if there was a such thing as a good loss, then this was it. the pistons are still struggling but they played hard and the game could've gone either way. they made a few too many mistakes early and couldn't catch up in the end, along with some very generous foul calls on turk driving the lane (and other instances). the refs called the game much differently in the 2nd half, and gave orlando all of the whistles in the 4th.

stuckey looked much better tonight. he ran a few simple pick-and-rolls with max that should've resulted in at least 1 or 2 baskets, was better on defense, and picked good times to drive the lane. maxiell was much better, making his free throws and finally getting back into double figures. we played 11 guys and had 6 in double figures. tay was aggressive on offense and looked much better.

really the only thing that cost us this game was turnovers in the 1st half, and not defending the high pick-and-roll well in the 4th quarter. fault tay all you want, but dyess was just as bad, practically setting screens for orlando himself. when dwight would come out very high, dyess stayed far too close to him and left the basket open, when dwight is absolutely zero threat past the FT line. the lane was unprotected and tay had an extra body to go through, and it didn't work.

i'm not happy with losing, but i'm content with how we played tonight.

Just flipped on the Cavs and Damon Jones is sporting a Dark Elf Mohawk.

c'mon now. the kid is 20, his career hasn't even started, and at his age he should be in college. to say that joe d. messed up the 56th pick in the draft is ridiculous - any pick at that point is a crapshoot and an extreme longshot at best.

Orl is not defensive powerhouse, that's why Stuckey had some chances.

How to measure a team? Very simply. Very good teams win even when they play badly but pistons has to play well for winning. So pistons is a good team, but not very good, at least now.

Is Boston the only very good team in the NBA?

Sad, but true. they have won many bad games.

From 18 - 21 is when all players really begin to develop their game. This will make his 3rd year with mostly all DNP's.

Look at the all the stars who came straight from high school to the NBA. With the exception of J. O'Neal, the ones that become stars were already major contributors by their 3rd year.

In order to become a major contributor you need on court minutes to get the experience and develop your game. AJ is not getting the minutes he needs to develop his game at the age that it is most important to do so.


We are ruining his career.

Just in case any one has forgotten what we were expecting to see; check out the video.

Bad Boy Summer Camp — Blogging the Detroit Pistons and the Vegas Summer League

Another coaching loss.


This game was very entertaining, and had an exciting ending. Billups made the long, long 3 to tie it at 100 with just 3 seconds to go. Orlando got a shot for Lewis off glass over Rip to win it as time expired. Darn.
Back to the coaching. The main theme tonight? Don't play Amir. So what do we get instead of Amir? For instance, we get Jarvis Hayes. Amir could be playing his minutes, and giving us another good post up player.

Instead, we get Hayes, and Orlando uses him as a door mat whenever he in the game. Hayes is just hideous on defense at this point. And he made no shots to make up for any of it.


The excuse for not playing Amir, he can't shoot from the outside. But neither can Hayes on any kind of regular basis, so who cares. I would much rather see Amir post up. There is nothing at all wrong with a post up small forward, like we had in Corliss. (But Corliss was slow on D, whereas Amir is quick as anyone on our team.)


Next, to end the first half, we bring in Herrmann and Brezec. Other than the tap in by Brezec, we get nothing from these two. Why are they playing? To avoid playing Amir. And we lose about 7 points to Orlando right there.


Ok, there was some good in this game. Afflalo did get 6 minutes of playing time, and did just fine. He also was used as a defensive sub in late game situations.


Stuckey got a bit more than that. Stuckey'highlights including pairing up with Rip to cause them an 8 second violation, and a nifty drive to the basket that he finished with a hooking layup.


Maxiell was as usual, a beast on the boards. And he made about 5 of 6 free throws to go along with some dunks off his offensive boards. Yeah, you could question why Dyess was in there at the end of the game. Perhaps to make it easy as all get out for Turk to drive to the basket on us perhaps?


Dyess had an ok game on offense. He hit some outside shots, and did some damage inside. He was in foul trouble a lot. His defense was sorely lacking on Howard for the most part. You could tell a major difference in defensive energy from the first Orlando game, to this one for Dyess. In that first game, Dyess was full of energy. Still only the 2nd game of the season. Dyess kept Howard pushed out away from the basket. This time, Dyess did not have a thing to offer. Howard got inside on him over and over. And otherwise, Dyess provided no help out D to make up for the bad job on Howard. And Dyess just could not get back on transition either. Worn out.


Tay, as usual vs. Orlando,had a fine offensive game. He kept either Lewis or Turk in check pretty much too when he was guarding them. Good game in all.


Sheed did a lot of damage in the post. He played pretty good help out D, but he could not do his best as both Maxiell and Dyess were in foul trouble so he had to back off more than he liked. (Oh,another case where the "do not play Amir at any cost" is hurting us.) Sheed had 15 bounds too. We did keep Orlando off the offensive glass quite well.

Our backcourt did fine in the scoring department. But just maybe Rip played a bit too much in this game. Just a 2 minute rest in the first half. (4 minutes in the 2nd half, and all his rest was from Afflalo.)


We missed a lot of free throws. Tired legs. It is the 3rd game in 4 nights. This schedule is brutal.


Anyone notice that goal tending call not called on Howard? Clear as possible it was a goal tend. But it was a make up call and the Pistons knew it and did not get upset. Howard had goal tending called on him a few plays earlier that clearly was not goal tending. There were also a couple of real close ones. Those, well, its just luck of draw, oh well.





We picked up Hayes on the cheap, a no risk thing. But Flip latched onto him as someone who could play ahead of Amir. Hayes is simply being given minutes at this point. It has to change.


Our bigs are door mats way too much, just to avoid playing Amir. Amir must play. Adding a guy like Webber will only hurt our defense even further. (And think about it, if there are 10 minutes for Webber, than there is certainly 10 minutes for Amir.)


Rip is looking rather raggy out there in all. But he did hit that one shot with time expiring for a triple. Nice heads up play. And when he lost some confidence in his shot, he smartly went to the basket. But as nice as that was, I would rather see Rip Hamilton, the rested version.

He is not a top selling beer. He has a lot more than just great hops.