Alright lets put that last game behind us.

Around this time last year is when the Pistons went into Boston on a Friday night and escaped with a win on a last sec shot by Rip. That win set off a very nice winning streak for the team so lets hope for more early season magic. Hopefully not as close though.

It is Boston where the Pistons always seem to have trouble but this years Celts are in rebuilding mode so we will see.

Pistons vs. the Celts.

7:30 PM EST

TV: FSN Detroit, NBA League Pass

Radio: WDFN 1130 AM

Find below, a picture of a Celtic fan and his mom, bless her "working girl" soul.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1449/normalsimg0121xg9.jpg

Pistons vs. the Celts.

7:30 PM EST

TV: FSN Detroit, NBA League Pass

Radio: WDFN 1130 AM

Find below, a picture of a Celtic fan and his mom, bless her "working girl" soul.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1449/normalsimg0121xg9.jpg

Posts like that could get us Celtics Trolls. That could be fun.
:pound:

Strip her down and paint her green, and could call her "Celtic Pride".

1st game of our 1st back to back this season. Grizzlies are tough to beat since we are playing them tomorrow night. Therefore, we need to win this game. Hopefully, Sheed will play better knowing that he let the team down against the Bucks.

What happen to our passing game? We must average 20+ assist, not T.O's.

GO PISTONS!!!

I predict we'll have a few players in foul trouble trying to prove they can stop dribble drives... it will be a foul fest for both sides.

If we can apply backcourt pressure, their guards will fold. Telfair is incapable of directing a team. Rondo is too green and West is over at the 2 spot. If we let them do their thing, Pierce will slice us apart and perkins, jefferson and Gomes will stuff putbacks and short hooks.

The Celtic bigs have a rep of being foul prone so that should be exploited. Sheed should have a nice night at the low block unless he gets T'd or settles for the three. I'm all for Maxiel at this point. Draw fouls. Even throw in Amir. If there is a game to play Amir in, this is it.

the celtics are too small all around to seriously compete with us if we play a decent game. we can exploit mismatches all over the place.

the celtics are too small all around to seriously compete with us if we play a decent game. we can exploit mismatches all over the place.Yeah, but WHO ARE WE? Itll take 10 games b4 we know what this team is about. Until Thanksgiving comes, Im just watching......and waiting................:stirthepot:

One of the things I love is having a great feel on how the Pistons will play each game. What Wednesday showed is that this team has to get rid of the superiority complex and play the game hard from the start. The starters have to trust that they will not play 40 plus minutes a game so come out hard and play hard from the start.

I think this game will be the same as it was last year when these teams met for the first time with Rip hitting the winner with .08 left on the clock. Both the Celtics and Pistons looked reallly bad in the openers.

The Pistons may have it together but this is a game they can lose if Boston come to play harder than their opener, and they will be geared to play the Pistons because they were swept last year.

My Perdiction is Pistons 97 Boston 93.

Don't be surprised if its the other way there is something wierd about this team right now. GO PISTONS!!!!!

the celtics are too small all around to seriously compete with us if we play a decent game. we can exploit mismatches all over the place.

Which means we'll go small. Expect to see a CB-Flip-Rip-Tay-Sheed lineup get a lot of minutes.

I'll I can say is NO EXCUSES... they've been together for the whole preseason and had one week to "Open the playbook" before the 1st game... no opening game jitters.... no significant injuries.
This game should be a good indicator of what to expect.

Bench the starters until they can come out and play hard from minute 1. ACCOUNTABILITY. It has to start somewhere.

Gonna miss the game tonight... gotta go:djparty:
Could someone post a recap...
thanks

Pistons get there first victory this season! 101-88 against the Celtics.
NBA - Detroit Pistons/Boston Celtics Box Score Friday November 3, 2006 - Yahoo! Sports (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gid=2006110302)

According to cbs.sportsline, none of the starters played over 30 minutes. I could get used to that. Not many points contributed by the bench, however.

