Toyota Center ~ Houston, Texas
NAT : NBALP
LOC : TV20 Detroit
RADIO : 1130 WDFN AM

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/2214/dscf0737mdbm5.jpg http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3699/cbsbet6.jpg

Who are those guys on the right? Just some random Yao fans from China? That dude with the headband is hilarious. :laugh:

Year of the Yao. or was that Meow?

Rockets are a very good defensive team... they play LB style of ball.
I don't see anyone coming close to slowing Meow down.... his only nemisis has been his knack for turnovers lately.
I'm not seeing a victory here unless Billups plays (he would dominate the matchup)

Ben was so small but always played Yao very well. I think that if CWebb challenges Yao off the dribble, he can be negated through foul trouble.

Yowser is 7'6", but only plays like a 7'2" guy because of his short arms. I guess that is still a problem for us, isn't it?

Oh well, let him go off and contain everyone else. T-Mac/Yao can't be any harder than Kobe/Shaq.

In the Dallas loss, the Pistons let the unknown factor hurt them and get off with Devin Harris scoring 22 points.

Tonight they can't let Luther head do the same thing by slacking off and ignoring him.

You know the Pistons..if they lose, usually some unsung hero has a career night against them.

Go Pistons, play some D and don't get intimidated by Yao's presence in the middle.

Who are those guys on the right? Just some random Yao fans from China? That dude with the headband is hilarious. :laugh:

YouTube - Chinese Backstreet Boys - That Way (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2rZxCrb7iU)

The Pistons have had to use Rip Hamilton to guard McGrady the last few times they've played Houston since Prince was getting lit up. Tay's been playing decent defense lately, but I'm not sure what he'll be able to do against a scorer of T-Mac's caliber.

If Chauncey returns to the lineup it will be interesting to see how Flip and Fino can adjust to less playing time (probably with Flip back into the 12-15 minute range at the 1 and 2 and Carlos 10-12 minutes at the 3).

It probably will come down to which team can hit their long jumpers.

We have no chance to win as Houston keeps on winning recently especially after Yaoster's back.:yellowprison:

We always have a chance to win majozi. We're the Pistons. They are the Rockets. :D

Who are those guys on the right? Just some random Yao fans from China? That dude with the headband is hilarious. :laugh:


funny thing is, t-mac sells more jerseys in china than yao.

for the record, the Pistons have won six straight against the Rockets and nine of the last 11, including two in a row in Houston.

Roscoe, that clip of the rox fans singing is classic stuff. I saw some highlichts of the rox last game and they did enuff to pull through with the win. One thing that surprised me was the accuracy at the line from yao... he was 12/13. How many centres in the league can you name shoot as well as he does? Lets see some tight pistons defence for a 93-90 win. :winner_first_h4h:

Roscoe, that clip of the rox fans singing is classic stuff. I saw some highlichts of the rox last game and they did enuff to pull through with the win. One thing that surprised me was the accuracy at the line from yao... he was 12/13. How many centres in the league can you name shoot as well as he does? Lets see some tight pistons defence for a 93-90 win. :winner_first_h4h:

If you know your fantasy stats then its no surprise. He is in a league of his own from the stripe really.

Yao is 86.3%, while 2nd in FTA among C's
Bosh, Amare, Pachulia, Okur, Ilgauskas and Brad Miller all shoot in the high 70's.

I really like this Houston team. They seem to have let downs at times against the leagues top teams though, however, they beat the teams they should beat.

Staying healthy is the key. Thay have a strong bench and the other Van Gundy is doing a very good coaching job through the injuries to Yao and T-Mac.

Don`t be surprised if this team goes far in the West this post season.

YouTube - Chinese Backstreet Boys - That Way (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2rZxCrb7iU)

I couldn't stand more than about a minute of the song, but those guys are awesome! :pound:

Chat's open!

http://www.pistonsforum.com/misc.php?do=flashchat

It probably will come down to which team can hit their long jumpers.
I sort of assumed there would be some sort of meaningful double-team on Yao.

