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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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. Flip does the same thing... with 20 seconds left. 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 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.
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. Come on, guys, get another streak going so that the Magic can, too.
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.
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.
