You must remember too, Ben got beat by the same person just as much as DMC did. Be fair.

5 of 17 from beyond the arc. I don't call that expert marksmanship. I just hope that in future games if the Pistons are not shooting the rock that well from back there, they'll find other ways to score. Seventeen three-point attempts is too many. I don't want it to become the norm. But it did seem like Detroit scored from a variety of ways tonight.

most disturbing was that Sheed accounted for almost half of those attempts. If I remember correctly, he was like 0-5 at the half. I like it that sheed can hit those but dang man.

sheed ended up with a great stat line but he had the most atrocious shooting night which really contributed to our poor first half. he wouldn't stop shooting - i was like either he has to start making shots or just stop taking them. it contributed to giving up so many easy baskets in the paint. at least he buckled down when it counted.

arroyo was amazing and got a standing ovation from the crowd - if he can just stay consistent...5 assists, 2 steals, and 4-5 shooting in 11 minutes is pretty sweet.

and i'd also like to add that the new spot for my season tickets is rather amazing

if you listened to the game on the radio in the postgame rasheed was talking to blaha, and george asked him if flip said anything to them in halftime, and rasheed said that flip told them that they were not playing the way that makes them win, and that they were shooting too much jumpers and more importantly letting boston get very easy buckets.

at least he stepped in that fourth quarter he was huge then.

Hey I picked this up from the Boston Globe forum ...kindof of a Leecap except written by a smart person. Some good points with an obvious Celtic bias..

Posted by MikeDfromNP on Nov-15 10:58 PM
This was a tale of two halves. The Celtics played their best ball of the year in the first, they were outplayed and executed in the second. It was a hard game to watch, because no matter how well things were going, you just had the feeling that it could all go to pieces. I have to commend the extraordinary performances of Ricky Davis and Chauncey, should still be a Celtic, Billups. Here are some of the major points I think need discussion.

1. The officiating - I know that some of you consider blaming the officials a cop out, and for the most part it is, but hear me out. The Celtics were playing a great team on their own home court, and the C's have trouble getting respect on their own against middling ones. If the C's had taken the Pistons out at the beginning of the third quarter, which they easily could have done, this wouldn't have been a problem. The thing is, they didn't, so the officials let the Pistons get away with stuff so that they could stay in it. Whining about it doesn't really get you anywhere, but realizing that it happens is necessary.

The Pistons have earned their respect. They will get the calls, that's the way things work. A team, like the Celtics, to get that respect need to knock teams like this on their asses. It wasn't just the lack of free throws, it was the fact that the refs let the Pistons manhandle the C's when the game got close. The C's need to make sure that doesn't happen. The Pistons didn't get the star treatment 2 years ago at this time. They were getting screwed themselves by the refs in games just like this one. They weren't given the respect by the officials, they fought through the bias and won it. They won it. The Celtics will need to do the same. If you watched the game, you know what I'm talking about.

2. Al Jefferson - I've been positive with regards to Doc, but unless something comes out regarding an injury, he really messed up with this one. Why didn't Al get major minutes in the second half, and why didn't he get the ball?!?! The Pistons didn't have an answer for the kid. He was red hot, and playing with a ton of confidence. H erebounded well and even Big Ben was shaking his head with frustration. I was impressed with his quickness, and how he attacked the rim. He could have given us a few much needed baskets in the second half, yet he didn't really get much a chance to do that. His jump shot was very fluid too.If he starts hitting that every game, most of the teams in the league won't have a prayer in stopping.

3. Paul - Had a very nice game tonight. I thought they didn't utilise him enough in the 4th, and that really hurt. Looked out of sync in the first half, but didn't take bad shots and played solid team ball. He was on fire at the end of the 3rd. The lack of foul calls hurt his game the most. He was creating a lot f contact on his drives, but the refs kept their whistles in their back pockets. If Paul doesn't get those calls, then he is reduced to being a jump shooter. He should have had at least FT 10 attempts in this one, but we can't cry about it ( see item 1 above).

4. The fast break - It was up and running in the first half and practically non existent in the second. The Celtics were more responsible for this than the Pistons. They need to learn that they are the ones in control, not the other team, and that pushing the break will facilitate the half court offense even if it doesn't translate into a bucket at first.

5. The Beginning of the Third Quarter - To me this was where the eventual defeat was set up. The Celtics came out and were getting wide open shots right off the bat, yet they weren't hitting them. They were still playing the same good defence, but the shooting just dried up. They responded to this badly. They started to force things instead of realizing that the shots would eventually start going in again. This played right into the Pistons hands. They got the game close again, and set the pace of the game to something more to their liking.

