Out Sixered
The Sixers took one from the home team last night, but don't let the 83-82 score fool you. Sure Detroit took this game to the wire and could have won the game on a last second shot by Chauncey Billups, but even if the shot had fallen it would have been a hollow win by the home team. The Sixers came to the Palace Wednesday night to play and the Pistons didn't.
Key Points:
Key Points:
- I noticed that Andre Miller looked uninterested before the game, but once the buzzer sounded The Pistons were the ones that looked like they didn't care.
- Saunders and company still looking to tweak the rotation had everyone in uniform on the floor at one point last night. Sadly Waler Herrmann, a fan favorite, was in a suite on the inactive list.
- I think most Pistons fans are a little tired of The Pistons attitude towards the regular season. Shouldn't they take every game seriously? The #2 spot is not a lock just yet.
- Sheed was back in the lineup for the Pistons and led the team with 17. He was on fire in the first half making use of his strength and height down low as well as on the defensive end. It was Sheed who actually tied the game up in the third quarter and then on the next possession finally got the Pistons the lead.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and FSN Detroit
- Plenty of Sheedtastic Highlights.
- Ra, we love you man, but 7 three's is just too many, especially when you only hit one.
- 13 minutes for Theo and 2 ridiculous blocked shots, a steal and 3 boards.
- Turnovers, 14 of them to be exact. Sloppy play and good defense by the Sixers.
- The other AI had a couple of impressive jams.
- Happy I didn't make it out to The Palace for this one. I hate driving home after a loss.
- Many of you are very unhappy with this game and The Pistons effort. I couldn't agree with you more.
- Does the ball always have to go to Chauncey for the win so he can dribble down the last few seconds and throw up a bad shot hoping for a foul call? Sure it worked in Boston, but it's getting old. Reminds me of that dreaded game five against Cleveland that I still have nightmares about.
- The Pistons shot 46% on the night to the Sixers 40%. Philly took 83 shots on the night and the Pistons only 65, doesn't that say enough about effort?
- Sixers capitalized on Detroit's turnovers.
- McDyess had one of his better outings of late, putting up 14 points with 11 boards and three blocked shots. It was nice to see Dyess playing hard down low, but his missed free throws down the stretch really hurt (6-12 from the line). Still impressive.
Photo/Getty Images
- "We were terrible," a disgusted Saunders said after the game. "I was trying to find somebody who could play I told our starters, we put our bench in a very awkward situation, when you play that bad with that lack of energy early. Because now they get in the game and every play is almost like a huge play. We just played too cool."That's always been the rap on us: we play too cool and we didn't get nasty. The score is no indication of how we played-losing by one. It was a lot worse than that." Via The Detroit News
- It's hard to get a win when your leading scorer puts up just 9 points 0n 2-for-7 shooting. It didn't help that Rip, who is clutch from the line, missed two that could have helped.
- Tayshaun put 13 with 3 assists, 4 boards and a blocked shot. It seemed liked every time the Pistons needed one, Tay came through.
- Detroit trailed for most of the game but did take the lead in the mid fourth only to buckle down the stretch again. The couldn't get it done even though the Sixers didn't score in the last 2 and a half minutes of the ball game.
- 14 Points from the Pistons bench.
- Best part of the night...Alley Oop from Rip to Maxiell, who finished with 4 points. All four came off dunks.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and FSN Detroit
- Out rebounded 39-32.
- Block Party, Detroit blocked 12 shots on the night. That's the largest number this season.
- Just 2 assists for Chauncey Billups who had 15 points on the night.
- Very disappointing game as far as Pistons fans go. I felt it in the comments. I think most of you were more upset about this loss than the game in Boston.
- This past week's Podcast (Pistons Pet Peeves) came to life this game. If you missed it, I suggest you take a listen.
- NBA.com Highlights of The Game.
- This is where he belongs.
Photo/Getty Images
- I can't count the number of times I screamed at the TV for Detroit to take better care of the ball. They were trowing it away like it didn't matter and by the way they played.....it didn't.
