Another Detroit Pistons loss thread

[Andrew]

Keeping with the tradition...the Indiana Pacers have become the latest team to climb the mountain/stop the runaway freight train that is the Detroit Pistons, 93-85.

[Emiliano]

whoopee!! another Pistons' loss

[Axel]

Maybe we can finally put a stop to the 70 victories talk.

[kinokong]

69 victories then

[Andrew]

Maybe we can finally put a stop to the 70 victories talk.

As long as it's mathematically possible, it'll continue. They've still got a chance (obviously) but realistically you need to do what Chicago did in 1996, enter the All-Star break with less than five losses to give yourself a buffer when fatigue starts to set in late in the regular season.

[Blasphemy]

There out. But Indiana is doing so well with Peja in there lineup. Maybe they can finnaly get a 10 game winning streak

[MetalHead]

Detroit really can't run for the 70. They'll fall short on nights like these. The opponents, unlike themselves, are rested, ready, and prepared or the Pistons. The Pistons need someone to really seperate himself from the "All-Star" threshold of above-average players to the next plateau of "Superstar". Until then, Billups is going to have to close out games, but we all know that teams will begin to expect that.

[dada]

Kinda surprised they lost tonight. At least we know they are human.

[nbalive744]

The Pistons will not win 70, I guarantee it. They already know they will be in the playoffs, and that thought soothes them too much I guess, they just want Home Court Advantage in the PO's.

[Bang]

69 victories then

MAGIC NUMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just had to say that...

Well good bye to the 70 wins talk...I think. Or at least the catching with the Bulls talk.

[Matt]

This is what happens when you overplay your starters on the front end of a back to back (vs Philly). In the 2nd Half only Evans & McDyess played and now in this game the team suffers, and logs heavy minutes again.

I'm not a fan of Saunders minutes distribution...he should have Arroyo, Evans & Delfino getting 12-15mpg, and McDyess 15-20mpg.

[Laxation]

Everytime we lose, we get smashed on the boards.
Before halftime, we were down by 10 rebounds and I knew we would lose...

[Matthew]

This is what happens when you overplay your starters on the front end of a back to back (vs Philly). In the 2nd Half only Evans & McDyess played and now in this game the team suffers, and logs heavy minutes again.

I'm not a fan of Saunders minutes distribution...he should have Arroyo, Evans & Delfino getting 12-15mpg, and McDyess 15-20mpg.

Lol, yeah they should be playing Darko now!! Damn Larry brown, not giving darko minutes, its all larry browns fault .

[Laxation]

This is what happens when you overplay your starters on the front end of a back to back (vs Philly). In the 2nd Half only Evans & McDyess played and now in this game the team suffers, and logs heavy minutes again.

I'm not a fan of Saunders minutes distribution...he should have Arroyo, Evans & Delfino getting 12-15mpg, and McDyess 15-20mpg.

Its hard to play your bench if they arent performing well and the game iis really close.

[Matt]

Every teams plays their bench quite a bit, except a few like Detroit. This bench isn't bad at all, but they just aren't getting the time they need to establish a rhythm. Isn't it worrisome that Detroit (starters) couldn't extend a lead against Philly who used their bench in hte 3rd? The starters don't get it done against other teams benches, they play complacent until pushed....this hurts the benches chances of playing. This is the story of most games.

Saunders has little trust in the bench except for McDyess, in the end, it's the starters that will carry this team, but if they don't wanna burn out like last season then they need to take care of business early.

Another problem is that Saunders hasn't figured out whom to use with whom. He'll have Evans & Arroyo together @the same time, which is just killer for the team. He hasn't even experimented with various combinations enough, like Arroyo PG & Billups @SG.

Oh well, apart from that, guess you can't complain.

[Matthew]

Burn out like last season? Lol they made it to the 7th game on the nba finals! Its not like they lost 4-1 in the conference semi finals..

[Matt]

Prince & Ben Wallace were visibly not playing like they usually do, that long series against Miami had Ben Wallace tired, Brown should have actually used Campbell more. 2 reasons for this fatigue....1. Brown milked the starting 5 too much ALL SEASON long 2. Pistons inability to close teams out.

Both problems appear this season, but will be eliminated if Pistons can quickly advance through the playoffs.

[Matthew]

Do you even know what you're saying? Maybe, just maybe Ben Wallace's numbers were down due to the fact he had to guard Shaq? Tayshawn Prince has never been a consistant offensive option.. but seriously, you say somthing, but offer zero evidence to back it up? "Prince & Ben Wallace were visibly not playing like they usually do, that long series against Miami had Ben Wallace tired", but what evidence do you have of this? And they still got through that series and into a 7th game with the spurs, so its not like they were completely exhausted the next series.

[maes]

As i've always said, i like Indiana's "reserves" better than their starters. 39 points, 16 boards, and 9 assists from Jones/Granger/Harrison.

The bench is more important for bigs, as they enter a wrestling match every trip downcourt. Guards can typically play most of the game on most teams. But for bigs Detroit has only McDyess & Dale Davis, who are 32 & 37 years old. Past that, you're looking at Maxiell to guard NBA bigs, i can see why Flip leaves the starters in.

This is always going to be the big problem for Detroit, since they went out to get almost an entire starting 5 of all-stars, they can't afford a decent bench. Assuming Ben gets signed to what he's worth, they'll be paying Sheed $10M, Ben $10M+, Prince $13M, Hamilton $9M. Then Billups is up after next season, and he'll get a max offer from any team in the league. Dumar's payroll makes Cuban look conservative.

Ultimately, this is the big difference between the 72 win Bulls and Detroit. The Bulls had a decent bench, they always did. Kukoc, Kerr, Harper, and Wennington accounted for 34.2 ppg.

Having that bench presence is the key to consistency you need to win 7 game series in the playoffs. With a lot of teams, they only go to the bench when their main guns are having a bad game. All of a sudden, now this bench guys is expected to take shots he's never taken before all season. On the Bulls, the bench were taking those shots all season long and had a lot of confidence in themselves.

[Matt]

Do you even know what you're saying? Maybe, just maybe Ben Wallace's numbers were down due to the fact he had to guard Shaq? Tayshawn Prince has never been a consistant offensive option.. but seriously, you say somthing, but offer zero evidence to back it up? "Prince & Ben Wallace were visibly not playing like they usually do, that long series against Miami had Ben Wallace tired", but what evidence do you have of this? And they still got through that series and into a 7th game with the spurs, so its not like they were completely exhausted the next series.

Stats have nothing to do with this. Ben got beat up in the Miami series, and that took it's toll in the latter stages of the Finals. He wasn't playing like he usually was. Same with Prince, there was little energy, sloppy play and not enough hustle. They just didn't play like they normally do.

[playkalla]

there was not sloppy play both team had very low turnovers it jus that pacers crushed pistons on rebounds

[Matt]

wtf you on about?