u wanna hear some of 'my' personal matters?...

Kinda a drive by post since i'm going out, and will miss the rest of this game (thankfully).

This is what seperates Flip from good coaches. If your starters don't have it, SUB SOME OF THEM OUT early. Don't sit on the sidelines, twicth, and wait for the lead to balloon. If you need help defensively put in your energy, defensive players and vice versa.

He's so rigid, and uncreative. It's like a robot coaching the team who occassionally has a malfunction (sometimes good, sometimes bad).

Not really, but you're welcome to share if it you feel the need.

Whew! Allowed a record 41 for the Sonics in the 1st and then shut down to 13 by the half. Good to see the Zoo working it and a couple of them finish the game. Looked like a "looking past" game for sure.

I loved that they went to Amir on the last meaningful possession.

Dixon looks good...

Odd win...the first quarter was probably the worst defensive period for the Pistons all year. They must not have gotten more than one, two stops at the most for the entire period. But the Sonics plummeted from 41 points in the first to 13 in the second, and it was only a one point game at halftime. Amir helped out early in the second quarter, and after he picked up 3 fouls, Stuckey turned it on and led the charge going into the half. Tay led the way with 24, and CB had 20. Rip got 18 thanks to 7-8 at the line, but he nearly shot the Pistons out of the game, 5-19 from the floor.

Sheed and especially Dice more or less took the game off, but JMax and Amir were terriffic. Flip left them in for most of the 4th quarter. They combined for 17 boards and 5 blocks, and they even went 7-10 on FTs between them. Flip also went to Dixon for 8 minutes in the second half to replace Rip's bricklaying. Maybe Flip read lpgrl's post during the game, since he played the bench guys for big minutes and had it pay off with a comeback win. Tay's minutes were a bit high at 39, but only two other guys played over 30.

Well Pistons play down to the competition and have to hold on an eek out a 3 pt victory over the supposedly over matched Sonics. Pistons defense didn't arrived from LA until the second qtr as the Sonice put up 41 in the first qtr, but then fail flat with only 13 in the second. I think I may have either said it in chat or thought that if the Pistons could keep them under 100, they could win this one.

The Pistons tried their darndest but could barely contain Wilcox and Watson in the first qtr and Rip ran out of gas trying to contain Durrant in crunch time. The Sonics so called big three combined for 63 points and their other first round pick Rookie Jeff Green also chipped in with 15 ponts. PJ is probably missing one vet that would make them respectable, but he refuses to get choked into taking Latrell Sprewell

Sheed and Dice were no shows and hopefully with their limited minutes they will be fresh tomorrow. AJ and Mx filled in great for them tonight. We needed every one of the points provided by Cb and Tay as Rip was way off especially in the second qtr when he decided he was going singlehandedly bring us back from the 13 point deficit. He missed about 5 shots in a row at one point not even thinking about passing off to an open TEAMmate....

Pistons got the 100pts for the automatic W and will need at least 95 for a W tomorrow vs the C's...

Anything but boring to watch this game. Seattle went up 15 as we could not stop them at all in the first quarter.


In contrast, Seattle was shut down in the 2nd quarter, especially the first half of it where they just scored 1 point. Similarly, the Pistons enjoyed about an 11-1 run early 4th. This was not all Amir Johnson. But people watching the game, many of them, had this to say about Amir - he continually was in the right place helping us out on defensive end. (While on the offensive end he did take quite a bit of attention to keep him off the offensive glass.) On that defense, Amir continually shadowed the ball, cutting down on options for the ball handler, and did with while never failing to get back to his own guy. (And only once failing to get back to play help out D near the basket when a Seattle player drove in. Amir is quick, lengthy, and as much as that, sharp in his decision making about where to be. Pretty darn good stuff from Amir tonight.


And yes, it did delight me no end to see them go to Amir on a pick and roll that he helped decide by patiently making his highly contested shot. He got a bit beat up for his effort, but he made the shot.


Maxiell also showed some people just how good he is, when not called upon to do it all by himself. Anyone watching the games lately knows what I am talking about here. Time after time, Maxiell comes in to play along side Dyess after Dyess is already worn out. In this game for instance, Dyess played the first 15 mintues, with Maxiell in there for the last 9 of those. Maxiell does not look so good under these circumstances. But later, paired with Sheed, and later still with Amir, Maxiell looked pretty darn awesome on D. Doing his role, just his role, very well. Jason also hit a couple of shots and made some free throws.


Dixon got into the game. Between Afflalo's 4 minutes and Dixon's 8, Rip did get some rest in this game. Normally, I would say it can't hurt to play a guy to see what he can do. But hey, I have watched Dixon play all season, so why have not some Piston scout taken the time to watch some film on the guy. Sure he is a decent backup point guard, but he is really nothing special. A streak shooter with decent but not exceptional defense. Afflalo should keep his minutes. His D is exceptional, and we really need more D played for Detroit.