- "In hindsight, if I knew I had a shot the first time, I wouldn't have come back," Billups said. "But I just wanted to rock him, kind of get him off-balance, and then once I turned to spin, I saw the double team come. The clock was going down, and my thing was I didn't want to put the next man, which would have been Rip, in a tough situation by throwing the ball with one or two seconds." Via The Detroit Free Press
- Again, just a reminder that Sunday's game has been changed again. It's a 1PM start and will be broadcast on ABC.
- So I doubt the Pistons will look like the same team on Friday, but why does it take a team with a team like The Spurs to light a fire in these guys. Don't they want it bad enough? I am beginning to have my doubts.
- I know Team Need4Sheed is going to have plenty to say about this one.
Labels: Game Videos, Recap, Sixers
posted by Natalie Sitto at 9:45 AM link to this post
53 Comments:
I think if we don't get to the finals this year Flip has go to go. He's a player's coach and I don't think he's tough enough on them. I like it before when Larry Brown would bust on their chops on the little mistakes even when we came out with a win. Larry Brown was a perfectionist and he demanded it. I don't know what's wrong with the team's attitude. It seems that they're not playing hungry enough.
1-7 is only half the story. Most of the 3 pointers "Ra" took for ill advised, not in the flow of the offense, and way beyond the arc. Didn't even looked like he cared. Probably one of his off nights, which has to sit real well with the fans that payed their hard earned money.
man..disgusting game! no energy, no hustle. I don't understand why j-max, amir & Afflalo didn't play more????!!!
I'm sure the pistons will come out with good focus against the spurs and I hope sheed keeps his butt in the paint!
This is why the pistons wont win another championship without gulp larry brown. I hate the man but this shit never happened under his watch. Under him the pistons played hard every night and were disaplinded on offense. The pistons should be blowing out these teams and instead they put no effort into the game. And rasheed i love you but when you have reggie evans on you, you NEED to be in the post all game long because he CANT guard you hell he cant even hold your jock strap and what do u do, take way to many threes and when u did post up, the results were good. Bottom line pistons will make it to the finals but lose because they NEED larry brown as coach.
This is why the pistons wont win another championship without gulp larry brown. I hate the man but this shit never happened under his watch. Under him the pistons played hard every night and were disaplinded on offense. The pistons should be blowing out these teams and instead they put no effort into the game. And rasheed i love you but when you have reggie evans on you, you NEED to be in the post all game long because he CANT guard you hell he cant even hold your jock strap and what do u do, take way to many threes and when u did post up, the results were good. Bottom line pistons will make it to the finals but lose because they NEED larry brown as coach.
i'm officially on the "Fire Flip Saunders" bandwagon.
when the team is down and playing horrible, he should be there to motive and get guys going, or put bench guys in more who will bring the energy back up.
they're doomed in the playoffs unless their mindset and attitude takes a 180.
i posted this on DBB, but here it is.
ok, took an hour to try to see what was going on with all those line-ups, there were 11 that i counted. I stopped counting when we put Afflalo in with about 30 seconds left, it wasn’t the normal flow of the game. caveats, i used the espn.com play by play and i’m not a statistician.
in order of most to least effectve:
Starters - +3
RS, RH, TP, JM, RW - +2
CB, AA, TP, AD, TR - +1
RS, RH, TP, AD, TR - +1
RS, AA, TP, JM, TR - 0
RS, JD, JH, AJ, TR - -1
RS, RH, JH, JM, RW - -3
CB, JD, TP, AD, TR - -4
CB, AA, TP, JM, TR - -4
CB, RH, TP, AD, TR - -5
RS, JD, TP, JM, TR - -5
things i find interesting:
1. The starters were only +3 on the night, that’s pretty pathetic.
2. Amir and Sheed were never on the court at the same time.
3. Our four worst units featured Tay and Theo. Three of those four also had Chauncey.
4. Has Theo really earned all this burn or are we still gauging what he has left?
it'll be difficult to look for a new coach now heading to the playoffs, unless its larry brown. from this point, joe has to get involve or/and remind flip and the players about the complacency issue that we've had and that it seems like were having it again. i don't see any sense of urgency. flip's fault reflects the players irresponsibility as well. it goes both ways. however, i do agree that flip needs to be more demanding. i don't think hes aggressive enough to make a demand, i bet our players are not scared to flip so they just play with the lack of energy at times. larry brown always reminds me of greg poppavich. i think he's the coach made in heaven for our pistons (right now at least) but all we can do is just dream on it. the only possibility to the current reality (or as far as i know) is to hire him as an assistant coach, if flip doesn't get it done this year, he could easily take his place. what u guys think?
ric/richard
Kyle, nice work I can't believe Sheed and Amir weren't out there together I could have sworn they were for a few minutes there.
