At Toronto Jan. 4th, 7:00 PM TV - FSN Detroit, ESPN The Pistons travel to Toronto looking for their 11th straight victory. The Raptors currently hold the 4th seed in the EC.
Maybe a "trap" game for the Pistons, with the Celtics looming large the next night? The Raptors are returning from a weirdly scheduled road trip--they went out West for 7 straight games, but they had something like 5 days off right in the middle of the trip. And they'll have had another several days off before this game against the Pistons.
I'm not feeling a let down. We have so much hunger from our bench, that it seems like those flat performances are so last year.
I agree. There are no indicators that they are going to take the pedal off the metal. My biggest concern is that Flip eases starters minutes and plays AA and AJ a bit more to keep starters fresher for the Boston game.
I would be more interested in playing the rotation the same as usual, but not change it to win the game with extra minutes for the starters. The other night the Celts big 3 played 40+ minutes just to win.
A few concerns and random thoughts on this game. The Pistons have to play one game at a time and not be looking ahead to the Celtic game. If the starters get a comfortable lead, they cannot let up...need to crush when you have the opportunity. The bench has to hold what ever lead the starters give them so that Flip won't have to bring the starters back in for extra minutes And finally, we all like streaks, but Flip can't overplay the starters in the late 4th trying to secure the streak. Trust the bench and save the fresh starters for the Boston game. (The C's wll be at home Friday and porbably won't have to put up that big of an effort vs the Grizzlies so their big three might be better rested if Flip pulls out all stops for a victory in Toronto. ) Also this game is on ESPN where our success has not been that great...although the last one on ESPN we did win vs the C's!
Darko is not injured at the moment. He just helped hold J. O'Neal to pretty much a zero game two nights ago. Except for a couple of bogus foul calls on Darko just because he is the younger player vs. O'Neal, Darko had O'Neal totally locked up.
You are right, DRE. The Pistons must look for the knock out punch right from the start and not let up. Get to garbage time like what they have been doing lately and let the bench play the 4th quarter. The starters need the rest and get ready for Saturday Night Fever...
The question is whether Toronto is that bad that Pistons can blow them out. Sure, perfect scenario is that starters sit in the 4th. But I'd be looking for more PT from Stuckey, AA, and the rest of the bench in the 2nd.
I hope the Pistons are doing a better job of not looking past Toronto than we are given that our fabulous countdown-o-meter is looking ahead to Boston.
Toronto is certainly not bad. The Raptors are currently the 4th best team in the Eastern Conference. The team has a lot of weapons. This game is in Toronto. The Pistons will have their hands full, for sure.
Halftime - I don't know how we're up considering the lay-up/dunking line we had going on the other end of the floor. Lack of defense, much? It looks like the guys are already in BOS. I like the fact that the bench got PT. Only downside is Amir. Flip really really doesn't want to play him it seems. No matter how many open 3's Brezec gives Bargnani
Inconsistent game through the first three quarters...a 9 point lead at halftime shrunk all the way to 2 at one point in the 3rd, thanks to some surprisingly bad D with Bargnani and Calderon getting wide open looks almost every time down, with Rasheed's long bombs being the only reason the Raptors didn't take the lead. Stuckey brought a huge spark at the beginning of the 4th to push the lead out to double digits--steals, fastbreaks, getting into the lane, even hitting a jumper. CB kept it going after he came back in, and that was it. Rip stayed super hot from the floor, 8-11, and the scoring was balanced again with 5 guys in double figures and two more with 8. Lots of complaining about the minutes for the starters in chat, but it didn't look too bad to me. Rip did play 39, but "the best conditioned player in the NBA" can surely handle that every now and then. The other starters played between 34 and 35 minutes, Tay a little closer to 36.
