At Indiana Dec 13 7PM

Tv: FSN

This was the last great rivalry in the NBA. Apparently the fans in Indy HATE the Pistons.

Don't get this one on TV. :(

Looks like the Pacers will be minus Stepehen Jackson maybe. He blew up at Carlisle on the bench during the Bulls game and was asked to go to the locker room by Carlisle.

Amazing how quickly this team has went from favored to win it all, to a group of thugs and injury proned wannabees!!!!!!!

Jermaine O'Neal is probably out (hamstring & flu)
Al Harrington missed last game (flu)
Marquis Daniels missed last game (flu)
Stephen Jackson is questionable (idiot)


However, we all remember which short-handed team beat us last time (Hornets)

If the Pacers are missing guys again it will be interesting to see the backcourt matchup

Billups - Hamilton
v
Tinsley - Armstrong

Ouch!

Stephen Jackson is questionable (idiot)
This made me spit up some coffee. Nice one.

I think the Pacers really miss Johnson (in Dallas now)
He was the one guy that could defend Chauncey.

It actually looks like JO, Jackson, Al and Daniels are all going to play after all

We're well rested, no excuse not to beat the pants off these guys.

This made me spit up some coffee. Nice one.


That is a good one. He is too much of an imbicile to be considered a malcontent. Idiot works.

Anyway. Too many things can go wrong in a game like this. Pistons should win and I want
to say they will win.

Pistons 98 Pacers 87 - Assuming no one is trying to work the on-off switch deal.

Chat is open.

Hey, where is everyone? ArmyGirl and me were the only ones in chat all the way through the first quarter.

Quarter by quarter thoughts:

First quarter
Nazr staying on the floor, no fouls until more than 5 minutes in...2nd foul at 3:20.

Stupid turnovers for the Pistons in the first few minutes, bad passes thrown out of bounds.

Good transition offense off some Pacers turnovers.

Pacers fouling a lot, Pistons get the line and make 10 of 10.

Harrington gets hot late in the quarter, 12 points, mostly in the lane.

Second quarter
Bench can't score in the first few minutes.

Rip only starter out there in the first half of the 2nd quarter, can't make anything.

Bench gets into the penalty after only 5 minutes.

Disastrous quarter for the bench, giving up 7 points off the lead in the first 6 minutes.

Starters come back in and cut it back down to 5 at halftime.

Darrell Armstrong hits a 60 foot heave, but waved off, just after the buzzer.

Refs call tons of fouls in the first half, Pistons 18-18 at the line, Pacers 14-15.

Third quarter
Pacers hitting, Pistons missing, not much else to say. A lot fewer fouls and free throws in this quarter.

A slight run at the end...bad quarter but Sheed hits a lucky fadeaway 3 at the buzzer to keep the Pacers lead at only 5.

Fourth quarter
Horrendous start, 7-0 Pacers run in the first two minutes.

Pistons respond with a 9-0 run, good defense, steal by Flip, crazy long 3 by Sheed.

Fino and Flip blow multiple chances to cut the lead down further with turnovers and bad shots.

Pacers start scoring again, build the lead back to 8.

Jermaine takes over in the last few minutes.


Pretty bad loss tonight. Pistons defense wasn't good, and neither was the Pacers' D, but the Pistons missed everything and couldn't take advantage.

We're well rested, no excuse not to beat the pants off these guys.

Turns out it was the perfect excuse. Yet another example of this team losing a very winnable game on a lot of rest.

The difference in this game was O' Neal, and our inability to guard him. <<Ben Wallace>> Also Flip's subsitution patterns suck, and we have no presence at the rim.

Nobody is scared of us anymore.

I was actually yelling at everybody to pass the ball to Sheed every single time he was open 4 three. That seemed like our best option.

Defense was awful most game. Zone sucks. Small ball sucks. We suck.

God, I really hate the Pacers.

Oh well. A game where the Pistons appeared to be just going through the motions tonight. Probably to long of a lay off between the those impressive back to back wins over the Mavs and Magic. Now we have another two days off before Saturdays home game vs the nets.

A lot of forced shots by Rip and Billups and not enough shots by Prince and Sheed. Even the two 3's that Sheed hit seem like an afterthought for him. All that talent in Sheed, Tay and Dice and we get only 30 pts in the paint.

O'Neal dominated our bigs and Tinsley seemed to penetrate at will and Jackson and Granger got key baskets when needed.

Dice and Delfino shoot 1-10 from the floor and 6-6 from the FT line.
We fall to a tie with Cavs as they hold off the Bobcats and only percentage pts behind the magic as they lose their second in a row falling to the raptors. A win tonight by Pistons would have put them at the top of the EC standings.

We are 0-2 within our division and the Pacer announcer indicated that this was the first time the Pacers had topped 100 vs the Pistons in 24 straight games. Is the defense that has held the Pacers at bay for the past 4 years finally crumbling now that ben as left the building?? Lets hope not.