Player notes
This was the first suit Ronald Dupree's worn all year that I didn't much like. This isn't the '70s anymore; I thought we'd realized that nobody can pull off that shade of green.

YouTube - Chinese Backstreet Boys - That Way (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2rZxCrb7iU)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

That is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life!!!! Those kids are awesome! I especially loved the "outtakes" at the end!

I couldn't stand more than about a minute of the song, but those guys are awesome! :pound:

Are you kidding? How could you stop watching after only a minute? You must have the willpower of a Saint. I watched it all the way through 3 times! :pound:

Nice comeback in the fourth quarter, but it didn't matter. Might have made a difference if the Pistons had bothered to show up in any of the first three quarters.

This was a game that was lost in the 1st quarter. Why doesn't Flip ever do anything to make a statement when the starters just stink up the place and replace all of them with the bench? Pretty pathetic that Rasheed doesn't even jump one inch to contest the tip-off, that set the tone for the lack of effort in this game except for a few spurts. Finally Dale Davis gets a little burn and he was rebounding and playing hard but now back to the bench for the next 10 games. Chauncey was pretty rusty and not at the top of his game but he'll be fine. I'm more concerned with Rip who seems to be really hurting, he might want to sit a few games to just rest up. So is there a reason Maxiell didn't get any playing time tonight? The Rockets sure have our number, they are a tough team and if they played in the East they would be going neck and neck with us for the first spot.

The Rockets sure have our number, they are a tough team and if they played in the East they would be going neck and neck with us for the first spot.

They're definitely a good team, but I don't any reason to think that they "have our number." As webz said up-thread, the Pistons had beaten them six in a row, and 9 out of 11, coming into this game.

Well the never say die Pistons put up a valiant effort, but ran out of gas down the stretch. They trimmed a 19 point deficit down to 4, but then a could not capitalize with a couple of bad plays in the end. Flip Sr did one good thing tonight and that was to at least rest Rip, Tay, and Cwebb the last 7 minutes of the game. Neither of the three had steller games, so lets hope all three rebound tomorrow vs the Spurs.

The game may have been lost in the first quarter when Yao gets 2 fouls in the first two minutes and Van gumby rolls the dice and leaves him in there long enough to get some easy buckets and the Pistons hit only 2 of their first 14 shots due to the Yao intimidation factor. Getting that 3rd foul on him in the first quarter would have change the flow of the game and Pistons probably would have been leading at the half instead of trailing IMO. The fact that Yao never got another foul the whole game mystifies me as Flip should have been able to call a play to take out Yao:yellowprison:

Looking at the boxscore the Pistons had only 6 turns to their 9., out boarded them by 1, out pointed them in the paint by 2 and out blocked them 4 to 2. However, the biggest block went to Yao with 23 seconds left on Delfino who probably should have fed the ball to CB for a three or taken it himself. After all Fino was 2-6 tonight with his only makes the two three balls.

When Sheed got his two fouls in the first, he was yanked and I don't believe he scored in the first half due to getting another quick foul in the second qtr. He came out firing in the third, but missed all five of his 3 balls including a turn and shoot one with 10 seconds on the clock. I don't even thing he looked in the direction for the basket??? Billups came out slow, but helped lead the comeback with Dice and Murray. His groin appeared to still be bothering him, but Flip wanted the W tonight and played him 36 mins.:confused:

No Pforum guys in the crowd tonight for the Piston karma, so no victory. We will get them tomorrow tonight if Barbara San Anton goes to the game..after all she is forum member. :) Go Pistons

Question, can we beat Houston. Answer, of course we can. We did not beat them tonight, but I think Flip was more worried about finding out what does and does not work against this team. What does not work: Webber trying to be a jump shooter over Ming. What does work: Webber driving in on the slower Ming. Webber missed a ton of jumpers in this one trying to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt thats not the way to go. And then shot some more just to make sure.

