I was very surprised to look at the box score after the game and see that Cleveland only scored 1 more FG than we did. I would have guessed 10 more at least. Pretty good rebounding by Kwame, 9 in 16 minutes. Not sure what happened to that gritty Dyess of the last 2 months. He just wasn't boarding like he can. Offensively, I actually think we over achieved today... given that we didn't get any free throws at all. We shot a good percentage against one of the best defensive teams in the playoffs in their arena. Stuckey was great early, Rip did some minor damage by hitting tough leaners, Dyess was hitting that baseline fadeaway, and Sheed was actually mixing it up nicely, even summoning the energy to venture into the post on occasion with pretty good results. Our bench was also very decent with Bynum, Afflalo and Kwame getting on the board in pts and rebs. And Maxiell's dunk at the end was pretty cool even though the game was obviously over. But on defense... I'm pretty sure we aren't ever going to score over 102 points in the playoffs this year, no matter how far we go. As I mentioned at the start, they only scored 1 more basket. That means that either the calls were bad or we just got out-muscled and could not play defense without fouling. There were a couple bad calls, but I can't say they were worse than any other game I've seen. So, what can we do to avoid this terrible FT deficit? Probably nothing.
Thanks; i don't know why i couldn't remember his name. Great, now if he does it consistently and against actual competition, we'll have something here, but since it's likely that he will get shut down by Courtney Lee in the next round i'll wait before i heap praise.
I found that LBJ stat i was talking about before; BULLS: Sam Smith: LeBron gets star treatment edited to add; a little OT to that, but it's frustrating to know exactly what type of defense we need to play this series and realize that this line-up is not quick enough to play it. It completely nullifies even having a solid strategy.
Uh, yeah. That's why he's a defensive POY candidate I guess. I didn't really see him fouling us today. He just sort of stood his ground as MC foolishly called iso's for Tay.
Yeah, he didn't even have to play defense today. Tay has to be a [STRIKE]little[/STRIKE] lot more active and make him work at least a little on the defense end. As to the question proposed earlier in the thread about getting rid of Tay. That's a good question..it seems like he disappears in big games, but honestly sometimes he doesn't seem to be doing much in a game (while I'm watching) and then after I go look at the box score and he's got 20 points. It's weird with him. I think it's mainly because he has the same look throughout the game. He never gets angry, he rarely shows emotion, and he's not a flashy guy. However, we have no backup SF so I don't know what we would do if we got rid of him. I do think the PF and C need to be addressed before Tay though. I wonder what his post season stats are throughout his career. Especially his stats against different playoff series throughout the years. My memory sucks, but I do recall him doing horribly when we face Cleveland. I'll check them out tommrrow and post them if I get time, I'm interested to know.
He was absolutely horrible in the last 2 ECF series against Cleveland and Boston. I know I've posted his stats for those series on here before, but I don't feel like finding them. Here are his career stats though... Tayshaun Prince Statistics - Basketball-Reference.com
Very ugly game. I watched it but was still like I was made of stone because they looked like they didn't prepare for a playoff game at all. Jeff Van Gundy said that the Pistons don't have any contact that look like they are on the same page and he is right. You can see how this team is divided into pieces. The vets are so ready for this season to be over and the "future" of the Pistons look like they are ready for the vets to leave. Also you can see that Mike has no idea what to do.
If we can potentially get someone better than him than okay, but if not then we wont just get rid of him. Show me a good trade that both GM's would like that would get rid of Tayshaun and give us someone good in return.
So guess which road team was the only one not win today. All of the other underdogs got a road win to upset the applecart, but we folded as predicted. The series isn't over yet, but I still wonder why some thought we would be better playing the Cavs in the first round?? Unless we figured that easiest way to rid ourselves of Curry? However it doesn't explain why Curry would delibertly lose those last couple of games to the Bulls etc to face the Cavs in the first round.
Like I said in the chat, Tay, its the LEBRON factor. We'd played just good enough to lose by 8 pts but James' adds 10 pts to every win. We can play a great game this series, but will still lose by 10 somehow, some way.
We all knew what is was beofre the post season started. If they don't think they can win the title, then they aren't going to play. I guess we didn't know how fragile this team would be without billup's...even though it was time for him to go. Since we have 15 in the draft and some second round picks, plus big money, i am very anxious to see what happens this summer. If the new roster doesn't come with a veteran coach, then it doesn't matter, does it?
I believe it IS over barring a big boo boo to Lebeotch. I thought given my druthers, I wanted Detroit to play Cleveland because I couldn't see those clowns beating anyone else in the league (other than Orlando and that is only because of a mojo) and I still see them knocking off Cleveland IF Bronnie goes down to injury.
People say Joe D had to make the CB/AI trade for the much coveted cap space. DET needed the cap space because they weren't going to get by CLE & BOS with Billups anyway. The Pistons replaced Billups with nobody. Fans are up in arms because DET lost yesterday to the Cavs.
And so it goes. To misquote the vastly over quoted T.S. Eliot... This is the way it ends This is the way this team ends Not with a bang but a whimper Sad. I don't think it had anything much to do with Curry. I even kind of liked his rotations and would have liked to have seen similar ones much of the season. The team played probably as well as they can offensively, but there was no commitment to playing defense.
its not a pretty sight , is it? welcome to the REAL piston Nation!!! Can U stay thru THE ROUGH TIMES?
