Game 61: Detroit @ Boston// Wed.7.30pm on TV20 Detroit HD

bruno sundov · Post #301 » by **bruno sundov** » Thu Mar 6, 2008 1:57 pm

All I have to say is Flip didn't give your guys a rest of all game. He ran your starters into the ground.

Did you hear what Dave Cowens said before the game? He said, that his celtics coached by tommy heinson would have ran this celtics team into the ground. Just crushed them with there willingness to run and run and run.

princeofpalace · Post #302 » by **princeofpalace** » Thu Mar 6, 2008 2:36 pm

^
The bench looked atrocius tonight and Dice and Sheed only played around 20 minutes the game before. Maxiel and Amir were getting flat out abused. Maxi was missing dunks ofcourse, was too short to grab boards and Amir was getting killed by KG who scored like 12 straight points on him.

Dixon looked ok, but Afflalo would have been a better defensive option. Stuckey didnt really provide anything but atleast he was trying to take it hard to the rim (something that no other Piston even tried to do), Hayes- I dont remember him at all.

I hope everyone now realizes that Theo is MORE than just insurance neither Maxiel or Johnson are big enough to contain the big guys Detroit will see in the late rounds of the playoffs. Once again I reiterate that Maxiel needs to be shipped in combination with Detroits draft pick in order to grab a true C with some size.

After starting the game so poorly, Im suprised that Detroit kept it as close as they did. In any case keeping an eye on the Texas A&M-Baylor game kept me from getting too upset at Detroit this time. (Dont know if anyone caught the game on ESPN2 but classy Baylor fans threw trash & water bottles at the Aggies because the Bears were getting flat out abused on their homecourt which lead to an amazing/showboating dunk by Donald Sloan to further embarrass the Bears http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3678572131076509177)

After watching this game these are the things Detroit needs to improve on, IMO.

1) The 4/5 spots. Dice needs to find his shot or lose his PT. Its somewhat of a trend for DIce to lose his shot as the postseason nears but he needs to either find it or lose some PT to Amir Johnson or Theo Ratliff,if need be. We saw Johnson and Maxiel get flat out abused by BOstons bigger players, Maxiel is simply too small to be effective and Johnson is too thin to completely contain bigger players. Also I am tired of seeing Jason Maxiel miss dunks. Hopefully, Ratliff will play and help the situation. Playing Maxiel and Johnson together against big frontlines is not an option as it does not work, playing Maxiel and Dice together also is not a good option as they are to small. Lets throw Ratliff into the mix and find a better rotation, cuz Detroit desperately needs it.

2) Tayshaun needs the ball in his hand to be effective. Tay plays better acting as PF, he makes better decisions than Rip when he has the ball in his hands, gets to the lane and connects more than Rip and doesnt turn th eball over as much as Rip. Tay needs to be Detroits secondary ballhandler or atleast spend more time with the bench and act as the primary ballhandler.

3)ISO ball- This is something that killed Detroit last year, the tendancy for the players (Rip, Chauncey specifically) to try to take the game into their own hands and play one on one ball in order to get into the lane. Niether player is very effective at it although Chauncey atleast gets a few calls his way. These guys need to realize that ballmovement and not stagnated offense perpetuated by weak ISO play wins games. If either two were exceptional at one on one ball, it would be a different story but the two are average at best. ANd IMO- Tay is Detroits best starting option at ISO.

4) Substitution patterns- Sometimes Saunders rotatiosn are perfect but sometimes they are downright terrrible. I dont know what was going throw his head but a Stuckey-Dixon-Hayes-Dice-Johnson lineup will not work against a bigger team as it is terrible undersized and stagnated offensively with the lack of a true ballhandler. Saunders needs to somehow get smarter about his rotations

Post #303 » by **roc** » Thu Mar 6, 2008 4:23 pm

princeofpalace wrote: Also I am tired of seeing Jason Maxiel miss dunks.

In a recent interview, Max said he dunks with his eyes closed.

GJense4181 · Post #304 » by **GJense4181** » Thu Mar 6, 2008 4:54 pm

^wtf.

bstein14 · Post #305 » by **bstein14** » Thu Mar 6, 2008 6:45 pm

Yeah I saw that too. He throws it down with such force his eyes close.

It is getting kind of annoying.

As poor as some of our young guys have played in stretches Ratliff might be a bigger addition than we realize.

Warspite · Post #306 » by **Warspite** » Thu Mar 6, 2008 7:06 pm

A very good game and Im satsified with how the Pistons played.

1. Ray Allen was all but shut down
2. Pierce only scored in transition
3. The Pistons were flat and missed there 1st 9 shots and still was in the game

Random thoughts

1. Tommy is a very good announcer when not doing Celtics games. Even so he seemed much more reserved and coherant than normal.

