At Cleveland February 4th, 2:30PM TV - ABC The Pistons travel to Cleveland to face the Cav`s in the first of their five Sunday nationally televised games on ABC. Both teams are struggling within the Central Division, the Cav`s are 4-3, the Pistons 3-4. Despite their records, at the time of this posting the Pistons are tied with the Wiz for first place in the EC, with the Cav`s one game behind.
I will be home from the desert, to watch this game. Yes, I am more excited to this game than the Superbowl. Oh, yeah, I do want to see those dang commercials. DLPHD baby!!!!
Rookie Daniel Gibson is now the starting PG for the Cavs, replacing Eric Snow. He's a shoot first player, with some hustle and speed. It will come down to how well CB plays. I'd like to see us exploit the inside with Sheed and Webber early. Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden are foul magnets.
According to the Detroit News, Chris Webber will be mic'd up for this game. I hope we can catch some Rasheed Wallace soundbytes.
Wow. Gibson, Hughes, James, Gooden, Ilgauskas - Mike Brown can preach team defense all he wants, but that's probably the softest team in the NBA. You can isolate any one of them all day long. I particularly don't understand the benching for this game, given that Snow completely shuts Chauncey down.
Nice Sunday first this game then the Superbowl. The Pistons will have to shut out Lebron if they want to win. Also, I think Detroit should take advantage of the Cavs being last in the league in free-throw shooting. ( For example, Lebron's free throw shooting in clutch time sucks. )
Pistons need to take the opportunities the Wizards keep giving them to put a little bit of distance between the best record in the East and the second best record and win this game. Doesn't hurt that a win also pushes the Pistons out one more game in front of another team chasing the best record. The Cavs haven't been playing well, and I'm hoping that they don't opt for Super Bowl Sunday to reverse that trend. I think this game could be a good showcase for how CWebb will really fit in as the starting C of this team. He's facing a quality back-to-the-basket C in Big Z, and if the Cavs are smart, they test CWebb's post defense early and often. I'd like to see CWebb respond on the defensive end, and I will also be interested to see what type of shots CWebb gets in the offense. I think it unlikely that Big Z will venture out past 10 feet to try to stop CWebb from shooting the 15-18 ft jumper, but I also hope that the offense does not settle for that shot too often. If Big Z isn't going to come out that far away from the basket, CWebb should be able to free up CB and Rip for shots from those distances if he sets some solid screens. I'd also like to see a steady dose of Sheed in the post against Gooden...Sheed should be able to get just about any shot he wants down low in that match up.
Big Z should abuse CWeb in the post. Good point about the Cavs shooting themselve in the foot by not starting Snow against Billups. We need to get inside early and often on this team... likely the worst interior defense in the league.
I'm out here delivering and installing HD cable boxes today, so I'll be watching like oldskool on tape delay, like the good ol days. Itll be a good battle in the middle with Lanier battling his old rival , Jim Chones. Look for Rowe and Bing to have easy goings vs Austin Carr and Bingo Smith's defense. Look for Jim Cleamons to take Bing late....:nerd2:
Chat is open and will stay open through to the Superbowl. http://www.pistonsforum.com/misc.php?do=flashchat Please stay friendly and have fun.
I dislike the dancing dolls opening routine, Michelle Tafoya makes me want to claw my eyes out, and Mike Breen is a horrible announcer. Lucky us that they have Mark Jackson. Count those small blessings...
I remember when I thought that it was unacceptable to force Rasheed to have to cover for McDyess's woeful defense. That was before I saw McDyess trying to cover for Webber.
NBA.com: Pistons at Cavaliers Boxscore Nice road win. We played the starters too many minutes. Sheed silences his detractors with a 15/13 game and a lot of aggressive paint play.
I'll take a win everyday but Flip Saunders is reverting back to his old ways and playing the starters down to a nub. Rip was almost injured in this game (running into the brickwall of LeBron) and Flip puts him back into the game the first chance he gets. Maxiell has a beast of a game just a few nights ago and he's back to 5 minutes. Isn't this what sunk the Pistons last year? I'm liking the defense though it looked pretty good today and Lindsey can still be a junk yard dog guarding his man like his life depended on it.
