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Jan 16th, 3:30 PM EST.
Palace of Auburn Hills
TV: FSN Detroit
Radio: WDFN 1130 AM


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Boston is limping into this one. People starting to call for Doc's head and maybe Ainge's, too, since Doc was Ainge's guy all along. That being said, the Celts seem to play the Pistons tough and don't have any trouble getting up for Detroit.

i was thinking this was at boston.

The game date has been corrected... for January 16th @ 3:30

Kedrick Perkins has been given a starters role... he's lost apprx 30 LBS since last year (was 290LBS)

The game date has been corrected... for January 16th @ 3:30

Kedrick Perkins has been given a starters role... he's lost apprx 30 LBS since last year (was 290LBS)

why isn't mark blount in. if it wasn't for rip he would of had the gamewinner. i still remember those 2 plays though.

why isn't mark blount in. if it wasn't for rip he would of had the gamewinner. i still remember those 2 plays though.

I'm glad Blount isn't the starter anymore. He always torches us. He has probably the best mid-range jumper of any big man in the league. But he can't play D. Unfortuantely for us, that really doesn't matter since Ben doesn't do a whole lot on O.

This is a Dangerous game today for the Pistons. Boston is coming in and they want this game it is the last meeting between the two teams and we have a Boston team that always play the Pistons tough. Detroit should win this game as always but we have to look at how Boston loses games.

Boston will shoot a high % they lead the lead at 48%, so the Pistons D have to be ready to make stops when needed. Detroit offense will have to be on point because even when Boston loses they still put up very high numbers. I feel this will be a very offensive game and Detroit will win in a high scoring game 107-101.

I feel it may also go into OT????:frusty:

Won by 15 at the Palace last game even with Ricky Davis going off for 31 and won by 1 ( as we all remember ) at Boston.

Yes they do play us tough but not as tough at the Palace.

Should be an easy win as long as the team takes the game seriously. At 14-22 I cannot see how Bos can have much pride this season.

Chat Room is open folks.

Join us in the Chat Room (http://www.pistonsforum.com/chat/flashchat.php) for the Boston game today.

wow bostons was killing us, great job by delfino to bring us back boston was up 14 now the pistons are up by 1 at the half delfino has done amazing great spark off the bench.

Players of the Game: Carlos Delfino / Rasheed Wallace

Wow, phenomenal game for Carlos. Very tough defense on Pierce, knocked down some big shots for us when we looked dead in the water. Hopefully this boosts his minutes. Rasheed was phenomenal in the post.

I remember that someone from the Argentinian team said that Delfino was considered their best defender when he was on the team. Maybe he has recovered enough from the surgery to become a little more effective in that area now. So Evans isn't the defender we all hoped he'd be, but Delfino is making up for it. They both bring something different to the table now.

All of the starting 5 had a great game today. Tayshaun came on the latest, but he sealed it.

Wow, an exciting game to watch. Boston came out hitting all their shots. It was going to be a long night. No one particular Celt was killing us. They all were. Cept one. Ricky Davis never scored in the game. Now, since Ricky Davis never scored once, can we credit Evans with shutting him down. Seems to me a guy has to score at least once before you can shut them down. Never the less, Evans never let Ricky Davis score, Evans hit a triple, and cut in for a hoop. Further, he played a ton, keeping Rip off his feet. That I will take.

The big hero among the starters was Sheed. In this game, he did not just work the post a couple or a few times. He worked it, and worked it, and worked it some more. Then he steps out and nails a couple of threes. After that he is seen mugging er, stuffing, their player. A good clean stuff it down your throat kind of block. Ben got it right after Sheed did and took the ball with him. Sheed just used the old standard face up I think every time. If they can't stop a face up jumper, who needs anything else anyway. Just shoots right over the top. And swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.

Ben hit his last 3 of 4 free throws. Thank goodness cause he had missed several in a row before that. Ben played his usual fine D, got a bunch of rebounds. But, hey, no I can't say his D was all that good in the 1st or 3rd quarters. Boston was scoring all too easy against our starting unit.

Rip had it going for much of the game. Just the usual off the curl jumpers. Pretty steady. CB did his damage driving em inside. And Tay. Kind of quiet. A jumper here and there. A drive or two. But hey, a triple and that drive inside in crunch time means we got a scorer when it counts. I believe without looking that Tay played 30 minutes in this game. Lots in the tank for the last 5 minutes of the game.

Arroyo only played about 4 mintues. We did not score with him in but I believe a time or two. But somehow, the lead of Boston did not increase much. Defensively, we were doing ok. Now, Arroyo had Evans in with him along with Ben Wallace. And this combo did not do well. CB and Delfino came in. Now we had three bench players, Delfino, Evans, and Dyess in with CB and either Sheed or Ben the rest of the 2nd quarter. And we took a 12 point deficit and turned it into a slight lead at the half.