Hayes only played in the first half. He gave Tay 9 minutes of rest, played decent D and hit a couple of shots inside. One sequence for him was quite impressive as he stripped a guy driving in on him, took the ball all the way down and got to the basket and put it in. He also scored on a cut to the basket that took some skill to finish. Not a bad game for him at all. I suppose if he had hit either of his outside shots to go with his other play he would have gotten some 2nd half minutes. But, me, I think Amir could play a bit of small forward; Tay should have gotten some rest in the 2nd half.


Rip did miss a lot of shots. But he gave us a lot of energy too, making Seattle work pretty hard to follow him around to stop him from easy buckets.


Billups hit a big 3 to give us an 8 point lead upon returning to the game midway thru the 4th quarter. He scored quite a bit in all. Yet Stuckey could be said to have outplayed him tonight. Stuckey put some serious defensive energy into that 2nd quarter, and was out there during our run to start the 4th also. Flip Saunders continues to give Stuckey all the time he needs of late to get ready for the playoffs. Good job Flip on that.


Tay played his usual fine game. Lots of points, lots of D. But playing the whole 2nd half when there is a game tomorrow night too is of questionable value.


Sheed hit a couple of shots, played fine D for much of the 2nd half along fine defensive players like Amir and JMAX.


Dyess was almost certainly the biggest minus player for us. He took some fairly useless outside shots. Other than that, he just kept better defenders off the floor by him being in the game.

Great recaps Lee and Sandhu!

Here's my quick thoughts:
Flip Saunders just showed backbone tonight by sticking with Amir and Maxiell down the stretch. It's not like I don't want to see Sheed and Dyess finish games, but it is really nice to know that Flip has the guts to stick with the younger players when the game is in serious doubt in the 4th quarter. Not only that, but he trusted Amir on a decisive possession with a pick and roll call.

And those guys really came through. The epitome was the fast break by Seattle where Tay (or Billups) bothered the initial shot. Amir hustled all the way down the court to bother the put back. Then Maxiell swatted the 2nd put back out of bounds. Extreme hustle and some good old fashion pride in not letting the other team score on their watch.

Just since I'm on the subject, this pattern of going on runs with Amir Johnson in the game is getting beyond the point of coincidence. After scoring 41 points in the first quarter, Seattle scored 1 point in almost 7 minutes with Amir in the game in the 2nd quarter. As soon as he left the game with his 3rd BS foul, Seattle scored 8 points in about 50 seconds. It's uncanny.

Still, to give credit to the guys who we take for granted, Tay had a great game and Chauncey had a spectacular game. CB- 20 points on only 9 shots. 8 free throws, 9 assists, and 5 steals! Also, his 4th quarter play was once again a thing of beauty. Hamilton turned an ugly night into a decent night by keeping at it. Unbelievably, Durant actually looked like he was bothering Rip with his defense.

The overall story of this game though was Flip Saunders. On the night before a big match up, he chose to limit the minutes of our bigs, give our youth a huge shot of confidence, and still keep the momentum with a win. Nice job.

__________________
"I think sometimes the last couple of years we've been a little too predictable offensively." Billups

Flip partially listened to me

I agree with most of the points above.

Good job sticking with Max/Amir when Sheed/Dice obviously partied too much the night before. Also Max really does look different next to Amir or Sheed. Dice is a fantastic rebounder, but his defense has been lacking for quite some time. If Theo ends up demanding rotation time, Dice should get his minutes cut. He is much more effective when he plays less.

I'm annoyed about Tay's min especially since we play BOS tommorrow. Note to Flip. THIS IS SEATTLE. We don't need Tay playing 38 min against Seattle. Hermann was again used at PF. I wonder if he'll ever be used at back-up SF. It's unlikely Tay gets major rest tommorrow, and if he does i fully expect PP to hang 25 on Hayes in 10 min.

Also, i knew after Juan Dixon's scoring outburts Flip would play him over Afflalo which is stupid b/c like stated above Afflalo's defense is exceptional. Dixon lost his man coming off a screen which led to a easy basket when Max tried to help, And then got picked off giving Watson a open look. He did force a travel while employing a trap with Billups, but mostly it looked like alot of activity with little result. Afflalo's got major height on him as well, better passing ability, and he's better at running the fastbreak. Afflalo can also shoot 1-3.

We'll see tommorrow who takes the back-up SG minutes. I don't think i want to see Dixon guarding Ray Allen.

Rip definately tried to win this by himself, but he did hit some clutch shots at the end (while simaltaneously getting burned on defense by KD).

Stuckey was effective. Amir was great. I expect a big game from Sheed tommorrow. Hopefully Flip plays the best suited players against BOS, and doesn't get conservative which is what lost our last game against them.