My goal was for the Pistons to hold every team in the NBA below 70 points at least once. Other than that, they seem to be doing fine. I may have overreacted last night after watching MSU fall in a gut wrenching "tired legs" spanking by Iowa.
These guys are a little too full of themselves. The All-Star game and MVP talk seems to have gotten into their head. They need to actually play against "lesser" teams, you don't win by just showing up. If this laziness continues into the playoffs I wouldn't be surprised if they get bounced in th 1st or 2nd round. This is the stretch run where they should be ramping up into playoff mode. Every game will be a test.
What a pathetic effort. Either we gave them too much cushion and they would hit a wide open jumper (which was most of the game), or our guards would play tighter and then they'd blow right by for an easy layup with no help from our bigs. Delfino did have a nice block though. He's been showing great hustle on both ends of the court. His D has really improved. The bench got some actual playing time too! (even before garbage time) I liked that Sheed was actually posting up more this game. He was scoring at will down low, but then we went away from it in the 4th. Delk did hit some shots, but a lot of them were early in the shot clock and he didn't even look to pass first. As long as it isn't a sign of things to come, I don't mind it, since he needs to get comfortable and it would be nice to get him integrated early. Prince hasn't impressed me at all lately. I agree with Micro that Dice is becomming more of a liability than a help. His ticky tack fouls are really annoying, and his complaining right after them is even worse. Man, I do not like the direction this team has been headed. We need to turn this thing around soon. There's still some time, but we need to get some positive momentum going into the playoffs. Home Court throughout would be nice too, but at the very least we need to be #1 in the East.
I was at the game last night. I arrived about an hour an ten minutes earlier just to check out our boys mentality and such. They were all joking around playing especially Sheed & Delfino seem to genuinely like one another. You would have not believed the amount of pistons fans at the Verizon Center, everywhere there was a sea of red, white & blue. The autograph hounds were out in full force, there were hundreds & hundreds of of them clamoring around the Pistons area to get autographs. In contrast, the Wizards did not draw a crowd at all. This may have miffed some of the Wizards because it appeared that the Pistons was getting all of the attention. I left the first few seconds into the fourth quarter, it was so painful to watch, been waiting all year to see the Pistons and I get this. The Pistons in the second period seemed as though they wanted to be anywhere besides the Verizon Center, they looked bored as you no what. Flip was using some very interesting lineups and played the bench for a longer period of time than the usual. I really like Billups & Delk on the floor at the same time. Let me say this: Even though the Pistons played poorly, I truly believe that this is not the Pistons team that we will see in the playoffs. For some strange reason I think they are playing the Jedi Mind Trick on us. We will not see those redhot Pistons until the playoffs begin. Just my opinion. I think they will use plays and decoys that will surprise the hell out of us as well as combinations of players. Let me tell you guys that Tony Delk is the real deal, played an extremely impressive game, this is only the beginning of Tony Delk, he will see a lot of action in the Post Season.
Sco, good post. But what was the "changing of garments" remark about? Merc, "Spank Happens" very strong. Often an average team will blow off a "should win" to get a "must/want win" the next day. Not sure who is our next date but it will be for the 50th W. I had a feeling the 50th would be tough to get and I guess it's still not too late to say that.
Mercury, Delk played very, very, good and was one of the bright spots off the bench, he was only nano seconds from canning 2 consecutive three pointers, took it to the hoop, good overall d, no complaints from eme. Can't tell you much about Jmax because I left at the beginning of the 4th. Delfino palyed tight D, took it to the rack on one ocassion, like to see him do theat continuously. McDyess had a couple cheap fouls, of course he cried to refs about them both, little scoring, many uneccesary fouls. Lindsay didn't play as much as I anticipated for this game, at least the 3 periods I watched.
Some observations from the box score... Hunter only 3.5 minutes?... is Delk moving L.H. out of the lineup? Fast break points only 7... could be this extra focus on rebounding is effecting the transition game (gaurds helping out). 18 assist... 16 T.O's ...ouch... let's not confuse the Wizz with a lockdown defensive team. Looks like Tayshaun had a decent game for only playing 24 minutes... but sounds like he got burnt on "D". Should be no tired leg excuses... (Chauncey played the most min @ 35)except for Ben... the knee issues cropping up again is kinda concerning... could be we'll see his minutes reduced over the next few games. Is Chauncey an overrated defender?
Thanks Army, If we keep getting that kinda effort from Delk & Delfino we're going a long way in the playoffs.
Love to give you a JMax update Merc, but I turned the game off at that point. Case of Wizard Reflux brought on by bad D and spicy ribs.
thanks thee... but it wasn't changing of garments, it was renting of garments. renting as in tearing. it's what people do in the old testament when they're upset about things they can't control...deaths and plagues and the like.
Fairly unimpressive I'd say. He got in for the last six or so and pretty much goose-egged across the board - took a shot, hit one freebie, missed another, got a board, turned the ball over once. He tried a couple of those hard runs to the hoop but didn't end up anywhere close. I'd say it was the most uninspired I've seen him. Of course, there wasn't much of anything you could call an offense being run while he was in so...
HAHAHAHA, I watched this game but missed this part. After Flip got a T and Arenas missed the free throw, Flip yells out "Ball don't lie!" You can see a clip of it at www.need4sheed.com
I think you mean rending, as in tearing. Renting of garments is usually done for high school proms or weddings. In an historical context a powder blue, or pastel green tux could be rent after it had been rented.
Definitely a bright spot the other night. Flip showing a little spirit. Where are America's entreprenuers? Why isn't there a "ball don't lie" t-shirt? (With "that ball don't lie" on the back) Though "got sheed" from need4sheed is pretty nice.
I do mean rending, as you say Caliban, and rending is the more common word nowadays, relatively speaking. But in the name of pedantic accuracy and saving my good academic name I must point out that in my Oxford English Dictionary there is "renting": "the action of rending or tearing." Apologies for any confusion caused my use of the obsolete form.