Game 35: Detroit @ Dallas // Wed. 9pm on ESPN

[nasty daddy]

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

STUDS: None of the Pistons played particularly well tonight, which is a first this season. As for Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki was extremly efficient with a game-high 23 points while shooting 10-for-15 from the field.SOLID: It was just another typical night for Rip Hamilton, who had a team-high 18 points on 9-for-18 shooting from the field. Jason Terry had a good game for the Mavs, scoring 15 points off the bench.

DUDS: There were plenty of Pistons who could have fallen into this category. But the play of Tayshaun Prince stood out in a bad way. He missed six of his seven shots from the field, and didn't really make much of an impact at either end of the floor. Fortunately for Prince, Dallas' Josh Howard (10 points, 4-of-12 shooting) didn't play particularly well, either.SUPER SUB: Arron Afflalo's late-game shooting helped lift the Pistons to a shooting percentage above 40 percent. He had eight points, three rebounds and two steals.

UP NEXT: Tonight at San Antonio. This is the last place Detroit would like to be in need of a win. No team has owned the Pistons the way the Spurs have. In the last 10 games in San Antonio, Detroit went home losers nine times. And based on the way they have played in the last two games, that trend isn't likely to change tomorrow night.

[nasty daddy]

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

The Pistons went to Big D but played little D

[nasty daddy]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=280109006

OK, so it's only two losses in a row by the Pistons after their 102-86 loss Wednesday night in Dallas, but their consecutive losses follow an 11-game winning streak. And they had lost back-to-back games only one other time.

Four nights after the Pistons' 92-85 loss to Boston when they blew a 12-point lead, this one wasn't even close. They led only 14 seconds against Dallas - after Chauncey Billups hit a short runner on their first shot of the game to lead 2-0.

Richard Hamilton had 18 points to lead the Pistons, while Billups had 16.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 00437/1051

The Pistons suffered their most lopsided loss this season, 102-86, to the Dallas Mavericks. The setback opened a four-game trip that continues tonight in San Antonio.

Coach Flip Saunders needed one word to sum up the night."Terrible," he said. "Against good teams, you've got to set the tone early. We came out and were not aggressive. We didn't contest. We pretty much let them get to where they wanted to get on spots. Against good teams, when you let them get into a rhythm, it's tough to get them out of it."

Shooting guard Richard Hamilton scored 18 and Chauncey Billups 16 for the Pistons (26-9). Rookie guard Rodney Stuckey scored 10. It's only the team's second two-game losing streak of the season, and Billups said nothing is seriously wrong. "We just couldn't get it done today," Billups said. "Especially starting a road trip, you want to have a better game than that. We didn't do that, but the good thing about it is we get a chance against another good team tomorrow to try and do it again."

[nasty daddy]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 10023/1051

Pistons coach Flip Saunders:

[nasty daddy]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 0001/1051/

[prophet_of_rage]

I can't say that I'm mad at the results of this game. When you look at it, Dallas has the perfect personnel to exploit Detroit.

Fleet-footed shooting point guard with defensive mindset. Devin Harris can simply make Chauncey disappear. Quick guards go by Chauncey and he can shoot well enough to put a lot of pressure on him otherwise and tire him out. Also, because he takes charges and has quick feet he's not as vulnerable to the Chauncey post up.

Tough-minded defensive wings. Dallas has two of them in Eddie Jones and Josh Howard. They've got two people to chase Rip meaning somebody is always fairly fresh. On the other end, they are also both big enough to make him work defensively.

A big body to bull Sheed. Same as Glen Davis did to Sheed Dampier just bodied him and pushed him around and used his weight advantage. Because he was too big for Dyess Nowitzki had clean looks over Dyess. In fact, he treated him like he wasn't there.

Supersubs. Dallas' bench is probably deeper than the Pistons because it has viable players at every slot who are young veterans rather than young. Bass/Maxiell is a push. They're the same player. Stackhouse and Jet, though, are both better than Stuckey/Afflalo right now. Diop comes in to continue the big beef beatdown.

