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Pistons @ Raptors!

Pistons Game 62 of the 2005/6 NBA Regular Season
Weds. March 15th 2006, 7:00 PM Eastern
Air Canada Centre (http://www.theaircanadacentre.com/), built 1999, capacity 19,800
TV: tv20 (http://www.wb20detroit.com/), TheScore (http://www.score.ca)
Radio: WDFN 1130AM (http://www.wdfn.com/)

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Big game boys and girls. The Pistons arrived in Toronto this afternoon, ready to do battle with the Purple Velociraptors.

Gotta watch out for Mo Pete and Mike James. Bosh will get his although letting Mike James run a little wild actually works against the Raps. He has a tendency to do too much at times and ignore his teammates.

Mo Pete is having a career season and probably playing the best defense of his NBA career. His 3 point shooting has been clutch for the dirty birds this year.

The Raps bench is unspectacular, and can be exploited. I'm anxious to see Tony Delk make short work of Jose Calderon like The Low cutting up weak rappers.

High energy game, the Raps like to run and gun, their halfcourt offense is all Mike James and Bosh.

With plenty of rest and practice, let's hope Flip uses his bench to good effect and the battle of playoff rotation minutes between Mo Evans and Carlos Delfino gets off to a rollicking start.

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Bosh logged 44 minutes tonight. Hopefully that jumper will be falling short, since I know the Wallaces despise contesting jumpshots.

Interesting games from Dallas and Miami. Dallas down 19 at halftime and they hold the Cavs to 8 points in the 3rd quarter and pull out a win.

Miami was up 41-14 after the 1st quarter against our nemesis, the Jazz... and rolled em.

The players have got to feel that they are in the stretch run now.

i've watched a lot of the cleveland games, and it's sad. they either blowout a team, or lose. teams always make 20 point come backs. lebron makes the right choices in the game most of the time. the opponent always doubles him in the second half, lebron pases to the open guy but he can't put the ball in the hoop. dallas tied the game at the end of the 3rd even though they were down 19 at the half by outscoring the cavs 27-8!

Check BOSH, not so much on his scoring but his offensive rebounds and we will win this game, no problem.

As for MO PETE and MIKE JAMES, we have plenty of weapons to keep them from scoring. We can have Delk, Hunter, Delf and of course our starters of CB, RIP and TAY to counter them.

Raptors do not have J Rose anymore to match up with us.

I wouldn't say I'm worried but it would appear that miami's win over the pistons has shifted the momentum their way. I thiink Flip has to figure out his rotations and get the guys prepared. Most of all our bench. I just hope the constant tinkering with lineups and unpredictable play time for our bench players isn't going to cause any hard feelings or bad chemistry, that would disrupt the cohesive team dynamic that is obviously one of this teams best advantages. Athough I would expect any player in this league to understand the fact that nothing is guaranteed and you have to work hard to secure your "place" on a team. Especially this team. So obviously I think the pistons are better then the heat but i also think we need our bench strong and confident as we look to take out Miami or any other team that stands between us and the championship. Miami isn't a well rounded team has far has I'm concerned.They do have a few great players who can (has we well know) single-handedly win games. So is everyone looking forward to next wednesday as much has I am? It's still just a regular season game, and it's not our last against miami , but it's sure to be a dogfight to remember.

Pistons 101
Toes ripping through their tennys 92

This is a game the Pistons have to win. The Pistons need to run the table on the next few games heading to Miami, Indiana.

They should win this game but it will be closer than we think. I think the game flow will be high paced until the 2nd half. The Pistons will have to be strong on the D end to win this game, Toronto can score and if they try to get in a transition game like the Washington game than it can spell trouble.

I think it will be a close game, but it will be high scoring 103-96.

Mike J, 19 points. Let's not let him get hot.

i have a feeling this will be a huge blowout that the pistons will win.

Nice Toronto article here by one of my favorite Canuckian Sports scribes, Doug Smith.