As for Theo, I thing he really could help out there it he not a lock but he did prove something when he repaced Sheed.
Ric/Richard
I have done the whole Flip saunders thing a million times over. I honestly didn't think he'd be back this season so I know for sure hes really got make it to the Finals this year or he's out.
I believe Joe D has stepped in this year or else the Bench would not be playing.
I think Terry Porter is a step away from being the Pistons head coach.
We need Laimbeer and Mahorn for assistant coaches. We need to bring in some bad boys mentality to the players especially if we want to beat boston. Rivalry nowadays is a joke. I like the good old days when you can see it in the players eyes that they truly hate each other. I think Chauncey is soft. I hate it when he smiles and goes around the center court and greets the opposing team before the tip off. The original bad boys used to just put on poker faces and give a slight acknowlegdement.
I hate Boston as a fan. Why doesn't our player feel the same way? Stop being so friendly and start getting nasty. I miss Corliss Williamson on the low post. Sigh.....
Pistons are playing like the Dallas Cowboys right now in mid-Season, Half-hearted effort.
(Hate to use football analogy, but that's how it looks right now except there is no bimbo Jessica Simpson)
Lakers, Rockets, Celtics are all playing lights out basketball right now, what happened to the Pistons??
nat or anyone, what are the restriction on signing a coach or an assistant coach? is it the same as the players that there's a deadline meaning if they sign now they won't be part of the team until next season unless they're free agent?
ric/richard
I really thought most of this season that we would make it to the finals but I just can't see it happening now!!! I think are best bet in the east finals would be surprisingly the Lebrons, just because of the fact that boston has gotten the better of us, the got three starters we have to shut down and then they got big baby off the bench and we saw what he did in the second game. The Lebrons only have Lebron to shut down!!!!
If we don't make it to the finals this year I would be shocked if Flip is coaching next year. We have been playing with no energy as of late, I thought Joe D said we were getting rid of the complacency issues at the end of last year!!!! The game against the Sonics shouldn't have been that close, we are talking about a team that hasn't even won 20 damn games yet!!! and same goes for the Knicks, now granted Sheed didn't play that game but still!!!
Ryan I have to agree with you Sheed needs to get into the DAMN POST no more threes. I wouldn't have a problem if he was making say 4 of 7 or 5 of 7 but when you go 1 for 7 you need to stop putting up the three ball!!!!
One last thing that has really been pissing me off is the fact that everyone dishes the ball off to Tay with 6 left on the shot clock!!!! I would love to see Tay getting more touches, but you can't expect him to bail you out every time you let the clock wind down to 6 seconds left. I saw it happen in like two possessions in a row where Billups dished it off to Tay with 6 left, granted he was open but still you can't expect him to bail you out every time!!!!! I think Tay should demand the ball a bit more early on in the game. great article on pistons.com http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/langlois_blog_080310.html
Yes I feel the same way, why don't the Pistons feel they need to play hard every game. They really need to be humbled....sadly I thought they were after the EFC last season.
Richard,
No restrictions whatsoever, the only thing is they would have to play Flip's salary if they fired him and I believe he only has one season left on the contract.
Oh how I with Bill and Rick would coach but as sad as it is I don't think Laimbeer will ever get a shot at coaching the Pistons. I think there is a reason that we as fans just don't know about.
I think we need to make Sheed our captain. Chauncey, Rip, and Tay isn't cutting it. Back when Ben and Chauncey was co captain at least we had a bad cop/good cop thing going. Now I don't see any of the three bust someone's chop when needed. We need Sheed to be Captain. Or at least Sheed and Chauncey. Rip and Tay are not captain material. Screw seniority. When Sheed talks I bet all of them are going to listen. Plus he's the only one who plays with a sense of urgency recently.
