http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/team/GS_447.gif http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/team/at.gif http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/team/DET_3079.gif

Dec 23rd
8:00PM EST

Palace of Auburn Hills, Mi

TV: WDWB/WB20
Radio:WDFN-AM 1130

http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/ben_wallace.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/rasheed_wallace.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/tayshaun_prince.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/richard_hamilton.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/chauncey_billups.jpg
VS
http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/warriors/adonal_foyle.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/warriors/troy_murphy.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/warriors/mike_dunleavy.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/warriors/jason_richardson.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/warriors/baron_davis.jpg

http://www.pistonsforum.com/images/picdump/gs122305-1.png
http://www.pistonsforum.com/images/picdump/gs122305-2.png
http://www.pistonsforum.com/images/picdump/gs122305-3.png

Comments on this game?
~~~

Reserved

I like the back-court matchup, but up front we'll kill them.

Pistons lead the league in scoring at home? 109.6!
Pistons lead Nba in 3pt fg%? 42%
3rd in FG%.......10th in FT%...
wow, my bruddahs!

i think TP was trying too hard last game to show he was better than dunleavy...he should be more relaxed at home and i expect him to have a big game

2nd time we are playing them. Know what to expect from them already. Just watch out for their guards, that's about it, especially Richardson. Can't let him get on fire like he did in San Francisco.

This is a game where our bigs should be more aggresive on the offensive end. Sheed should play the inside game more. Billups should direct the offense where the bigs should 'go inside' more. Draw a lot of fouls on their bigs.

Should be a 'W' in the bag.

Merry Christmas and Cheers....

The only thing standing in the way of a W is our anticipation of playing the Spurs.

Only Davis and Fischer seem to stand up well on the road, while the production of everyone else falls off significantly. According to the stats Baron becomes more of a scorer and less of a facilitator on the road.

GS is on a 3 gm loosing streak. If we don't allow ourselves to become distracted things should work out well.

With Rasheed Wallace in doubt to play tonight with the death of his cousin, I would expect McDyess to get the nod and Dale Davis to be the third big man.

In that scenario, you could see Dice picking up fouls on Murphy, forcing Flip to go deeper and allow a Darko sighting during meaningful minutes tonight.

Without Rasheed, this is a game we could easily drop tonight. The players will say they are not looking ahead to San Antonio, but you know they are. The only team the Pistons are paying attention to at this point are the Spurs.

COnsidering the circumstances, I hope Rasheed does not play tonight. I hope he gives himself time to grieve. Family is important. With that said, Maybe we can see some production from Maxy, Dale or Darko. It's still a win win situation.

WDIV just said Sheed is 50/50 whether he plays or not, he was not at practice. I don't think he will play.

COnsidering the circumstances, I hope Rasheed does not play tonight. I hope he gives himself time to grieve. Family is important. With that said, Maybe we can see some production from Maxy, Dale or Darko. It's still a win win situation.Family is all that matters , We all are just watching a game. Ask Tony Dungy. My heart broke in pieces when I heard about his son. 'My ' mother is going through Chimotherapy. Sports is supposed to give us a break from reality, and that's why I love my Pistons. We're 20-3 and that dont even happen in college any more. Enjoy this 4 year run and all that u have and beyond because we all could be gone tomorrow....my bruddahs!!:grouphug:

we have a good enough PF in dice to make up for sheed, i hope he has the night off to regroup.

I think he suits up.

I think he suits up.

you think so? if he does i don't think he'kk play as much.

This per McCoskey on the Fan. Nothing said to be definite though

Rip apparently has a bad back and is a game time decision. (per post at mlive.)

This per McCoskey on the Fan. Nothing said to be definite though

Rip apparently has a bad back and is a game time decision. (per post at mlive.)

IMO, it's as good a time as any to give the bench guys a chance (yep, including Darko). It's only one game. Let's see what happens. One win would be awesome and one loss no big deal at all.

If Flip wants to win, Darko comes off the bench instead of Dale. Troy is perimeter floating PF, Dale aint got the wind to run with him, and Jmax is too small to cover him and has shown zero defensive rebounding ability this year.