Where da Raps are at! (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1142337186785&call_pageid=969907729483&col=970081562040)

Chat will be open in 3 minutes! Microvision game feed from Canada will be in effect.

Chat info link (http://www.pistonsforum.com/news/853-pistonsforum-com-game-chat-debut.html)

ben has let out his anger again. the last time he did that we came off of our slump. it's in a detnews article.

Where's the love for Delf, Lindsey and Davis? We are paying Davis $3.5M to sit on the bench? Delf will be gone as soon as he is a FA. I just don't get Flips rotations.

Delk is starting to look like a black hole. He isn't even looking to pass.

Obviously I want a guy that can come off the bench and score, but it needs to be within the offence.

Where's the love for Delf, Lindsey and Davis? We are paying Davis $3.5M to sit on the bench? Delf will be gone as soon as he is a FA. I just don't get Flips rotations.

I agree with you about Delfino. GIVE THE GUY SOME FREAKING MINUTES ALREADY!

Another DNP for Hunter as well. How is the guy going to play himself into playoff shape if he doesn't play?

Man, Flip is REALLY starting to piss me off!:frusty: :frusty: :frusty:

Nice line for Dice with 16 on 8 of 12 in 33 minutes, though he did manage to miss four free throws. Six boards, couple of steals and a couple of blocks too. Hot shooting from Rip and Chauncey keeps the kids ahead despite giving up 16 offensive boards. Sheed was even hitting the boards before he got into foul trouble.

Very short bench again, Dice, Delk and Evans. I tried for a while to watch only Evans to see if I could convince myself that he should be in the game with Delfino on the bench. Nothing doing though - minimal energy tonight, fairly lackluster defense, and by and large no involvement in the offense. Good three point shooting from Delk, but 1 for 7 from closer in.

If the Pistons rebound better, they're probably up by 15-20 in the fourth instead of 7 half way through. A win is a win at this point though.


I could be mistaken, but on Sheed's second foul, which he admitted (raised his hand and all), when the guy missed the first, Sheed seemed to yell - "no, I was wrong, ball don't lie, no foul". :laugh:

Got to say that even though I seem to be on him a lot, I do love to watch Sheed.

Where's the love for Delf, Lindsey and Davis? We are paying Davis $3.5M to sit on the bench? Delf will be gone as soon as he is a FA. I just don't get Flips rotations.
Flip hates defense.

:frusty:

I can see not playing Lindsey, because Delk is a downgrade on D (though still solid), but a massive upgrade on offense. But Evans over Delfino? That's a joke at best. Dale has also proven that he's willing to nut up and grab some boards (something that is desperately needed), so why continue to DNP him? It's getting ridiculous. A rotation of Delk/Delfino/Dice/Davis would be perfect. Dice/Delk for offense and Dale/Delfino for lockdown D. Yet he consistantly goes to "no D" Mo Evans for 15+ minutes a game. It blows my mind.

Ps 105
Rs 98
Good call VT, even more points than you thought. All those 3s.
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Did I say the Pistons would go 75% from 3 yesterday?
They shot 71.4% tonite and about 85% while the game was in limbo.

Sounds like it was a great game with Detroit stretching the Raptor's defense to the breaking point on all those 3's. Hi to all in the chat room, sorry for the repeated login and logouts. I was on a computer in the library out here in Utah that wouldn't install the flash player correctly, so i could read your posts but i couldnt write anything. Thanks for the play-by-plays though, it's great to have something that reliable when you can't see the game live.

You were the guy that kept saying: "Yes sir!" and "ball don't lie!" Yes sie! Balldon't lie! Yes sir! Ball don't lie! Yes Sir!

Then you were out like delfino in the pistons rotation.

I have to give vthomp some credit, he has been very accurate in his game predictions...almost dead on in fact.

They should win this game but it will be closer than we think. I think the game flow will be high paced until the 2nd half. The Pistons will have to be strong on the D end to win this game, Toronto can score and if they try to get in a transition game like the Washington game than it can spell trouble.