It all adds up to a team that is geared to the Pistons weaknesses.

One thing I am terribly disappointed in is Detroit's defence. There's a problem there and look no further than Sheed to see it. He's pissed that his perimeter guys don't keep their men in front of them. When the guards got past Chauncey and Tayshaun they simply let them go. Then Sheed or Dyess were supposed to come up and get their checks.

What the perimeter players are supposed to do is keep going with their check and then when the double team picks up they slide off to the open man. I see the Detroit perimeter waiting to see what will happen and hoping to get out in transition. What's Sheed done about it? He stopped rotating last night. You could see his disgust with the penetration. He played like he had five fouls when he had two. That's a message to his guards.

[Liqourish]

Two things really jumped out at me during the game.

1.) Walter Herrmann was the only big to constantly keep his body on his defensive assignment. Dirk DID NOT SCORE while Fabio defended him. While Dice and Sheed gave Dirk room to set up and knock them down. Of course Dirk made some hard buckets, but after he got into a groove by not really being guarded, they were gravy.

2.) Arron Afflalo was the ONLY guard not getting trapped on screens. The reason Devin Harris kept getting into the lane was because Dallas would set a screen that Chauncey, Rip and Stuckey all tried to cheat through, got stuck, and Harris had an open lane to the basket, again and again and again.

These are fundamental assignments you learn when you are 7 yrs old.

What a horrible game. At least Herrmann manned up and brought it.... too bad his new team didn't show up and help out.

[LanierFan]

Agree about Herrmann. I didn't know the guy was so nasty on defense - it was almost like he had some old beef against Nowitzki. The two have probably played each other a number of times in Europe, but Walter really brought an angry edge that stood out.

Somebody order five of his knee-length distressed leather coats for the starters, please.

[prophet_of_rage]

Two things really jumped out at me during the game.

1.) Walter Herrmann was the only big to constantly keep his body on his defensive assignment. Dirk DID NOT SCORE while Fabio defended him. While Dice and Sheed gave Dirk room to set up and knock them down. Of course Dirk made some hard buckets, but after he got into a groove by not really being guarded, they were gravy.

2.) Arron Afflalo was the ONLY guard not getting trapped on screens. The reason Devin Harris kept getting into the lane was because Dallas would set a screen that Chauncey, Rip and Stuckey all tried to cheat through, got stuck, and Harris had an open lane to the basket, again and again and again.

These are fundamental assignments you learn when you are 7 yrs old.

What a horrible game. At least Herrmann manned up and brought it.... too bad his new team didn't show up and help out.

In defence of Sheed and Dyess, Hermann can afford the fouls and the risk of fouls. Sheed could not and Dyess really did work hard on defence. He's just not quick enough or tall enough to bother Dirk.

Afflalo did do the best job on the screen. Again, I think this has more to do with fresh legs than anything else. But, being fair to the starters, the reserves didn't do much more than the starters.

Dallas was flat out better.

[JES12]

2.) Arron Afflalo was the ONLY guard not getting trapped on screens. The reason Devin Harris kept getting into the lane was because Dallas would set a screen that Chauncey, Rip and Stuckey all tried to cheat through, got stuck, and Harris had an open lane to the basket, again and again and again.

These are fundamental assignments you learn when you are 7 yrs old.

Well, I guess many NBA players need to go back to 7 yrs old and learn that because Harris has been doing that for the past 2 years when given the oppertunity minute wise and by letting Harris run the point instead of Terry.

[Dirtgrain]

I just saw a plague of lazy, and I only got to watch the first half. On the first possession, Chauncey hopped up and down a few times as he brought the ball over half court, as if he were trying to shake something off. Then he proceeded to walk with the ball, slower than Moses Malone, to the top of the key to initiate the offense. Blech. Collectively, they just didn't have enough in their tanks (or enough motivation in their minds). I can't easily criticize such a letdown--I have no idea what it's like to go through an NBA schedule. And we see every team have such letdowns once and a while. With that in mind, I don't know what this game tells us about Detroit versus Dallas.