Stuckey continues perfect as an NBA player 8 wins 0 losses Can we handle it? Lets bring back Murray and Hunter. LOL
I wasn't in the chat, but i think the complaining stems from the fact (at least for me) that the starters played unnecessary min. Jarvis was on but Tay still played 36 min. No Afflalo in the 2nd half. And we desperately need a 4th big b/c Amir isn't going to play or Max needs to play more min. Why he gets so little is beyond me. The bench is supposed to play every game, and come in at regular intervals; not just when there is a double digit lead/blow-out. That's the whole point of having a bench. We were ahead in the 2nd quarter w/ the bench sorta grinding it out. Flip doesn't seem to have the stomach for that though. This could all be made better by the bench getting major PT in the BOS game especially Afflalo who i think it would be a huge mistake not to play, but i'm not going to hold my breath. Also look for Ray Allen to go off tomm (he shot awful against MEM), and only around 29, 34 (close to that) for Pierce and KG respectively <- I take that back, just checked the updated boxscore. edited to add; Does anybody know if Lindsey is active tomm?
A couple of those minutes were at the end of the first half with a bizarro small ball lineup. Sheed, Dice, and JMax all had at least two fouls, so Flip went with Primoz, CB, Rip, Tay, and Jarvis to end the half. I hope we don't see THAT lineup very often...
Just a few things - Rip with almost 40 minutes = But, he's the one player who can actually handle that. Tay could've played less, given that Jarvis was shooting fairly well, but oh well. Brezec going in instead of Amir = :suspiciou. This was a team that Amir would've had favorable matchups against; the opposite is true for Brezec. He gave up rebounds, 3's - you name it, he gave it up to Toronto. The dude's defense sucks; all he could do was look on as Bosh/Bargnani/any other Raptor blew by him time and time again. He's obviously desperate to stay with this team, but I just don't think he's good enough. CB played well enough, hitting a few shots and his usual solid PG play, but Sheed came on in the second half and was a huge reason why we stayed in and won this game. Stuckey played very well too; Afflalo should've played more.
A good win. Pistons got whatever they wanted on the offense and the defense was solid. You're not going to shut teams out, and 85 points is a good defensive effort. I would have loved to see more minutes from either Brezec or Amir, I don't care at this point, Hayes, and AA. Other than that I am pretty happy with what went down. Boston played too with similar minutes, so neither team will have an advantage tomorrow.
Just wanted to add one more thing - we have to look at the progress Flip's making - last year all starters would've been at 40 minutes in a similar game.
Which was why I edited it. I meant to say Dice, came out wrong; but, none of them were too bad this game anyway.
Buddha is a stickler for details! Great game. I loved listening to the Toronto announcers go from hero worship of the Pistons, to wondering if the Raptors can make the playoffs. Great stuff!
Hubie Brown was worshipping the Pistons all night. Thought I'd point that out since I often hear Pistons fans whining that the ESPN announcers don't like the team. Enjoyed the game. I like how Sheed shook off a crappy first half and played great in the second. I would have loved to see Amir on Bosh tonight for a few minutes. Bosh probably would have faked Amir outta his shoes but the experience would have been good. Besides, nobody else was containing Bosh anyway. No blocked shots for Detroit tonight.
Not much drama in this one. Our bench gave us a lead to start the 2nd quarter. From there, Toronto got close once but never quite caught up. Then at the end we kept at least a double digit cushion as Sheed continued racking up the 3 balls. Very equal scoring in this one with Rip, Sheed, and CB all getting about 20. Dyess had a bad shooting night, was overplayed a bit for sure, but did keep his good rebounding up. Tay was skying high for his share of rebounds too. Them was not coming to him. He was going up and taking them away from people. So three starters shot well, and our defense held up pretty good. (Except for letting Barngarni (sp)have to many open looks.) In all, we outclassed Toronto pretty badly. As far as youth development, just 4 minutes for Afflalo. One step back. No minutes for Amir. Another step back. Stuckey again got good minutes, and this has to be his best showing so far with 8 points and 6 assists. Some steals (I think 2). A mistake or two to go along with that, but the positives outweighed any negatives considerably. I only remember him taking the one jumper (a pull up) that he made. He took the ball all the way down and layed it in after he stole it. He got a pass from Rip for a bunny. Let me see, oh yeah, he drove in, drew an important foul on Calderon, and made both his free throws. Later, Billups drew the guys fifth with several minutes yet to go in the game. (Five if memory serves. Or was it 5 minutes into the 4th?) On the subject of youth development, we can't forget that JMAX is one of those young guys that Flip is really letting play. Every game with lots of minutes. JMAX is just getting more and more comfortable out there. Tonight I think was his best as far as staying calm around the basket, taking his time, and making sure every shot went in. I believe 4 of Stuckey's assists were to JMAX, and at least one trip to the line for JMAX was courtesy of Stuckey too. Good connection there. Hayes hit a few shots. It was reported, here maybe (or mlive.com or freep.com) that Hayes was pretty darn sore from the fall he took but that he was going to play anyway. This may have limited his minutes some. Maybe. Of note. Amir did not get in for foul trouble to our bigs at the end of the 1st half. First, they put Brezec in. Then they put Hayes over to power forward with Tay returning to the game to play small forward. And, no, it would not surprise me if Amir is behind Fabio if it came to that. If Saunders does not plan to play Amir any more in the rotation this season, he should be fired, regardless of anything else that is going on. We have a very tough stretch of games coming up. Fans can either accept that as an excuse, or be up in arms about the situation. Just a warning. Those fans who are willing to give Flip a pass on not playing Amir, don't come crying after we lose for lack of a decent 4th big in our rotation when the playoffs get here.
I really feel sorry for some of you guys, I really do. 11th win in a row. On the road. Against a playoff team. Tor has a lot of youth, I remember when teams like that used to make us look old, I remember when ALL of our starters had to play extended mins just to eek out a win against a team like that. Tonight we go on the road and beat a good young playoff team by 16 pts, we scored over 100 and held them to 85!!! Only one starter played extended mins, Rip, and it's not like thay've had to do that very often. Our bench outscored theirs 25-5!!!! Our bench rotation consists Stuck-21, AA-21, Jayes-26, & Max-25, and they all played and contributed in a positive way, what the heck is wrong with some of you people. We have no way of knowing how well the playoffs are going to be until they get here, so why not enjoy the sheer entertainment of watching the team you love kick the crap out of the opposition on a nightly basis. You guys are crying about 10mins of combined playing time for Amir and AA......UNREAL!!!!! Amir will play, lets see how things play out after the all-star break before we send the Mob after Flip. Right now Flip does not trust a backcourt of AA and Stuck. Stuck is far more integral to our success this season than AA. Stuck is necessary while AA is icing on the cake. In about a month Stuckey will be very comfortable running the team and at that point AA's mins will indeed go back up. And we will also begin to integrate Amir into the mix, the plan is so obvious it's not even funny. RELAX!!!!!!
^^Love this post! My thoughts, except more eloquent. Since you've already captured it in words, here's an emoticon meant to capture my feelings about the 2008 Pistons------>
Where did you find that quote budda? i could find it where alexa said CB did not do much. Can you guys change your quotes after already submitting them?
Not to mention that Dal/SA is a back-to-back . Which has me thinking...look How often teams have to play that Texas triangle, think of all the times a team has a tough game in Hou, Dal, or SA and then has to turn right back around and play one of those teams again. I beat you that Dal, Hou, and SA all get at least 4-5 wins a year as a result of that scheduling, but in all fairness they do have to play each other more than any other team.
