Yes, baby. You all knew what this team was capable of. This Piston team is one mean machine when it is tuned up. Webber in the offense. Sheed animated. A real bench. Dysss looking young. Delfino now confident enough to bury shots.

And then there was Flip Murray. I watched those last two games and said: Is he for real? I asked you all on this very board. Did he learn to run the offense watching Chauncey?

I think we have found a back-up to Chauncey finally. His name is Flip Murray. Only one wild shot. Ok, the offense isn't quite as crisp but the guy can hit shots, big shots. He finishs better than Rip or Chauncey. I think we can find him some minutes for our back up.

I'm in with the Pistons for their third finals appearance in 4 years. Who said the east was weak?

"They did a great job of playing inside-out," Stoudemire said. "That's good old playoff basketball they played out there tonight, and we just stooped down to their level. We didn't have too many fast-break points. We didn't attack like we needed to."

Check out these photos from the game:

arizona sports news - phoenix sports - arizona sports teams - azcentral.com

What a wonderful game. This could be the most perfect match of the season given the circumstances.

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

Thank you for another great season!

Its great to feel the positive vibe emanating from this win...and the road win streak. Some of those Sithy dudes even applied for a Jedi license.

"and you are...."
"the DARK LORD of DISCONTENT"
"and you want to become a jedi because..."
"STFU and sign the application. We're winning!"
"Thats not really a peaceful attitude...ackkkkkkk!"
"I get to use this force choke thing until you hand me my green lightsaber."
"out...of....g-green..."
"funny thats what mr. D said when I asked him about signing Ben Wallace."

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Classic slippy.

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

Thank you for another great season!

Exhilirating win. Fantastic road swing by the boys. They played well in all 5 games.

What's up with Tay? He has not been looking very sharp.

@ Slippy's Sith trip to the Jedi DMV.

I dont know what's worse, Slippy.....Turning in my sith card or faking the funk so my nose won't grow!

Whap! That’s my one word description of how much the Pistons dominated the Suns last night. It was such a fun night and boy if someone told me before the game started that Flip Murray was going to torch the Suns for 25 points and be player of the game I would have asked him to put the crack pipe away. I had fantastic seats (4th row center court behind the media table). I drove up to the game from Tucson with a friend of mine that is also a Pistons fan and he was very hesitant about wearing any Pistons gear. No worry on that front, there were plenty of Pistons jerseys representing, especially #1 Chauncey Billups. I was wearing my Carlos Delfino jersey and in the sea of season ticket holders in the primo seats we did stand out a bit.

I got in my seat about 40 minutes before tip-off and the Pistons were doing some last minute practicing. It’s almost surreal seeing the boys up close and they are an incredibly tight-knit and loose group. Chauncey uses this time to do some mentoring with Jason Maxiell, which warms my heart. At the half-court line, DD, CWebb and Sheed are all jacking up shots. Surprisingly DD’s shot doesn’t look half bad, I think he could make a few of those if he was in ever thrown in that position. Chris Webb on the other hand can hardly get that shot to even get near the basket with the weak stuff he was throwing up.

My attention was diverted by Greg Kelser smoosing with some of his buddies at the media table. I walked up to the area where he was standing and told him I was doing a write-up for the Pistons.forum and that Delfino was my favorite player. In that sing song voice of his he said “Delfino is very good, isn’t he?” Yah Baby! No argument from me on that account.

The U.S. Airways Arena is rocking. When did basketball become a sport for the attention deficit disorder poster children? There is so much going on with the dancers, players practicing, coaches milling around, blinkie neon lights and fan buzz. Going up my aisle to take his seat a few rows behind me and to the left I spy Jerry Colangelo (heee... I have better seats than he does). I pretty much laser beamed my attention on watching the Pistons but occasionally I would look over at the Suns lay-up line and Steve Nash is all business. He’s giving his guys encouragement and watching their lay-up line is a thing of precision. On the other hand the Pistons are doing their best imitation of the bad boys sneaking out of study hall and practicing lay-ups. Delfino puts crazy spin on his flip-up nonchalant toss in and little did I realize that’s a designed shot that he’ll he make later in the game.

The game is about to start and the Suns game announcer starts pumping up the volume and it’s quite the show introducing the starting line-ups. I was just thrilled to see in person the Pistons reserves during their circular war-dance (though Sheed was not in the middle whooping it up as he often does).

The game finally starts and as usual the Pistons let the other team get ahead and the two floor generals (Nash and Billups) are doing their best to dictate the flow of the game. I can read Chauncey’s lips as he’s dribbling up the court, “slow it down”, it’s evident the Pistons are going to try and impose their will on this team. Now I’m a big fan of the Pistons style, half-court grind it out but the Suns hate playing that way. I can feel as the flow of the game goes the Pistons way the atmosphere in the arena becomes less almost lethargic. The Suns just can’t run and gun and they start getting impatient. I’ve never seen so many traveling calls in my life and that’s because the Suns are in such a hurry to get something going and they just can’t figure out why they are open one minute and the next there’s someone contesting their shot. The Suns just haven’t run into a team that plays the style of Detroit and it really shows their weakness. Barbosa might be one of the fastest players in the NBA but in a half court game that speed doesn’t get you anywhere. If anything, Flip Murray looks to be the one that’s the “Brazilian Blur”, he’s everywhere with those fast hands stealing the ball. If anything I’m now convinced that Flip Jr. does now belong in the line-up, and not just because of last night’s game. He can get his own shot and he absolutely got any shot he wanted last night.

Other observations. In the 3rd quarter with a Flip Murray substitution in, Tay was on the floor and he thought that Flip was substituting for Delfino. It turned out he was being the one to sit and he instantly put a dark scowl on his face and went to the bench clearly annoyed. Flipper immediately walked down to the end of the bench where Tay was sitting and mouthed, “I’ll get you back in very soon”. The Pistons were up by 10 and then went on their crushing run and never looked back and Tay never got back in the game. I hope Tay moves on and doesn’t lock horns with Saunders over his playing time but it wasn’t pretty seeing that look.

This made me laugh: Mike Abdenour is just such an important cog in the wheel. The players rely on him to keep their uniforms and equipment where it should be. Players were peeling off their jerseys and tossing them at Abdenour like he was their Cub Scout den mother. He absolutely rules the little ledge area where the talc dispenser and Rip’s mask sit. I saw Carlos walk up to him near that ledge area asking him about something. Mike said “no, I don’t have” and then Carlos nodded and selected an object from the ledge and it was a stick of gum. So Abdenour is the keeper of Carlo’s chewing gum and he was out of his favorite flavor.

Last observation: Heading out of the arena with the very dispirited Sun’s fans I kept hearing this loud yell of, “Detrooooit Basketbaaaaalll” and that was the perfect way to end my evening.