Evans was guarding Davis as mentioned previos. Delfino was guarding Pierce. Delfino was guarding Pierce real darn well. I think we can safely throw out the weak defender label. Delfino was making Pierce take some awful tough shots if he even decided to shoot the ball. And when the refs decided to give Pierce a superstar call in the 2nd half, Delfino said ok. And simply played ball denial so Pierce forgot what that ball even looks like. That was some darn good ball denial defense, reacting to every trick Boston tried to get the ball into the hands of Pierce.

Dyess was near invisable in this one. Did he make a shot? But he did one thing right. He played a lot of mintues. Billups is the only starter who did not get proper rest in this one. Dyess played good defense on their bigs. And again, just staying out there so long is the key.

I see someone made the comment Tay might be mad about not playing as much as usual. Hey, in my opinion, all Tay should be playing right now is 30 minutes per game. He needs the rest. And just like tonight, he can still get his 13 points or so. Just compressed into a shorter time frame, making him that much more effective for us when he is playing.

Note, Boston was indeed trying to deny Sheed the post. We were running plays to get him down there. And winning out over and over in this effort. Boston is just not that good a team. They go from a no-rebounding center to some young fellas who don't know how to play the game. With decent centers and power forwards, this team would be pretty darn good.

Oh, I forgot to mention Delfino hitting some shots. He hit some spot up threes. Later, he tried adding some new wrinkles. Did not go as well. But look, you got to miss a few before you make a few. That is how basketball goes. We got to get Delfino more shots. A couple of those just barely missed going down. And you know how precious little game time practice he has had to this point.

Thats about all I can think of at the moment. Going to be fun reviewing this one. GO PISTONS!!!!!

delfino is great. when lindsey comes back this bench will be great.

In case anyone missed it

In case anyone missed it

Thanks for that information. Interesting game summary, as always.

we are 3-0 against boston, but they always put up a fight. delonte west is a nice player. perkins is solid.

doc rivers aid if no piston made the starting lineup of the allstar team he'd vote for all of them as reserves.

Really impressed by Delfino's scrappiness on Pierce. The jump ball two handed block was very nice, and I liked that he kept challenging his man and playing physical. The jumpers are just icing on the cake for me.

Interesting pre-half unit of Billups, Evans, Delfino, Dice and Rasheed. Today just shows that Evans and Delfino can play at the same time if the right mix of players are around them. Without Rip, CB had to look for other players to get involved.

Not only is Sheed averaging a career high in 3P%, he's also making almost 2 threes per game. His previous best was 1.5 three's per game in 2003.

As scary as it sounds, right now Sheed's probably playing as well as he did in his All-Star seasons. After a slow start, he's in the top 20 for total blocks in the league. 16 straight games with a block. Amazing.

Today was vintage Sheed. 9 boards, 23 points, 9-12 shooting, 3-6 from three, 3 assists, 1 block, 1 steal and here's the best line...

2nd most minutes played by a Piston today.

Good game against a scrappy team they have a misleading record.Flip had in a recent article he might sacrifice to develop the bench.Well if this is the result I like it.He had a good mix in there and we need that in case of foul trouble or heaven forbid injury.

If we can keep a mix like this going and keep winning to stay in front of SanAn we will be golden come playoff time.BTW Delfino's two-handed block/jumpball on Pierce was priceless he crumpled to the floor. About the only thing we were mising was a BadBoy elbow to finish it off.

Finally got a Delfino coming out party!:nod: I'll really get excited if he can do this consistently. Looks like Flip has found a combo that might work. I just loved the way our guys put the petal to the metal...led by Sheed and Delfino. Great contribution from Evans as well. Now if Arroyo can just hit a half-way contested layup....:mad:

Monster rebounds from Ben, great D from Rip, and late game heroics from Tay sealed the deal. Also GREAT job by Chauncy finding the open man.:nod: However, he can kill those dam-near half court 3pt shot attempts!:doh:

On the Boston side of the ball, I liked what I saw from K. Perkins. He looks to be developing nicely (future FA target?). Also thought M. Blount did a decent job. Say....he's on the market ain't he? Ainge DID say they want to go with younsters didn't he? I really like Ainge....he makes a great trading partner!:eyebrows:

Good game against a scrappy team they have a misleading record.Flip had in a recent article he might sacrifice to develop the bench.Well if this is the result I like it.He had a good mix in there and we need that in case of foul trouble or heaven forbid injury.

If we can keep a mix like this going and keep winning to stay in front of SanAn we will be golden come playoff time.BTW Delfino's two-handed block/jumpball on Pierce was priceless he crumpled to the floor. About the only thing we were mising was a BadBoy elbow to finish it off.