16 point win. For those scoring at home that puts us at a +8 point differiental over the 1st 2 games.

Lot of offensive boards, bench played great, defense improved, only 6 TO's and actually benefited the the Sheed rule by getting 2 cheapies from the line.

Have not checked the box yet but everyone seemed to play well. I am sure the usual crowd will find a way to slam the team but I am happy with this bounce back win.

Everyone except Flip Murray (Max didn't do much in his few minutes either, but didn't really have time enough to say so) played well.

And whatever box you looked at was wrong as Billups, Tay, and Rip definitely played heavy minutes as did Sheed.

I hope my boy Sheeeed realized how important he is out there. We got 22 pts/18 rebounds in 48 min from Naz/Dice at center. I could like that.
Rip and CB must continue to dominate. 29 FTA'S from CB is great. More penetration. Delfino looked good. I can see him getting a good 20mpg. fLIP mURRAYsuxx. Dont like him, never will. Delk and Hunter can have his minutes.Cant wait til Blaylock plays. why are we so scared to play our yungens? Not a great win but we still have 8 pregames to go 4 me.....

Everyone except Flip Murray (Max didn't do much in his few minutes either, but didn't really have time enough to say so) played well.

And whatever box you looked at was wrong as Billups, Tay, and Rip definitely played heavy minutes as did Sheed.

yeah, ESPN has four guys playing 35 minutes and over. That sucks IMO.

We'll see a lot of bench tommorow then. Memphis is horrible though since there 2 top big men are out. Good game to let the bench do their thing.

Liked what Sheed did for us. He bounced back and remained calm and gave the Pistons a near 20 and 10 game. What CB and Rip did better than scoring 47 was getting to the line 19 times and making 17 free throws. Chauncey can always muscle his way to the paint and Rip can drive right by defenders. There is no reason the backcourt shouldn't get inside. Tay did good. He only got 12 points, but he got 7 boards 4 assists and he prevented Pierce from having a great game. Nazr did very well especially in the beginning. Delfino and Dice crashed the boards well the only Piston who didn't do too good was Flip. I'm looking for the starters to only play 24-28 minutes tommorow, and a better effort by everyone off the bench.

32 and 17 from S&N front court DHQ.
Noted your negativity to FlipM.
Solid 4th Q
as for minutes those guys were right at 35 and 36 not too bad.

What?? Nazr had 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 16 minutes! He had to of played more than 16 minutes.

Everyone except Flip Murray

I believe if you check Flip's history you will find out that he is even more of a streak shooter than Hunter has been throughout his career. Hopefully Flip will be able to contribute other things on those nights when he can't put it in the hoop.

ESPN's box score has 22 minutes for Nazr, which sounds about right. I don't think he played at all in the 4th quarter.

That's still very good for 22 minutes though.

Yeah, he had a nice game.

Assists-to-TO ratio was outstanding tonight for the Pistons, and their shot selection was great in the second half. Outrebounded the C's 48-44, with a 40-34 edge on pts in the paint. The first half was kind of ugly, but they committed ZERO turnovers, which kept them right in the game. Third quarter was better, and then the 4th was outstanding, with Sheed and Rip leading the way.

Nasr looked good. (I hope this was real)

Early Dyss and Sheed were still too stiff but picked it up later. Billips is letting his man drive too much. Still a few too many layups but the defense was way better. WE need a live, young big in there to help...

Chauncey and Rip are two nice weapons offensively. Sheed is just starting to warm-up. But our best offensive threat is Prince. The reason. Watch every time he gets the ball. The other team panics and sends people down just in case Tay backs them in. Tay is our one guy that will consistently draw the double.

Murray has been unimpressive...

They look a little more like the Pistons that we have known...

Sheed and Dyess really showed some pride tonight. Those 2 played hard. They have to get used to stepping up on a regular basis down in the trenches.

Rip is really tearing it up too. Let's be sure to appreciate what he is doing.

