How did you see this game? Was it on NBA TV?

When I have seen and listened to as many games basketball games as I have (probably over 7,500 at this point and counting) I can easily translate Blaha's play by play into a visual picture. He makes it pretty easy as all top of line radio play by play guys do.

Chick Hearn was the best play by play announcer and he did thousands of simulcasts, which meant that what you heard on TV is exactly what you heard on the radio, so after a number of years of watching and listening to the Lakers games on TV and radio it became pretty easy to visualize the action listening to him on the radio and that can be carried over to great radio play by play announcers like Blaha.

In addition, I use the box score to fill in some missing links.

The way you will be able to tell if I actually saw a game, is that in games that I have actually watched my comments will be much more detailed.

box score on the link

ESPN.com - NBA - Box Score - Heat at Pistons

I took my daughter and her boyfriend. The 4th seat was taken by one of the posters here. Glad he joined us as it gave me someone to talk to about the game.

Amir Johnson did dress. He did not participate in the pregame drills, but he did shoot the ball some. Good range.

The game was quite a disappointment as Miami was playing scrubs for the most part. Other than seeing some players contrasting vs. each other, you could not really tell that much about how a player would do in a actual NBA game, with 5 decent players playing against them. Still, here is what I saw.

First, the starters. Dyess should not be in that group. Pretty much useless having another outside shooter with the other 4 players already being good outside shots. And he was missing the few shots he took. Very unimpressive.

Tay was on fire, nailing his outside shots and scoring inside too, pretty much at will against this sorry group of opponents.

Billups could have scored all he cared to. Just no defense out there at all against a player with all his skills.

Rip seemed to concentrating on getting inside tonight. I like that. Some think he should stick to midrangers. Not me. He has some height and should be using it.

Sheed gathered the bounds, made a three, and gee, towered over the players Miami chose to play. Not much of a game anymore by the time our starters left in the first quarter.

JMAX. Awesome. But again, against who? Doleac? Still, compared to Dyess, the inside game of JMAX sure looks awesome. How any coach could ever play JMAX less minutes than Dyess, or dare to start Dyess over JMAX, ain't winning any points from me.

Stuckey. He actually made an outside shot or two. And did he ever look impressive going inside. Excellent body control to finish plays, and as usual, able to make his free throws.

Flip Murray. Flip played plenty and had some good moments. Like a steal upon entering the game which he converted into a three point play. One nice jumper off the dribble. A nice pass here and there. But he countered that with some silly shots and several ball handling sequences where he did not know what to do. He did not show very good D on a couple of occasions either. If you just look at the flashes, he looked good. Overall, so so.

Afflalo. This guy had a few very impressive drives to the hoop. The difference between him and Murray going inside? Height and length to finish the plays right over people. I will make a prediction right now, people are really going to like Afflalo, both for his D and his offense. Showed some good ball handling skill too.

Dupree. All I can say is why is he on the team.

Mejia. Did not get to play but 3 minutes. Mejia looks huge in comparison to Afflalo, who in turn has good size himself. (Mostly the wider shoulders.)Mejia got a steal and another near steal in his short minutes, missed a badly forced shot.

Samb hardly got to play.

Mohammed. Weak. Pushed around like a rag doll. And nobody worth a darn was playing against him.

Fitch just 3 minutes. Just camp fodder.

Hayes. Made a three. Made a jump hook from a good distance from the left on a post up move going toward the basket. Got some bounds. Defense? Just not enough to say right now. Got to have competition to judge him with. Maybe slow on one rotation. Hayes also took a shot off the dribble that maybe he should not have. (Not suppose to be his game.)

Amir did not play.

JMAX struggled shooting outside shots-free throws and a jumper or two. Hey, let him start and get lots of shots. He will not struggle with his shot if he gets to shoot more. (Evidenced by his showing in the summer league.) Forget this Dyess thing. Vet or not, Dyess can't play as well as JMAX. Not even close. GO PISTONS!!!!!

pretty fun night at the palace, watching the pistons vs. a d-league team in my new seats. it got a little nauseating at times simply because there were so many fouls called and so many free throws that it was difficult to get a good flow and look at the new players. but at the same time, it's encouraging how we attacked and got to the line.

not much to say about the starters - usual execution, tay's growing out his hair and shot well, sheed doesn't look noticeably different, etc., and dice seems comfortable starting. i guess i'll just talk about each player:

- maxiell - his usual beastly self. he was a little too aggressive at times going for blocks and got in foul trouble ... but he definitely welcomed a few guys to the NBA who decided to drive the lane he was also very aggressive going for defensive rebounds, but still needs to work on positioning. he did grab 6 though in 23 minutes, and was screwed out of 2 that he was in perfect position for but the ball bounced like 10 feet in the air off the rim. he and stuckey were the 1st two off the bench, and it looks like he's going to have an excellent year. you could definitely tell he lost weight.