2. Big Baby played well and Im begining to think he should have been taken over Arron.

3. Rip was awful in the 1st half. Playing defense and taking that shot from Allen took him off his game.

4. Dixon is a welcome upgrade but he needs to improve his shot selection

5. I was a big fan of Hayes and loved his signing..... I thought Flip and I were the only guys who could see how good he was but I have seen the light..... Flip is an idiot and Herrman needs to play NOW!!!

bballcool34 · Post #307 » by **bballcool34** » Thu Mar 6, 2008 10:09 pm

Warspite wrote:A very good game and Im satsified with how the Pistons played.

2. Pierce [b]only scored in transition [/b]

Not at all:

Pierce had the step back three early in the 1st, came around a screen for a midrange jumper

In the fourth he had two other threes I think.

Pierce didn't go off or anything, but he got the threes and shots he wanted, and Detroit really did nothing to hinder him.

nasty daddy · Post #308 » by **nasty daddy** » Fri Mar 7, 2008 2:06 am

http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/ ... logid=1209

My wish for the Pistons is this: Lose the sense of entitlement. You haven't won anything in three seasons. I love your confidence. I even love your arrogance, when it's put to positive use -- like when you give up 41 points in the first quarter to Seattle and still know, without a doubt, that you are coming back and winning that game. Love that. But with 20 games left, I want to see you put that chip back on your shoulder. I want to see you get that underdog mentality going again, that us-against-the-world thing you had in 2004. Back in 2004, if you saw Steve Javie and Marc Davis were working a big game, it would galvanize you. "We ain't going to let those guys beat us." Now, you see them, like you did in Boston, and it's like, "Darn, they are going to stick it to us again." Then it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy when Rasheed Wallace gets into early foul trouble and Boston gets a favorable whistle down the stretch. Right now, Boston and Cleveland are playing better basketball than you are. They are playing with more passion and with more fury. There is no reason for them to be hungrier than you. Your legacy is at stake. Either you are going down as one of the great teams of all time or you are going down as a one-hit wonder. You have 20 games to get yourselves right.

There were things that happened in Boston, regardless of the scheduling, regardless of anything, that were tough to take from a team with so much pride. A couple of examples: The slow passive start, firing up the first available jump time and again, allowing the Celtics to punch first and establish their pace. Tayshaun Prince arguing a no-call while his man, Paul Pierce, beat him down the floor for a basket. In the third quarter, playing catch-up, Antonio McDyess stands flat-footed while Glen Davis rips down an offensive rebound and scores the put back.Rajon Rondo blowing past Rip Hamilton, going coast-to-coast and dunking while three would-be defenders stand and watch. Rondo twice stealing an offensive rebound from two Pistons. Not making a single basket and missing six straight shots in the final five minutes after coming a bit unglued by a debatable offensive foul call by Javie on Chauncey Billups. Billups got a technical foul for arguing and the next four whistles went against the Pistons. Circle the wagons, fellas. You are going to get some bad whistles in the playoffs. You have to make up your minds right now not to let that deflate or defeat you. Get that chip back, man.

There was a lot of talk about the by-play between Wallace and Flip Saunders in the fourth quarter. Wallace picked up his fourth and fifth fouls in the same possession and the cameras must have caught him telling Flip that he wasn't coming out of the game. Saunders, rightly, immediately took Wallace out of the game and endured some harsh words from Wallace for his trouble. What's important about that isn't that Wallace demanded to stay out there. The important thing is that Saunders held firm. He didn't give in, and when Wallace came back in later, he drained a big three-pointer to pull the Pistons within a point. Speaking of Sheed, his left ankle was pretty sore after the game. The Pistons are listing him as probable, but I wouldn't be surprised if he sat out Friday in New York. Theo Ratliff is expected to be activated. If Sheed plays, then probably Walter Herrmann would sit. One last aside about Boston: Did Kendrick Perkins really get 20 rebounds? I know it said so on the stat sheet, but the stat sheet also said Wallace had no blocks and I know for a fact he had at least two. I am going to ask Ron Oliver -- the Pistons video coordinator -- to double check, but I would be shocked if Perkins really got 20 boards. The Pistons did miss a ton of shots, but I've seen 20 rebound performances before and that sure didn't look like one. Listen, right now Boston and Cleveland are playing better than you are. It

nasty daddy · Post #309 » by **nasty daddy** » Fri Mar 7, 2008 2:10 am

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/blaha_blog_080306.html

The atmosphere in Boston last night was charged with a playoff feel and they left happy because their Celtics won the game. But I