Wonder who will start for Rip, my money one Evans, though I think it should be Delfino, but Del will get some serious burn. On a positive note, this could be the game our bench needs to prove itself. No excuse for anyone not playing all out. I'll take a few mistakes and even a loss, as long as the effort is there.

Game Chat is open. (http://www.pistonsforum.com/news/853-pistonsforum-com-game-chat-debut.html)

Last year LB started Delfino when Rip couldn't play. Of course Delfino played like %%%% because of injuries, but I'd expect him to play well if he were to start.

Blaha says all starters are in....

I had a few tonight with this crappy dial-up computer I'm on so I couldn't get on chat. However, just had a few funny thoughts: Bill Davidson, interviewed at halftime about Joe D's number/name on the Pistons floor, had this to say: "Joe Dumars is a good person."

Who says Z doesn't come before D? Golden State's Zarko saw a little PT in the first half. That's Zarko, NOT Darko. :laugh: Maybe Darko should be called "Larko."

1st half

The only thing bad about Evans tonight is he could not guard Baron Davis. But neither can Arroyo. Evans also might have pulled that one offensive rebound back out. But he hit his shots. Between him and Arroyo, they gave Rip and Tay plenty of rest in the first half.

Delfino should be making his free throws. Other than that, pretty good play from him. He knows where to be to scrap for a rebound for sure. And did you see that drive and dish to Billups. Good stuff from Delfino. I like the fact that Delfino was the first guy off the bench in this game. This simply keeps things organized. Ok for Evans to come in afterwards.

Experience is a great thing. Last game, Fisher came in and burned Arroyo several times. But later that game, Arroyo met Fisher a lot earlier, forcing Fisher to give the ball up. This game, Arroyo knew what to do immediately, and he did not let Fisher hurt us one little bit.

Arroyo's play running the offense was positively dynamic. A great lead pass to Tay for an easy score. Scored an assist on a timely pass to Evans in the corner. And etc. Lots of great ball handling, lots of great passes from Arroyo.

Dyess worked the post some, and hit his shot. Not a great deal more than that. But he rested both Sheed and Ben plenty. Plenty good enough defending and rebounding from Dyess.

Tay has yet to get all that aggressive on offense in this game. He has tried a couple of shots though. They missed and I think he kind of gave up after that. Of course, he was off the court a good long stretch too.

Rip is playing. Looking a bit hurt maybe, but not that hurt. He is still running like mad and nailing those midrangers, along with getting right ot the hoop.

Sheed should have two triples in the book already. One just would not quite go all the way in. Darn. Another fine assist Arroyo would have had right there. Drive and dish. Good stuff.

Evans dribbled toward the center of the court on hit a pull up. Good to see that. Creating some of his own shots will surely help this team.

CB is just being CB. Good choices, although his play seemed a bit off for that last minute or so of the half. Gee, I wonder if he will be benched for not being able to get off the bench and produce. Just a joke. But CB did not play Davis all that tough for that stretch. But to the positive, Arroyo and CB have again combined to have virtually no turns.</B></B></B>

Game report

Wow, more of the same in the 2nd half. Again, Delfino is the first guy off the bench, and again, our offense stays well organized. Again, we get good use of four bench players. Indeed, our bench would have made this one a blowout except Diogu went ballistic on us.

We see Delfino again attack the basket, this time making his free throws. And again, looking just fine on defense. Evans continues to hit his shots and pull down rebounds. As well as hustle for loose balls, winning the ensuing jump ball. Dyess continues to nail his jumpers like that slump just could not have really existed. Confidently. With range.

Delfino took an outside shot, just barely rimmed out. Arroyo I don't recall even taking an outside shot this game. Some shots inside and thats it. Evans did his damage outside for the most part, but he did get to the line and make free throws on fast break situations.

Tay just never really did get it going tonight, but Rip never let the fire die from the first quarter. Can't wait to see the boxscore for this one and how few minutes our starters played.

Sheed hit another 3. CB seemed to be pretty quiet on the scoring front for this game. Ben had a darn good offensive game. As just another option out there, he is fitting in real well. And he continues to post up weaker players they put on him. He is making them pay. Ben still needs to hit more free throws to make his post game really effective.