- stuckey - looked great. he's bigger/taller than i thought. he was 5/7 from the floor...1/2 on jumpers, and 4/5 driving the lane. his ability to power into the lane and keep control of the ball is astounding, but what was even more astounding was that all 5 of his shots driving the lane made me say 'how the heck did he get an easy layup out of that??' it's like he disappears in a pile of guys and comes out the other end with an easy shot. we finally have someone who can finish in the lane. he also ran a half-court trap with maxiell for much of the game, and the 2 of them really bothered the heat guards and made them start with a short shot clock.

some people may point out that he had 0 assists, but he should've had 2 or 3. he got called for a bogus offensive foul after driving the lane and flipping it backwards to flip to pop a 3. it was a no-looker and made the crowd oooh-and-ahhh.

- murray - impressive game from flip. he got a little shot-happy in the 2nd half and got lost a couple times, but he can be an asset when not forcing his own offense. he had a few excellent passes, got his hand on several balls defensively, and added a couple steals to boot. looks like he's fighting to stay as rip's backup. as long as he doesn't get overzealous he could be useful.

- hayes - when he first checked into the game i was like, 'look! darvin ham!' he struggled early with his shot, but he called for the rock often and has the confidence to put it up. he definitely forced a couple shots while closely guarded and missed...but he made the shots when he was open. he's also pretty big and strong, and went after several boards. from what i've seen, he could serve as a competent backup to tay, but it's too early to tell.

- afflalo - i was most impressed by afflalo because i wasn't expecting much from him, but he delivered. he's a gamer, and plays hounding man-to-man defense. on one steal he just flat out took the ball away from his man as he was dribbling at the top of the key. he had a couple nice steals and assists, and even went down low to grab a couple boards. what impressed me most was his determination on the offensive end. he worked extremely hard to get open, made sharp cuts, and made 3-4 excellent moves in the post area to get off high percentage shots or get to the line. i never saw him take a play off, and was pleased with his performance. he was also quicker and more athletic than i expected. sidenote: mason is currently incapable of pronouncing his name correctly, or just doesn't see the 'L' in the middle.

- nazr - about the same as you saw last year. super slow on defense, but still managed to steal several balls and block a few shots. he's serviceable, but i can only see him on the bench or playing with the starters. he totally doesn't fit in with the 2nd unit.

- dupree - terrible. i expect him to be the odd man out on the roster.

- samb - looks like a 7'2" ben wallace - not in how they play...just saying when you look at him, that's what his face looks like. he's too raw and too slow, and was able to fight with some of the heat's bigs, but consider who their bigs were. every time you watch him, you're afraid he's going to collapse and trip over himself. needs a couple more years at least.

- mejia - very limited minutes but played good defense. has potential but will have to realize it in the D-league.

- fitch - who cares. looks average, won't make the roster.

i'm making it sound like the pistons pooped and gold came out, but i really don't have much bad to say about this game. the team was well-conditioned (although the rooks started hitting the front of the rim in the 4th quarter, which isn't unexpected) and out-executed the heat. we have a deep team of ballers. the most encouraging aspect was realizing that our new guys are intelligent players. stuckey was controlled and didn't force anything, and neither did afflalo. you didn't see rookie mistakes. there's really nothing that stood out as a clear negative.

now it's silly to base opinions off of one game against a bunch of scrubs, but i'm telling you guys how i saw it. the new guys played smart, they got to the line, they new how to run a fast break, they played great defense, fought for boards, shot a high percentage, and didn't turn it over like you would expect from the 1st game of the year.

and finally, i really want to see amir run with the 2nd unit. nazr just isn't suited for them, and amir fits in perfectly with their attitude and hustle. it's too bad about his ankle, but hopefully we'll see him on the court soon. that's the only thing that was missing tonight.

Yet another great write up mr. 356. You know I've read so many of these over the years, I can visualize the game. Sometimes, I think its biased but its always descriptive and detailed.
So having read the game, I'm thinking Stuckey ain't gonna learn the 1 by playing the 2. Dyess starting is like the rite of passage. You have to be able to take that starting job, maxy! Afflalo will take advantage of 3rd string players.. you go big guy throw down! Nazr will do nothing to help bolster my Nazr Fan Club. In fact, i can feel the low's hatred growing strong.
Exciting game despite the lopsidedness. Maybe its all the anticipation. I'm whooped but I'm going to re-read the post and see if i can find something else to talk about.

Again great job as usual. It's write ups like that that make the mainstream media seem like a really junk cliff note.

Double awesome Wart. Man you guys really bring the game home. Thanks for putting the effort into the write ups. You gotta wonder about nazmo. He's supposed to come in ready to roll but i guess that's all he's got? Maybe its cuz Murray is paying for the benjamins.

