I just got home to read a horrifying box score from this game. I didn't have the game on tv out here in Seattle. What happened? My God. I hope a few of you will post game reports who got to see this, even though it must have been seriously depressing to watch. The Mavs got 26 assists to our 13? Did it turn into a one-on-one fest or what? Yikes. The play-by-play on nba.com only tells me the events of the game...What happened out there?

If there is anything that will prevent the Pistons from succeeding this year, it is our porous defense. Other than Afllollo, it doesn't appear that our second team have those skills yet.

Flip appears to have drained the defensive skills from our starters too...no wonder Ben left. The last 4 games the Pistons starters and scrubs have given up 100+ points while trying to learn how to play with each other..we can only hope that it was because of the preseason laziness.......if you recall the Pistons were 5-15 last year when allowing teams to score over 100 points. (more than half of their 29 losses).

I know the starters have not played any D, but these scrubs got to learn one of these days how to hold the leads when they come in. I listened to part of the game tonight and it sounded like it was all Mavs highlights even when their starters were on the bench...

If you ever watch the SA scrubs play, they can still win because they have a solid defensive system, and are forced to play defense and are held accountable.

God i miss those days

The Pistons did not for a second have a solid defensive unit on the floor. To start the game, Dyess and Hayes were in there, always a step slow. As soon as Hayes came out of the game, Murray came in, and stayed in. Murray did great on scoring tonight, but for the most part, he opted out of defense. Even at the very end of the game, Dupree came in so we never got to see for a moment a winning unit on the floor.

Murray got player of the game for scoring 22 points. He was hitting his shots from the outside, either spotting up or off the dribble, and he got inside too. Great. Now if only he could help on the defensive end. Meanwhile, Afflalo continues to play far less minutes than Murray, despite scoring pretty much as well for the minutes he gets, and playing solid D. I guess they are showcasing Murray. Great. But meanwhile, we are slowly but surely losing another season of basketball. There is believe it or not, not much time at all between now and the playoffs. If the Pistons are serious about winning in the playoffs, they have got to start preparing. The Pistons have already pretty missed the chance of seeing Rip and Stuckey in the backcourt together, and for sure we are not going to see Billups and Afflalo paired up much. Not to mention we don't even see Stuckey and Afflalo paired up in the backcourt, a combo that seems to work pretty well. If the Pistons are not going to play these guys together in the preseason, then when are they suppose to ever learn? Of course I hope this all works out, Dumars gets the trade he wants, and we still have time to right the ship. But I am wondering, day by day, just what the priorities are for the Pistons organization right now. Saving a few bucks, or winning a championship.

The starters played most of the first quarter, the end of the 2nd quarter, and maybe half or so of the 3rd quarter. Hayes got the start at small forward, moving Tay to the backcourt. As a unit, they were pretty horrid on offense. Very little of trying to go inside. Very little of any of our bigs posting up. Very little effort at offensive boards. After the first 4 minutes of the game, Flip had to call a timeout to get somebody to please go inside. Sheed did a time or two. Dyess a time or two. But its like, ok, I did my chores, now mom and I please go out and play. (And shoot more outside shots,usually with no offensive rebounders in sight.

Sorry Sheed and Dyess, posting up is part of the job. Every play. At least try. Like that time Sheed hit a triple in rythm after Dyess got inside and drew defenders. More of that is needed. If Dyess will not do this more, he must be dropped from the starting unit. His outside shooting game is a disaster, mostly just starting fast breaks for the other team.

Hayes did way too little for all the points he gave up in this one by being slow. A shot or two. He did drive inside once effectively. He did not play that much really, and played exclusively at small forward while Dallas had way too much speed in the game for him to help any on defense playing that position.

Tay did not do much at all. Rip is still out with the ankle injury. Amir did not play. No Hunter. No Mohammed. Billups hit a shot or two and little else.

Stuckey again scored well, and again, from the line. He actually made one outside shot, off the dribble. He had some problems on D, but to me, a lot of his problems stemmed from other players not making rotations behind him to back him up. I like the effort.

Afflalo is looking awful good hitting shots from the outside, including off the dribble. Nothing negative to say on his defense.

Mejia got to play limited minutes, but showed up in the stats quickly, hauling down boards, knocking down a shot.

Samb played quite a bit. Not bad, not great. He missed a couple of fairly long range shots that were close to going in, and best of all, that did not shake his confindence one bit as he nailed the next one. Yeah, he did not get a lot of rebounds, but then again, Dallas was not missing much. Here is what you got to realize about Samb's shooting - he does not have to get separation, he just shoots over the defender. What I like about him is that he knows full well that his shot is not going to be blocked, and shoots with very high confidence.

Lets not get all negative because of the pre-season game.

Why no Nazr?

You would think that without Amir, or Webber, or Dale Davis, that there would be a few minutes for our big signing last year.

Especially when he has played OK so far.

Isn't he injured? I thought he got kicked in the calf a couple of games ago.

Actually, I think he pulled or strained a calf muscle. I think that when this happened, the announcers speculated that maybe someone had kicked him, and it was nothing to worry about. But that speculation turned out to not be correct.

Who is being negative? I am reporting what I see during the game, and the things I see as significant at the moment for the Pistons. If you want to post what your thoughts are, go ahead. Now, I am guessing english is your 2nd language? Maybe you don't easily understand where I am coming from. No communication is perfect, and if we are trying to go thru a language barrier too, that just makes it harder. But read my post again, and see if its really negative. How can a person expecting a championship from his team be all that negative? I firmly believe the Pistons can win it all this year, but not if they continue to waste time on issues that should already be resolved.

Maybe someone was trying to get him motivated?

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