Couple of other observations... - Prince couldn't get around LBJ like he has been getting around other defenders lately. Couple of times early he tried to drive and ended up shooting four or five feet further out than usual, and missing. - Ben still has some serious one-on-one moxie left in him. He kept Sheed off balance all night and by and large completely took his post game away. Nobody had to try and double and all the Pistons' shooters stayed covered. Maybe Sheed was having one of his lackadaisical nights, maybe Ben just made it look that way.
Sheed is a little bit like the bully who backs down when he's confronted. He'll talk all day long when he's beating up on a weak defender, but when someone like Ben stands up to him, it's 3-point city.
You must remember, those two have faced each other in practice several times I`m sure. I would say Ben knows Sheed probably better than any other defender in the league, giving him an advantage. However, Sheed is talented enough where I don`t think Ben would actually shut him down. Slow him down perhaps. That would be a nice matchup in the playoffs, stay tuned!!!!!!
He does enjoy beating up weak defenders, but still, it isn't all that often you see him just taken out of the post game by someone other than himself. When the game turned last night in the last half of the second, he was 1-4 inside the arc and 0-2 outside, and my recollection is that Ben had a lot to do with that. Of course, Sheed's 1-6 exactly matched the rest of the team's shooting so there is some blame to go around.
Billups talked about how the team got static and settled for jumpers as the problem. If that is so easy to recognize why don't they do something about it? That is what kills us in nearly every loss and in the playoffs. Shouldn't they have a plan ready when they see this happening? When something is clearly going wrong, why wouldn't they change it.
He pushed off on Sheed, right? Anyway Sheed or whoever was being pushed off was between us and D-Brown so that you couldn't see what happened until they showed the replay. It was funny though because even after the replay there was a buncha whinin' all around us and I was demonstrating out loud how he was clearing out with his arm, and all the while my wife was shooshing me for fear of the Cavs fans turning on me. I said I didn't care, I had the rulebook on my side. That guy and his wife actually talked to us for a few minutes after the game and we had a decent discussion about the current playoff seeding and how Detroit was in a good spot right now. They even wished my wife a happy birthday. All in all my experience as a fan of the opposing team was pretty positive - though this was a regular season game.
Billups phrases it like it was something the Pistons were doing rather than something that was being done to them. Did they "get static" or did the Cavs not let them run free and make cuts, shut off penetration, etc.?
It was interesting in the pre-game when they asked Ben how do you beat the Pistons. He said there are two specific keys: 1. Do not let Rip going early. 2. Attack Sheed. Make him use energy defensively.
Looks like we need to hire Ben as an assistant coach when he retires and replace Flip with the Fox's Charley Rosen who was able point out all of the Pistons flaws as well punctuate what we should have done to attack Labrons lack of defense.
Thats funny. Yes I do believe it comes along with the contract. Too bad we could not have thrown a young althletic offensive rebounder out there as thats what gives Ben trouble. Well I guess we did for 4 mins. Also the Cavs were only 5-5 in their last 10 going into this so its not like they have been burning up the league since the trade. The Pistons swept the seasonal series last year and look how much of a difference that made in the playoffs.
If i do my math right, the Pistons did not win in Chicago until Ben left. Pistons called it buddy ball. Ben is with the cav's. Buddy ball had a lot to do with this loss. The post season is where the Buddy ball ended. Hopefully that will be the case in the Post season. I would like to see "Buddy Ball" gone in the last to games. I agree with the bad coaching as well. When he saw the starters were not going to compete, he should have cleared the bench.
This is the game that sealed the fate of the Pistons: NBA ECF runner ups! Why? 1. They are the "Butch from the Little Rascals" of the NBA. And without Ben, now everyone knows it. If it wasnt for the fact that Howard doesnt have a Rick Mahorn on his team yet (i.e. maxiel, Blount, Perkins) the Magic would beat us , too. No way this team beats Boston or Cleveland. 2. Our coach is a wimpy sissy and other 'coaches' know it. There is nothing Flip will do to fire up or SCARE this team into winning. It 'really' is like when it gets tight, Billups just does what he feels and SHEED doesnt even listen yo Chauncey. We won a championship and made the finals backtoback because of LB and LB only...and these airheads just dont get it. 3. This team NEEDS Ben Wallace. Sheed needs him. McDyess needs him. They lost their identity when they lost him. Replacing him with a slamdunking Maxiel is not and does not change a truth. sighhhh...
What this team needs is a new coach and to a lesser degree Amir Johnson. It was so obvious we were winning with him and partly Aaron in the line-up. The PHO/UTAH game were two good contrasting examples. I know that once it got closer to the PO's or the PO's, the rotation would shrink, and Flip being the idiot that he is would not realize which players were critical to our success. It's not suprising anymore, but still as frustrating. Someone in the Pistons org. needs to personally call LB so he can whip some "right way" back into this team. The more i see AA sit on the bench while Flip struggles to find a back-up SG, the more irritated i get. I just don't want to watch our "big games" anymore.
Amir has now surpassed Chauncey Billups in terms of +/- while on the court (per given time period). So, we have officially done better with Amir on the court than any other individual player. We foul way more when Amir is out there, but we block 11% of the shots and hold our opponent to an unusually low FG%. This is where stats are useful. Coaches notice the cons of the young player, but they don't see that the pros more than make up for it.
It makes it harder to challenge what SOMEONE is doing if they can play it off that their actions are what EVERYONE does or would do. Almost as bad as the fans who 99% of the time use "We" when their team is wining and go with "They" when things are bad.
Yep we've sucked against every team I'd consider an excellent defensive team with the exception of SAS and they were sans Bowen for one of the 2 games. That was my mailbag ?/statement for Langlois.
wow i've never thought of that, but i bet i've been guilty of it. definitely something to pay attention to in the future.
I wasn't singling you out and it's only natural. One, just has to try to say "We" after a loss and "They" after a win, if one isn't going to be very consistent with either using always "We" or "they".