I think it will be a close game, but it will be high scoring 103-96.
Actual score 105-98...good work!

The word is from the Pistons camp that the coaching staff are not displease with Delfino. Evans is just going first in this rotation that they are starting. They do feel that both players deserves to play but they are settling for Evans for right now. It also has to do with how they practice as a unit, apparently Evans practice better with the secound unit for some reason. Delfino plays better in games so its a toss up, but for some reason practice better equates to playing time with coaches.

Flip will add Hunter once he is healthy again, but for the next stretch of games look for the 8 man rotation they displayed last night in Toronto. Delfino may get his chance if Evans just flat out blows.

I don't have a man hate for Evans, but I do like Delfino's game better than Evans for the simple fact that Delfino has actually changed the Pace of games once he was given extended minutes, something Evans really has not done. I want Evans to step up and he does have the ability to be the player the Pistons expect him to be. The only problem I had with Evans is that he has no handles, and he is the one the opposition picks on to score on, and they do score on him with ease.

This team is very strong as a unit that with either Del or Evans it is a good team, its a matter of personal preference of the coaching staff is what it comes down to. Delfino will get his chance before the playoffs and Flip and the coaching staff will make his decision who will be permenant and who will be on the back burner. Right now it is 50-50 and what player steps up in the last 19 games will get the prize of of reg. minutes. Right now Evans is given first opportunity. GO PISTONS!!!!!

The word is from the Pistons camp that the coaching staff are not displease with Delfino. Evans is just going first in this rotation that they are starting. They do feel that both players deserves to play but they are settling for Evans for right now. It also has to do with how they practice as a unit, apparently Evans practice better with the secound unit for some reason. Delfino plays better in games so its a toss up, but for some reason practice better equates to playing time with coaches.

Flip will add Hunter once he is healthy again, but for the next stretch of games look for the 8 man rotation they displayed last night in Toronto. Delfino may get his chance if Evans just flat out blows.

I don't have a man hate for Evans, but I do like Delfino's game better than Evans for the simple fact that Delfino has actually changed the Pace of games once he was given extended minutes, something Evans really has not done. I want Evans to step up and he does have the ability to be the player the Pistons expect him to be. The only problem I had with Evans is that he has no handles, and he is the one the opposition picks on to score on, and they do score on him with ease.

This team is very strong as a unit that with either Del or Evans it is a good team, its a matter of personal preference of the coaching staff is what it comes down to. Delfino will get his chance before the playoffs and Flip and the coaching staff will make his decision who will be permenant and who will be on the back burner. Right now it is 50-50 and what player steps up in the last 19 games will get the prize of of reg. minutes. Right now Evans is given first opportunity. GO PISTONS!!!!!
I'm sorry, but that sucks. Evans practices better, but Delfino plays better in games so Evans gets the minutes because of practice? So how you play in practice is more important than how you play in the actual game? I'm not saying that practice isn't important, I'm just saying that ultimately, if I had to choose, I'd rather a player was better in games than in practice. (man, the entire time I'm writing this I can't get the sound of AI's "practice?" rant out of my head)

Its just BS that Delfino isn't playing. If the Pistons like him, PLAY HIM. Don't tell me that there aren't enough minutes for both. I'd rather see Evans and Delfino split the minutes rather than one get all of them.

I like both players and think both can bring something to the team, but what good does it do for one of them to sit the entire game???? Playing both gives our starters a rest, allows both players to improve, allows Joe D and Flip to see what they've got, and they both gain valuable experience and chemistry. So where exactly is the downside???

I'm not talking huge minutes, but if Flip can't find a way to get BOTH of these guys 5 to 10 minutes a game - on most nights, not as an exception - than he shouldn't even be considered for coach of the year. We all know our starters have game - that's no surprise. All Flip has to do - and is doing - is sit back and watch the game. My WIFE could coach these guys to a Division Title by only playing the starters. I know that the coach needs to "win now", but you don't have to do it at the expense of winning later or developing your bench. That's how you ensure long term job security. Its a "what have you done for me lately"? league. Division Titles, Conference Titels and Championships are all great when you win them, but every time you do the expectations raise a little higher.