But the most important thing to realize, is that so far Nazr is playing to 70% of Ben's level at 33% of his salary. Not a bad pick up. We got screwed in the short run, but the ammo and flexibility will come in handy.


Did anybody see that Bulls loss? Bibby hits an absolute prayer 3 from the corner to cut it to 1. Then the Bulls fail to inbound the ball after a timeout. Then Sac hits a baseline jumper to take a 1 point lead and win. Very unlikely comback with 30 seconds left.

Forgettable 1st half, great 2nd. Flip needs to learn how to reduce starter minutes in the front end of a back to back. Murray brings nothing to the Pistons. Delfino looked solid, again. Rip is DA MAN. JMax is really starting to grow on me. And Dice is DA MAN.

Waiting to hear from all the guys who've been bashing Delfino's shooting. Wonder what they think of Hunter's, Murray's, and JMax's shooting pct after 2 games.

Ouch, Flip Murry was 0-5, 0-2 and 0-2 tonight in 22 minutes.

Everyone is entitled to an off night or two, especially coming to a new team. But I just hope Daddy (aka Flip Sr.) doesn't continue to give his son decent minutes if he doesn't start earning them soon.

Forgettable 1st half, great 2nd. Flip needs to learn how to reduce starter minutes in the front end of a back to back. Murray brings nothing to the Pistons. Delfino looked solid, again. Rip is DA MAN. JMax is really starting to grow on me. And Dice is DA MAN.

Waiting to hear from all the guys who've been bashing Delfino's shooting. Wonder what they think of Hunter's, Murray's, and JMax's shooting pct after 2 games.

Flip n Flip, Senior n Junior. Wonder why Flip Senior is so stubborn. He keeps telling the media that he expects Delf to play 20 minutes a game but 2 games into the season, Delf has yet to play more than 15 minutes even though he's playing well. Yet, Flip Junior does not get yank when he's not playing well. If Flip hates Delf so much, why doesn't he trade him away?

Jmax should be getting more minutes the way he's playing. Reward the players, Flip. Starters are playing too many minutes again especially on back to back games. Starters are not getting younger. Are you trying to burn them out before the All Star break this season?

Ouch, Flip Murry was 0-5, 0-2 and 0-2 tonight in 22 minutes.

Everyone is entitled to an off night or two, especially coming to a new team. But I just hope Daddy (aka Flip Sr.) doesn't continue to give his son decent minutes if he doesn't start earning them soon.

i thought you had to "earn" the minutes first. oh wait that only applies if you are a young euro player. in my opinion it's time for fino to start eating flip murray's minutes. delfino has played well for us flip hasn't so far.

i thought you had to "earn" the minutes first. oh wait that only applies if you are a young euro player. in my opinion it's time for fino to start eating flip murray's minutes. delfino has played well for us flip hasn't so far.

I'm agreeing with bballjay. Reward Delfino early and set the tone for the season.

If the Pistons can start a game right then Delfino can play more. I thought Murry played a lot better last night. Had no points but he ran the team pretty well when he was the backup point. Only had 1 TO when he tried an interior pass and that was understandable typical PG error.

Maxiel got into a game when the frontcourt guys were all playing well. That has to be ecouraging for the bench.

On the game...

Solid effort from the starters
Bench performed well when they were in the game. Special shout out to J-Max, Delfino and Dice for legitimizing the second unit
Flip looked horrible on offense/defense. Solid with ball handling.
Nazr in my opinion has shown up the most during the regular season. He has the most pressure to perform and has responded with solid play. Definitely a bargain.
Sheed looks like he took this game personal. Great effort by him to bounce back from last games dissapointing performance. Unfortunately, he looks out of shape again so I'd be interested to see how much effort he puts into this back to back
Tayshaun is really showing all the elements to his game. Thank you Joe for making sure we got this guy signed
Defense still looked average and if we don't improve we will struggle against the powerhouses this year

I know I'm only repeating what has been said already- but I wonder if Flip is schizophrenic? During interviews/press conferences he always talks about involving the bench more, giving minutes to Fino, rest the bench and so on. And as soon as the season starts, he's playing the starters close to 40mpg and Fino rides the bench, even if he plays solid.
I simply don't get it- last season should've shown Flip how worthless the regular season record can be. I know the team's bench isn't the best, but he should try to make it playoff- ready at least. Right now, given their experience, I wouldn't trust in Fino, Maxiell or Murray (ok, I wouldn't trust him if he played 35minutes a night, because I remember his performance last year against Detroit very well).

