New Orleans March 16th, 1:00 PM

TV - ABC

Kudos to ABC for picking up this game between the Pistons and this very good NO Hornet team coached by my pick for Coach of the Year, Byron Scott.

The Hornets are coming off two strong wins against the Spurs (100-75) and the LA Lakers (108-98). They are led by their MVP candidate Chris Paul - what did he do in those last two victories you ask? how about a 26.5 point per and 17 ast per game (he had 37-11 in a loss against Houston a few days before). David West is an allstar and Tyson Chandler has become a rebounding and shot blocking fiend.

Let`s hope the Pistons coming off a big win of their own against the Spurs don`t get caught in this "Hornets Nest"!

It's at Det. then Nuggs at Det. then at Cavs. We might sacrifice the Nuggs game as Cavs need our full attention.
Hornets 9.1 DR. If we try to defense them too much we lose 90 to 88. If we let it flow we win
105 - 99

So who is our best guy to contain Paul? Flip plays AA for 25 minutes and Paul scores 0 points and zero assists. I watched that game yesterday in my dreams. When i woke up, i came back to reality... Flip = no AA

So who is our best guy to contain Paul? Flip plays AA for 25 minutes and Paul scores 0 points and zero assists. I watched that game yesterday in my dreams. When i woke up, i came back to reality... Flip = no AA

You have to face reality. Flip will never be an AA fan. AA just doesn't score enough. They should trade AA to san antonio, Pop will know how to use him.

West's sprained ankle could force him to miss Detroit game - Hornets Beat - Times-Picayune - NOLA.com (http://blog.nola.com/hornetsbeat/2008/03/wests_sprained_ankle_could_for.html)

According to 82games, the Hornets are #1 in the league at the PG position while Detroit is #2. They basically take production by the PG minus production by the other team's PG. Assists, rebounds, steals, etc all count toward that production.

They are #4 at the PF position and we are #14 (our weakest position). We have a big advantage at the other 3 positions though.

NBA Team by Position stats (http://www.82games.com/BYPOSIT.HTM)

Billups is going to play 30 minutes against Paul. I'm not sure Dixon can guard him.

Early start today! I'm almost ready! :D

Billups is going to play 30 minutes against Paul. I'm not sure Dixon can guard him.



Neither can Billups, and please, please don`t anyone say AA can..............

Woo hoo! ABC actually gave us our 3 minutes of coverage again!

Chat is open!!!

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

See y'all soon! GOOOO PISTONS!

Love a good bench win. Jarvis a +25. Stuckey a +24. Max a +24. Jarvis was just out of his mind.

Now just don't go 0-for-8 in the next one Arvis.

It looks like the rotations are going to be completed jacked from here on out. Against SanAn, Max played 4 minutes. Tonight he plays almost 30, and Theo plays 4. Amir's 2nd straight DNP (3 minutes of Garbage Time does not count). The one good thing about the rotations tonight was that Dixon didn't play any real minutes.

Woo hoo! ABC actually gave us our 3 minutes of coverage again!

Yep I told my wife the same thing .pre-game....12 mins of rockeys cov, 10 mins of hornets, 5 mins lakers and 3 mins for the Pistons...

Did you notice the pre game opening promo t-mac leads rockets, Cpaul leads Hornets, Kobe leads lakers, and there is a team in Detroit:)

Love a good bench win. Jarvis a +25. Stuckey a +24. Max a +24. Jarvis was just out of his mind.

Now just don't go 0-for-8 in the next one Arvis.

We better not hear anybody crying as to why AJ or AA only played in garbage time. Those numbers from Stuck, Max and Jayes was enough today. Jayes will probably take the Nuggets game off to soak his arms, but hope he is ready for the Cavs

Great game! I'll have the JMax block on Chandler ready as soon as I can!

Here's the cool block from Maxiell to Chandler during the first quarter of the game

YouTube - Jason Maxiell blocked Chandler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSideYK7PjI)

Jayes will probably take the Nuggets game off to soak his arms, but hope he is ready for the Cavs

You know who else will need to soak his arm after this game? The guys playing their violins for Paul all game long. This apparently is sacrilege, but I've never been that impressed by him. I mean, incredible performance by the first man warrior to ever play with a turned ankle in NBA history. I don't know if there is a Nobel Prize category for this, but after today there should be. Why not go the distance ABC and have a giant arrow hovering over his head followed by the phrase INJURED ANKLE? Why not overdub all of Flip's comments in the wired segment so he says things like, 'We sure are lucky he hurt his ankle the other night. I don't think it matters what we run, let's just pray it stays hurt on 3.'

Watching DET try to feed the post is pretty aggravating. I think an old lady might pick off a few of Rip's attempts.

If DET moves the ball Hayes is so much more effective. Despite tying his career high in points, he still couldn't keep Tay off he floor.

