or, you could turn it around and say that should be easy given how slowly the team starts....

nice recap d

It's political. The Pistons are not selling tickets like in years past. Another loss would hurt.

Botom line, Flip has to do whatever it takes to win.

__________________
To all of my friends, comrades and companions at PF.com

Thank you for another great season!

I'm in with the prof. I'm not going to comment until I see a game. But I'm not digging the stubborn adherence to the status quo.

__________________

This is what we've been waiting to hear...
You know, Rip didn't want to come out of the game," Saunders said. "He was playing really well, but I told him, 'Rip, I am not going to have you complaining at the end of the year that you are tired.' We have to develop these bench players and what better way to do that than letting them play in the fourth quarter on the road with the game on the line?"

Just saw a Tivo of the game this morning..they missed some easy shots to start off but finally got their first lead of the sesason to open the second half.

They looked disasterous during that opening sequence of the second qtr with Hunter and Murray in there.. Hunter seemed a little out of control for the few minutes he was in there and although Murray didn't score in the game he did look decent in the second half and provided valuble filler minutes when needed.

Still I think the starters as good as they were played to many minutes and even with a 13 point lead with less than 2 minutes, Flip could have relaxed a little and got AJ or Dupree in the game. Hopefully as Himat indicated, with tonight's back to back the young jocs will get more minutes and can produce.

The keys to success in this game were the 6 TO's compared to the C's 15, and the 22 we had in the opening game, the defensive points in the paint 34 compared to the 70 given up in game 1, and the Sheed who had a less than stellar start finally gettin off the snide in the second qtr. He also seemed to realize that ben-who? was gone and helped grab some boards. the rest of the front court was good too compared to game one.

Good recovery from game one, now let's show the home crowd tonight that the dream is still alive and this team ain't done.

__________________
"Once you go Barack, you never go Bak" Mario Cantone 2008

much better game all around. sheed was fine after he made his first basket of the season. we were fine as a team once we got our first lead of the season. the offense was extremely balanced - every starter had at least 12 points and took at least 12 shots. forced 15 turnovers and only turned it over 6 times. don't look now, but this is 2 games in a row without ben that we've outrebounded our opponent. it definitely wasn't a pretty victory though - we only had 2 fast break points (but only gave up 4 as well).

nazr had an excellent, excellent game. he was more active on defense, set himself up for easy baskets after our guards drove the lane, and took/made a couple jumpshots that we'd never see from ben. unlike the first game, boston had to guard nazr. and when sheed finally got going with the high pick-and-roll, it spread out boston and opened up our defense. as much as we want sheed to play inside, he's going to have to take 3-4 three pointers a game and be an outside threat in order to maximize our offensive efficiency.

chauncey and rip were great as usual. chauncey missed a few too many shots, but ran the offense like a pro and got to the line. rip looked like he did during the finals against the lakers. his shot was ON tonight and he played great. tayshaun did what he needed, and that little turnaround hook in the low post is the kind of high percentage shot that gets us going and crushes opponents' spirits.

mcydess was active on the boards. delfino played okay, but pierce still took him to school once or twice much like redd did in the first game. however, given that he's a bench player guarding 2 of the better players in the league, he did a pretty good job. flip did well running the offense, but his shot was way off. at this point i'd rather have delk on the roster...but again i'll give flip a chance to prove himself.

maxiell didn't get much opportunity, and made an extremely poor pass leading to a turnover at the end of the 3rd quarter which allowed boston to get within 3 points. he was promptly pulled from the game.

for those griping about minutes - yes 4 of the starters played 35-36 minutes. but, flip *did* have bench guys in there in the 4th quarter. but i'm willing to go out on a limb and say this isn't a cause for concern yet, because last year if the game was that close entering the 4th quarter, our starters would have ended up with 40+ minutes each, not 35-36.

case in point - the 2nd game of the season against boston last year, about the same lead entering the 4th quarter. the minutes? tayshaun 41, sheed 41, ben 39, chauncey 36, rip 40.

Very nice recap WH... thanks :^)