Calm down guys. He'll probably use the bench more today. Flip needs to stop playing the 1. He's a scorer and he'd do much better at the 2. I think the Pistons should keep Blalock in the 15 man roster. Lindsey won't play much till playoffs, and if we had Blalock we could keep Flip at the 2 and Delfino at the 3.

In some ways it really is a simple game. Move the ball around and don't turn it over and even shooting badly you can score 100 points. There were a number of things I thought LB was wrong about, but he sure got this one right.

Team looked pretty good for the second game of the season especially considering the limited regular rotation time in the preseason.

Nazr - Fouls still mount up quickly (would have fouled out if he had played 38 minutes), but shot the ball well, rebounded, and seemed to be more active on defense. The big men still aren't sure how to play together though.

Sheed - Great bounce back after the debacle the other night. Shot the ball well, took the right kind of shots. If this was his average game you would be very happy.

Prince - Seemed kind of out of the flow of the game to me. Not sure Flip's offense has figured out what to do with Tay.

Rip - What can you say - very nice game. Was even going to the boards early and pushing the ball up the floor.

CB - Couldn't shoot the ball for the world, but went inside time and again. Eleven assists, did not once turn the ball over. Guards rule.

Dice - Great boardwork in decent minutes. Projected to 36 minutes he would have come in with 11 points and 13 boards. Didn't turn the ball over, but looks unsure of what's going on with Nazr on the floor.

Murray - Why is he here again? Didn't produce and didn't seem to be putting in much effort either.

Delfino - Unfortunately stuck at the lost 3 spot. Rebounded very well in a short stint. Projected up to Tay's minutes he would have come in with five points and 10 boards.

Although there weren't many true fast breaks, the Pistons did at least push the ball up. And after the slow 1st and 3rd quarter starts played some fairly decent defense.

Minutes continue to be a problem. I don't see any changes in the rotation minutes-wise from last season so far. Flip is going to have to figure out how to substitute in the first quarter or this isn't going to change. A couple of guys need to come out around the six minute mark to enable any sort of flexibility in substitution later. I know that's tough given how slowly the team starts, but if you log a third of the starters minutes in the first, and it's a close game in the second half you have no choice but to play guys in the high 30s. And we all know what eventually comes of that.

I know I'm only repeating what has been said already- but I wonder if Flip is schizophrenic? During interviews/press conferences he always talks about involving the bench more, giving minutes to Fino, rest the bench and so on. And as soon as the season starts, he's playing the starters close to 40mpg and Fino rides the bench, even if he plays solid.

This may deserve its own thread. Is Flip simply a liar? Or is he insane, schizo, obsessive compulsive, in denial, ect. ect.

He talked about how great it was to be able cut the starters minutes because the bench played well. And how he had to force Rip out of the game, because he didn't want Rip complaining about being tired at the end of the season. Did Flip look at the minutes? Rip, Sheed, Billups, and Tay all played 36+ minutes. Where's the cutback in that? Delfino got 15 minutes? Huh?

Flip spent the entire summer saying he'd cut back starter minutes, develop the bench, and he's doing neither. Darko got more time last year than JMax is getting now.

Minutes continue to be a problem. I don't see any changes in the rotation minutes-wise from last season so far. Flip is going to have to figure out how to substitute in the first quarter or this isn't going to change. A couple of guys need to come out around the six minute mark to enable any sort of flexibility in substitution later. I know that's tough given how slowly the team starts,

or, you could turn it around and say that should be easy given how slowly the team starts....

nice recap d

Flip spent the entire summer saying he'd cut back starter minutes, develop the bench, and he's doing neither. Darko got more time last year than JMax is getting now.
It's political. The Pistons are not selling tickets like in years past. Another loss would hurt.