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Thanks for the recap/review guys. Too bad the game wasn't on TV. There's just so much expectation in the air. Hopefully this good play by rooks and J-Max continues.

I went to the game tonight and our guys looked generally good (as in in-shape). Our starters did nothing out of the usual, except Prince looked much more aggressive early on. Let's hope that continues. Billups ran the point very well, IMO. He didn't score much but seemed to be looking to set guys up....successfully I might add.

And now for the bench: Nazr Once Sheed and Dyess hit the bench, Nazr was easily the best big man on the floor. Miami can only wish for a big man as good as Nazr; although Earl Barron exhibited a nice consistent jumper.

FlipM FlipM had a good first half but kind of reverted to his old self in sporatic PT in the second. First time he entered the game, he came up with a couple of steals and a knock-away resulting in a Heat turnover. Also scored a bit. It's clear he understands his role...to make an impact off the bench. He did that tonight.

J-Max Explosive! Looked quicker, more mobile, and just as strong. I see no reason he can't log some minutes at the 3 spot. My boy calls him our "young beast." VERY apt description.

Hays Has the look of a dependable scorer. Wasn't afraid to mix it up underneath once in a while. Looks more like a 3 than a 2. Also appeared to be tougher than I gave him credit for. Good size and strength.

Stuckey Outstanding slasher and defender who can finish at the hole and hit (all?) his foul shots. Strong, tough, fairly quick; good not great ball-handler. This cat is ready to play. His game reminds me of a more effective C-Bill (without the jumper) when going to the hole.

Afflalo Has the look of an outstanding defender. Has good size, strength, speed, and has a no-nonsense air about him. Great defensive instincts, very active, moves well without the ball and a solid scorer. Piston fans will love this guy, as he has the DNA and the skills.

Dupree Still has the hops and created confusion on the Heat offense. Couldn't seem to get untracked but that may be due to his minutes. No doubt he's a solid pro who belongs in the NBA.

Meija Only played garbage minutes but has potential. He looks like he CAN improve and if so...Joe got another keeper late in the draft. Will definitely challenge Dupree for a spot on the roster. His game reminds me of a poor man's Michael Cooper.

Samb Not much to speak of. Reminded me of a poor man's Manute Bol except no blocks tonight. Looked (understandably) lost on offense and defense and WAY too weak. I remember one play where Samb was running down court and ran into a Heat player from behind. He might as well have run into a wall. Stopped him cold. He needs a couple of years worth of meat and potatoes, Kander supervised weight training, and DL action before the words "Samb" and "ready" are spoken in the same sentence.

Fitch Who? Well...he seemed fairly quick, decent handles; but only saw action for a hot minute towards the end.
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I was lucky enough to view the game from a suite. Just about everybody in there felt that Joe outta get C-Webb signed; and quick. There was much love for Lindsey Hunter as well which was refreshing after lingering in here for a bit. Nice to watch the game with some folk who actually know what they are lookin at.

Sheed looked slimmer and (like the rest of the starters) didn't seem to be going all out. Not saying they didn't give 100% but they jumped out to a near 20 pt lead and seemed content to let our young pups whoop up on the hapless heat. Prolly because of the numberous BUMS that Riley put out on the court. Snaq and Wade are still vacationing and Zo is still contemplating. No shimmey-shake azz Walker either. The Heat roster is a shipwreck if ever there was one.

Doleac couldn't carry Nazr's jockstrap (imagine that). J-Will looked better but was CLEARLY outclassed by C-Bill and Stuckey. Seiman (what a name) showed some flashes and some no-name fella (Richardson? Slaughter?) did most of the scoring for the Heat it seems like. Haven't checked the boxscores yet.

Nazr ain't as bad as many folk in here make him out to be. He's a LOT better than most every other backup 5 in the league. He ain't Ben or C-Webb and is still on my "trade bait" list. But one would be hard pressed to present an "equal value" option. Good big men are STILL a premium in the NBA and I bet several teams would jump at the chance to grab him if Joe allowed them to fleece him.

Cool man. its good to have a different viewpoint on nazr. And great write up as well.

Very good reading here tonight in form of the Leecap, Hog Blog and the Mad Musings. You are our eyes and ears and its always good for some live perpective especially when the game is not televised...thanks for the overviews.

We could tell listening to Blahs and "Mr excitement" Rick Mahorn on the audio feed that the Pistons were playing some Miami high school team that Riles had assembled and brought up to the palace while his main guys stayed back at south beach still getting rehab in preparation for a long season.

Lets hope that Gerorge Karl shows up with the real Nuggets on Wednesday so at least the we can see how these newbies play against some real competition.

Mad you mentioned Hunter and no one else did. Was he dressed in a uniform or a suit? I don't recall him getting in the game. Just wonderig if his coaching career has started. Also how much input did Micheal Curry appear to give Flip?