NBA.com: Pistons at Pacers Game Info (http://www.nba.com/games/20061213/DETIND/gameinfo.html?nav=scoreboardhome)

Check out the picture....

why did flip put the starters back in when the subs were making a run???

why did flip murray stay on the floor when he was sucking it up???

why does he deserve 4th quarter minutes yet delfino doesn't???

to some of you posters who included fino in that mess that flilp was throwing up. delfino's shots came at the end of the shot clock mostly. we need to trade flip murray or negotiate a buyout or something.

NBA.com: Pistons at Pacers Game Info (http://www.nba.com/games/20061213/DETIND/gameinfo.html?nav=scoreboardhome)

Check out the picture....

He looks tired.

its a year old...

Indiana is a better team than their record. Once they get everyone healthy and on the same page they should be able to make a decent run for a top seed. I actually like Indy's chances better than Orlando's.

In this game, you have a few Pacers comming off injuries and the flu wheras our team was well rested and the Pacers outplayed them.

What would it have hurt to throw Blaylock, Maxel for extended mins or even activating Johnson for games like this for some energy. I would not expect Blaylock to take over the game but maybe he could have inspired the starters to bring it more when they came back in.

FLip had to see this comming, happends everytime after a long break.

I

What would it have hurt to throw Blaylock, Maxel for extended mins or even activating Johnson for games like this for some energy. I would not expect Blaylock to take over the game but maybe he could have inspired the starters to bring it more when they came back in.

FLip had to see this comming, happends everytime after a long break.

The problem is Flip never sees this coming. He never seems to react to long run by the opposing team, often calling a time out only only after the other etam puts together 8-0+ run. Even when the team seems to fall into JUMPER mode, he can never reel them back into taking high % shots or shots in the paint. That is the time he should yank those starters and try out his rookies and second year men.

Once again we are last in the league in points in the paint. If we had a better inside game on both the offensive and defensive end, we'd probably could have squeezed out 5 more W's and be sitting atop the EC with a 18-3 record.

why did flip put the starters back in when the subs were making a run???

You mean in the 4th quarter? The run happened in spite of the two subs who were out there, Flip and Delfino. Flip took a couple of bad shots--not helped by Sheed simply hanging out beyond the arc--and Delfino committed a terrible out-of-control charging foul on a fastbreak.

NBA.com: Pistons at Pacers Game Info (http://www.nba.com/games/20061213/DETIND/gameinfo.html?nav=scoreboardhome)

Check out the picture....

Why not just use a picture of Isiah driving on Vern Fleming? :laugh:

0-2 when watching the game at bw3's ... wasn't really paying attention to the game. oops a loss. weee.

Merc and I PM'd each other today and he thought they might be in for a street fight in Indy.

Nice recap D4E.

The problem is Flip never sees this coming. He never seems to react to long run by the opposing team, often calling a time out only only after the other etam puts together 8-0+ run. Even when the team seems to fall into JUMPER mode, he can never reel them back into taking high % shots or shots in the paint. That is the time he should yank those starters and try out his rookies and second year men.

Once again we are last in the league in points in the paint. If we had a better inside game on both the offensive and defensive end, we'd probably could have squeezed out 5 more W's and be sitting atop the EC with a 18-3 record.

I would have even settled for Dupree playing some in that game.

Its such of an odd team. How can you be last in the league in high percentage shots and still win games? How can a team beat Dallas/Orlando on a back-back and lose all the games before and after it?

Pistons finish this month playing mainly sub .500 teams. Thats generally good news, except with our team.

Gotta watch those TO's. That seems to be the one consitant thing about this season.

One thing is for certain...

..these two teams can HIT freetthrows!

Jeesh!

This Pacer team is decent and so the effort we gave was not enough. I really felt that we missed Ben against this team. Oneal never really got off when Ben was around. I hope that this game wasn't totally real...

As people have said, Flip doesn't adjust well. Tinsley is not a jump shooter and could have been guarded a lot better.

Can't make too much of this game...

What would it have hurt to throw Blaylock, Maxel for extended mins or even activating Johnson for games like this for some energy. I would not expect Blaylock to take over the game but maybe he could have inspired the starters to bring it more when they came back in.



Especially Maxiel. He could have gotten JO to commit some fouls, perhaps even get him out of the game.

The real problem is that the Pistons usually stay close enough to have a chance to win. Miami was getting blown out by the Suns tonight, and they put all the kids in.

Heat had a big comeback to almost win the game, and Riles left the kids in for that.

Guys I had never heard of before. One guy was shooting his 5th and 6th career FTs I believe.

The real problem is that the Pistons usually stay close enough to have a chance to win.

That's a good point, we do usually stay close. IMO, that makes it even more important that when we do have games in the +/- 20 range, that the bench does get some PT. I've seen plenty of games where the Pistons have been up 20+ with only a few minutes left and the starters were STILL in the game even AFTER the other team had pulled theirs.

