes are his inabilities.

Let take this "stuckey-always-penetrate" and see what happens:
1. Okey at first sight S. syprized defence with penetration skills, but but defenders adjusted very easely. Why?
2. Defenders saw that albeit S. is good penetrator, he is not threat behind 3 point arc, he can't shoot even closer to basket, he has no jumper.
3. Billups is threat from everywhere and in addition, billups reads a game, "picks his spot".
4. So, thats why S. is struggling: he has no playbook, i.e. he doesn't read a game, he doesn't adjust to defence, or doesn't force defence "to pick their poison" a la Billliups.
5.Conseqently, only result to stuckey"always penetrate" will be turnovers, travelings and offensive fouls. And god thanks, that is what S. is trying to avoid, by learnig playbook, He is so one-dimensional that in order to be sucessful he has to be very smart. Even smarter than Billups.

If you look at Sacs recent history, they lost Artest, Martin and Bibby for an extended time. With that, you see Salmons and Garcia taking an expanded role on the team. They get heavy minutes and greater responsibility. They both had to emerge during this time. Early on they got punked, were inconsistent but acclimated themselves to their new roles as key starters.
In fantasy basketball they were dropped repeatedly before they 'broke out' so they didn't just explode onto the scene as some big secret weapon. But eventually, they did put up numbers and the team found moderate success even with their big three nursing injuries.

So now you have a team that could hold its own against us but at this time, they are bringing three all star calibre players into the mix. Hello! of course our bench is going to look bad against Bibby and Artest.

I'm not going to blame Flip for this loss. It would be interesting though, to experiment with lineups and chemistry. I believe we have talent...but a lot of it is still very young.

__________________

It was flip's practices that has done him in. Flip has taken away the bench's passion which was defense. Affalo needs to play more because he does not have to score to be effective. Stuckey looks like a rookie, shame on the pistons for putting so much pressure on him; he needs to play loose and make his mistakes.

Sprocket Cap

(Better late than never.)

Fifteen of the prior twenty games against the Kings have gone against the Pistons. Wasting a superb game from Chauncey Billups last night at the Palace the Pistons are now five and sixteen against the Kings over the past several years. Billups’ 28 points (on 50% shooting), 8 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals, and no turnovers were nearly matched by Hamilton’s 24 on 67% shooting (but with five turnovers), and McDyess’ 14 on 54% shooting. Unfortunately the rest of the team shot 25% for the game, with Stuckey, Hayes, and Affalo failing to scratch in eleven attempts.

The first quarter opened without much intensity from either team. The Pistons opened up a five point lead halfway through on the back of threes from Sheed, Rip, and Tay, serving to counter a hot start by Brad Miller who had nine of the Kings’ first twelve points on four for four shooting at the six minute mark. The Pistons pushed the lead to nine forcing a Sacramento timeout at the 2:58 mark. The timeout allowed Sacramento to bring in their “bench”, Bibby, Martin, and Artest, who injected a little energy into the game and closed the lead to six at 29-23 at the quarter break.

The Sacramento bench starters continue their strong play in the second, taking the lead with a 15 – 4 run. The Pistons answer with a 7 – 0 run of their own, but the Sacramento lead settles in at eight points and remains there for the rest of the half. Shortly before the end of the quarter McDyess puts Artest on the floor with a crushing baseline screen that brings a cheer from the faithful, but by then the damage has been done. Despite a nice Wallace trap and steal, the Pistons turn the ball over and then have it stolen on the next possession to end the half down eight at 56 – 48.

The third opens in the same lackadaisical mode as the first and the teams trade baskets through the first six minutes with the Pistons making up one point on the Kings. The second half of the third becomes Billups’ time with a number of nice drives to the hoop (three resulting in three point plays), a three, and some free throws (15 points in the quarter if I counted right). His single handed barrage pushes the Pistons over the top and the quarter ends with a one point Pistons lead at 77 – 76.

The fourth opens with Artest back on the floor in a heap after a Prince foul on a dunk attempt. About that point a real ballgame breaks out on the Palace floor and both teams pick up the intensity. Sacramento employs a quicker line-up in the fourth with Artest playing power forward and gradually open up a six point lead on an Artest three and two missed free throws from McDyess at the three minute mark. Bad reach-in from behind fouls by Sheed and Dyess on consecutive possessions around the two minute mark keep the Kings in the game and up by three entering the final minute. A Maxiell turnover followed by a Sacramento offensive rebound and layup, and then misses by Hayes and Sheed make up the final margin and the Kings win 100 – 93.

No production from the bench and a thoroughly lackluster game from Sheed and Prince doomed the Pistons. Sheed ended up one for six from three (two for six from inside the line), with many shots from three or four feet behind the line, including a couple of fall-aways. Tay started the game well, but got manhandled by Artest when they were matched up and more or less just went away. The Pistons outrebounded the Kings by five, had assists on 23 of 34 hoops, and only turned the ball over ten times, but 42% shooting (63% from the line with eleven misses - four each by McDyess and Maxiell) wasn’t enough to get it done.

__________________
"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

how many times have I posted this, nemo? u r so right...we are too good a team(?) to worry about HCA. We won the title with 54 wins in 04. This is our last stand (with Sheed on the team anyway).

The Pistons site will not load for some reason, and my computer crashed last night, so I only have footage up to the end of the 3rd Q.

Thanks for all of the posts, I will go through them this afternoon.

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

Thank you for another great season!

And let's put this out for the LAST time to those who dont understand THE LEAGUE and the GAME WITHIN THE GAME.

I really felt that Sacremento had talented players on the Floor last night. Look at the matchups:

Artest > Prince...best three way player in NBA
Miller > Sheed..olympian, team player
Martin > Rip...youth and heart..a young Rip
Moore > Dyess...energy and legs

The difference ? Billups > Udrih and Bibby, BUT two heads are better than one. AND Sacro hasnt earned league wide respect. I dont know what it is with them, so It must be between the ears.

As far as Flip goes: We dont care about wins and losses at this point...ITS HOW we win and lose. We cant wait until game 78 to start playing the bench more than 5 minutes a stretch(not a game- its when they are in the game that matter to me). We had it rolling and Flip just switched it off. There is NO team in the East that should beat us and only one MAN that can challenge us: LEBRON.

SO lets get to preparing for the title, saunders!

__________________
http://casstechhigh.ning.com/profile/gregoryhollenquest =

hey, with RonRon doing so well, do you think he's about to go KK--BBoomm !! ?