Game 38: Detroit @ Knicks // Sun. 7pm on FSN Detroit

[nasty daddy]

Rob Otto or whoever does the post-game show was mentioning that Amir is having a lot of trouble picking up Flip's offense and defense as reaosn why he simply doesn't get any playing time and is even the last player off the bench in garbage minutes.

I'm seeing eerie similarities between Amir and Darko. Amir tries to come in and be perfect - to earn real minutes- and as a reslut he over thinks everything and looks lost at worst or very unsure/tentative at best.

That explains alot to why he is always looking lost on the floor at times. IMO if he doesn't pick it up soon, he will be another Darko and shipped out of here. But in his defence, he is still a young guy who skipped college and went straight from high school to the pro's, but how hard could it really be to learn Flips long play book.

[nasty daddy]

http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/ ... logid=1125

A few things before tip-off at the Garden: 1) No Stephon Marbury, out with an ankle issue. Not even dressing, 2) Pistons are so ready to go home, after a long road trip. They're in good spirits though, with a lot of razzing of Rip Hamilton in the locker room for his natty attire of a lime-ish green sweater and a matching striped tie. He looked pretty good in it. But Rasheed Wallace begged to differ and gave Rip a hilarous stream of commentary. 3) Look for a lot of run for the bench tonight. The starters played a lot against the Bobcats and Flip Saunders wants them to rest, if possible. 4) What is this thing you call playoff football? I'm from Detroit, so I am not familiar with it...all eyes here are on the Giants-Cowboys game. it's playing on every TV, and even on the scoreboard. People - from the vendors to the fans - are living and dying on every play. Even the players from both teams are looking up at the scoreboard video monitor to see what's up.

[nasty daddy]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=280113018

Jamal Crawford scored all of his 15 points in the third quarter, when the Knicks turned it into a blowout. Their previous biggest victory was an 18-point win over Cleveland.

The Pistons have been held to 64 points on multiple occasions. They managed only 32 points in the first half, their worst half of the season, then the Knicks blew it open in the third quarter.

The Pistons, who started their trip by splitting games at Dallas and San Antonio, didn't even hit 40 points until Billups made two free throws with 2:17 left in the third. The lead ballooned to 31 points early in the fourth quarter, with Detroit's entire starting five already on the bench for the night.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/ ... y_kni.html

The 65 points were a season low for the Pistons and just one point better than the franchise low of 64 set twice (at San Antonio, Feb. 21, 1999 and vs. Utah, March 13, 2005). "There's not much to talk about," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "We got our (butts) kicked. They beat us bad. We didn't really do anything. We gave an unacceptable effort. Now we have to bounce back."

Four games in five nights -- all on the road -- will impact even the NBA's best teams. "We knew they would be pretty tired," said Knicks coach and former Piston, Isiah Thomas. "We just tried to play (with) as much energy as we could. They were a little flat and we played a good basketball game."

While it's not unusual for a couple of Pistons players to struggle, Sunday was one of the first games in which few of Detroit's players got into a rhythm. Antonio McDyess had his eighth double-double of the season with 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

[captainrebel]

Someone should post the pictures of the three little monkeys...hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil for this game. I just dont know what to say about this one. These guys put up enough bricks to build another MSG or Palace. You cant even say our guys came out flat...they didnt come out at all. I was hoping that we would have a decent lead at the end of the third and allow the reserves to take over in the fourth. Boy was I shocked!

[Manocad]

Well, if neither is working, what do you suggest he do?

Flip, is that you?

If neither is working you play the fresh bench guys who can use the minutes to learn/develop and don't burn your starters even further just to lose anyway.

THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/ ... _game.html

STUDS: Antonio McDyess was the only Piston who seemed to play with the kind of consistent focus and effort needed to win. He had a team-high 15 points, and a game-high 13 rebounds. No question, former Michigan State player Zach Randolph was huge. He led all scorers with 25 points, but what might have been even more impressive was the fact that he had three assists which is like, three more than he usually gets.SOLID: Again, very few choices for this one. But I'll have to go with Chauncey Billups, who was the team's only other double digit scorer. He had 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Jamal Crawford didn't shoot the ball particularly well, but the former Michigan guard did a pretty good job of running the team. He finished with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists.

DUDS: Tayshaun Prince has had some bad shooting nights, but nothing like this. He was scoreless on Sunday, missing all 10 of his field goal attempts.SUPER SUB: Amir Johnson was huge in more ways than the obvious. He made all three of his shots from the field, and finished with eight points. That included a 3-point play late in the game which helped the Pistons avoid setting a new franchise low in points scored.

UP NEXT: Tuesday vs. Toronto. The players think a day off is all they'll need to get back on track. The Raptors are no slouch, especially with Chris Bosh playing better than just about any forward in the East not named Kevin Garnett. They have good guard play with Jose Calderon as well. Detroit's starters will be fine, but it's the bench that has the Pistons somewhat worried. It might be time for Flip Saunders to try and incorporate Amir Johnson into being that fourth big man. Amir's defense needs to get better, but his knack for scoring is just too good to be saddled on the bench.

[theBigLip]

wow, didn't watch the game, but it sounds like we couldn't have shot any worse. time to move on...

[Hunter]

wow, didn't watch the game, but it sounds like we couldn't have shot any worse. time to move on...

It wasn't just bad shooting, it was bad everything.

[Grey]

Flip, is that you?

If neither is working you play the fresh bench guys who can use the minutes to learn/develop and don't burn your starters even further just to lose anyway.

THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE.

I gave the starters a chance to get back us back into the game in the 3rd. When it became obvious it wouldn't happen, I put in the "fresh bench guys" to play the entire 4th quarter. They definitely had the energy, but they're not the guys I go to when I want to win.

