No need to point out the total domination by Tay and CB, so I'll just provide a few random observations:

Maxiell looks much quicker this year. The weight loss was a great idea. Also, his free throw form is better. He must have worked on it.

Sheed- There were a couple moves from the post that proved that he can get an easy shot if he feels like it. Good job on D and rebounding.

Hayes is going to be a consistent scorer. It's obvious. He doesn't shy away from the action after a bad start. And the rest of his game? 5 rebounds and 4 steals. The entire Heat team had 4 steals!!! Jarvis is an athlete.

Weak game for Afflalo, but it was his first NBA game, so it is totally excusable.

Murray, not a great game, but he was tied for 3rd on the boards behind guys who got a lot more minutes than him. 2 assists, no turnovers, and he and Hayes led the +/-.

Alflalo and Dyess were last in that category at -9 and -8.

We led the Heat in almost every category (rebounds, steals, assists, free throws).

Nice start.

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"I’ll just say this: We’re not talking to teams about their second- or third-best players." Joe Dumars talking about his plan to get other teams' 4th best players.

What I did like about Pistons is them going inside and they looked like they cared. I only hope they can keep doing it throughout the season. Tay got some free chili and J-Max should've had more had he not missed a couple of dunks. Sheed's head was definitely in the game. Also, once Hayes gets the plays down he should knock down more shots. All-in-all a good win, not great but good.

A few final observations..the disturbing -9 stat for McDyess. Wonder if he will he will be able to stop Howard or Lewis tomorrow defensively? He took six shots and most appear to have been the of the catch and shoot variety. I know that is his game, but as he starts to age, he needs to play closer to the hoop and post up more.

The reunion of the players that led Orlando to the 1995 NBA finals, Penny and Shaq produced a same type of wimper they did then when they were swept by the Rockets back then...

Hayes missed a few early shots, but hit two from downtown. The stat that stands out are the four steals. Don't know if it was because he was playing a bunch of scrubs, but if this is a regular part of his game that we were unaware of then we can start chanting Delfino who? right now

Billups played his usual solid game, (except for the miscalculated 3 balls) just hope the absense of Stuckey does not keep those minutes up at 39>>.I realized that Rip was out and Alf had a couple of early fouls, but geez Flip...

There's not much to take from this game long term. The Pistons started slow against a bad team, and eventually took control except for a long chunk of the third. After that, they pretty much had the game locked up.

Tayshaun was able to have a career game like that because Miami didn't give him a challenge matchup to defend. Tay is good enough to be a great offensive player or a great defensive player. I don't know if he's good enough to lock down the Kobes and Lebrons of the world and still contribute a significant amount of offense.

I'm not going to worry about minutes when a starter and the 6th man are out. I hate to say it, but Flip sort of gets a free pass until Stuckey gets back, although Maxiell better get consistent minutes, Spellcheck better play pretty much every game, and Amir needs to get a little run as well. But that doesn't add up to a significant reduction in starters minutes yet.

Without 2 of the top 6, the Pistons got a convincing victory. Nothing more you can ask for, good work guys.

I enjoyed that game. Nice classic Easter Conf type of defensive game to start the season. After that one Orlando should seem fairly easy to score on.

Tay was brilliant. Totally taking advantage of whatever matchup he had out there. Setting a career high in points and tying his career high in rebounds.

Front court? I liked how both Maxiel and Mohamed were unaffected by Zo. Zo swats away their shots and they were both back in there challenging him. Thats the way to play against a shot blocker. Also great rebounding. Non-factor type of night by Dyess. Nazir seems to have found his niche comming off the bench and Dyess looked just as uncomfortable out there as a starter. Not sure what to do about that.

Afflalo made a lot of mistakes out there. Misques, not getting back on D, not closing out the shooter. Rough start for him. I am sure Riley focused part of his game plan on taking advantage of the rookie so probably made it a bit more tougher on him.

Good win to start the season.

I really hope so- no one of us wants CB, Tay and Sheed to play that much as last night.

As Lee stated, I think we need to give Flip credit for going with the Sheed - J Max front court for the entire 4th quarter. Its good to see that he recognizes a bad rotation (Dyes - Nazr combo) and goes with the best unit to end the game rather than whoever started. I was pissed when they gave Dyess that big extension and I have not wavered on that opinion form this game. Out there with Sheed Dyess looks completely lost and can't find his role / spacing. With Sheed you need the other big guy to stay down low and just get hustle points and such to make the offense work. Dyess needs the ball too much. The good thing is we haver those types of guys in AJ and Max, just a matter of Flip changing this. Hopefully, there isn't any pressure to keep this starting lineup intact.

Yep, and...

CB actually ran down the floor, not like he just wanted to get to the other side, but with purpose. The Pistons PUSHED the ball. Holy <insert expletive of your choice>!! And they got easy baskets because of it. Take those away, and this is a tied game with two minutes left and the score in the high 70s.

And Tay played the point. And did it well. We've only been asking for that for about ten years (or however how he's been in the league).

A bit ugly at times, but the team showed some good stuff out there.

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

They shot horribly. Period.

Probably under 30% when you take away the dunks.

Pathetic offense against a lottery team, won't get it done over 82 games.

Having Rip back will help a lot, but last night both teams stunk, we just stunk less.

I think it was largely a function of Miami's dreadful perimeter game sans Wade. They had long stretches where they could barely generate any decent looks, and whenever they managed to get one they would miss.