Did I miss it, or did the Pistons go through an entire game without a scoring drought?

Clearly, the shadow of LB is no longer looming large over Arroyo, Delfino and Darko. Those guys all looked at ease. Arroyo and C-Note had 18 assists between them. Arroyo played the perfect game in my mind. Dyess didn't have much touch out there but rebounded very well. 20 of 23 from the FT line. Two of the misses came from Ben. The guy simply doesn't bend his knees. I can't understand why the coaching staff doesn't fix this. It is so freakin' obvious. Delfino still doesn't play D. Maybe he'll learn. Nice reverse dunk, but he used his off arm to get around Nailon, which the zebra didn't catch. Arroyo, Arroyo, Arroyo. Man, he looked good. Maxiell with a nice dunk in stride on the break. Decent game although the Sixers plain stink. With no Dalembert, they're even more pathetic. Oh yea, Rip played pretty well.

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I know this is off topic, but Smush Parker just opened up the La-Den game with a 3. Smush Parker, starting for La. Did I miss the memo.

Offense was solid in the sense that there was a lot of movement, but the downfall is that there were a lot of jumpshots, and today they were falling. This isnt always the case. I know we are not a post team, but it would have been nice to get some inside game going. I know we won the pts in the paint matchup, but most of that was on uncontested layups through fastbreak opportunities. Also, there was still the 3rd qtr drought that I have become accostumed too.

I think that pretty much indicates the level of success the lakers are gonna have this season!

1st half observations:

The biggest difference is a very obvious one. When we get down there quick, we just shoot it if they are lazy on us and don't get back with us. Thats a lot of easy points we are going to get, and we are going to keep the other team honest watching for our fast breaks.

Dyess, Evans, Arroyo, and Darko came off the bench. Dyess hit one shot that came back out and went back in. His shot is basically looking terrible, and it really did all preseason. I don't know what injuries he may have, but he ain't looin none too good. But he can still find rebounds.

Evans hit a triple. Otherwise, not much. He did get an assist on a fast break, but the pass did not take much, and he nearly fumbled the ball on even that. But he hit that triple. Can't complain any about his defense either. Still, I can see Delfino doing better with his ball handling skills. And he might have hit a triple himself.

Arroyo, surprisingy to many I know, did not get continuously burned by AI. Nope, Arroyo did just fine guarding the guy. Prince did a little defending AI. I don't remember Rip doing much in this respect. Rip went off for 20. His offensive rebound has been impressive. Darko is doing fine bothering shots, but he spends a bit too much effort on that and too little readying for the rebound. Tay is a complete overmatch as usual.

Game report:


</B></B></B>First of all, Rip was the player of the game. Good D. Rebounds. And what, about 33 points or so. On fire. 6 straight makes, or was it 7, in the 3rd quarter, after getting 20 in the first half.

Where to go next? How about Arroyo. The Pistons hit their last 18 of 20 shots, chiefly with Arroyo running the point. Can't get more efficient than that. Arroyo hit his jumper. He darted inside for a score off glass. Then he sliced and diced Philly. He basically had their defense jacked.

Dyess hit a couple of shots, while continuing to clean those boards quite nicely.

Sheed did not play a ton due to foul trouble, but while in, he made Webber look none too good.

Tay, what can you say. He did not star in this game, but he certainly could have. Did not need him to play much. But man is he ever a mismatch. And with Flip's style of offense, Prince gets to run down with all his quickness, line up that shot and hit it before his generally slower or shorter defender catches up to do anything about the shot. I predict Tay is going to continue to get better at hitting those.

Back to Rip. Lots of range tonight. Lots of midrangers made off plays. Lots of going inside and scoring. Scored on fast breaks too. He did it all.

Delfino did not get to play much. Just some garbage minutes at the end. On offense, he impressed quite well. He hit one outside shot, and really wowed the fans with a drive from the right along the baseline ending with a reverse dunk.

Speaking of dunks, Tay gets the award for the highest one, but that Delfino wins on overall points.

Darko got a block in garbage time, and he hit an outside shot. Maxiell got into the swing of things, getting a dunk on a fast break pass by Arroyo. That looked pretty impressive too by the way.

CB got quite a few assists in this one. Maybe 9? Hit some shots. Played pretty darn solid D on AI.

108 points. Good sign. That offense has had exactly one regular season game to get perfected. So far. 81 more games to go before the playoffs to work out the kinks. Not that there were many.

Ben did a bit of scoring. Hit both free throws once. Hope to see more of that. His dunk against Hunter was pretty sweet. Powerful, and they could have gave him the and one.

