Maybe it is even more WWE than we all fear/think.

My mistake. It doesn't make a difference one way or another. Another role player going off on us.

While you're mostly right, it'd be scary if somebody 6'7" 300lbs CAME OFF THE BENCH and got 20 boards.

i didn't think of it like that LOL, but yea if that happened we should probably just forefit our season.

Well shall we all admit that Boston is a tad better than the Pistons on paper and the floor for awhile and stop living on our past glory?? Yeah we are a good team and could possibly beat them in a 7 game series, but if that series started tomorrow, I would give it to the Celtics based on heart, hunger, disipline and role players. (I threw out the coaching and superstar factors.).

We still have work to do as the bench is as insconsistent as our starters and coaching philosophy. Joe and Flip if you are reading this we need to experiment a little more over the next couple of weeks. That means starting Amir or even Theo to see if that makes a difference in keeping Dice fresh. he is already tailing off and we are only 3/4 of the way thru the season and we haven't even got to the post season yet.

Playing Prince in back to back nights of 38+ mins make no sense at all. If it appears that Hayes is off, you don't have to put Prince back in...go to Fabio ands see if can give you some non-garbage time fancy moves. (if he is dressed of course). Trotting out Dixon to see what he can give you is an OK move, but don't abandon Alf???

Please reel in Rip when he needs it. when he is on, he's great, but when he tries forcing the issue it's disasterous and unfortunately Stuckey seems to follow in his footsteps at times....

In the Post season it going to be about the Paint...you have to learn how to protect it and you got know how to use it. A jumpshooting team will fall in love with the jumpers and die by them....

I just watched the game. I counted 6 points that Garnett scored on Amir, and two of those were foul shots on a bad call. One bucket was when Amir went for a steal, and Wallace failed to cover his back. Garnett scored on Amir exactly once in the post against him. In contrast, well, lets just mention that Garnett scored over 30. As usual McCoskey was doing something else besides watching the game.


McCoskey also failed to note that the Pistons had a 9 - 0 run with Amir in the game for the end of the 3rd, start of the 4th quarter. With Jason Maxiell playing along side him. In all, Amir came in with us 7 down, and went out with us 5 down. (technically just 3, but I do count the made free throws after Amir left the game - so McCoskey did manage to get one thing right - a bit more than usual for him. lol.)


What ended the run? Flip did. He brought in Hayes for Prince and Sheed for Jason. So much for the theory of staying with the hot hand. Could we have won this one if Flip just left Maxiell and Amir in as his bigs for the whole 4th. Probably. It worked the night before. It seemed to be working just fine in this game.


Now, the starters did not much it up right away. The game was kept close for a minute and a half. A questionable call by the refs here and there, plus some shots that just missed for us, and all the sudden the Pistons were down double digits. This and the opening of the game, where our starters totally botched everything, were the only bad stretches of the game. We did pretty darn good in contrast when we had bench players in.


And this despite the fact that Hayes and Dixon gave us next to nothing in the game. Now, Dixon was in there during that 9-0 run. If he had hit his couple of shots there, it would have been nice. He hustled to get open for a couple of fairly close in shots but missed the shots. Let me see, who does that leave from the bench that did contribute a lot. How did the bench do as well as it did? Stuckey, Amir, and Maxiell. They may not have scored points, but they played good D. (Stuckey did have the one nice drive for a score.)


Amir's highlight was two quick blocks during that 9-0 run.
Billups sure had the right idea toward the end of the 3rd. Drive them inside and score at free throw line. Man, just think if Dyess was worth a darn in this game and did anything at all inside. But nope, worthless outside shots, not in anyway possible for them to draw fouls. Hey, Dyess, help the team next time, work the inside.


Sheed had the good scoring 2nd quarter. He also twisted his ankle some. It did not seem to affect his game that much. 3 for 10 from 3 land. Hey, thats 9 points on 10 shots. Par. Not great, not bad.


Rip was not terrible, not great. Allen was held in check, so you really can't say Rip did all that bad. Still, like the rest of the starters mostly, he was heavily minus for the game. (Prince was the exception. Note, I have not checked these stats, just from memory.)


Tay looked awful good during that little run we had. And Pierce was held in check. So again, can't say he had a bad game.


Ok, whats going on with our bench? Stuckey continues to get lots of minutes. Billups continues to respond very well for all the rest. Rip still plays too much, even though we have an excellent backup in Afflalo who could be giving him more rest, and add energy to the team while Rip is sitting. You play the best, not the vet just because he is a vet. Remember this, if Dixon was all that good, Toronto, a team with some big playoff aspirations, would have kept him.


Amir and Maxiell continue to get time. But Dyess is still overplayed mostly. Maybe adding Theo into the mix will finally help that. But then again, Flip Saunders is our coach, and that is a dangerous thing. His statement that the starters have to play 30 plus minutes in the playoffs is absurd if that includes McDyess.


In all, I believe absolutely that the Pistons have the players to win it all this year. But I don't think we have a coach capable of simply playing the right players. If Flip gets his way, and Dixon, Hunter, Hayes, and Theo end up being pretty much our bench, I see an exit in the first round. And I don't care who we play. If we could play Seattle in the first round, or even Miami, we would lose in the first round. Any team in the league is going to beat us if Flip gets his way.


On the other hand, if our subs are mainly Amir, Maxiell, Afflalo, Stuckey, no team can beat us. Its Flips choice. I will not fault Dumars for adding good players. You can't idiot proof a team. If Flip makes those wrong choices, its Flip who will be at fault and nobody else.

I agree with that. I'd hate to see AA's minutes get taken by Dixon.

Who gets credit for making Ray Allen go 1-9 from the floor?

I agree with most of the posters, but people who believe that it isn't the starters who will make or break us are plain wrong. I understand rest, substitution patterns, match-ups, etc. and all the other nuances that can effect a game, but come May and June we will be relying on the quality of our starters. You have to go to Sheed at the end of this game. I don't care what Amir and Max did the previous game together against Seattle or what not. What if Sheed sat the entire 4th and we still lost. People (Sheed and Joe D included) would have Flip's head. Its Rasheed Wallace, 4 time all-star. Not some scrub. Popovich wouldn't sit Duncan in the 4th if Elson was the hot hand. Pierce, Garnett, Allen, and Rondo are better than a team of Amir, Max, Afflalo, and Stuckey. I love the youth and they are exciting to watch. They are different and everyone loves vsriety. But it is time we show some respect to the skills of Big shot, Rip, Sheed and Prince and quit clamoring for the bench as a built in excuse.

Duncan wouldn't shoot 10 3-pointers and a handful of fade-away college 3's and let his man go off for 31 points. I agree that we are going to be relying on Sheed. I just hope he gets some discipline. He was awesome down low last night... which really makes his overall performance such a dissapointment.