Miami was getting blown out by the Suns tonight, and they put all the kids in.

Flip does the same thing... with 20 seconds left.

Heat had a big comeback to almost win the game, and Riles left the kids in for that.

No way Flip would ever leave them in there. As soon as it got to within 15 points, back come the starters.

I wonder why we bother taking Nazr out when he gets 2 fouls in the first quarter. He ends the game with 3 fouls and only gets 19 minutes. Oh, and he led the team in rebounds in that short time on the floor. I actually thought he grabbed some tough ones too. In the last 5 minutes, JO was killing us. We could have used a real center in the game, either Naz or DD. We went 16 minutes in this game without a C against a team with 3 very good bigs... JO, Harrington, and Foster.

Small ball became a lot smaller when our PF/SG decided to camp out at half court. I don't mind him shooting the ball when he's hot, but stick a rebounder in there to clean up his garbage.

We could use a coach to challenge the team. I like how LB was not happy with results, but with the procedure. Flip seems like the opposite.

PopcornMachine's GameFlow - Detroit @ Indiana (http://www.popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20061213&game=DETIND)

I didn't realize we played Rip for 46 minutes. What's the point in that?

PopcornMachine's GameFlow - Detroit @ Indiana (http://www.popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20061213&game=DETIND)

I didn't realize we played Rip for 46 minutes. What's the point in that?

I know. He shot 6-18 or something.

Many times he will turn it around in the 4th quarter.

Ros - Good point on the Pistons usually being close enough to not pull the starters.

What about during the game? Guess its a delicate balance of knowing when its a good time to try someone else for some energy.

Rack it as loss #8.

I wonder why we bother taking Nazr out when he gets 2 fouls in the first quarter. He ends the game with 3 fouls and only gets 19 minutes. Oh, and he led the team in rebounds in that short time on the floor. I actually thought he grabbed some tough ones too. In the last 5 minutes, JO was killing us. We could have used a real center in the game, either Naz or DD. We went 16 minutes in this game without a C against a team with 3 very good bigs... JO, Harrington, and Foster.

Small ball became a lot smaller when our PF/SG decided to camp out at half court. I don't mind him shooting the ball when he's hot, but stick a rebounder in there to clean up his garbage.

We could use a coach to challenge the team. I like how LB was not happy with results, but with the procedure. Flip seems like the opposite.

Mohammed does not guard the middle. So to call him a center is a stretch. On offense, he gets some offensive rebound putbacks, but can't post up. Several times we did try to post him up, and most of those times resulted in turnovers. He did get one shot away, and surprisingly, it did get close to going in. Even getting close is unusual for Mohammed. Most of his shots from the post clank badly off the rim.

That's what we get for playing small ball. Sheed can gaurd JO, but he also needed to help other guys as well. Small ball sucks, there is a reason taller guys usually play basketball.

IMO NAZR is an active big guy who will do good in sets involving a lot of movement. He's not a classic C. I prefer Dale Davis. But once the pistons get cooking, Naz becomes productive. He's not, however, the guy you need down there if your G's are struggling (to exert themselves).

Come on Pistons. In my early predictions about this season, I picked the Magic to finish right behind the Pistons.

The 'stones lost last evening so the Magic had to, as well, so they would not get ahead of us, again. :pound: :pound:

Come on, guys, get another streak going so that the Magic can, too. :stirthepot:

I agree that Nazr needs to get into the flow of the game more. Maybe we shouldn't worry about his fouls. Leave him on the floor and let him foul out if he is going to do it. Since we don't play him in crunch time, it doesn't really matter anyway.

I still think that he showed some very sticky hands on some of those rebounds yesterday. I'm not giving up on this guy yet.

You mean in the 4th quarter? The run happened in spite of the two subs who were out there, Flip and Delfino. Flip took a couple of bad shots--not helped by Sheed simply hanging out beyond the arc--and Delfino committed a terrible out-of-control charging foul on a fastbreak.
actually there were 3 subs in the game. so why did only 2 of those three subs get pulled out of the game????

in my opinion it doesn't matter who is on the court when the run is going on you don't sub them if it's working. i don't care if delfino got 3 charges in a row as long as the run kept going why take him out?? that lineup was playing good defense and pushing the ball.

If your criteria for who gets to stay in solely based on aggressiveness and whether the team is making a run or not, then the bench wouldn't have stayed in nearly as long as they did in the disastrous first half of the second quarter.

I hope they're pissed again and go on 5 game win streak.
How come no ones blaming CB for this one?

^

I've actually thought he's been a ball-hog for the past three games now. We won in DAL/ORL so i didn't say anything, but he seems to be reverting. Plus his defense isn't anything to talk about. He reaches constantly.

I wish LB could call him weekly and yell at him or something.