No Darko. And that is a problem. See what Diogu did? Just maybe a guy with some real height and quickness could have actually stopped Diogu a few times. But really, even though Flip did not play Darko in this game, he made a big leap as far as the bench play. Real simple. Delfino the first guy off the bench. It just makes us a lot better of a team. Hopefully, getting Darko back in the mix is next.

No Darko. And that is a problem. See what Diogu did? Just maybe a guy with some real height and quickness could have actually stopped Diogu a few times.
I totally agree, Lee. May I suggest:

sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3863 (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3863)

"...Darko...just maybe..."

Sorry...grab all you want...there are no more straws left in the dispenser to go with your Darko Happy Meal.

Flip knows it...Joe knows it...nuf said

Someone should have sent Diogu to the floor. Maxiell?

Family is all that matters , We all are just watching a game. Ask Tony Dungy. My heart broke in pieces when I heard about his son. 'My ' mother is going through Chimotherapy. Sports is supposed to give us a break from reality, and that's why I love my Pistons. We're 20-3 and that dont even happen in college any more. Enjoy this 4 year run and all that u have and beyond because we all could be gone tomorrow....my bruddahs!!:grouphug:
I had ESPN on while I was asleep and I was listening to what happened, the almost woke up crying. When I heard that there was no signs of foul play, it broke my heart. No one took his probles as serious as he did. No one saw the signs. What's worse is that someone may have know what was going on with him, but did nothing. Sad.

One thing I have noticed about Delfino is he plays with a ton of energy out there and maintains his level of play after both a mistake and a good play. How can you bench a guy that gives it 110% out there? The same cannot be said of Darko.

Bench played great but we still need a 4th big. Perhaps its more apparent since Dyess has chosen to be more of a perimiter player but we really could use someone to come in and match the intensity from some of these young PF's and C's.

GS does not have a good front-court but they were getting a lot of production out of it last night. Seems to be a trend lately. I don't want to knock the team sitting at 21-3 but the Pistons frontcourt could be defending and rebounding better. My only conclusion is that 3 is not enough.

Someone should clue Flip in on what happened during the 4th quarter of game 7 last July. If not Darko then there are 3 other guys sitting there. Davis, Maxiel and Johnson.

sheed didn't talk much that game. early sheed took his emotion out in the first 2 plays and almost dunked twice, one was a very hard foul that was needed to stop him.

GS does not have a good front-court but they were getting a lot of production out of it last night. Seems to be a trend lately. I don't want to knock the team sitting at 21-3 but the Pistons frontcourt could be defending and rebounding better. My only conclusion is that 3 is not enough.

Someone should clue Flip in on what happened during the 4th quarter of game 7 last July. If not Darko then there are 3 other guys sitting there. Davis, Maxiel and Johnson.

Last night after the game, Flip's excuse for the GS front court production was that the Pistons were concentrating on stopping the Warriors' perimeter players who really hurt them in the last game. Maybe.

I'm more inclined to think that the problems stems from the inability of our guards to stay in front of penetrating guards, who then get into the paint and either dish (creating an easy basket for a big when our big goes to help) or an easy offensive rebound and put back (for the same reason).

I'm curious to say what happens tomorrow with tony Parker, who currrently leads the NBA in points in the paint (with Duncan 3rd, i think).

By the way this isn't to suggest that you are wrong or that we don't need a 4th big in the regular rotation. I think we do. It's just to say that even if we get that, we've still got another issue that I think we need to work on.

The other teams young big men are not dominating the wallaces straight up--thus raising the alarm on their play, but rather getting uncontested dunks off of guard penetration.If you watched the game, you would have seen that diogus 12/13 shooting including like 10 dunks under the basket from Baron Davis drives. Also, if you watch the body language of Sheed in particular (even Ben somewhat) you can tell they are comfortable letting a lot of the easy dunks go when they are up a lot and don't feel like "locking down"

Sheed didn't really seem to be in the game in the last half, with Diogu beating him down the floor and a certain listless quality in his play. I was hoping they'd pull him from the second unit because he was one of the poorer contributors, but Flip explained that he wanted to keep him out on the court so his mind would remain on basketball.