Henry
in that case joe should consider picking larry brown's brain a little bit by hiring him as an asst coach, specifically assigned as a defensive coach. it'll be a win-win situation, or in fans perspective at least. if we get the ship, then everybody's happy. if we don't, we fire flip and larry steps in.
ric/richard
Richard,
Larry will NEVER be a part of this Pistons team in any capacity as long as Bill Davidson is alive.
I think Dumars and Laimbeer don't want to go down the route that Trammell and Gibson went when they were coaching the tigers. Just a guess. Those guys butted heads pretty hard.
Its too bad too...cause it is almost a match made in heaven.
Its funny Natalie...when they interviwed Porter during halftime...it hit me that he IS probably Flips replacement...If that does go down, I don't think he's the correct man for the job either.
The old man just don't like Larry Brown. Plus Larry gave Mr. D a black eye after he was let go. (I will always believe that)
I would happily welcome back..........Rick Carlile... WOW..I just said that...
Henry--I don't know about changing captains...but leadership is lacking...
If we fall off even somewhat close to how last year played out....I am ready for that fire sale. I've put in too much time and energy with these guys...You don't want to play here? Piss off...have fun somewhere else....grrrrrrr Now I just made myself angry again
nat or anyone. didn't larry brown left cuz of health risk and if hes capable of coaching the entire year? what was the story. i forgot the whole thing since i was more crushed losing the finals. will joe welcome him with open arms? did it end in bad terms?
ric/richard
in this particular history about pistons front desk and larry brown i think "time heals wound" or something like that, does apply, which means re-unite is a possibility. c-web and nelson did.
richard/ric
Richard, I think Junior said it best....
"The old man just don't like Larry Brown. Plus Larry gave Mr. D a black eye after he was let go"
I will also ad that Larry made it about Larry, not the team...for goodness sake he was seeking out a Job as GM During the NBA Finals, that's not good business no matter what Job you have.
and, calm down Junior.
i like terry porter as the replacement
ok ok, now i remember, its all coming back, all i remembered before ur explanation is he was sick and i guess i felt kinda bad. speaking of being sick, i hope u got over with ur cold or whatever u had last week or so. ok, so no for larry brown. terry porter isn't the guy i imagine coaching our guys, but i guess at this point a lot of people are worth the shot. i just hope if he gets it he'll turn out to be one of those new coach who rise and lift the team.
by the way anonymous 2:28 is me
ric/richard
sorry...they make my blood boil when they play like this...
http://www.jamd.com/image/g/53267319?partner=Google&epmid=2
I do remember in the game Rodney Stuckey was passing for an ally oop to someone, but philly knocked it away and got the ball. The camera went on sheed and you could here him say "QUIT TURNING THE F**KING BALL OVER."
Tayshaun is getting into the lane and finishing, but lets see him do it against a good team. Remember Cleveland shut him down last year after he got a huge ego after the bulls series.
He needs to play some d and block some more shots with his length.
nat,
sadly i've just been made aware that all my research is for naught since espn.com's play by play only announces subs during the quarter, and not who starts it. Sheed started the second quarter, therefore everything after that is wrong. grumble grumble grumble.
i still think it's significant that after four minutes of Theo in the first quarter we went from being down 1 to being down 7. He'll probably get more minutes than max or amir, and he probably plays good enough to doeserve it, but he doesn't push the starters like max and amir do. i hope flip notices this.
are u serious sheed said that? is this true nat?
ric/richard
the only logical reasonable explanation i could come up about sheed's 3pts attempt over posting up is he trying to not expose his post-up ability in the remaining of the regular season, so when playoff comes, it'll be harder for other team to adjust to pistons offense (sheed's post play). but either way, its not he's call to make and plus, its not an ideal strategy.
ric/richard
I think it's time to get the roster ready for playoff. Stop tinkering with the lineups. We all know who can play and who can't. Let's reward people who play the defense first. I like Afflalo over Stuckey when coming of the bench first. Yes we need to develop Stuckey, but now is not the time. I haven't seen much progress in him during close games. He's great during blowouts, but when we need a win during close games, put Afflalo and Dixon in.
if it makes any pistons fan feel better, i know i did, orlando won over the la clippers last night. i don't want the cavs to steal the 3rd spot from the magic. i rather play magic in the second round.
How bad do they want it?
not bad enough...