Thats twice he has done that this season. The first time resulted in a bogus superstar call against Delfino. (Some guy named Labron.) Delfino is really showing he can play D. Lets list the list. Wade. Labron. Pierce. Ginobili. I am sure I am missing one. Basically, we got our backup small forward. And no matter if you like Evans or not, I say we got our backup shooting guard right here too. As well as he guarded Wade, not to mention Ginobili, you bet he can play shooting guard.

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Delfino defense was eye-opening. Sheed's recent performances makes you wonder why he hasn't been more of a go-to guy with the Pistons. Micro, I thought he had lost some of it from Portland days. I saw a lot of him vs. the Lakers back then. But he still has the whole package plus his defense is better. He must be one of the top 5 power forwards in the league--don't know exactly where.

Congradulations for Delfino coming up big today... hopefully this is a confidence builder for him... he really can shoot the outside shot... hopefully he'll get better at finishing inside and defending (much better today).

More importantly I think Sheed is starting to understand that he needs to be a primary scorer down low... it must be nice to have the size and skills to finish when ever you want to.
The inside/out game we've been lacking may have finally arrived.... DON'T STOP FEEDING THE SHEED!

I don't know guys. Sheeds lack of offense has had me scratching my head ever since we got him. I don't think he has lost anything and actually is probably better than he was in Portland given his experience.

We have one of the best low post scorers in the league and more often than not fail to utilize him. No reason Sheed could not be averaging 20 ppg. And thats not being selfish or a non team player its simply using your best option.

At least we are not starting the 1st quarter with Ben Wallace taking 90% of the post shots anymore.

I don't know guys. Sheeds lack of offense has had me scratching my head ever since we got him. I don't think he has lost anything and actually is probably better than he was in Portland given his experience.

We have one of the best low post scorers in the league and more often than not fail to utilize him. No reason Sheed could not be averaging 20 ppg. And thats not being selfish or a non team player its simply using your best option.

Realistically, we should be able to post Sheed at-will against anyone. Why it's not done, especially in scoring droughts, I don't know :confused:

With Sheed's 3 potential, he is one of the hardest guards in the league.

Realistically, we should be able to post Sheed at-will against anyone. Why it's not done, especially in scoring droughts, I don't know :confused:

With Sheed's 3 potential, he is one of the hardest guards in the league.

he did good down low yesterday, and then at the end of the quarter he shot 3's.

he did good down low yesterday, and then at the end of the quarter he shot 3's.
Just further proof that the phrase, "inside-outside" still carries weight. and that the order of operations is an important factor in that.

maurice evans did good against charlotte, delfino was the bench star against boston, who do you think will be the star against the hawks?...how about darko.

he did good down low yesterday, and then at the end of the quarter he shot 3's.

Sorry himat...what I meant to say is "...why it's not done more...". Yesterday showed how strong Sheed's game is when he feels the need to be Sheed.

Sorry himat...what I meant to say is "...why it's not done more...". Yesterday showed how strong Sheed's game is when he feels the need to be Sheed.

i don't really understand it either. the only thing i could make out of it is that he might want to save energy to gaurd the lowpost, and not lose energy on offense, but i don't think thats it.:noidea:

Concerning Sheed thats just the way its been. He can score 23 at ease and the next game maybe only takes 6 shots.

It was kind of strange how Evans still ended up playing more mins that Delfino with how good Delfino was playing.

maurica and delfino played great defense and, but delfin had some O too. i think it was because evans got in earlier.

I particularly looked at Evans defense. What I find is that he more often was guarding Greene vs. Ricky Davis. Thats right, Evans was put on their absolute lowest scoring threat. When Evans did guard Davis, Davis continually lost Evans, but either got stopped from doing damage by another Piston, chose not to shoot, or someone missing free throws. Evans did manage to bother a shot by Davis once. Thats about it for Evans good defensive game. And no, he really could not stay with Greene either.

Laugh of the day. I saw someone post a trade involving sending Evans to Memphis and us getting Battier. This poster suggested Evans could replace Battier as a defensive minded small forward. That poster clearly is just ignoring completely the fact that the experiment of using Evans at small forward is long over. No height at all for the job. Yes, Evans played small forward a bit for us a couple of games back, but that was against an underhanded team forced to play 4 guards.

That drive by Delfino was better than it first appeared. That should have been two points for us. Dyess was right there to put the ball back in, but got hip checked out of the play, no call. I don't even think that was a shot at all. (The more I look at it, the more I see Delfino never really shot the ball at all, just flipped it off the glass toward Evans.) Now the next question is why did Delfino not try a little harder to just put that shot in himself? There was a lot of pressure against that shot.

