This team is a handfull for us even without Shaq. A win is a win.

Chauncey did not have a good game but he did set the Heat up for his threes in the 4th. The spacing was there to pop. Why he went out on Posey at the end--not a smart move. He also needs to get better results from his drives.

Nazi and Dyss game us some real minutes. We are starting to find Nazi and when he gets fouled, it is not a problem as with Ben. Dyss is hitting that jumper. When he goes inside, his percentage goes way down. He is just not an offensive post player but the jumper was sweet.

Good to see Rip back on his mid-range game. When our guys play to our strengths--we are a tough team.

We have guys who can score and command attention but Tay and Sheed in particular need to have movement around them. They are not particularly effective as an isolated one on one. We need them in the flow of the offense.

Our slow starts occur because we still do not have an offensive concept with our main guys. With guys like Tay and Rip and Sheed, no reason for a slow start time and again.

Nazr is surprisingly crafty with his reverses under the basket. I guess he has to be, or he would get packed all day long down there.

How sweet was it watching Fatoine do nothing but get embarrassed repeatedly?

Wade looked like he was on a three day bender... that boy needs some rest or they'll burn him out by his 26 birthday.
Not a very impressive W.. too much standing around...
I do enjoy listening to TNT waffle though.

No Jason Maxiell in the game. No Blalock. No Amir Johnson. No closer to getting anywhere in the playoffs. Can anyone imagine our team getting past a team with Shaq in the middle. Ain't happening. Sure 7 games in a row seems nice, but oh how so hollow a feeling at the end of the season when we get beat in the playoffs. This win streak will be just as meaningless as the 64 wins last season.

A win is a win, but I going into the game I wouldn't think the Pistons would win if Sheed and Chauncey played like they did. Anything that will make Miami's record worse I'll take. It's so pathetic that even though they are 6-9 they are right in the thick of things in the East.

Seemed like Dice blocked his shot three times in a row.

When the Pistons played Houston JVG said after the game that Flip had the Pistons playing four different defenses (and lamented that he couldn't get his guys to play one). Here's an unpopular POV - Flip has this team playing some pretty decent defense. That seamless switch into a 1-2-2 zone on the last play completely befuddled Wade and took away any notion that he could drive and get bailed out. They've gotten much better over the past week or two at switching defenses and having everyone playing the same thing. They've held opponents on average to 94 points during the winning streak and that may be as good as it gets with the standards of today's NBA (91 without the Wizards game).

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"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

Unfortunately I saw a lot of poor rotations in man, zone and particularly when defending the pick/screen and roll.

If they tighten up those rotations, I think the Pistons defense can be very formidable. Guiltiest parties include

Billups - Too eager to help, too slow to recover.
Nazr - At times, total confusion. He gets lost easily.
Rip - It doesn't look like he reads scouting reports, and his aggressiveness exposes his teammates at times. He's a wannabee pitbull though. You gotta like that.

Those are just my perceptions based on the last few games.

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

Thank you for another great season!

Give it up to Flip folks. To ignore this would be unjust. Great observation DBA. We finally have some clear examples of Flip's coaching having a direct positive effect on games as it pertains to "D". I'm not particularly fond of the zone but I will tell you that after watching a ton of games on NBA League pass this season, it is a growing phenomenon. I don't think I've seen one team that doesn't have at least some variation of it in their defensive playbook.

Yeah, they're not all together yet. And they are still figuring out how to play without Ben. I just like the chances of a diversified defense better given the way the game is played today than a constant stream of man-to-man-come-on-and-beat-me-if-you-can.

Gotta love Rip just sticking his nose into people.

this was a quality win on the road. perhaps no one else will agree, or you'll think i'm crazy, but i think flip outcoached riley for this game. yes, there was no shaq, but the reason i say he did a better job coaching was that riley adjusted to flip's gameplan, not the other way around. when we went small ball, riley took zo out, even though he was doing a decent job against us. plus we kept wade to shooting jumpers.

the foul sheed had on wade was a slight grab, and wade tried to milk that for all it was worth. he didn't even have to fall, and it only looked bad because of how hard the ball slammed on the ground. given what was said on the pistons blog about sheed in practice imitating wade, it was pretty funny.