Finally a win over these losers. The triple threat of CB, Rip, and Tay led the way with a combined 78 points, and although no one played any D in the second half at all, it was enough to pull it out in the end. Ratliff filled in very ably with 10 pts, 8 boards, and 3 blocks; looks like Joe scored a really nice pick-up by getting him off the waiver wire. Dixon, not so much. AA looks definitely looks like the better bet as the 4th guard, or 4th/5th if Lindsey comes back.

Good job Stones!!!! Forgot to tune back in in the second half, glad to see we contained the Bulls mini-run and that Theo seems to be playing well. Let's hope he keeps up the good work when needed, he's providing much-needed relief to Sheed right now. Hopefully Amir continues to get enough minutes, looks like today was a little flukish for him with 0 rebounds on the box score I saw? Funny to see Rip and Tay both get more assists than Chauncey. These guys are playing well, and I am looking forward to the playoffs! I will be on an internship with Toyota out by Cincinatti this summer, so I am looking forward to enough of a break from school to be able to actually watch the playoffs this year. Both the West and the East are shaping up to have a great playoffs. Could we have imagined such an exciting NBA season last summer when the whole Donaghy issue was blowing up? I sure didn't! Let's hear it for the Pistons!!

DEEETROIT BAAASKETBAAAALL!

a little related to Dre's post. I posted this in the Amir Johnson thread regarding AA;

He's pretty critical to our defense though i agree he's not the sole reason we win games. I didn't catch most of the 4th. We were up 7, and then i came back we were up 1. Amir was not in the game after he was killing it in the 4th. I turned it off. I plan on watching it later, but we gave up back to back 30+ quarters and Ben Gordon LIT us up. From the looks of it Flip didn't even try Afflalo who IIRC shut down JJ when Rip couldn't as well as bothered AI.

We gave up 109 points. If the Original Zoo crew had entered the game when we were up 11, i'm almost positive this would've been a blowout. Sheed's absence is a factor, and Amir didn't play nearly as much as he should, but Dixon was awful in that short stint. I counted 10-12 points he gave the opposition. This isn't going to fly against better teams. It would've have been a loss had CHI not sucked so much.

------

I'm going to go back and watch the rest of the game, but i feel like i should start diagraming Dixon's bad defensive possessions. Having both Hayes/Dixon play is killing us defensively.

Also did Amir get taken out b/c of foul trouble or Flip stupidity? We were rolling with him in the game when i stepped away.

It's scary how again one person can almost beat our whole team. Obviously our perimeter defenders aren't cutting it so the solution is to start playing an even weaker one?

Heavy min 3 games in a row for Tay.

Also i remember Flip saying he was going to cut Dice's min. Obviously he needs it (1-10). I like Theo. I'm excited about him, but not if he takes min from Amir. Max is still playing ahead of Amir sometimes inexplicably. Theo needs to take Dice's min, and today it looks like he cut into Amir's. What happens when Sheed gets back?

edited to add;

I love agressive Tay. I wish there was a button so we could keep him that way.

There is no need to whine about Amir mins : he committed 5 fouls in 13 min

Yeah, Amir picked up tons of fouls in a short time. And if it looked like we were rolling when he was out there, the stats say otherwise; he was -11, which ended up being even worse than Dixon's -7.

We have finally beaten Chicago, but not Ben Wallace. This Chicago team was very weak on interior D. Yet Dyess still managed to take 10 outside shots, even though he only hit one. Did his 10 rebounds make up for it? I guess, but you can't call that a very good game for Dyess. Pretty much the last thing the team needed was him bricking a ton of shots. If he had gone inside, and still missed 10 shots, and picked up a few fouls, that would have really helped. CB had them in some serious foul trouble just on his own efforts to a large extent. Man, he could have used some help.


CB had a great game, picking up 10 points in each of the first 3 quarters. Don't fret. Its not like he had a bad 4th. Stuckey played most of that, doing just fine, handing Billups a lead (about 8 points) when Billups finally returned with about 4 minutes to go.


Rip and Tay also had 20 point plus games. A lot of fire power. Theo looked good chipping in 10 points himself with plenty of rebounds and blocks. Just a ton of fire power, and yet this was a close game to the end. CB had to win this one three times over. Why is that? Dixon was allowed to play for some reason. He did hit one shot in each half but otherwise was nothing more than a hole in our defense. We had a double digit lead in the first half that evaporated largely from Dixon's bricks and his non-existant D.


Hayes also hit a shot in each half. Fortunately for him, they were mostly picking on Dixon tonight.


Tay was getting his points inside and out. Rip mostly midrangers. Billups was getting to the line a lot and nailing triples. Theo did his damage mostly with hook shots. Nice to see an inside game. Kind of strange though not seeing him shoot jumpers. Anyone still remember all those in the lane jumpers he use to bury for us? Well, now they are all hooks.
Amir played plenty. His highlights were a pair of dunks. One on a fast break and one on a half court set. Jason played even more than Amir and had a fine night both scoring and on the boards. I think all his work was inside tonight. Can't remember him taking an outside shot.
In case anyone missed it, Sheed sat out with that ankle sprain again. They say he will be back Wednesday vs. Philly.


Tay went down from what turned out to be a funny bone injury. Somehow it got yanked on while the ball was being scraped out of his arms. All it really seemed to do to him is hone his shot from that point.
We had a couple of calls go against us, including an Amir block that was called a foul.


So how are we doing on getting ready for the playoffs? Amir playing. Check. Maxiell still getting all the minutes he can handle. Check. New guy Theo playing and looking good. Check. Stuckey still getting lots and quality minutes. Check. Afflalo. A huge not checked. Bad news. I can hardly belive we managed to win this one without Afflalo playing. But hey, with several of our players on fire, we can actually win without playing any D. I would not suggest it as a routine.

Not to argue, but some of those were nice hard "no free cheese" type fouls on people driving inside on us. If he was needed to stay in longer, he could have let some of those go.

It will quite interesting what happens next game when we have both Sheed and Theo playing. If its Maxiell and Amir who get their minutes cut, we are in deep trouble.

Lee, That's four out of five. Flip is not going to play Afflalo no matter what he does in the season.

__________________

Lee, great recap. I like it when you're upbeat like you've been recently. I see there are things to improve (Afflalo hopefully forcing Flip to give him more minutes, etc.), and I like your suggestions. Go Lee!

and

GO PISTONS!

Agree with your post Lee...Dyess is in the catch and shoot mode and unfortunately he is open 20 ft from the hoop that is where he is shooting it from. I know you can't stand in the lane, but at least keep moving in and out of it so you can be available to receive a pass under the hoop and maybe get to the line.

The defense has been suspect since they came back form the west coast and Alf has only averaged less than 2 mins a game. Got four straight home games coming up, need to get that defense in order before their next venture out on the road on 3/19 vs the Cavs.

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