no Darko tonight? Especially against a small team like Phoenix, I'd expected Saunders to go big with Darko, JMax or even Davis. To run the plays for the big guys.
Seems as he tried to stick to fastbreaks- aaaaaaight

I'm sorry we must have seen another game. Please explain how he did this? He only hit one wide open outside shot. That was pretty much it for his contribution. I consider myself a pretty objective guy. I give credit where credit is due. Arroyo had a bad game last night. He was a liability on defense BIG time. 1 for 6 from the field. Blown layup after blown layup. His lack of speed on defense was exposed last night. The only thing I can say is that he didn't turn over the ball so he didn't give the game away...at least based on ball-handling. He did not do a good job of setting up for scores either. The Pistons shot 54% last night and he was not responsible for one assist. I haven't soured on Arroyo for the entire season, but this was definitely not a case of him bringing the Pistons back from a deficit. Arroyo was in the game during a run, but his contribution was minimal at best.

The story of this game was the Piston's bigs switching off their man on defense in the 4th quarter instead of having the guards fight screens unsuccessfully all night. Oh, and I think Evans contributed more than you are giving him credit for. The Pistons were outrebounded most of the game until they rallied in the 4th...the only person who seemed to be successfully getting long rebounds off missed threes was Evans. He finished with 5 boards..but they were all extremely important boards against a fiesty Phoenix defense at the time. Although, he had some defensive lapses against Barbosa (Barbosa appeared to be two steps quicker than Evans), he was still the difference between this game getting out of control for us on many occasions. Hustle boards were imperative during many stretches of this game. So YOU can chill on the "negatives" buddy.

__________________
Got Jokes?

I agree. Tay stepped into the big-time spotlight last night in the second half. He was VERY confident out there. He looked like a big, skinny man among boys. He was Herculean. He was a giant among Lilliputians.

What a game by the stones. As I said befre the season began, Flip will be the next Phil Jackson & the Bulls. Phil has the TRIANGLE Offense, Flip has the FLEX Offense. I wouldn't be surprised if we went on a NBA Championship frenzy over the next five years if we can keep all of our core guys intact. Flip is indeed an offensive genious who previously lacked the personnel to really fully appreciate his offensive sets and mastery. Great game, even though it wasn't a blowout, you could really see the Pistons Swagger at the end of the game.

That was beautiful last night. That is exactly the way you play. What's the point of going whole-hog on D for the entire game and wearing yourself out? The difference between us and them (Phoenix and the rest of the league), is we can clamp down for 5 minutes at the end, and they can't. Only the Spurs can do this as well as us. You just have to put the effort in on the offensive side to keep things close, then play rediculous D down the stretch (and it'll be even better D if you haven't been doing it the whole game). Spend the first 3Q figuring out what they're doing on offense, then turn the D it on. They won't be able to make quick adjustments needed to score. This is really the way to do it! Players are happy, fans are happy, and wins are coming without wearing our players down. Only criticism, is that our bench should have logged some serious minutes in 2Q and 3Q last night. As long as they could keep it within 10, they should have been out there.

I've made this same point a couple times before, but haven't managed to get any response. Do y'all agree??

Mo, you silly!

You guys gotta remember that lee is posting his recap from the D-News board. Some of the comments may not be relevant to this board.

I agree. We definitely have an offensive genius on our hands. Flip's timeouts were masterful. It seems like they always lead to an uncontested bucket. A major difference between this year's team and last year's team is that if we didn't obliterate you on defense chances are we would not win the game. (Suffice to say, if we were this ineffective in the paint and with dribble penetration with last year's team, we would have been down by double digits going into the 3rd quarter)This year we are so efficient offensively that teams are forced to figure out a way to stop us. Shots just come so easy in Flip's offense and this game it was without even taking advantage of fast break opportunities.

One of things that I noticed in the second half that contributed to the Stone's deficit is that the Suns began to clog up the lanes and double team in the post offseting some of the our size advantage. It was also a way to hide Nash's deficiencies on defense against Chauncey. It worked throughout the 3rd quarter but Flip's flexible offense only stumbled momentarily as we began to effecitvely take advantage of three point opportunites. Detroit has the perfect balance of inside and outside shooting making us darn near impossible to defend. Coodles to Coach Saunders for making both the adjustments on offense and defense to turn this game around.

I think based on how the Pistons have played the first set of games this season, it is becoming painfully obvious that there is not a starting 5 in the game right now that compares to us.

Oh, and welcome back Dice. We've missed you.

__________________
Got Jokes?

The Good:

1. Down the stretch, there still isn't a better team in this league. Tremendous offensive execution and lockdown D.

2. Chauncey really got it going tonite. 27 pts, 11 assists. Really impressive. And he is in total control of the game out there-our undisputed leader. In 5 games, he has 46 assists and 8 TOs.

3. Tay doesn't look anything like the player we've seen the last couple of years. He is really agressive on offense and looking for his shot. We would've been down by 15 entering the fourth if he hadn't given us what he did in the third.

4. Dyess finally started to get untracked.

5. Delfino looked good-a couple of nice long jumpers. Would like to see him get a bit more run.

6. Ben looks a lot better at the line. If he could shoot 60% for the entire season that would be a huge accomplishment.

7. Offensively, we are 100% better than last year. That's four times we've hit the century mark in five games, and our shooting percentage for the year is close to 50%.

The Bad:

1. For most of the game I thought our "D" was pretty porous, although I won't draw any conclusions from that because Phoenix is a rather unique squad with that small lineup, quickness, and outside shooting ability.

2. Evans was unimpressive. He didn't look like he was in the flow of the offense and I remember at least two occasions where his guy simply took him right off the dribble and blew by him.

3. The offense stagnated when Arroyo was in the game. Hopefully he'll play better against Portland, because he is very capable of making good things happen.

This team is reminding me a lot more of our Bad Boys clubs than the teams we've seen the last few years under Carlisle and Brown. The RC and LB teams tended to play "fourth-quarter" defense the entire game but were more restricted offensively. This team, like the teams of the late 80's, doesn't seem to play defense as well for 48 minutes but do so when it counts, while displaying a lot more offensive weapons.

Overall, I thought this was a terrific win. I agree with what I think it was Collins said regarding the fact that Phoenix really has nowhere to go for a big basket at the end. I think that's helping cause the fourth-quarter collapses they're experiencing.

I hear you my man, but if he is going to "re-post" them here he needs to take responsibility for them. IMO the burden is on the Leemeister...he can always take an extra couple of minutes to edit them before reposting to avoid any "misunderstandings".

Besides, it WAS funny!!!