It was the 3rd game in 4 nights which had to make this one tough for the guys who have been logging heavy mins. Probably why the defense lagged at times.

nice win. My only complaint is the inconsistancy in the calls between halfs. Not calling anything in the 1st half and practically everything down the stretch. Great awarness by Billups to just take it inside on the last play and get the call. With the crap Atl got the play before it was almost a guarantee that CB would get the call.

Tough on Sheed to face all these Centers. Shaq then Howard then Horford who was the 3rd pick in the draft. Horford is still rough but very athletic. Have to remind myself as a Piston fan that some teams actually play their top prospects so they will get better and improve the team. MIA for Amir?

No credit for McDyess?



He frequently gets the majority of time against the likes of Howard and Shaq while Rasheed plays the quicker guys like Lewis.

Yes, they trade off alot, but Dyess for some reason always gets underrated as a post defender.




I'm better now.

I agree. I have been harping on Dyess' defense alot, but he has shown so far to be a valuable player when it comes to guarding opposing centers. He does lack speed in general, but strictly as a center, he is quick enough.

We started out the 4th quarter strongly trapping them, and Rip and Flip were the two guys doing most of the work on that. Thats part of how we went 9-0 right there to tie the game.

Atlanta helped out the Pistons by NOT calling timeout after the Billups miss. I wonder what happened there. Call timeout and set up a play. Saw the box and noticed Acie Law was +11. How long will it be until he starts?

The Hawks were out of timeouts.

yeah they asked that on the NBA TV recap about not calling a timeout, and then blamed josh smith and said he wasn't a smart player...but the hawks had no timeouts.

the game was fun to be at. the palace has this HUGE sign/banner commemorating the 50th anniversary of the pistons, and you can see it from the highway, and it was later lit up by a bat-signal light. they finally have a new intro and a pre-intro which are pretty good, showing the various pistons over the last 50 years. also, instead of someone taking a sledgehammer to the other team's logo and making the loud POP with the flames when it hits, they now have maxiell doing a power dunk and the loud noise happening as he slams it home.

the crowd was great for a regular season game and stayed into it most of the time, and it actually looked like a sellout (although people in the row in front of us never bothered to show up). they gave away some spiffy hats, and there's some new souvenir cups which are neat, as when you turn it the players morph from like dumars to chauncey, and so on. automotion is up to 19 dancers instead of 17 (yay!). there was an inordinate amount of overweight fans, as well as 'top-heavy' ladies. the halftime show was probably the worst i've ever seen, with 4 guys on big stilts dancing around to fruity songs and doing nothing else (how they made it on 'amercia's got talent', i'll never know), but at least that prevented the hawks from warming up longer before the 2nd half started.

as for the store, there's a couple different jersey types that they sell. the higher quality ones only have specific players that you can purchase - usually the starters. last year it was rip/tay/sheed/chauncey, and webber when he showed up. this year? the usual 4, and MAXIELL, not dyess. max must have gotten so many requests that they added his jersey. people love him, and with good reason.

now onto the game. most people have brought up the main points, so i'll try not to rehash too much. maxiell's dunk on the fast break brought the entire crowd to their feet, and was also the 'Dunk of the Night' on NBA.com (had the link to paste but that's at home). sheed was basically toying with the atlanta forwards all game. when atlanta guys would try to post him up, he'd just knock the ball away as they were dribbling, over and over again. he has to be the most underrated defender in the league (agreeing with a previous poster). flip murray was totally selfish tonight, which is probably the danger of scoring 19 points the game before. he cost us at least 4-5 possessions in both the first and second half, and re-watching the game on TV confirmed it. how many times are you going to dribble in the lane and lose the ball? or let your defender blow by you? or clang a jumpshot off the rim? or not pass on a 2-on-1 fast break? hopefully flip won't be running the point anymore when stuckey gets back.

nice game by hayes - his outside shot wasn't working so he went to the post, and showed he has a nice game down-low, especially posting up WNBA, err i mean lue. i also like using him as a backup for rip down the stretch and having a big lineup of chauncey/hayes/tay/dice/sheed (i mentioned before the game that i figured hayes would see time as rip's backup this year). dice didn't have the greatest 1st half, but was awesome in the 2nd, playing great defense and ripping down boards. maybe his bad 1st half/great 2nd half is being applied not only to entire seasons but to single games as well.

maxiell was an absolute animal tonight. atlanta had absolutely NO ONE who could check him. he posted up horford twice and scored easily both times. he blocked 4 shots and altered more. he manned the paint and gave up nothing easy. that first dunk was sick, and then after he hurt his hand on the rim on the defensive end (looking like he might've broken it), he comes right back down the court and gets a 1-handed jam. for all of atlanta's high draft picks on forwards, i'd take maxiell over any of them (well, horford looks like a nice player and he's a rook so it remains to be seen what kind of player he'll become).

i really enjoy how the ref's let them play tonight - it definitely helps us as we're physical defenders, and sheed doesn't get as upset. i think the NBA might be telling refs to call fewer fouls to speed the game up and give it a better flow. there were some very weird calls in the 2nd half. the last 2 possessions - sheed shouldn't have left his feet (c'mon, let josh smith shoot that 3-ball, he was 4-17 and can't shoot, and you already denied joe johnson the shot), so it was a foul, and on the other end chauncey was definitely fouled too. good job driving the lane instead of pulling up for a long 3 (*cough* cleveland series *cough*).

as for atlanta, josh smith can LEAP. twice tayshaun went in for what looked like easy scores, and smith rejected him hard. acie law is going to be starting within a month or two, as you actually have to respect his jumpshot, and he looks very controlled and poised. he's quicker than advertised, but not fast. horford is solid. joe johnson is a sweet shooter. with all that said, atlanta will never contend for a title with its current lineup, but they can make some noise in the east and even make the playoffs. they have a chance every night not only because they're athletic, but because they are playing very good defense. they're active, don't over-gamble, get in your face, and do very very well denying entry passes into the post. if they keep that up all year they could sneak into the playoffs or even win their division...no joke.

Awesome re-cap, Hog. I like hearing about the Palace store stocking up on Brahma jerseys.

You have to consider that Sheed is playing starter mins while Dyess is still playing bench type mins even though he is starting. That extra 10 or so MPG makes a difference in this kind of stretch.

It sure does. But with the good play by J-Max and Amir getting healthy, Sheed's minutes should go down to about 30 a game.