Blaming DET's poor start on energy is BS. For all the talk about the multiple options that their offense provides, what they ran to open the game gave them one option to shoot and left the other 4 standing there.

Here's the cool block from Maxiell to Chandler during the first quarter of the game

YouTube - Jason Maxiell blocked Chandler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSideYK7PjI)

Great block that charged up the energy of the Pistons which was already starting to take over....

I see Max has his own YouTube directory of videos.

Here is my YouTube, a little longer. I was slow on the draw...

YouTube - Jason Maxiell - Block of the Year (2008) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDD5GAivH7c)

:)

I missed the game and hoping for some observations?

I missed the game and hoping for some observations?

Here's the torrent of the game in widescreen HD about 803 mb, please leave the torrent opens once you're done downloading...thank you

* Link removed *

That was quick.Here's the cool block from Maxiell to Chandler during the first quarter of the game

YouTube - Jason Maxiell blocked Chandler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSideYK7PjI)

This is one deep team. We won without Theo, Amir or Afflalo. Hayes showed why Joe picked him up. He has his place. We keep coming at them in waves as I wrote on the SA game. Sooner or later the other team buckles. The depth is impressive. Hunter is not suited up. We (purposely?) kept Theo under wraps for the national audience. Afflalo and Amir can provide help in certain situations. We are still under the radar from our key opposition.

What we also saw was yet again, the starting unit's flaws early. I wrote about this for the SA game. We are very often getting down, especially to good teams. Amazingly, we still win. But this has to be adjusted.

The starting unit is weak early with Dyss at center. Today it was Ely doing damage. Dyss adds nothing early offensively. His jumper is more suited as the game goes on. We need either of the young bigs for energy or at least Theo to shore up the defense.

The coaching staff again showed its inability to act. That first unit got down 9-0. Ok. Don't panic. But as the bleeding continued, no substitutions. This is not a question of rotations but of coaching pure and simple. The coaches are afraid to pull players. Joe has given this staff the players. The coaches need to do their job.

The starting unit is weak early with Dyss at center. Today it was Ely doing damage. Dyss adds nothing early offensively. His jumper is more suited as the game goes on. We need either of the young bigs for energy or at least Theo to shore up the defense.


Ely was doing most of his damage against Sheed, not Dyess.




The coaching staff again showed its inability to act. That first unit got down 9-0. Ok. Don't panic. But as the bleeding continued, no substitutions. This is not a question of rotations but of coaching pure and simple. The coaches are afraid to pull players. Joe has given this staff the players. The coaches need to do their job.

The coach called a timeout and the team came back and started running the offense correctly with passing and cutting. In just a few minutes, the deficit was erased. The coaches actually did their job.

It was pretty obvious that we got back in the game after the 11-0 start by making a concerted effort to get in the paint. Later in the game when they "wired" Saunders, you could here him say something like "we talked about their lack of shot blocking, now keep attacking the rim." That was actually a worthwhile soundbit from the man in charge. Of course after we stabilized things, then we started to punish them from the 3-point line. That is the way to do it. Make them fear us inside, then score from the perimeter opportunistically.

Chris Paul's passing game was awesome, but consider this- the rest of the Hornets team had 3 assists tonight. Besides Chauncey, the other Pistons has 20 assists. It takes more than a great point guard to find the open man.

Our bench was great today. Stuckey was very energetic. Hayes had the game of his life. And Maxiell was really impressive with the help D and rebounding. He easily had the best block of the year for our team. Overall, it was a fun game to watch as our passing and movement was beautiful.

Jarvis was fun to watch today.

I wonder what the points-in-the paint comparision was? Bet we lost that.

And I think Amir should have gotten some burn when it counted. I think AJ is being mishandled. Give the kid a lot of playing time, he plays well and then you cut it back? I don't understand it. I really don't.

I wonder what the points-in-the paint comparision was? Bet we lost that.


We did lose that battle. But it wasn't by a ton.

Jarvis was fun to watch today.



Jayes "Willie Mayes" Hayes: "I'm so pretty":peace:

Lambier,

9-0 wasn't Charlotte's biggest lead in the 1st. Don't remember exactly their widest margin--I think it was 13. I believe Maxiel was the first actual sub--not sure--probably at about the 4:30 minute mark He came in for Sheed. I remember a grimace on Dyss's face as someone shot over him--erased the tape so can't go back. Ely did damage at any rate. What bothers me is not just the specifics of this game but a trend.

Sheed rightfully must save his fouls early as he is our best big down low defender in crunch time. So it is up to Dyss to roam and use fouls. But Dyss does not have good lateral movement. I believe our defense is poor at the start of a game-- at least not good enough to make up for our offensive slow starts early which seem to be happening a lot. One could argue the problem is (not the defense) but the offense and its lack (or seeming) lack of attack mode or purpose. Still, I would rather see Theo or a young big to start the game. I believe the defense would be better without hurting the offense or a net plus.