Sam and Worcester are big on this, is Red Aurbach, and now so am I. It is of the utmost importance that this team learns to came out of the blocks with the right mental approach at the beginning of the second half. They could have made great strides in putting the game away in the first 4 minutes of the 3rd quarter, yet they didn't. That gave the Pistons hope and that's the lat thing that we wanted. This is where their youth really works against them.

6. Blount and Raef - Is it just me, or did it seem that they actually refused to pass to Raef at times? I was watching him yelling for the ball, something he rarely does, yet they would pass to someone else. This really hurt us as Raef looked to me if he felt he was on, and his own team iced him.

Blount was great in the first half, but when he started bricking open jumpers at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, the rest of his game fell to pieces. He has to maintain focus, like Paul does. If Paul doesn't have his shot going, he puts a greater emphasis on the rest of his game. The same can be said of Ricky. Blount, who played very good defense in the first half, played a lot of spectator D in the second. Doc has to either kick him in the ass when this happens, or he needs to nail him to the bench.

7. Dickau - If they are going to play him, then he needs to shoot the ball, because he isn't much of a defender. He's an excellent shooter, but he keeps passing up open shots. If he's cold, that's one thing, but not shooting them to begin with is another.

8. Composure - They lost it utterly in the 4th. Were they getting screwed on the fouls? Hell yeah, but that is going to the way these things go until they win the respect of the officials. They have to overcome these things. They let the situation get them out of their game. If they are hacking you on drives to the basket, and it isn't being called, then throw an elbow into the hacker's face. He'll stop doing it all on his own. If things are starting to go south, don't abandon the game plan, that's what got you there to begin with. They have to toughen themselves up. That's what the Pistons did 2 years ago.

This was a close game right up to the final minutes. That it got out of hand had more to do with the Celtics' mental state than what the Pistons were doing. I give credit to the Pistons for hitting a lot of big shots. They really stepped it up when they smelled blood. The Celtics had their opportunity to win the game earlier, but they came up way short. I hope that Doc gets his act together quick. The way that he coached the second half didn't impress me at all.

Link to discussion thread at Boston.com

I'm usually the first one to admit if we're getting hometown calls on fouls and such, but I didn't see much bias. The Celtics had a lot of easy baskets in the first half - hence no foul shots. In the second half they resorted to jumpers - hence no foul shots. They weren't aggressive so they weren't going to get the benefit of calls.

While Jefferson *was* on fire in the 2nd half, it's not a Corliss situation where you necessarily wonder why they didn't play him more. He mostly got hot on Darko - he wasn't going to get the defense by our starters. At least he realizes Dickau is a liability - that guy can't defend period.

His points on #4 and #8 are way off base though. The disappearing fast break had just as much to do with the Pistons as it did the Celtics. When we stopped taking ill-advised jumpers and starting making baskets and actually playing defense, there weren't any fast break opportunities to be had...it's not like they could just push it up the floor harder to generate them.

"That it got out of hand had more to do with the Celtics' mental state than what the Pistons were doing."

That is just silly - the Pistons *caused* that mental state of the Celtics. We've seen 3 straight games now (Phoenix, Portland, Boston) that the Pistons simply broke the will of the other team. They kicked up the intensity and the opponents reverted to shooting ill-advised jumpers as a response to that.

Man Flip has got to start using the bench. As I've oft posted before, I don't mind us playing targeted D, pushing the O for big parts of the game (the balance of O and D depends on the opponent, score, etc.). But there is absolutely no reason for the starters to be logging huge minutes, when they aren't playing top-notch D. If Flip had played Arroyo, Evans, Darko, McDyess and Delfino the entire second quarter (maybe more) yesterday, we'd probably have been in the same place at the end of the first half, with the starters rested and ready to go gang-busters in the second half. They did it anyways, but they're going to wear themselves out in the long-run if they have to repeat that performance.

I understand that Flip is trying to get the starters in rhythm, but clearly they're already there. Its time to get the second unit in order, so that they can give the starters a blow. I'd like to see the whole second unit play from the 10:00 mark in the 1Q until the end of the half every game, if they can keep things close.

Darko needs to leap-frog the struggling McDyess in the line-up for a few games, and needs to be the focus of the offense on 5-6 plays per game. He's shooting 56% for the season and 100% from the line (and pretty good D in stretches). Let's see if those numbers hold up with some PT. I really feel for the guy. I'd be going nuts if I was in his shoes. (I'm not patient either).

Anyone else besides me think that Darko's weak "D" has anything to do with him being overly concerned about getting to many quick fouls called on him if he were to be more agressive on "D". That is what I think is happening right now.