(P.S. vthomp: this rant wasn't aimed towards you, I'm just really not happy with the way our bench is being misused and mistreated, IMO and you just happened to mention it.)

Yeah I really hope carlos gets another chance. I didn't see anything impressive from Mo last night.YOu would think he'd go all out because this is his chance to clench his spot in the rotation

Yeah I really hope carlos gets another chance. I didn't see anything impressive from Mo last night.You would think he'd go all out because this is his chance to clench his spot in the rotation
That's a good point. Remember last year when Dupree had that career game and made the playoff roster? I'm looking for that type of effort.

I think Flip is going to be on the Radio today I'm not sure what station . I f I can remeber where I read it I could check. I do know that he is supposed to be on around 4 or 4:30. Maybe it's THE FAN, on 1130. So maybe we will get some more info. on this subject.

What wrong with putting in Davis for a few rebounds?

That's a good point. Remember last year when Dupree had that career game and made the playoff roster? I'm looking for that type of effort.
Oh yeah I forgot about that .I just hope everyone gets their fair shot thats all. I"m rooting for whoever comes out and plays with a lot of heart and determination. I'm rooting for whoever can best help this team win another championship.You know an iteresting fact that I forget a lot is that Carlos Delfino won a gold medal with Argentina in the last Olympic games. So that shows he has expieriance in big games. He was an important player on that team too. I believe he was a starter.

I think Flip is going to be on the Radio today I'm not sure what station . I f I can remeber where I read it I could check. I do know that he is supposed to be on around 4 or 4:30. Maybe it's THE FAN, on 1130. So maybe we will get some more info. on this subject.

I don't even care what Flip says anymore. He's already proven that its only talk. He hasn't backed up anything he says.

Look at it from a Pistons point of view.

I know in a NBA the the best player gets to play, but if we look at this situation from the Pistons point of view than it can make since a little(or mabe not). Evans is 27 yrs old, he is on a bargin basement contract at 1.5 million for 3yrs. It is in a finacial intrest to get this player up to speed more than Delfino. Delfino is a future starting material and will cost the Pistons more Money than what Evans is putting on the table.

For now if Evans can't provide what they want, they know they have another option in Delfino and will pull his card and go forward at little cost in losing Evans. If Delfino keeps growing with his upside someone will offer him a contract the Pistons may not match(maybe).

Even tough I like Del better I do understand why Evans is given first run in the last 20 games from last night. GO PISTONS!!!!

Look at it from a Pistons point of view.

I know in a NBA the the best player gets to play, but if we look at this situation from the Pistons point of view than it can make since a little(or mabe not). Evans is 27 yrs old, he is on a bargin basement contract at 1.5 million for 3yrs. It is in a finacial intrest to get this player up to speed more than Delfino. Delfino is a future starting material and will cost the Pistons more Money than what Evans is putting on the table.

For now if Evans can't provide what they want, they know they have another option in Delfino and will pull his card and go forward at little cost in losing Evans. If Delfino keeps growing with his upside someone will offer him a contract the Pistons may not match(maybe).

Even tough I like Del better I do understand why Evans is given first run in the last 20 games from last night. GO PISTONS!!!!
Right now Delfino costs less than Evans, salary wise. Why not play the player with the most upside and see what he can give the team when provided consistent minutes? We already know what Evans can give us.

I was wrong delfino was not a starter on that Olympic team. He was a reserve. Not that it means much.

lindsey has food poisoning so that's why he's not playing.

Right now Delfino costs less than Evans, salary wise. Why not play the player with the most upside and see what he can give the team when provided consistent minutes? We already know what Evans can give us.

Neither one is going anywhere soon. Mo is inked for 2 more seasons and Fino for one plus a team option. There really is little economic pressure to act.

Judging from the plan laid out by vthomp, I would be inclined to interpret this competition as winner take all, regarding any playoff opportunities.