Originally Posted by Lee356

Denver was a hot team coming in, having won their last 4. But it was a back to back for them too. One of the biggest changes of late for Denver is that they are playing Watson, a pretty darn good player.

But comparing backup points, I'll take Arroyo over Boykins or Watson any day. Arroyo flat out can play basketball. As he dribbles the ball down the court, he is looking at everything. And he makes a decision quick. And the right decision. Our offense with him in is dynamic, exciting to watch and just plain effective.

Flip Saunders said it quite well in the post game interview. Good dynamic offense leads right in to good defense. Stagnent offense on the other hand leads to poor defense. Tonight, with Billups having a fine floor game, and Arroyo following with a truely masterful floor game, it was a ton of fun to watch. Having midcourt seats helped too. I wish the crowd was making a bit more noise, but then again, with a blowout from nearly beginning to end, how excited can the fans get. And we did not score 120. Darn. Other than that, you can't complain about a thing about how things are going. But I will try anyway.

Darko saw no action when the game counted. But he got a good solid run in the 4th quarter in a game decided quite early. Arroyo, Evans, and Dyess totally destroyed Denver in the 2nd quarter, but still Flip brought in his starters to end the 2nd quarter. But hey, those subs stayed out there longer than usual by quite a bit. Progress. Plenty of bench play, scoring over 40. And pretty much deciding the game before the starters got back into the game.

We came out with an 8 point lead to start the 2nd quarter. Good job by CB and the starters to that point, with Dyess coming in very early and Evans also coming in well before the end of the quarter. Then Arroyo gets his turn to run the show. A 10-2 run makes them cry and call a timeout. Our subs stay out there as Denver brings all its starters back. Another run by our subs puts them away, makes them cry uncle, and call yet another timeout. And then our starters come back in for the last 3 or 4 minutes of the half. Then to start the 2nd, our starters put a 14-3 hurt to them to completely seal the deal.

Tay looked so good guarding Melo it was pretty pathetic to even try to compare a limited player like Melo to Tay at all. And Tay was scoring as he felt the mood. His triple ended all hopes of Denver making a game of it mid 3rd quarter.

Sheed hit a couple of triples, played his usual fine defense. But he did not go inside much. Against Denver, you think he would just go down there and set up a tent. Denver ain't got nothing inside. Camby can block some shots, but has zero in the beef department.

Dyess hit one outside shot. Still not hitting those outsiders. But tonight he as usual cleaned the boards, was good going for loose balls, played ok D, and took advantage of Denvers lack of an inside presence to make hay.

Darko and Delfino looked pretty darn good out there in garbage time. Rather than complain about them not playing, I will instead rejoice in the depth we got on this team. Maxiell can play too. So can Dale Davis. Etc. Man do we have talent on this team.

Ben is hitting some free throws this year, making others guard him, and hitting some inside shots if someone is not doing a real good job of guarding him. I don't like LB for some issues, but man what a good decision to get Ben involved in the offense. And oh, ho hum, tons of rebounds, shot blocks, intimidations, excellent floor coverage. Typical brilliance from Ben. (Much of which you must be at the Palace to grasp.)

Rip was just Rip. Run the defender to death off pick after pick. A lot more picks than last year. Way more. And Rip hits his shots after that marathon he just won. And Rip was working on his range too. One triple just barely missed or he would have had one great night shooting long range. Rip has been consistently knocking down shots just inside the line. I applaud his efforts to extend out his range just a foot or two more.

CB. 11 assists. Gettin to seem like its just not a fluke at all. And 16 points. A smooth jumper. Scores inside at will. Another circus shot made falling down. This one not quite as spectacular because it was right under the basket. But he was fouled good and hard and converted the 3 point play.

Evan continues to shoot great, get bounds, score inside. Still not a clue about ball handling, but I will certainly take what he has to offer.

Maxiell scored 6 in about 6 minutes. Its real. The guy has loads of talent. I am still patiently waiting for Flip to get him in to a first half of a game. All for now. GO PISTONS!!!!!

Originally Posted by Lee356

Flip Saunders said it quite well in the post game interview. Good dynamic offense leads right in to good defense. Stagnent offense on the other hand leads to poor defense.

Originally Posted by MotownPride

I'm upset I missed this game. Great to hear that the bench showed up last night. Looks like Arroyo did a good job keepin' the reserves on the floor. By the way, nice recap Lee.

You're wrong about the stagnent offense/defense point though. I tend to believe that defensive turnovers lead to offense rather than the inverse for the most part. It was primarily Brown's insistence on using up the shot clock that limited the Pistons opportunities to score (as you mentioned as well).

Originally Posted by buddahfan

The team that won the title two years ago was famous for both

Their stagnent offense

and

Great defense

Flipper proves once again that he knows squat about Piston history.

But then again Mr. D. ain't paying him to be a history major, but to win another few NBA titles.

Originally Posted by Lee356

With Arroyo bringing the ball up, seeing the whole floor, calculating the right play, and never turning the ball over, (nor making any decisions that might lead to a teammate throwing the ball away)...

Originally Posted by Lee356

It was Carlilse who was known for having stagnent offense with his starters on the floor, which included both Curry and Ben at the same time. Basically, either Rip or Billups scored, or nobody. Too often nobody. The year before that, in Carlisle's first year, we did not even have Rip nor CB on the team. Even uglier.