Round 3 Game 4 ... Pistons @ Heat

Yeah, LB was great for that.

Anyway, we're down 3-1, and this is pretty much as "rough" as it gets. Our boys have often been at their best with their backs to the wall, so I'm looking for some real fight from them on Wednesday at the Palace.

The series isn't over until someone wins 4, and that last win is often the toughest to come by.

Flip lost this team but he isn't to blame. We knew what a jerk Rasheed was before he got here but we won so we ignored it.

We new Chauncey was not a great player but he got lucky against a fighting Laker team.

We new Ben Wallace was a great defensive player but his attitude has been suspect in the past.

We new this all before we started losing.

The recipe for this loss exist... smooth jazz and some time with a loved one... this too shall pass.. gnight all :^)

Here is my two cents about the game and series:

1) Whatever one may say about Larry Brown, he was able to get his players to play his system and to excute it well, especially in important games. Flip is not in the same league in that respect. You might not like LB's substitutions, his two-foul rule, his offensive sets, and so forth, but he is far superior to Flip in getting his players to do what he wants them to do.

2) Larry also understood that defense wins championships. Under Flip, this team lost its single-minded commitment to defense. Offensively, we were better under Flip during the regular season than we had been under Larry. But at this stage in the playoffs, the defensive intensity of a well-coached team like Miami is neutralizing much of that regular season offensive efficiency.

3) Hubie Brown (the TV commentator) has said repeatedly that it is our offense that is failing us in this series, as we are only averaging in the low to mid-80's in the last two rounds. I think his analysis is wrong. It would be interesting to compare our offensive production in this series with our production in the 2003 and 2004 playoff runs. I suspect that our point production in the last two playoff rounds this year would compare favorably with those figures. It is our defense that is off.

4) I thought the turning point in this game was when Billups got called for his fourth foul while Wade was bottled up on the sidelines with 1.5 seconds on the shot clock for Miami. Dumb foul. Billups was taken out and that really deflated us offensively.

5) Who was with Shaq when he made that end to end layup? Whoever it was got in front of Shaq just before he shot. But instead of colliding with Shaq and commiting a foul that almost surely would have prevented the basket, the player just ducked out of the way and let Shaq score the easy layup. I know that colliding with Shaq when he is moving full speed would be extremely punishing, but somehow I think a Piston in that situation last year would have made that defensive sacrifice.

Gosh man......this is sad. It's been a good run. I see us losing next season in the 2nd round and then the rebuilding will begin. Bye Sheed, Bye Chuancey....Good guys, good players, no way we pay them though.

we had it going early. even though the game LOOKED ugly, we were attempting to execute our offense correctly. In the first half it was all ugly and filled with sloppy possessions, but we were trying. All that was missing was the timing and rhythm,through alll that we were only down 6 at the half.

Come the third qtr we got our rhythm, we got our timing, we got our lead......it was beautiful, ball movement, player movement, ball reversal and the extra pass was leading to GREAT SHOTS!!!!!!!!!! Then we started chucking treys off the first pass as certain players felt as if the early third qtr play implied that they had the hot hand.......INSTANT RELAPSE....after that it was over....we went back to the 2 man iso BS with no off the ball movement. While our opponent was very focused and knew exactly what they wanted to do, we looked dazed and confused.

When the game got into the fourth I knew we were done. We no longer have A TEAM ORIENTED OFFENSE to execute that'll get us good shots, we have a scheme that puts too much pressure on 1 guy to make a play, we don't have that guy....Miami does...and his name is Dwayne Wade. In the end I was hoping we could have closed the game strong and had something positive to carry over to game 5, but even that was not to be.

The team we're looking for has not been here all season, Folks This Is Our Team Now. We are so far removed from "Playing the Right Way" it ain't even funny. The contrast from this year and last years team is so obvious it ain't even funny. When you play "Ride the Hot Hand" ball you make statues out of the other teammates, now we have a team that has no rhythm as a unit. They're waiting for somebody (an individual)to get it going and carry us over....NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, nobody on this team is that good individually, we don't have a LeBron, Wade, Dirk...and unlike Kobe - Wade won't screw up the game plan to allow us to come back. It's been Fun......Amir were looking for ya buddy, not many wins, but the kid should make it interesting to watch, then we can play the "What if we kept he and Darko together" game........Man I can see the threads now.