Our depth is so good, we overcome these early leads but I worry about the playoffs. It won't be so easy.

Thats twice now Detroit has looked pretty awesome against New Orleans. Yes, Paul was playing injured, and West was out, but this was still a quality team we played. Look, they went up 11-0 on our starters to start the game. They can play, even as they were today.


Maxiell, like so many times this season, came on and injected energy. In his first minute in, he made a jumper, then got a spectacular block. (which he repeated in the 2nd half but got a bogus foul called on him.) I believe it was Ely. He was up to dunk the ball. JMAX was still down on the ground. The ball was pretty much at the rim about to be slammed thru when JMAX explodes upwards like a rocket to swat the ball right out of the guy's hands.


Tay played shooting guard to backup Rip in both halves. And this looked like a great idea since Hayes was totally on fire. 29 points with 7 made threes. That tied his career high I believe. Tay is the only guy who played heavy minutes in what ended up being a 21 point blowout for us. Since Rip only got like 30 minutes, he could have played a bit more while Tay played a bit less, and neither would have played too many minutes. In any case, Rip got some rest in this one.


Billups also got some good rest. Stuckey is on quite the up-note of late. He hit an outside shot. He got to the bucket and scored. He nailed a couple of free throws. He personally got N.O. in foul trouble in the fourth quarter. Decent defense as always. Billups did not need to come back in for the 4th quarter.


Amir got a few minutes of garbage time at the end of the game. Theo got a few minutes to end the 2nd quarter. Theo's highlight offensively was a move to the lane from the left where he finished with a high hook off glass. Not bad on D either.


Billups quietly had a very good game, getting to the hoop some, hitting some shots from the outside.


Rip did so so. His highlight was nailing a three for us. Sheed nailed a couple of threes himself.


Tay did not do that great on offense, but the team did very well indeed with him at shooting guard, mostly paired with Stuckey, who was plus 24 for the game as I see someone mentioned. (and Hayes and JMAX were also plus 24 or so if I recall what I read.)


Dixon only played garbage time. Still managed to fumble the ball in his short minutes. He did nail an outside shot right after Afflalo had done the same. I do not like seeing Afflalo not playing, but I am equally as relieved Dixon did not get into the rotation tonight. That we certainly do not need. Tay as backup shooting guard can work. (Though Hayes is not automatically the right guy to backup small forward just because of this one game. In effect, he backed up shooting guard and small forward since he was sub used to spell both Tay and Rip.)


After starting down 0-11, we outscored them by 32 the rest of the way. Pretty much identical to the last time we played them.

Flip said after the last game "Don't think the young kids are out of the rotation just because they did not play one game." Well, Afflalo and Amir have now been sat out two straight games, and Afflalo has played very little of late. Note, Dixon has still not replaced Afflalo. Afflalo has been taken out of the rotation, but Dixon hardly played the last two games. (and the last time he did play, the few minutes in the last game, was a disaster for us.) There is no reason not to end the Dixon experiment and simply start playing Afflalo again. Now watch Flip say we got to play Hunter to fill the void. Nope, Afflalo is still quite available, and still playing great whenever given minutes.


Amir is still a very good player who needs to be part of our rotation. JMAX did well in this game tonight. Who knows just how good Amir could have done. It is not a competition between these two. There is room for both to play, and Dyess, and Theo, and Sheed.

After starting down 0-11, we outscored them by 32 the rest of the way.

I wasn't at all worried. I had the feeling that the Piston might be testing the water. Anyone has the feeling that if the Piston is playing on national tv they will get a win every time? Counting this game is the third time they blew the other team out of the water. :gun1:

Positives;

Stuckey; I would start a Stuckey appreciation thread if i wasn't so irritated by everything else Flip does. Kid has been solid. Very Billups like except he likes to drive. That play were he read the defense all the the way and caught the pass at the end was beautiful. Quickness helps defensively. He's been pretty clutch with that shot as well. But he does miss Amir :)

Dixon didn't play in the real game (although ironically he did do his thing in GT, and by thing i mean turn the ball over and jack up stupid shots)

Hayes had the game of his life which helped keep Tay/Rip's min at bay, and also made Flip look like he was smart.

Max was great (got outmuscled a little or out-heighted i guess you could say); he was 1st off the bench instead of Theo

Sheed was extremely good defensively. I like the trapping Paul everytime idea because for the most part it was done well. If they had West though it would be a different story and it didn't work with Dice b/c his lateral movement is just not there.

Negatives;

Hayes had the game of his life; extremely unreliable thing to count on in the future. He was getting burned by Peja; but they were letting him be physical. He fouled him a few times and it wasn't called. The whole game was allowed to be more physical which usally favors the Pistons.

