The Jinx is broken! (at least for this game) I tivo'ed the game, went out, and we won. That never happens.

I can't wait to watch.

Decisive win tonight as the Pistons came out super aggressive from the opening tip. The Cavs were terrible on offense, shooting around 30% for most of the game, also thanks to some lockdown D. Z and Lebron combined for a brutal 9-33 from the floor. Rip struggled from the floor in his first game back in a week, 3-12, but he did go 8-8 from the line. The scoring was balanced between all the starters, and the final margin would have been bigger if not for the usual Zoo Crew garbage time collapse (although it was milder tonight than usual).

DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE!!!

The refs stayed out of our way and let us be aggressive.

Nice work from Theo on Z. Dyess, Sheed, and Maxiell were playing hard. Stuckey looks 99% comfortable.

The Pistons set the tone on offense and defense in the first quarter and never looked back. Did not need the three ball to win and was 1-4 in the first half and 0-8 in the second half. As Dumars4e said the 14 point win could have been bigger, but the second unit hit the tank when Fabio came in as he went 0-6 shooting and was a -10 for his efforts

Good statement win that tells the fans that they can play up to what we expect of them when the game counts. Maybe we need to have Mclosky in the stands more often as he was there for Thursdays win too.

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

That was a vintage pistons beatdown, HELL YES.

Time for everyone to switch to our Flip Saunders' Avatars for good luck.

Zoo time, great win.
Flip's rotaion and plan is great this game that we worn out LBJ who looked hesitant after we gave him some triple team. The debacle where LBJ and MB got tech was priceless. None could come out of this type of defense, no one.
Game by game Stucky is looking more and more like veteran player while AA was effective on LBJ, AJ got an off night but hustle as usuall, I love the young guy's playing and our future is bright.

Go Pistons.

Gotta command WH his approach was great.
Damon Jones was fun to watch, wasn't he ? His way to push up-court backwardly was unique.

I liked what sounded like an friendly ovation when Big Ben got hurt. Yeah, he'll get booed when he plays, but when he gets hurt? He's still The Man.

Down goes Wallace.
Down goes Wallace.
In last years P/O we got to play our game the first 2 then the refs took the rug out.

Darn, Cleveland broke the 70 point mark. About the only thing to worry about by the start of the 4th quarter, as Cleveland only had 50 points at that time. And they only had 54 five minutes later. Yes, Afflalo can play some D. He did quite well in the first half too, where Clevelan only scored 2 points with him in the game. Not to mention he was guarding Bron. And we are going to take him out of the rotation for the playoffs? Nuts.

Amir only got into garbage time. A block or two, several reabounds. As long as its just one game, its ok. As long as its just one game.

Theo looked pretty good defending the middle. Yes, he did stay in too long in the first half, but we are trying to play him into shape. (Two year layoff from injury.)

Rip was getting played back into condition himself after a week off. He kept hitting free throws even though he could not hit a shot otherwise for much of the game. On defense, he stuck with Bron well.
Other than Rip's 14, Jason Maxiell's 13 was the next highest point total for us. Most of his was short jumpers, with him just rising up over people. Looking good.

Billups, Tay, and Sheed did not do a whole lot on offense, but somebody was playing some pretty good D as Cleveland only got 33 points in the first half, needing a bit of a run there to even get that.

Dyess had a fine game. Big Z gives him a reason to be in the game on defense, and he got inside for several scores and hit some outside shots too. Lots of rebounds.

Stuckey nailed a jumper and helped a couple of teammates to easy scores. Not bad. Afflalo did nothing on offense. He had some nice defensive plays besides just guarding Bron.

Hayes played, hit one shot. Otherwise, he was just a door for Cleveland to score. Maybe we are playing him just so Cleveland will be drawing their game plan up to score against him. Then we will fool them by not playing him. Hopefully.

Herrmann got into the game in garbage time and pretty much stunk. You can say it was rust from not playing if you wish, but he just looked slow in everything he does. Hayes would have converted those shots Herrmann got stuffed on. Herrmann was too slow.

How did we do for playoff prep? Nobody played heavy minutes. Three of our key young guys got substantial minutes while Amir got about 7 too. Theo got some time to knock off some rust. We watched Afflalo do well indeed guarding Bron. Lots of good stuff. If we contine like this, we will win it all. (A decision to shorten the rotation, removing Afflalo and Amir, and replacing Stuckey some with Hunter will mean a first round exit. Don't do it. Keep going as things are instead and win it all.)

GO PISTONS!!!!!