Botom line, Flip has to do whatever it takes to win.

I'm in with the prof. I'm not going to comment until I see a game. But I'm not digging the stubborn adherence to the status quo.

This is what we've been waiting to hear...
You know, Rip didn't want to come out of the game," Saunders said. "He was playing really well, but I told him, 'Rip, I am not going to have you complaining at the end of the year that you are tired.' We have to develop these bench players and what better way to do that than letting them play in the fourth quarter on the road with the game on the line?"

Just saw a Tivo of the game this morning..they missed some easy shots to start off but finally got their first lead of the sesason to open the second half.

They looked disasterous during that opening sequence of the second qtr with Hunter and Murray in there.. Hunter seemed a little out of control for the few minutes he was in there and although Murray didn't score in the game he did look decent in the second half and provided valuble filler minutes when needed.

Still I think the starters as good as they were played to many minutes and even with a 13 point lead with less than 2 minutes, Flip could have relaxed a little and got AJ or Dupree in the game. Hopefully as Himat indicated, with tonight's back to back the young jocs will get more minutes and can produce.

The keys to success in this game were the 6 TO's compared to the C's 15, and the 22 we had in the opening game, the defensive points in the paint 34 compared to the 70 given up in game 1, and the Sheed who had a less than stellar start finally gettin off the snide in the second qtr. He also seemed to realize that ben-who? was gone and helped grab some boards. the rest of the front court was good too compared to game one.

Good recovery from game one, now let's show the home crowd tonight that the dream is still alive and this team ain't done.:cheerleader:

much better game all around. sheed was fine after he made his first basket of the season. we were fine as a team once we got our first lead of the season. the offense was extremely balanced - every starter had at least 12 points and took at least 12 shots. forced 15 turnovers and only turned it over 6 times. don't look now, but this is 2 games in a row without ben that we've outrebounded our opponent. it definitely wasn't a pretty victory though - we only had 2 fast break points (but only gave up 4 as well).

nazr had an excellent, excellent game. he was more active on defense, set himself up for easy baskets after our guards drove the lane, and took/made a couple jumpshots that we'd never see from ben. unlike the first game, boston had to guard nazr. and when sheed finally got going with the high pick-and-roll, it spread out boston and opened up our defense. as much as we want sheed to play inside, he's going to have to take 3-4 three pointers a game and be an outside threat in order to maximize our offensive efficiency.

chauncey and rip were great as usual. chauncey missed a few too many shots, but ran the offense like a pro and got to the line. rip looked like he did during the finals against the lakers. his shot was ON tonight and he played great. tayshaun did what he needed, and that little turnaround hook in the low post is the kind of high percentage shot that gets us going and crushes opponents' spirits.

mcydess was active on the boards. delfino played okay, but pierce still took him to school once or twice much like redd did in the first game. however, given that he's a bench player guarding 2 of the better players in the league, he did a pretty good job. flip did well running the offense, but his shot was way off. at this point i'd rather have delk on the roster...but again i'll give flip a chance to prove himself.

maxiell didn't get much opportunity, and made an extremely poor pass leading to a turnover at the end of the 3rd quarter which allowed boston to get within 3 points. he was promptly pulled from the game.

for those griping about minutes - yes 4 of the starters played 35-36 minutes. but, flip *did* have bench guys in there in the 4th quarter. but i'm willing to go out on a limb and say this isn't a cause for concern yet, because last year if the game was that close entering the 4th quarter, our starters would have ended up with 40+ minutes each, not 35-36.

case in point - the 2nd game of the season against boston last year, about the same lead entering the 4th quarter. the minutes? tayshaun 41, sheed 41, ben 39, chauncey 36, rip 40.

Very nice recap WH... thanks :^)