Afflalo; this is tempered like Lee said by joy that Dixon didn't play, but there's no readon for the kid to sit. I also think his offense is alot better than he gets credit for. That jumpshot is smooth, and for someone that works as hard as he does, improvement will be there.

Johnson; I like Theo and it's hard ot hate on him since he a/ isn't bad, and b/ looks so damn happy to be playing/here, but like Lee said it isn't an and/or choice. Those minutes in the 2nd quarter should have been Amir's. In fact this was a perfect game to play Amir/Max together or stick with Sheed/Amir. Whichever. Julian Wright and Ely were really hurting us. NOH got some open looks from our trapping. Amir's ability to trap/recover is missed.

I was actually really excited to see Amir vs. CLE; like abnormally excited for a regulars eason game. Where Varejeo bothers Max would height. Amir would excel. But it looks like it's going to be 3 straught DNP's :lame:

I like Dyess, but it's really time for him to maybe come off the bench. The starting lineup need to be injected with an energy player. We have such a deep bench. Use it Flip.

I wasn't at all worried. I had the feeling that the Piston might be testing the water. Anyone has the feeling that if the Piston is playing on national tv they will get a win every time? Counting this game is the third time they blew the other team out of the water. :gun1:

In Chauncey's interview at the end he was like "yea they went up 11-0 and then we woke up and (naturally) got back into the game"

WTF?! LOL

Even if it's true, don't say that LOL

Q-LIGHTS:

U guys are so selfish! Not one mention of Mateen Cleaves getting 18 pts, 7 asists and 2 steals vs utah last night?...Well, I never!


ANYWAY, after watching the game through the mind of Hubie Brown(which is like watcching BEING JOHN MALCOVIC), I think I have these observations...

1. I HATE Stuart Scott with the redhot intensity of a million burning suns!! Whats a guy got to do to get Big john back in the studio? Damn, senoirity. Get your fat Canadian Bacon behind back in there, Saunders!
Barry and Wilbon is a good combo, But Anthony and Leggs are better. Dont get why the 'a' team doesnt do the national games...

2. Tirico and Hubie are a good team. Not the best.
...1. Albert and Fratello easy. But Hubie is like your wierd uncle from the Woodstock days. Tirico is such a homer taht he knew what "BDL" meant and was the first guy to explain it to a national audience.

3. The 11-0 run by Hornets was so humhum to me. It was like when The Lakers in 2004 Finals had Radmonovic(sic)Nesterovic? Fliponavivic? whoever! score 8 pts in the first replacing Malone. Did u really think?

4. Max just commits aggrivated assault against tyson. it was so funny because even at full speed it looks like Chandler fell to the floor in slow motion!:pound:"ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....splat!" I think I heard him say "I regret nuuuthiiiiiiinnnngggg......"

5. JAAAAAhhvis ate his Georgia whaeties today. His J is so pretty when its on and I think it is about confidence and getting his legs set. He's 6'8" so its pretty hard to uard the J when he's paired with Tay. But its like I said for 3 years...If he anybody should come off the bench, its Prince. He'd be the havlicek of his time.

nice win...not thrilling, but nice

Denver game should be our scrimmage for Cleveland. Dont care if Nuggs hit 169 on us! Get rested, Fellas... We MUST send Cavs a meassagE!!


.......what? it wasnt the Utah Jazz? Oh, Cleaves is in Bakersfield...ooops

I think Jarvis rattled every shot in except for 1 three that was all net. I've never really seen a shooter who was that hot, but was hitting rim. And it wasn't just back of the rim.

I think Jarvis rattled every shot in except for 1 three that was all net. I've never really seen a shooter who was that hot, but was hitting rim. And it wasn't just back of the rim.

It`s called a shooters touch!!!

Not everyone has it, very few I might add...........

It is also unusual to see that with the arc he puts on his shot.

I think he was 9 for 11 with an airball and 8 rim rattlers. Works for me.

just watched the game...it was pretty awesome. i mentioned earlier in the year that hayes might backup rip, and we saw that sometimes it can be pretty useful. if the starters can get jarvis open shots with his feet set, he should shoot a much higher percentage.

i'm encouraged that we keep bringing it on national games, and maxiell seems to thrive in them as well. his legs sure don't seem tired now, do they? if he's getting back to form, look out.

stuckey continues to play great - controlled, good vision, good decisions, and won't back down from anyone.

Can’t complain a lot, we blew the hornets out. But few points to mention:


Stuckey attacks the rim, but sometimes he is lost on the way. Other times he misses very easy lay ups, like the one that Maxiell brought back with a dunk.
Prince still got lot of minutes. I know he is young, but we need him fresh in the playoffs. I think he is the most important key factor in the playoff games.
We shot many many many 3’s, this could win us one game, but it can’t win a series.
This is one game I will say the players won and not Flip. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy with the “W”. Go Pistons