McDyess's block at the end on Dalembert had me fired up, I was so pumped, I thought that would have given us the edge. But we had 3 strait possesion with open layups, McDyess blew the one, missed a FT, kind of hurt us, but it was just a sloppy scrappy game for Detroit, if we would have played like this against some one like San Antonio, it could have been ugly.
dyess is in the peculiar position of being the most motivated and least talented of the starting five. he wants to push and make things happen, but his shot isn't dropping, his layups aren't dropping and his free throws aren't dropping.
it's sad to see him push so hard and fail. the rest of the starters better start showing the fire he has. it's a shame we have to start putting the bench in to get a little aggresiveness.
Is it just me or do the rest of the starters seem to be cool off lately in games when Sheed is playing.
I agree Kyle, if all the starters could play with the fire McDyess comes with every single night, chalk us up another championship, they used to be like that in 04...
the sixers looked like a team not with the most talent, but one with no egos and hard defense.
gee, wonder where we saw that before.
<-------always a larry brown apologist, despite the fact that he was a drama queen. point is that he got the job done.
Everyone take a deep breath...
Now calm down...
It's the sixers! Why does everyone get so excited when the Pistons lose to a shitty team?
Everyone says:
"Fire Flip!"
"Trade Sheed"
"Where is Larry Brown?"
You all expect too much. It's the end of the season, we have the playoffs and 50 wins on lock, and the sixers are fighting on the bottom to stay in the playoffs. Get real...
A new coach would f**k this team up to the maximum right now.. and Flip Saunders isn't the one throwing up off balance jumpers with less than a minute left in the game.
Don't give me that Joe D complacancy bull either. It's one game.
By the way, if you paid your hard earned money to go to this game, shame on you. you should have picked a better game than the SIXERS at the END of the season!!! If you were smart you would buy tickets to a good game or invest some of that hard earned money so you can afford the good games next year! Bums...
You wouldn't catch me dead at that piece of crap game.
You know what? I'm glad the sixers won. At least we have something to talk about, other than raving about how great our team is.
Yes it's just one game. But that's what everybody said last year and the year before.
What i'm worried is seeing a deja vu. These games where we should've won but lost seems to carry over to the playoffs. Reminds me of playoff series against Miami and Cleveland. Everytime we lose a game they say it's just "one game" we'll flip on the switch and win the next one. Seems like a bad habit with this team. What does it take for them to get serious? I don't think they should cruise through the rest of the season and try to get serious again during playoffs. It doesn't work! You've got to always keep that killer instinct. The only time you can relax is when you've won the championship.
Yes, we're stuck with Flip, but there's gotta be a way to light a fire up their ass and get them working hard again.
Pistons fans have a habit of thinking that teams that used to be horrible will always be horrible. Everyone was shocked when ESPN put New Orleans in #1 spot for Power Rankings but look at them they are great! People also thought the Hawks were garbage when we played them but they would have one of the best teams in the East if they had a quality Point Guard. And lastly Philly was on a 12-4 tear on their last 16 games and 12-4 will give a team alot of confidence enough to beat a team like the Pistons. I really think you guys need to give other teams some credit. Except for Cleveland, Cleveland will always suck. (had to get some insults to Cleveland)
About this loss, tough one for us it was overall a bad game to watch. Great game for Sheed too much Threes though. I think we lost simply because of Turnovers, and Rip not playing how he could but it was mostly Turnovers.
The Pistons biggest asset is taking care of the ball, bottom line, we don't get much 2nd chance points so we can't turn the ball over because that will enable teams to get extra possesions over us whioh will devastate us considering we prefer getting back in transition Defense rather than getting the offensive rebound. So on top of the second chance opportunities (I believe Philly got 24 scnd chance pts) and the TOs (Philly got 17 pts off of ours) they simply got more shot opportunities than us.
Just some thoughts:
An uncharacteristic 3 TOs from Tay and an uncharacteristic 2 blocks and 2 ast from Billups
There is no reason Rodney Stuckey should get more minutes (15) than Jason Maxiell (9) who is our sixth man here?
Games like this are hard. For the time being though, they STILL made it to the playoffs quicker than anyone excpet Boston and they STILL hold the second best record in the league. The vast majority of the league would give anything to be as good as Detroit - realize there are teams that celebrate just making the playoffs, And MOST teams