lol...that ain't fair...everyone has

Nice cap lee

Good leecap dude. This west coast trip of bottom dwellers was just what the pistons needed to cure what ails them.....over confidence at home.

Now it is time to face the creme of the crop in what could become the Pistons hell week. A win over the Suns at their crib may be more impressive than a win at home vs the mavs on Sunday. Especially since we have already beaten them this season and they are in the midst of a two game slide themselves. Let's hope they take out that aggression on Celtics Friday. These wins on the west coast have at least held off the Cavs (who have won 7 straight) from overtaking our lead.

Funny in these past three games, the Pistons have shot 54.2, 51.4 and again 51.4% from the floor tonight and outpointed the opposition in the paint to the tune of 48-26 over the Clips, 50-32 over the Sonics and 46-32 over the Blazers. It was just a week ago that the Pistons got pounded in the paint 58-30 by the Cavs, lost 46-40 to warriors and who can forget the Miami meltdown when the heat crushed us in the paint 58-32. And who said points in the paint mean nothing?? Of course the 1-16 shooting from beyond the three in the Heat game didn't help matters in that close loss.



Oh yeah good win tonight over Paul Allens' Tblazers!

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"Once you go Barack, you never go Bak" Mario Cantone 2008

One thing that has stepped up lately is the help defense... there were flashes of the 04 defense where everything is contested.... For CWebbs lack of mobility he's definitely a man inside... willing to fight for position.
He's showing Sheed by example how to get it done in the paint.

Credit Sheed for some solid "D" on Zack... how he avoided another tech tonight is a mystery.... if you're up by 10 pts with a minute left just zip it for the sake of the team.

Tay looked fresh (Prince) tonight.... he was very active on defense and his shots weren't coming up short....
All 5 starters are capable of creating a post up mismatch... and good at recognizing a double team.... like Flip said tonight... "they're getting it"

Now for the reality check called the Suns.

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With politicians the future lies ahead

Only caught three quarters. Felt pretty good about a Pistons victory so I knocked off early. These West Coast trips are a killer for a guy who gets up early...

Really impressed with LaMarcus Aldridge. Boy do we have bad luck picking in the lotto because there are a few gems every year.

Blazers are a vet and another year from being a playoff team in the West. Good young squad, much more promising than Atlanta or Charlotte. Maybe the coach has something to do with that considering how messed up their front office has been the last few years.

Blazer announcers are whiny, but they did end up giving the Pistons their props.

Some good and bad from Delfino, Flip Murray played ok as well. We're gunna need Murray in the playoffs at some point, and his recent interest in playing defense is very encouraging. Had a block last night and only took 2 shots in 14 minutes.

I don't know how many people caught it, but the Blazer's announcers were talking about the Spurs and how they are the best team at working the referees for an advantage. Said that Flip Sr will say his piece and move on, but Popovich just grinds and grinds the refs, and so does the Spurs assistant coaches.

That's an interesting thing to watch for with the Spurs. This season...

Fouls on Spurs - 1343
Fouls made by Spurs - 1240
Diff +103

Techs on the Spurs opponents - 26
Techs taken by the Spurs - 17
Diff +9

FTs taken by Spurs - 1499
FTs given up by Spurs - 1365
Diff +134

Food for thought

How he avoided another foul in the second half is an even bigger mystery after the fouls 2 and 3 in the first half were bogus. Did someone slip the refs something at halftime?

After all the energy the Suns expended in their 2OT game vs. Dallas, I wonder if they'll be ripe for the picking (or a letdown) against the Pistons. Somehow, I doubt it.

Roscoe, you are a true warrior putting yourself on the couch for every one of these games. It's such a grind and some guys burn out early. Just don't fall into the trap of using performance enhancing drugs to keep up with the LADre's, the Linwood's, and the other talented West Coast watchers.

You know what, I'm cleaning my screen.

I have heard that phentermine can give you a nice little buzz to be alert for those West Coast games. You might want to ask your wife about it.

Coourtside seats were awesome. I bought some new batteries for my digital camera so I could get some photos at the game, and found out that my camera seems to be broken. Total Drag.

Our seats were on the court, about 10 feet from center court, opposite the bench, in the 3rd row. We could hear the players talking during the game.

Quick impressions from Portland:

Although my seats were better than in Seattle, the Sonics game was a much better game to watch. The Pistons phoned in this game, and still easily beat the Blazers. Portland has some talent (Randolf, Aldrige, and Roy) but they are years behind the Pistons for team play.

During one posession , Tayshaun had the inbound pass right in front of us. The ref handed Prince the ball, and Prince threw it back to the ref and ran down the court. Chauncey was standing there waiting for the pass, and when he saw Tay take off, he laughed and yelled "Tay, where ya going? You gotta throw the ball to me!"

Tay laughed and shrugged his shoulders. Seriously, the Pistons didn't
put much effort into this game, and they didn't have to, as they had this young Blazers team beat from the start.

Defense. I haven't watched too many games this season, and I've read lots and lots of posts about the Pistons lack of defensive effort. Of course, it's only based on two games... but the two games I saw, I would have to disagree. I think the defense was execellent. Tayshaun and Rip constantly steer their man into help defenders. Rasheed and Chris are very aware of penetrating guards and talk to each other on the court. I think the problem mostly lies with the age and speed of the bigs. I think there is a magical moment in a players career where they are both saavy vets and young athletic players. The Pistons with Dice, Sheed, Cwebb and Davis have tipped in the direction of saavy vets.

For the most part, experience beats athleticism. But sometimes, young fast players like Chris Wilcox, Bosh, or any of the other young, strong players can have excellent games against "the old guys". I don't think this is anything Flip can fix. (I've just been removed from TheLow's Family Christmas card list) True, Flip doesn't really seem to put much press conference time into talking about the D, but what I saw, it didn't look like it needed a whole lot of work.

Fourth quarter, Sheed backing down Zach Randolph from 12 feet out. Dice's defender moves to double Sheed, leaving Dice free under the basket. Rips defender rushes to cover Dice. Sheed never looks, but yells: "I see ya baby!" stands up, and tosses a beautiful cross court pass to a wide open Rip Hamilton, who drains the shot.

This team is still amazing.

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"Eastern Conference regular-season champs, baby," said Chauncey Billups. "This is what we set out for when we started the season in training camp. We did it and we're happy." (2003)