Billups was light on defense, and was not contributing anything at all in the first half. Oh well, I guess keeping Billups in condition is more important than a win. Despite the near comeback he led at the end of the game, we would have been better off starting Blalock in this one. We would have a point guard who was not hobbled, who could have drove and dished, and who could have played defense. Defense would have helped a lot. They said CB could not move full speed in practice this morning; good reason not to play the guy.

Rip scored well enough. Here is another guy that was moving a bit gingerly tonight, from a nasty bruise on his thigh. He missed very badly on his first couple of shots, then seemed to start getting his shooting, but just not ever quite all the way back.

Dale Davis was simply tremendous in the first half. If he did not get the bound himself, he fought hard enough such that another Pistons did get the ball. On D, he was right where Houston happened to pass the ball, breaking up the play. Why no Davis, one of our best players tonight, in the 2nd half. Simple. Flip already saw what worked, and was on to learning new things.

No Jason Maxiell, yet we could have used his energy big time. Matter of fact, I bet if he played at small forward in this game, Houston would be hard pressed to stop him. I wonder why Flip chose not to learn about that? Not playing JMAX is always a mistake in my book. Whatever the excuse.

Delfino missed a couple of shots when called upon in crunch time to force something. Not his game. He did hit 2 triples in the 4th to make a game of it.

Flip did fine, as a shooting guard. However, I will point out that Delfino can play the shooting guard positon too, with better D. Murray had a good game overall, plenty of scoring, and good effort on D.

More of what does not work. Webber can't guard Ming. But Dyess can. So why did we let Ming go to town on Webber some more despite how obvious this was. Again, time to learn new things.

Tay did well enough on offense, but his outside shots did not help us tonight. He made some, but we should have been going inside more. Only Delfino, and maybe Billups, should have been shooting any threes tonight. Delfino has been making a very high percentage on threes of late.

Dyess not only can guard Ming with all his new found ups of late, but he can score inside and out. He should have started this game, that is, if we only cared about winning it. Dyess however does not help us when he takes outside shots. He does not make enough consistently to overcome the fact that his outside shots never draw fouls, never force the Houston defense to get packed in tight around the basket so they can't fast break. Dyess should really, really, turn up the effort on going inside.

Delfino played some fine D on TMAC. But yet, Flip never tried to bring in any bench players early to help in either half. Just Dyess. All in all. Good game. Lots of good stuff. GO PISTONS!!!!!

LA Dre, very good recap. It covered a lot I left out. Thanks for writing it.

No Piston Karma because I moved to Raleigh, but no karma couldve save us tonite. As you could see by the empty seats , there is too much to do in Houston for anyone to care bout thisgame. Rockets are a 1st round loss waiting to happen. Pistons looked like a team that spent the night at McDyess' mansion with some of Houston's finest!!And believe me-EVEN WHITE BOYS GOT TO SHOUT when u go to Texas!!! I miss my whitegirl waitress at The Sky Bar named Annie, who was about 40 y.o. and built like JessicaSimpsonmeets collardgreens!..but I , as usual, digress, The Sheed 3 at the end of the game AND 4 MISSED LAYUPS in the final 3:00 sealed this one. Damng! I guess just a little too much 'adoinkydonkdonk" last night...ON to San Antone!!..Oh Loawd!

Pistons looked like a team that spent the night at McDyess' mansion with some of Houston's finest!! . . .
Yeah yeah that's it.

LA Dre, very good recap. It covered a lot I left out. Thanks for writing it.
Thanks Lee, but you're still cap master:ranger:

Anybody notice the defense Delfino was playing on TMac? Most of the time it resulted in a pass, which is a huge accomplishment. Prince wasn't doing much to slow him down.

Also, I'm really impressed that Yao shoots their T's.

The biggest thing from this game is that we didn't quit and gave ourselves a legitimate chance to win this one. Would have been the best comeback of the year for us.

It's nice being in the East, cause it really doesn't matter.

Delf did play pretty good D, but one thing really bothers me.

He's consistently late to challenge a jumpshot.

TMac only scored once on Delfino in 8:30. He may be late to challenge because he is trying to not fall for pump fakes. He's just getting up in their grill.

