Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone. Hopefully, this will be a close and exciting game, with a Pistons victory in the final few minutes!

Hope you enjoy the game.

Amen to that, Linwood! I'm going to this game too and I'm so excited!!

I splurged and got tickets in row 5 on the corner right near the Pistons bench on the basket side of the corner. My sister and I will be on the aisle on the corner where the Pistons walk in and out of the locker room. I'll be in full regalia. Pistons Rip jersey, sparkling red sequin hat and red white and blue Mardi Gras beads as bracelets. My sister and I might have some poster thrown together. Maybe "Sheed Don't Lie" or just SHEEEED!!!

I checked the seats out at the Utah game Friday night and they are nice.

Sonics really did almost beat the Jazz, so I hope the Pistons aren't looking too far past this one. Jazz came out flat, low shooting percentage, not much hustle, lots of turnovers. The Pistons better bring it!!!

Now I'm taking my big birdwatching binoculars not because we won't be close enough, but because I intend to watch the timeout huddles very closely. Maybe I'll be close enough to lip read and see if there is anything to this SHeeeed Player/Coach nonsense. Not that I don't think Flip needs all the help he can get.

Okay, my sis will be here in 20 minutes to get a 3 pm ferry over to Seattle from Bremerton. We want to be there way early to watch shootaround and maybe get an autograph, a smile, a high five from the Detroit Pistons.

My sister yesterday: "You know the Pistons are the most fun to go to because the whole team is a superstar, not just one guy". Yeah!

Happy Birthday Linwood! I'll be looking for your row. Now the second half Pistons will be shooting near our corner so maybe you will see two grownup ladies making complete fools of themselves over the Detroit Pistons!

GO PISTONS! BRING IT!

Chat is open

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Awfully ugly win tonight. Pistons sprinted out to a big lead with a red hot first half, but an absolute meltdown started near the end of the 3rd quarter and continued until well into the 4th. Once the Sonics went to a zone, the Pistons simply stopped moving the ball and were utterly unable to generate any good shots at all. Rip had a big night, and Jarvis was pretty heroic off the bench with some good minutes at both the 2 and the 3, but not much else was good about this win. Though I sure am glad they didn't blow it.

First game I've had a chance to watch this season. Kurt Thomas seems to like playing against Detroit.

Great first half and lousy second for the Pistons. I knew they'd cool off but geez, quit taking J's.

Looks like the same 'ol crappy jump-shooting offense to me. Saunders sure is an offensive genuis.

Timid Tay passed up too many opportunities late in the game, I felt. When he's on that flat, he needs to take it to the hole. He does not know how to take charge of a game when it counts. He defers too much to the guards.

Liked Hayes' contribution A LOT. What a huge upgrade over Delfino, so far.

Flip Jr. still sucks. Took it to the hole once. His only highlight. He makes horrible decisions at the point, as many before me have astutely pointed out. He does not play within the offense. Can't wait for Stuckey to get back. Seeing Murray in that late in the 4th quarter is unnerving.

McDyess was very active tonight on the boards.

I don't think this team gets to the Finals with this jump-shooting offense. They'll be boring to watch if this continues. I liked how they pushed in the first half. I realize you can't do that the whole game, but you need to mix it in.

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"I don't believe there's any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is, that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can't completely ignore. - George Carlin

Flip granted you your berfday wish. This was a nail biter...only we were all chewing on real iron nails.

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I vote for our new name to be the Detroit Jumpshots

We were like 7 out 23 from three or something similar.

Bad coaching and carefree attitude almost ruined Linwood's birthday party. The jumpers were falling in the first half, so the Pistons decided to continue the jump shooting show all through the third quarter, which allowed the Sonics to score the final 11 points of the quarter and trim a 19 pt lead down to 8. CB, Rip and Tay played the entire 3rd qtr and you could tell they were winded.

To make matters worst Rip and CB came back in to start the 4th and played about 2 more mins before Flip sr finally pulled them. Flip jr who tossed up four bricks in the first half decided to drive to the hoop and stop the parade of jumpers form the outside. However with every missed Pistons jumper, the Sonics went down and dominated the paint scoring at will until they tied the game at 99 with just under 3 mins left. Rip and CB came back in and Rip responded with a "fresh" jumper and the Pistons eventually salted the game away....luckily

Some bad stats:
8/23 from beyond the arc
Sonics beat us in the paint 46-30
Sonics bench outscored our bench 52-28
Rip 41 Mins
Tay 4-13 shooting 4 turnovers
Flip jr 1-6 shooting
Pistons missed 10 free throws
No PT for Afflalo...maybe he was in charge of getting Amir to the airport

But they won and can take a quick flight down to Portland for Tuesdays game where they should run into a more defensive minded team.

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

We used to say a Win is a Win. but the very near past tells us it is not the case. We would have lost this game in playoffs.

J Max needs to work on his jumper. He only knows how to dunk the ball. Teams are going on waiting him at the rim. Add to this, he is around 50% from the FT line. he missed one in every trip to the line tonight.

I would say all starters did, but i am not sure. I am sure Hamilton played almost all of the game except the start of the fourth.

Good game from Hayes and lot of Energy from J Max.

I heard the commentary saying that CB is over 90% from FT line this year. Is this true? i thought it is less.

All in All, glad to start the west coast trip with a Win.
Go pistons