Did anyone see how disgusted Billups was when we turned the ball over early in the game and gave them a bucket? Just Philly's 2nd bucket of the game. And we had 10 points already. CB does not believe the other team should get to score, and I love that attitude.

Evans made a good pass on a fast break. Like that. Got some rebounds. Hit a pair of triples. Played solid enough defense, although he is overmatched in height by Iggy. Delfino certainly did not do any better. Anyway, we used an 8 man rotation, 8 guys who certainly all helped toward the win. Plus Darko got about 4 real minutes in the first half.

Sub of the game I will give to Arroyo. It would have been a tie for Dyess maybe with all those rebounds if he had not shot so poorly in the 1st half.

I never heard who was dressed or not. We played 11 guys. I bet the other guy dressed was Acker in case he may have been needed to help guard AI. Well, thats all I can think of for now. I will probably review the game again tomorro and do another report on it. Anyone got any questions about the game, post them and I will look for the answer when I watch the 2nd time.

This was the sweetest game I've seen from a detroit team since the Redwings beat Colorado in the Kris Draper revenge game years back....The O looked so strong, loose and confident. Here are my three stars:
1. RIP - YESSIR!! People was talkin big mess about Rip in the exhibition. pleeeze-fake games? He looked like someone took the stones off his feet.
2. CHAUNCEY- was in complete control of this game. Reminded me of walt Frazier. He could do what he wanted to do.
3. SHEED - why? cuz he showed the rest of the league that he dont need to be the Sheed of old to be effective and his !st qtr block that started the billups to Tay dunk put the game away right there.
We also have a special bench. I would love to see each of them in a 10-15 minute stretch if we could pull off a 3rd qtr blowout this month.
Darko and Del are stars waiting to happen....Evans is gonna be the shisnit...Los and Dice will be nice...and Baby Bull Max is raw meat!!
OOOOO-weeeeee, my bruddas!

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That game had zero drama. It was over after 5 minutes. Philly never once made a run that forced a Det timeout. But I loved it!

The Pistons look perfectly relaxed in their roles. I think that it is a little easier making a jump shot when you don't feel like you're going to be lectured after a miss. Shooters need a bit of freedom.

Plays of the game: 1) 2 defensive blocks leading to a high flying fast break alley-oop to Prince, 2) Ben's post move Amare-like DUNK, 3) Delfino's drive and wrap around dunk, 4) tie between Arroyo's crazy bank shots and Rip's relentless mid-ranger.

We took care of business, but I saw too many ill advised shots, hopefully that trend won't continue. CB reverted a bit, but then righted himself quite nicely.

The real story was the bench. Delfino really looks good, and Arroyo can be very dangerous as well. If they don't watch out, they'll have rings that they really contribute to get. Evans looked good, and JMax came in and made himself at home.

Darko did very good, on the defensive end, but it was just good to see him in a real game and not look totally lost. I think most of his blocks are almost by accident, i.e. just instinct. This kid is going to be a monster once he puts it all together in a couple of years. But by the end of this year, he will be an important part of this team.

So, it was a nice home opener, but that effort won't beat the good teams. We will have to play better defense, and execute better. But then again, it was just the first game of the season, and we were playing the Sixers without their interior defense. That single fault let Prince, Ben & Sheed(when he was on the floor) just dominate.

This isn't a game to base anything on yet.

I know Philly was "tired" (how come the best conditioned athletes in the world can be tired just after games in two consecutives nights? ), but our team smoked them from the start. Our starting 5 were way superior and our second unit pretty much hold it's own. Cb was in control from the first second and Rip was scoring at will. Sheed was incredible. What a block he made on Hunter!!! Ben was scrapping the ceiling of the palace. what a way to jump. We have to resign this guy. He's a beast. Tay did good on the first Q, but then kind of dissapeared. CA did good (as good as anybody else can) defensively on AI, with his best move being the elbow to AI's mouth that took him out of the game for a while, giving AI his first stitches of the season. Way to go, Arroyo!!!! Not a whole lot offensively from him in the first half. Carlos came back on the second half and he looked like a man possesed. Made a lot of assts and good passes and made his shots, even fooling Philly's big guys on the post. Dice was solid rebounding, but not a whole lot of offense from him tonite.

Darko did pretty good defensively ( blocks and one steal) and even had a nice J from outside. I want to see him in the post. Maxiel is a beast. What a monster dunk this guy made!!! Evans looked good on both sides and he made his 3's. Delfino made that reverse dunk that made me rise from the couch.

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