Anyone notice that after Delfino hit that shot to put us up 11, neither side was scoring any for the next several minutes? Boston was going inside to their bigs for the most part, and Dyess for one was shutting them down. Now, I say Boston was going into their bigs, but that was not really what they wanted. They wanted to get the ball to Pierce a few times, but Delfino was keeping himself draped all over Pierce, playing ball denial defense. Us, we probably should have scored a couple of times save some non-calls by the officials. (That Delfino play and the Sheed triple try where he gets hit on the arm.) Anyway, that triple of Delfino's ended up being pretty big.

That 18 point run by Sheed took place mostly in the last few minutes of the quarter, much of it with Delfino and Dyess in with the starters. Sheed's last two triples were in the last 40 seconds of the quarter for instance. For the game, the only runs going on for us were with Delfino in the game.

Lee, no offense, but your posts are usually good for a "laugh of the day" everyday. I have never seen someone with so much bias towards one player, and away from another. You try to twist every single missed shot by Delfino into something good. For example...

Delfino never really shot the ball at all, just flipped it off the glass toward Evans
So it's Mo's fault that he didn't tip in that bad shot that Delfino missed? That is at best laughable, and at worst sad.

And you never give Evans props when he plays well. Everything is always, "well, he had a scrub on him", or "it was wide open, so he had to hit it", or "His opponent wasn't looking to shoot", and so forth. Yet you don't knock Delfino for pulling up and taking 3 off-balance fadeaways and a three pointer 5 feet behind the line with a man in his face.

I am not biased between the two. I may like Delfino more than Evans personally, but they both have their faults. Delfino is very streaky with his jumpshot, and still takes way too many bad shots. I like him being aggressive, but I'd rather he take it to the hole. Evans almost never takes bad shots. He's usually always wide open. But he isn't the best defender, and he can't handle the ball. I can see the positives for both.

As for your "laugh of the day". That's me you're trying to cheapshot without presenting the facts. First, I never said "Evans could replace Battier as a defensive minded small forward". I said "Evans could help fill Battier's void". Do you see the words replace, defensive minded, or small forward there? No. And you also don't mention that we're also giving them Arroyo (they are desperately looking for a PG with Damon out) and a pick in the deal as well. Evans would just be included to help fill a swingman spot. As much as you hate him, he is solid. Plenty of teams would love to have him. On top of that, I followed it up by saying the deal was a strech. So take your insults elsewhere.

So take your insults elsewhere.
Indeed. I believe lee356 owes you an apology.

FP22, he's normally much better behaved on this board, but he copied his own post from another forum back here, and neglected to proof read and adjust it for a more civil and intelligent audience.

Indeed. I believe lee356 owes you an apology.

FP22, he's normally much better behaved on this board, but he copied his own post from another forum back here, and neglected to proof read and adjust it for a more civil and intelligent audience.

Sorry.

Lee, no offense, but your posts are usually good for a "laugh of the day" everyday. I have never seen someone with so much bias towards one player, and away from another. You try to twist every single missed shot by Delfino into something good. For example...


So it's Mo's fault that he didn't tip in that bad shot that Delfino missed? That is at best laughable, and at worst sad.

And you never give Evans props when he plays well. Everything is always, "well, he had a scrub on him", or "it was wide open, so he had to hit it", or "His opponent wasn't looking to shoot", and so forth. Yet you don't knock Delfino for pulling up and taking 3 off-balance fadeaways and a three pointer 5 feet behind the line with a man in his face.

I am not biased between the two. I may like Delfino more than Evans personally, but they both have their faults. Delfino is very streaky with his jumpshot, and still takes way too many bad shots. I like him being aggressive, but I'd rather he take it to the hole. Evans almost never takes bad shots. He's usually always wide open. But he isn't the best defender, and he can't handle the ball. I can see the positives for both.

As for your "laugh of the day". That's me you're trying to cheapshot without presenting the facts. First, I never said "Evans could replace Battier as a defensive minded small forward". I said "Evans could help fill Battier's void". Do you see the words replace, defensive minded, or small forward there? No. And you also don't mention that we're also giving them Arroyo (they are desperately looking for a PG with Damon out) and a pick in the deal as well. Evans would just be included to help fill a swingman spot. As much as you hate him, he is solid. Plenty of teams would love to have him. On top of that, I followed it up by saying the deal was a strech. So take your insults elsewhere.

One, Dyess got hip checked out of the play, and the refs missed the call, or Dyess would have been right there to put that shot /pass back in. (Nothing to do with Evans.)

Two. Evans has proved to be no swingman. Keep watching. Flip was using Evans at small forward some earlier in the year, but has quit doing that. Evans no way has the height to play small forward. So no, Evans is in no way going to replace Battier, who plays small forward for Memphis. (Yes, he can play a bit of shooting guard, but they don't use him for that.)

I was high on Evans from what I heard of him. And I really like the 3's he was hitting. But, game after game, I like him less cause he ain't playing defense. Guess what, if Delfino was playing bad defense, I would not be so high on him either. Defense first and formost is what I expect from a Piston.