Looked like several players didn't have their sea legs (specially Tay)...
It was mostly Chauncey not accepting defeat... a lot of mised calls or this game should have been more in our favor.

It looks like Darkos PT is gonna depend on how much of a lead we have going into the 2nd qtr.
Portland made a mistake using Theo mostly in the 2nd half instead of Pryzibilla... he was cause us trouble in the 1st half.... Theo looks like he's finally slowing down.

Next up is Boston (got blown out at home by the Spurs tonight)

I do not really care if Darko or whoever played. It was nice to sweep the 1st West coast trip. Many of you had the Pistons at 8-5 this month.

Darko will play this year. In PHX matchup issues there but basically we could not afford his fouls in these kinds of games. He would have put us in the penalty early.

No first half report

Game report:

Too hyped up on coffee to write much of a report. I'll try anyway. Been real rough staying up late the last couple of nights. Oh, the game. Well, it was just Portland. Portland managed to resemble a decent team early by shooting way over their heads. Of course, the hot shooting stopped and that was it. Ugly win. But 6-0 is awful nice. They put a chart up. I guess 8-0 is the next big thing to shoot for, matching the 89 Champs. After that, I think it was 10-0 in 70? (or 9-0, whichever.) Boston at home is up next Tuesday night.

Well, the streak stopped at three. Three games Tay took over offensively for stretches. This game, Tay deferred. Why I do not know. He was open occasionally and passed off. And Rip did not have a big game. But hit the big shot down the stretch. Again, quite the reversal from a couple years back. Just CB as scoring hero tonight. And 8 more assists racked up. Only 5 turns as of some point in the 2nd half for the team. Things are going rather well in that area.

No Darko, but Davis got some important minutes in the 2nd half. He did good on rebounds and the team did well enough with him in. Can't tell you much more than that for the moment. The announcer did say Davis was playing well.

CB played the entire 2nd half. No Arroyo in the 2nd half. But Delfino got a few important 4th quarter minutes so he played in both halves. Evans also played in both halves. So I guess we had about a nine man rotation. Eight guys who played in both halves, starters, Dyess, Evans, Delfino, and Arroyo just in the first half and Davis just in the 2nd half. Maxiell and Darko were the two who were dressed but saw no action.

Well, we were surely whipped on the boards, but remember, 4 of those offensive rebounds they got were on one trip down the floor. It was not that bad all game long. Prysbilla (sp) played well for them for much of the game blocking shots and rebounding. Quite an improvement over when I use to cheer for him as a Milwaukee Buck. (Not following any teams but the Pistons this year. League Pass got chopped out of my budget.)

Delfino did a good job guarding Miles a couple of times. Encouraging. Compared to Tay in the same situation, Delfino simply is stronger for keeping Miles from backing down. He also had a good assist to Dyess just before they went back to the starters at the end of the 3rd.

Can't remember Evans doing much of anything tonight, but again, I am hyped up on coffee at the moment. Some memory impairment from that I'm afraid. But I was reviewing that Phoenix game during commercials and did note Evans digging out two offensive rebounds for us in that first half of that game. So maybe I and others were a bit harsh.

Arroyo's play of the game was a sweet looking no look pass to Ben for a dunk. Ben scored on a post up strongly and got buckets on cuts. Or by being there for CB to hit with a pass when CB drove in. Seems Ben got a couple buckets like that. Too bad he did not convert on the 3 point play opps though. He still occasionally fades on his free throws. Not much, but enough to throw him off on his shot. As I said, I don't know, about mid-last year, Ben was mostly not fading back and should start improving his free throws. But he has to keep concentrating on going straight up or slightly toward the hoop as he shoots. Goes for his shots too. Don't fade. Let them block you occasionally. They will get fouls too.

Ok, 6-0. A 3-0 West road trip. All kinds of excuses for letting a game slip. What have we accomplished besides showing consistency? We beat a Phoenix team that does not play defense. A Boston team we beat which has actually not started off that badly. A Portland team that came in with a terrible plus minus for the year. Sacramento? Well. Look, no East team beats them, for whatever reason. That is something in my book. Philly? Philly has beaten at least one good team so far. When will we be tested if we don't count one team after another. Miami comes up on the schedule soon enough, but even for that, they will probably claim no Shaq, no fair. Enough for now. GO PISTONS!!!!!

Three days off before the rematch with the C's Tuesday and then a tough trip to Texas next weekend to tangle with Mavs and Rockets.

Obviously that trip will be tougher and season making if we take those two. But as we all know, lets take one game at a time and maybe 82-0 might be a stretch, but a new season record of 65-17 is not out of reach.
The key is surviving 12 out of the first 18 games this season on the road and winning at least 10 of those roadies.

He looked pretty good and will help spell Ben. An important pick-up for Joe. We still don't have a stable bench. Billips and Tay are going to have to be spelled as the season goes on. Flip is fishing for the right mix. He wanted a W and hesitated to substitute much in the second half at certain positions. Sheed's threes were big as Portland is big and not an easy team to pound the ball in down low. Tough on a back to back but 6-0 looks good.

If you look at most NBA teams, their start player, a la Kobe/AI/Wade play close to 40 minutes a night. ITs because the coach doesnt take out his best player. It just so happens that in the Stones there are 5 "superstars" that make it tought for a coach to take out, especially in a close game. So, although other teams appear to have more bench points etc, there main guys are in close to 40, and the rest of the guys are so clsoe to the same skill level that the bench is persieved to be good. Therefore, I propose that are bench is no worse than anyone elses, just the starters and so much better than other teams total 5.

Pistons 6-0 yeah baby

At one point in the game I thought why is Tay guarding Randolph and then I realized it was Miles wow when did he get so big? He dwarfed Tay and at times just abused him. What makes it sad is Miles can play like that at times and then just suck at other times. No I am not a fan of the kid but if he played like that all the time he would be an all-star. Miles and Randolph both are 25 I think, and with a couple more years in the league maybe they could be scary.

As for the game that little meltdown in the fourth was scary. What the hell happened to the d? We were up by what 8 with 2 minuets left and poof we were looking at going to OT. I hope it was just a case of being on the road, on a back to back, legs maybe just a little tired after running with the suns. Ugly or not a win is a win, and it is good to see them win games they are supposed to.

Max, you came darn close to the actual score in your early prediction, way to go.

Good post Lee.

Big of you to admit your error. I respect that and great post.