Now that's a win! No more excuses, no more reluctant mediocrity and no more refs. Break out the defibrillator, they've got a rotation! Great job Flip.

Why did it seem like DET played with a football? They couldn't even catch the thing.

This is the first time I saw the Stuckey I was reading about in the pre-season. AA can ball. Hayes helped.

Amir just needs the little things. Protect the ball after rebounds, hold his defensive position, move his feet and not his hands. I am impressed they let him handle the ball/feed the post on O. It's only going to help him.

The refs were atrocious. Flip has such a meek demeanor. I wish he could lay into the refs more forcefully/support his players. I would have punted the ball into the stands after the 3rd T if I were he. Thankfully though, Kobe was able to vent his frustrations whenever he felt the need. Perhaps you find getting a foul called in your favor every time you move annoying?

I didn't see the game, have it on DVR though.

When i saw the score, i was expecting 40+ minutes for all the starter (after i got over the shock we actually won a close game).

And i was pleasantly surprised. These are the wins that are great b/c we played a ROTATION.



I'm going to watch it later, although that 3rd quarter looked painful.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Wow, thats 4 games in a row with Flip coaching very well, getting our bench ready for the playoffs. And 4 wins in a row. So far, playing the youth has not lost us a game.
The best part? Tight game to start the 4th, and our whole bench is in, save Afflalo, who had already played most of the 3rd quarter. Now, I don't know if this was planned, or if Rip, due to a bruised leg suffered in the first half, had to come out of the game there. Either way, it was great, four subs with Rip in there to help with some of the scoring.

Our bench stayed in until about 5 minutes left, and the starters managed to finish the deal. A triple by Tay with 4 seconds left put us up one. An Odom miss after we denied the ultra hot shooting Kobe the ball did the rest.

I see some complaints about the bench not being played even more, but hey, they played a whole lot. A whole lot in the 2nd, and a whole lot in the 4th. And the subbing started early, in both halves. I love this rotation.

Tay ended up with 22 points. A lot of that was going in to the rack. Rip hit a lot of shots, especially early where he could not miss at all. Billups and Sheed did some scoring. Dyess got very little, but he did manage to put in a couple of shots off rebounds.

The starters played good D to start this one, but they were settling for outside shots as LA got off to a quick, but short lived lead. Flip called a timeout, and bam, a 10-0 run with us going inside more. Nice adjustment, but the Pistons have got to learn that just because CB takes a 3, which is part of his game, it does not mean everyone else has to play follow the leader.

Stuckey scored a very spectacular 10 points. Did he have a miss? A turn even? All I can remember is good defensive plays, and the WOW. A pull up made in the lane. A drive in and dunk. A drive in from the right for a made contested layup. A drive in the middle finishing with a nifty double clutcher. A drive from the left resulting in two made free throws.

Afflalo had a pair of 3's, and two made free throws, the first two for the Pistons tonight, amongst his 10 points. He Also made some nice passes on fast breaks.

Amir made one post up bucket, but it was just against Radmanovic. No big deal. A fast break dunk off a pass from Afflalo. Nine rebounds last they mentioned. He was in during quite a run we had in the 2nd, where we went up 17 points. What happened to that lead. I don't know for sure, but I can tell you there were a ton of whistles all the sudden, taking a free flowing game down to a total grinding halt.

Maxiell was part of the literal explosion of energy from the bench, as was Hayes. But neither could hit a shot. (Hayes did hit one, and Maxiell did make both free throws the one time.)
In case anyone wonders why Sheed did not make hay inside tonight, like in Indiana: Kwame Brown does not play for Indiana.

Afflalo guarded Kobe a lot in this one. A learning experience for sure. Kobe did score on him. But hey, Kobe lit up Prince something fierce in the 4th quarter, in crunch time. Kobe was on fire, and the refs were in mother hen mode. Good win considering all that.

If anyone can imagine just how delighted I am watching both Afflalo and Stuckey (yeah, especially Stuckey) light up the score board tonight, and watching JMAX and Amir come in as a tandem to start the 4th and provide the energy they did, well, I hope you join me in realizing this: The Pistons will win it all this season, staying on the path they are on right now. Now just imagine how happy we are all going to be when that happens.

One more thing, if memory serves, we were down a few points when the the bench came in in the 2nd half, and they walked off with us up a point. I will double check that next time I watch.

GO PISTONS!!!!!

hey, let's trade Tay while he's worth something, eh?

Let me get this out of the way - this ref crew sucked. Particularly old man Jack Nies.

Now, on to the good stuff. This was a good, bordering on great gut check game.

Tayshaun - he's got his share of faults, but he's been pretty clutch as of late. His D was decent, but his offense came together at the right time these last two games. He was terrific at the end game tonight.

Chauncey - He was the PG tonight. He didn't really try to take over as much, but this was actually a fairly efficient game for him.

Rip - He got the wrong end of the foul calls a lot, and he was cooking early. That Odom knee knocked him off his axis a little bit though. His D on Kobe was good.

Sheed/Dice - Not much, really. I really didn't feel that Rasheed was into the game all that much, but he did get a jumper with about 4 minutes left that helped get us the W. His D will always be constant, however. Dice grabbed a couple key rebounds and putbacks as well.

Stuckey - He's out of the struggle tunnel now. He's rounding into form, and CB got a lot of rest as a result. Good game by the rook.

Affllalo - Really took it to Kobe. He's looking a lot more confident out there. He's hitting his shots as well, including 3's. That, and his D will get him more time as the season goes on. Good game.

Amir - Energy. He's got a lot of it. He's rounding into form very nicely, and as long as he gets PT, he will continue to improve. He's already capable of energizing his teammates, and his hustle/rebounding have been big. If he can cut down on the fouls, he'll get a lot more PT. I think Flip would've kept him in 'til halftime if he hadn't picked up his 2nd foul.

Maxiell - Better game than he's had the last few. Good hustle.

Jarvis - Decent game. He only got 11 minutes, so there isn't much of a sample size.

Good win. One of the best this season, definitely. Except for maybe a bit of lethargic play, I don't have a thing to complain about. That has something to do with the fact that we won in spite of the refs, but slso because I loved that Flip pulled his starters in favor of the bench in the fourth against a good Lakers team. That was a big part of us getting the win. Good job Flip.

Anyone notice how badly Sheed was running when he came back in the game the last time? He was stiff as hell.

I would have liked to have seen CB come in with about 6 to go in the 4th to play the 2 with Rip @ 3 and Stuckey the 1.

A lot of things will have click at the right time for it to happen, but I agree with you that this current roster may have enough talent to win the 2008 NBA Championship.

Last two games, our starters have averaged about 32 minutes per game, in tight games. This is the way its suppose to be.

I am not sure how they would go about doing it, but I think they need a PG to help out when teams pressure them. I think that is probably their biggest weakness.