So how was the movie and was the theater filled with young [STRIKE]screaming[/STRIKE] swooning girls?
Yikes. Indiana is not very good and they were missing some good players. We got smoked. The worst part was Troy Murphy getting his double double on command and further extending his DD lead over the entire Pistons franchise this year. Stuckey logged another ZERO assist game as our starting PG. Bynum picked up 7 easy dimes off the bench. Overall, we had 3 players who showed up in the assist column tonight... which is an all time low I would guess. Indiana had 9 players who were willing to share the ball. Stuckey and Ben Gordon took the exact same number of shots... which is where the efficiency thing really kills us for Stuck. JJ was -29 and shot 2-10 (but snagged 10 boards in Ben's absence, which was due to the blowout situation). Prince was 2-12. Overall, our 4 SF's were a combined 6-27 shooting (.222). Maxiell had a nice little stretch (+4 overall) and somehow grabbed 9 boards. On the other hand, he displayed the worst dunk attempt of the entire season by tomahawk jamming the ball up into the bottom of the rim. The Indiana announcers asked how it's possible to dunk the ball if the ball never gets above the rim. Definitely past being upset. Still entertaining in a strange way. This year will be wiped from our memories in a few seasons. It will just be a blur like the Alvin Gentry days.
It's sad that 39 victories seems like a TON of wins these days. How many could Flip get this season with this roster?
Ben Gordon finally showed up in a blowout, but at least he seems to be finding his offensive game again. I see something stirring on this team between the old and the new, I think the new guys really don't like the "If it ain't rough it ain't right" crew, and last night Ben Gordon did his best to show JoeD that he's ready to ball and you send these lame (blankety, blank, blanks) packing. This team reminds me of a couple that really needs to call it quits, but they keep prolonging the inevitable and as a result things end up getting really, really ugly. It's time to say goodbye Joe, it's time to move on, take whatever ANYBODY is offering and let the new era begin.
To befair to JJ, most of his attempts are from getting offensive rebounds and were trying to put them back into the basket with at least 2 to 3 pacers in there trying to stop him. If he's DHo, these wouls have been a DUNK. As for Tay, most of it are wide open jump shots and he MISSED them. Nuff said!
I am only through the first half on the DVR. I will watch the rest when I get home from work. I caught a little of the post game on my way home from the high school game I went to last night. Matt Dery had said something about zero assists from Stuck and Rip and that surprised me. I was expecting to start the DVR and see a bunch of ball hoggin. That wasn't the case. The reason that Stuck had no assists is because he was playing with Rip and Tay. Neither one of them could hit a j if there life depended on it. Now watching the first half with the knowledge that they had no assists was interesting. Everytime either one of these guys made the right pass to an open teammate with an easy shot you would expect a basket but then you realize as the shot goes up, it can't go in because it would be an assist. Stuck set up numerous guys for easy, uncontested shots and they missed them; plain and simple. Then when you look at the starting line up and realize that if Rip and Tay are cold; assist ops are very limited for him since Ben and JJ don't look for their shot unless it is a last resort. Because I haven't seen the second half yet; I am guessing that Bynum was on the floor with Bengo and that most of his assists came from Ben hitting shots. We are a poor shooting team right now and very streaky. If Tay doesn't get it together, I would rather see Daye take his shots and see what the kid can do.
I second this. It aint about getting the some quality back for those guys anymore, it's just about getting rid of them now.
Rodney Stuckey is the new Joe Dumars. Much like Joe Dumars singlehandedly led the Pistons to 6 straight ECF's and the lazy, selfish players blew it from there, Stuckey plays a great floor game whenever he gets some assists but it is always his teammates fault for missing shots when he doesn't. I thought a telling play in the game came when Runnin' Rodney got a breakaway steal when the Pistons were up 2-0 and with no one around him laid the ball in without coming within a foot of the rim. I can't think of of a franchise guard under 32 years old who wouldn't have dunked that. Speaking of franchise guards, what is the Pistons record since Hot Rod was permanently moved to the starting lineup last year? We can sit here all day and say Rip should go or they need a PG etc., but has there been even a hint of dissatisfaction from Joe? From where I sit Joe killed himself to find the next Vinnie Johnson and I don't see him letting it slip away so easily. Everyone sat around here last year salivating about the big men the Pistons were going to bring in with the cap space that Shrewd Joe D acquired, but at 12:01 AM on the 1st day of free agency he did what? Joe seems to value the pieces of a team as such: combo guard more combo guards big men/SF (to assist the combo guards) backup shooting guard coach (to get steamrolled by said combo guards) PG How much more will things be muddled when the savior Rodney Stuckey gets a new deal?
Is it the coaches fault for having such an unbalanced team or the GM's? Who has a team for 2 years straight where you have to play small ball to get your best players out there. No consistency with the rotations. By this time of year that's going to kill you because the other teams do by now.
Didn't he try doing that in the previous game? I think that had to be in the back of his mind as he laid it in.
Just realized when Blaha said it during the game that Austin Daye is Darren Daye's kid. I watched him with the Bullets back in the old days.
Very true, Bynum had more TO's than assists until late in the game, and was absolutely brutal in the 3rd when we appeared to be at least chipping away at the lead when he gave up the ball, fouled him, then got a Tech. Just killed any chance. Bynum had 3 assists with 2 minutes left in the 3rd. Assist to Gordon. He had 4 assists in the 4th, 3 were to Gordon. Sorry if you want to try view the stat box, it doesn't hold up. Stuckey was giving good passes, and people were just not sinking shots. Tay was given the ball and the Pacers would just stand there waiting for the rebound after the missed shot, like the kid picked last on the court and everyone knows can't shoot. Stuckey had some very good passes, I remember when he drove to the hoop, chucked it out to the top of the key to Hamilton who clunked it. Don't use Bynums garbage time assists to Gordon as some sort of indicator as far as the game went, Bynum was terrible until he stuffed the stat box late in the game. I still don't understand why Gordon and Stuckey aren't paired up, wasn't that when we were at our best earlier in the year? Did anyone see Jerebko make that nice pass under the hoop to Maxiell who tried to dunk and didn't get it above the rim? That was the kind of night we had. I'm not sure why everyone is still ragging on Stuckey about the assists thing, he has been getting better in that regard all season. Didn't he just drop 9 dimes on the Nets? 7 against Orlando? He had 2 against Miami, and then 11 against Memphis!
Can't stand watching Tay try and shoot a j after watching the touch that Daye has. Put this kid in the starting line up and let him take the shots that Tay can't seem to make.
I'm ok with a non-flashy layup netting us 2 points as opposed to a "wow-that-coulda-been-awesome" dunk attempt.
He did have that really nice dunk on Thabeet recently. I'd actually like to see him go up strong (with 2 hands) more often because it'd probably get him more foul calls at the rim. Stuckey's been to the line a total of 3 times the last 2 games. That shouldn't ever happen with Stuckey. He's still not getting enough respect from the officials.
How many charges has he been called for? I always use that as the measure of the refs' respect for Stuck.