I want yall who havent worked or based your survival on TEAMwork and having a trusted and expirienced leader to PLEASE hear me:
When I went to Operation Desert storm, we send our Major who was in charge of Personnel resources( a secretary) to man our base. He had no infantry or combat expirience and neither did his Sargeants. So as a Corporal (who came over from Infantry at 101 Airborne) I was put in charge of Sanitation, Mail, Transportation and Physical Fitness. Another guy helped in establishing a perimeter. One day I had to take that major to a meeting across the desert. the first thing he did when he got in the truck was to take a rag out and wipe the dust off HIS side of the vehicle. Dust? when people were trying to survive. We just didnt believe in him...like no one believes in Flip. Just listen to his PC,,he sounds like a creep,,,a loser...like someone who has never been to war.................

I just thought u were kinda wound up tight 2 night, my bruddah,,,,,but that aint your fault though. This is worse I've felt since Uncle Cliffys no show vs New Jersey!!

I loved LB's game plan...I totally understood it, and it totally fitthis team. Coach knew that we weren't going to win a 'ship with the 8th an 9th man. we would win when 7 guys totally understood and thrived in their role. Guys thrive with consistency, they know when they're coming in, they know when they're going out, they know what plays to execute, they are working towards a purpose that when perfected, fit this team like a hand in a glove, now we wearing the OJ glove aaaaaannnnnnddd "if it don't fit....no championship" I really miss the philosophy that shot selection should ALWAYS be based on time and score. This game we totally did not get it, matter of fact we haven't gotten it for a while
Time and Score
Time and Score
Time and Score

I agree with everything said but the Shaq collision. I just don`t think at that point in the game taking a head on collision with Shaq was an option.

7-1 340 Lbs? I dont think so!

I hope there are at least 3 more games in this series and we can turn this around, but our bad play vs the heat go back to that game in the regular season when Wade closed out the game with the 17 points. We have not been able to contain him since even though we did win a regular season game and held on to win one playoff game. That gave them confidence and as much as no one wants to admit it, they have gotten better and we have not. They are hungrier, play with more intensity and agressiveness than we do. We complain and make silly fouls and dare someone to make a jumper instead of challenging it.

If we play a zone, I think we can handle them and Wade, but if he scores in the 30's, it looks like a win for them. He made unbelievable shots, but the killer is he almost took as many FT's (19) then we took (22). Like I said a zone may at least reduce his Ft'sand, and 1 opportunities.

We have to play smart and make the pass when it is there. Rip had a horrible game tonight, five TO's no points in the 2nd half and 4-15 shooting. Those 3 straight bad passes including the one that led to the coast to coast layup was a morale buster for Rip and he was invisible the rest of the game...at least until he knocked down Wade in the end. The foul discrepancy was huge, but the Heat missed 19 FTs, so we cannot blame it on the refs.


The bad is that we started off the 3rd qtr 19-11 and only scored 21 after that to lose by 11. A good time out by Riley cooled us off, but when the heat made their run and went up by 8, Flip was too late in calling the TO to stop their run. And the killer is, we came out of the TO with a poorly executed playthat we couldn't cash in. That has happen too many times in the Flip post season era, which may be his last if we had a say so, ..if he does not get us to advance to the finals

This is the reason we lost . 4th qtr...AGAIN... 27-18...nuff said!

In the end this team will not out talent anybody at this stage of the playoffs. Everyone needs to show up to win. One of the downsides of not having a true go to guy or go to guys.

I'll say this....to pass the reigns of the league over to Wade and Lebron is by no means the worst thing in the world to have happen. As Piston fans we were/are lucky, we're kinda like the Rockets, Snuck a 'ship in while MJ was gone. We got one in between the Shaq era and the New Kids on the Block era.

That said I believe we can win game 5, and that's all we really have to do

Truth be told that's the real hurt and horror in all this. We're losing games in the 4th which is a clear sign of no mettle, which scares a Piston fan to death. If nothing else we could grind out 4th qtr wins, now........Heaven Help Us.

The team concept worked for awhile, but as you can see, you need a superstar like Wade, Labron, Shaq, Dirk etc, just to get the extra call when your shot does not fall. For wade to get more points at the line (15) then any Pistons with the exception of prince who matched his total with a piston hight of 15 is a shame and riduculous.

Yeah Micro, 90 points is the Pistons magic number and for the last 9 games we are only averaging 80 and have lost six on them. 4th quarters have been killers as our guys are either to tight or to tired. But I also worry when we have less than 45 points at the half whether we are leading or not, because usually that means we probably didn't play smart offensively in the first half. If we had scored 90 points in every game in the Cavs series that would have been a sweep and I guarantee we would have won game 1 of this series.

We need some slashers and somebody who can play inside and make FT's when they get fouled. To bad we didn't have enough money to keep Memo and James along with Sheed.

How about we wear the red unis and everyone show up in red?? Can't because the heat will wear their reds. Maybe alll the fans show up in white ala the heat fans. and don't let the fat lady sing...put Anita Baker in the starting line-up and save Aretha for game 7.