Our bench was kicking butt.

PopcornMachine's GameFlow - Detroit @ Houston (http://www.popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20070322&game=DETHOU)

didn't watch much of this game, but ho-hum, houston's a good team, we didn't bring it, etc. on to san antonio.

Delfino was doing a nice job on TMac, better than TP or RH, though it was taking him out of some of the hustle things he usually gets done on the court when he's playing a bit more center field. Not many boards or steals last night.

I swear though it seems like he has about the same number of made threes as missed layups over the last couple of games. There were a couple of bad misses against Dallas, and at least one last night, not counting the final shot.

anyone else notice on the player's chairs, the gatorade logo and text was written in chinese?

No Pforum guys in the crowd tonight for the Piston karma, so no victory. We will get them tomorrow tonight if Barbara San Anton goes to the game..after all she is forum member. :) Go Pistons


Hey, LA, I have never been to a game, but I have been out there doing my Piston Forum job. I put PistonForum.com on the back of 25-30 of my cards, walk around the alamo plaza and ask likely looking tourists if they are Piston fans, if yes I tell them about PF and give a card. So far 6 out there somewhere. You know I love you guys, win or lose:) And there are a lot of folks out today, with the final 8 teams playing.

Hey, LA, I have never been to a game, but I have been out there doing my Piston Forum job. I put PistonForum.com on the back of 25-30 of my cards, walk around the alamo plaza and ask likely looking tourists if they are Piston fans, if yes I tell them about PF and give a card. So far 6 out there somewhere. You know I love you guys, win or lose:) And there are a lot of folks out today, with the final 8 teams playing.


Good luck tonight.. You got us at home, maybe we return the favor tonight and then meet again in June.:)

Delf did play pretty good D, but one thing really bothers me.

He's consistently late to challenge a jumpshot.

Thats misperception on your part. The fact is, he did get out and challenge the shot. Did anyone else? Was it his place to be challenging that shot or did someone else fail to do their job. I assume you do record the games. Take a closer look at the play and I bet you find Delfino is not at fault.

Thats misperception on your part.
Nope.

The fact is, he did get out and challenge the shot.
I'm not disputing that.

Did anyone else?
I've never been a fan of, "player X sucks, so player Y is good"

Was it his place to be challenging that shot or did someone else fail to do their job.
I'm pretty sure the plays I was remarking on were when he had his own man.

I assume you do record the games.
Unfortunately, I was unable to record last night's game due to geographic limitations.

Take a closer look at the play and I bet you find Delfino is not at fault.
I'm not talking about fault. I'm specifically talking about his reaction time in recognizing that his man is pulling up for a jumper. Delfino is consistently a fraction of a second slow getting his hand over the eyes of his man, and extended far enough to get a block attempt.

The deficiency is strictly instinct/mechanics. It didn't cost us the game, it's just something I noticed, and maybe folks would watch out for in the future to confirm or deny what I am seeing.

I love the job Delfino has been doing. He deserves a lot more playing time. But he's not perfect yet.

Guys, is it my misunderstanding that when Yao got 2 fouls on him within minutes of the opening tip, that we should NOT drive the lane against him with our 2 best free throw shooters?

What's the deal?

Guys, is it my misunderstanding that when Yao got 2 fouls on him within minutes of the opening tip, that we should NOT drive the lane against him with our 2 best free throw shooters?

What's the deal?

I was frustrated with that as well. Webber went at him once and drew contact, but didn't get the call. After that, we ignored it.

I still have not seen a good game plan where a team intentially targets a dominant player like Shaq or Yao for foul trouble. All you have to do is create as much contact as possible. Take a few offensive fouls in the process. Getting these guys out of the game can be worth it.

I'm sure Flip Murray can draw a foul on these guys. Not sure if they'll call it, but it is worth a try.

You got to like the way Yao looked down at Van Gundy after the second foul and said I'm ok, leave me in here, I can play this way. And JVG trusted him and it worked out.

Could have looked pretty silly though if he had picked up #3 on the next play. Good coaching hinges on small things.