Also notice the Magic made 29 FT's and 29 FG's .. at one point, they actually had made more FT's than FG's

Sometimes, guys don't play because other guys are playing well. Tonight, Kwame gave us size against Dho to spell Dice, and made sense. He also didn't give Curry a reason to pull him as he played a pretty nice game.

Same thing I suppose with Walt. He ended up minus, but on balance, I think he played a level game. His few shots were big and his hustle may have offset his lack of defensive speed. I think the guy is a real value in the halfcourt.

Anyone notice Curry draw up a play for Max 20' from the hoop coming out of timeout with the shot clock at 3 or so?

Missed it by a mile, but come the playoffs he isn't going to be nervous at all when he misses it.

I agree. I think Lee might be taking this win hard.

The Pistons are finally playing hard nosed basketball and their chemistry seems really good on the court. Even Kwame Brown contributed and that makes for a happy basketball team. No way does Orlando want to play us come the playoffs so it should be interesting.

I just love the energy Will Bynum brings and he's such a pest on defense that the opposing team's point guard must constantly be aware that they get very little breathing room with Bynum pestering them. Also Fabio is such an interesting player how do you even scout to defend against him because he's so unpredictable. He's got those incredible mitts that swallows the ball whole. If Maxiell had Herrmann's mitts he would be a super star.

Why did Orlando go away from Courtney Lee? He was having a pretty good game against Detroit and then he disappeared.

Dice is playing like a man possessed, you almost think he's reads this forum and wants to prove to us he's not an old man.

We have won five of six now. Four wins over division winners. And tonight, mostly without Sheed, still no AI, and Stuckey came up gimpy a bit toward the end of the game. Darn good win.

Rip had a career high 14 assists, to go along with about 24 points. He just kept making those outside shots. Got to the line several times too. Quite a game from him.

Tay had it going, inside and out, darn good game from him too.

Dyess pulled down 19 offensive rebounds, many offensive. We ended up shooting a ton more shots than Orlando. Dyess also got hot on his outside shot in the 2nd half. Here is the bad news though - he played 40 minutes. Sheed just went out with a calf strain, a sign he getting overplayed. Can't expect Dyess to hold up much longer.

Maxiell was minus for the game. But hey, he played along side Herrmann, who played no D at all. Herrmann was minus himself quite a bit. Herrmann did hit an open three, make a circus shot on a drive from the right - a reverse where he spun the ball up on the far left upper corner of the glass and got it to go. He also made a hoop on a fast break, one of Rip's assists. And he had a couple of decent assists. Still, his defense was so bad, he was still well minus for the game.

Maxiell had some dunks, missed both his free throws, and airballed a short jumper. His highlight was a dunk of an alley oop pass from Hamilton.

Dyess had his own highlight, a steal, a drive all the way down for the layin plus 1. He certainly looked energetic tonight.

Bynum hit one outside shot, and thats it. A couple of assists. But he played decent D, and the team did just fine when he had to play a bit longer than planned in the 2nd half with that injury to Stuckey. Apparently, Stuckey twisted an ankle or two, but came back in to finish the game.

Stuckey made double digits when he made a short jumper in crunch time. I think maybe all his scoring was on jumpers tonight. (Something to do with Howard patrolling the paint.)

Kwame scored 10, mostly on dunks, though he did bank in a short jumper. His defense was solid on Howard. The amazing thing is that he held onto the passes he got. Who knows, maybe his teammates are learning how to throw him the ball right. Got to give credit for Curry for having played Kwame these past several games, so that he was ready to go tonight when Sheed got injured.

Amir and Afflalo did not play. Sharpe dressed in the absence of AI, and did not play.

Much of the game saw Kwame and Dyess paired up. This was fine as Turk was injured for them, did not play that much, resulting in Orlando going with two centers much of the time.

The flow of the game was highly unusual, as neither team ever got more than 6 points ahead. We could not buy a whistle out there, but we kept getting all the offensive rebounds, and points off those offensive rebounds. (Maybe like 14 or so for the game.)

Tay and Rip also got 40 minutes in this one.

Thats about all I could think of. The most lasting impression - clutch shots made by Rip. That was quite a shooting performance the whole 2nd half. (With Dyess' rebounds being the 2nd thing.)


PS) Herrmann was minus 7 in this one.

Great Leecap!

Thank you. I'm grinning ear to ear.

Nice to see u excited in bold print again! LOL

Dont get too excited now. hawks 3-0 vs Us can say the same thing. there's a lot of time between now and then.

The star of teh game for me tonight was Cheryl Burke!!!! She's lost about 20 lbs and looked fabulous tonight with her new partner, The naked Sex in the city guy. That karma is what led us to this very nice win.

Cheryl > AI, Sheed and Amir!!!!