Rocket science? I'll leave that to Rick Adelman.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... 40344/1127

There was no value to this game, beyond acknowledging that this exquisite disaster really did occur at Madison Square Garden.

The Pistons' stat sheet was a minefield of visual horror:

[nasty daddy]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... 40343/1127

Mental fatigue. Physical fatigue. Bad luck. Pick one of the three, or perhaps all of them, as the explanation for why the Pistons lost 89-65 to the Knicks on Sunday.

It was quickly apparent the Pistons had hit the wall from their road trip, and the players didn't have enough to push through their fatigue. The tipping point might have been Saturday's overtime victory in Charlotte, which apparently pushed the Pistons tank to empty.

"We couldn't throw a rock in the ocean (Sunday)," Pistons guard Chauncey Billups said. "I'm not (mentally fatigued), but I can't speak for everybody. It was a long, drawn-out game (Saturday). I'd like to think we could put out a better effort than this, with an overtime win in a back-to-back situation. Fourth game in five nights. But we just didn't get it done." As well as the Knicks were playing, such as shooting 47.2 percent for the game, the Pistons were not doing themselves any favors. Prime case in point: The Pistons suffered a strange setback right before halftime, when Richard Hamilton was called for a 3-point shooting foul on Nate Robinson. There was only 4/10 of a second left on the clock, and Hamilton seemed as surprised as anyone that a foul was called. Robinson hit all three free throws, and the Knicks took an 11-point lead into the second half. "That was just kind of a synopsis of what we did all night," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said of the foul.

[nasty daddy]

http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/ ... logid=1126

No way to sugarcoat this, the Pistons were a mess from top to bottom. The only person who gets a deflated game ball is Amir Johnson, who saved the Pistons from having the dubious distinction of the lowest score in team history. Not good.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 40367/1051

It's one thing to get blown out by the Dallas Mavericks, an elite team. It's another to be laughed out of a game with the New York Knicks.

The Pistons, who shot 30.7%, just missed tying the franchise low for points. Forward Amir Johnson's three-point play with 13.2 seconds left put them in front of the 64-point record. "That was cool," forward Rasheed Wallace said. "But even if it happened, whoop-de-doo. It's all part of it. I'm not even worried about that. My final goal is to go and get to them playoffs."

The Pistons' small forwards -- Prince, Jarvis Hayes and Walter Herrmann -- finished a combined 1-for-21. Prince was 0-for-10. Shooting guard Richard Hamilton, who scored 51 points in his previous visit to the Garden, finished with three. He shot 1-for-7 from the field. Forward Antonio McDyess led Detroit with 15 points and 13 rebounds."Yeah, there's some mental fatigue," coach Flip Saunders said. "But we can't use that as an excuse. You play 82 games. You're going to have a lot of games like that."

[nasty daddy]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 40367/1051

Sunday's 65 points marked only the sixth time in 10 years the Pistons have failed to score at least 70 points in the regular season:

DATE VS W/L PTS
Sunday N.Y. L 65
March 13, 2005 UTA W 64*
Dec. 11, 2004 MEM L 68
Jan. 20, 2004 IND L 69
Feb. 21, 1999 S.A. L 64*
Feb. 15, 1999 N.Y. L 69
*Team record

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/DETNYK_ ... recap.html

The Madison Square Garden crowd roared with approval when the end of the New York Giants

[Muzzleshot]

Rob Otto or whoever does the post-game show was mentioning that Amir is having a lot of trouble picking up Flip's offense and defense as reaosn why he simply doesn't get any playing time and is even the last player off the bench in garbage minutes.

I'm seeing eerie similarities between Amir and Darko. Amir tries to come in and be perfect - to earn real minutes- and as a reslut he over thinks everything and looks lost at worst or very unsure/tentative at best.

A few weeks back Drew Sharpe made comments on the radio that Amir's work ethic isn't all it should be. This wasn't Drew's opinion, it was in the context of coming from some inside information, possibly from a beat reporter.

There's no question that he looks lost when he's on the court. He doesn't even look confident when he's lined up when someone is shooting foul shots. I just hope Amir isn't cut from the same cloth as Tyrus Thomas, that being long on physical tools, short on brains.

[Uncle Mxy]

Rob Otto or whoever does the post-game show was mentioning that Amir is having a lot of trouble picking up Flip's offense and defense as reaosn why he simply doesn't get any playing time and is even the last player off the bench in garbage minutes.

As near as I can figure, when we get Amir the ball, he will either do good things with it, or not, and it'll be easy to figure out in 2-4 minutes which Amir we're getting. I'm struggling to understand why that doesn't happen with more frequency. Plug him in the 2nd quarter, and run a play for him that involves proximity to the basket. See what happens.

Brezec looks supremely lost out there, especially when you consider he's been a starter in the past, but he's gotten more burn than Amir.

I'm seeing eerie similarities between Amir and Darko. Amir tries to come in and be perfect - to earn real minutes- and as a reslut he over thinks everything and looks lost at worst or very unsure/tentative at best.

The difference is, Amir actually produces in his limited time on the court, and he still doesn't get burn. I think he looks lost because he's asked to do something he's least effective at... being the 4th-5th option on a team where being the 4th-5th option means taking an ill-advised 3 or jumper.

[Liqourish]

Blue Collar is going to work even when you don

[Dirtgrain]

I missed the game. Did it basically come down to the Pistons not being able to hit perimeter shots? Box score looks ugly.

When we drafted Stuckey, I saw him as a guy who could come in when our team isn't hitting outside shots and drive to the basket. He doesn't seem quite ready for that role, though (needs to work on finishing drives). If only Prince could drive as aggressively as Gerald Wallace did the other night.