Another terrible first quarter for the offense. This is starting to be systemic going back to last year and a real problem.
Maxiell changed the flow of the game in the 2nd. This guy should have played at Utah and we would have won.
JMax should play 20 mins/game. The first 5 minutes of each quarter. And we should go to him every time down the floor until the bonus. He is a master of drawing the foul. I saw that they actually keep the fouls drawn stat in the Euroleague. Maxiell would certainly lead the NBA in fouls drawn per time unit.
End of the third, another disjointed effort both offensively and defensively. We made their guard look like an all-star. It is early in the season but this Piston team has too much talent for this kind of play. Dyss looks slow under the basket...
Tayshaun total no show. 4 points on 2-10, 3 rebs, 0 steals, 0 blocks. Delfino should be getting more minutes.
Delfino and Maxiel both should be getting minutes. The team looked lost tonight. Disjointed is the word that comes to mind...Is this a trend or just early season blahs...???
I don't know why Flip didn't go to the bench earlier and give them more minutes since most of the starters didn't do anything. Maxiell really gave them some energy when he went in with Delfino and I think it was Murray. Flip should have played the bench more especially with Tay and Rasheed's poor performance. Rasheed had 0 points!
86-99 read it and weep. Pistons drop to 2-3. Only get 8 points out of the entire starting front line. A wopping 2 points out of Sheed/Mohammed but Sheed did grap 15 boards. Chauncy lead the team with 25 points but I guess he decided that was enough once we got into the 4th quarter. Murry lead the bench brigade with 13 points and Maxiel scored 8 in short mins going a perfect 4-4. For Sac it was all about Martin with 30 points, Bibby with 23 points ( playing hurt ) and an unexpected lift off the bench from Corliss with 15 points and a lot of hustle that always seemed to come just when they needed it. Sac won the board war 50-35 lead by Kenny Thomas who had 15. Pistons have to stop digging themselfs in a hole to start each game. Can't keep going down double digits mid-way through the 1st and expect to pull out these road games.
The Pistons started off the night in a funk, tied them at halftime, went ahead by five only to play the long ball for the balance of the third quarter and lose going away.... Got outrebounded a bunch because Flip went with Dice who managed 4 points and 1 rebound. Brahma was 4-4 shooting but only played 10 minutes. Naz was a no show as Flip had him nailed to the bench too. We can always blame this on the players for taking to many ill advised shots from the perimeter, but why didn't Flip just yank the staters and put in the bench?? In additon to MAX 4-4, Murray hit his last five shots, but our front court of Dice, Tay, and Wallace go a combined 5-26 shooting and 19 rebounds with 15 of those grabbed by Sheed. If Flip comes back from this trip with no wins, he deserves to be fired All of these games were winnable even without nameless Ben!! Too many 3 attempts when they were still in the game. I can appreciate the two treys that Delfino made, but can you check to see if there is an open man in or near the paint and feed him before tossing up a unconsious three@##$ The defense on Kevin Martin was horrible as the Pistons appeared that they had never seen him before constantly leaving him open for some uncontested jumpers... There was an Alternatorz sighting as both Jon Barry and Corliss were in the building, but unfortunately for the Pistons one was burning them on the Mic and the other was burning them to the tune of 15 points in the paint, clearly out playing Dice. The sight of Joe Dumars sitting there must have got McNasty inspired..."take that Joe"
Dre, I agree, this was an inexcusable effort even for so early in the season. And it is more than just the players...The ship needs to be corrected in a hurry...
That' what happens when your frontline produces like that. Flip needs to trust the bench even in crunch time if they're doing better.
The reality is that we have no real front line depth. Why is Dale Davis not playing? This hamstring injury is starting to become a mortal wound.
I'm very happy with this poor start. No MVP Talk, no records to chase, no talk of All-Star selections. Just sweat and fear. The way it should be. Now we can watch the team improve and charge hard into the playoffs. That to me is excitement. I've only seen 2 or 3 games so far, but the Pistons do not seem to be playing with any inspiration. Maybe it's zero tolerance, or maybe as Dice said, Ben was the leader by example on this team. Someone will have to step up.
Man, I was so hyped for this game but what a let down. I felt like I was watching the over 40 league. The way we kept passing about the perimeter and taking jump shots, i thought we were allergic to the paint. the team, IMO lacks synergy. When we have movement, we are playing a decidedly midrange game. When we attack the basket its super predictable and people tend to stand around. For all this talk about a massive playbook, I think we're pretty well scouted. and WHAT IS our defensive philosophy? Sorry for sounding so negative but I really had higher expectations.
what was more annoying than anything about this game is that we didn't show up. at least for utah i thought we showed up and got jobbed by the refs. but this was our laziest game of the year, and it's not like it was a back-to-back. i was also annoyed at flip playing so much small ball. yes our big men were somewhat ineffective, and he did try a big lineup at one point (with delfino at the 2 spot), but he said he was going to force teams to match up with us this year and not the other way around. well, we played small ball, and that's exactly what sacramento is good at. after chauncey hit his 4th three-pointer and we were on a roll, a timeout was called, and i got worried. last year when we were draining 3s, we got LAZY and stopped running our offense. coming back from the timeout, that's exactly what happened. chauncey dribbling at the top of the key for 12 seconds, one pass, and one shot. it was stupid, and apparently contagious. two of delfino's five 3-ppoint attempts were terrible. i really see joe d. looking at front-court changes if this inconsistency continues. but either way, this was a terrible effort and annoying to watch. you knew by the start of the 4th that we weren't winning this game. at least maxiell had 2 ridiculously sweet jams that were well-recognized by the ESPN crew, and apparently he's getting love elsewhere: bill simmons: ESPN.com: Page 2 : Sorting out Week 1 in the NBA - maxiell is listed as one of his 5 favorite bench players. but my favorite part is his d-miles all-star team (for players who never reach their potential), and darko is on the BENCH even in that one!! hahaha
ROscoe this is the exact feeling Pistons fans have to have, this team will not be in form for a while they look like the 2004 team before Sheed arrived. we will see what happens. Like I said my feeling on this road trip is that they will be lucky to get one win the balance of this team is off and the D is non-factor. I still hold the fact that this team will pull it together but it may get worse before it get better. GO PISTONS!!!!!!
There's a predictable trend going on. The other team's perimeter player break down our guys to get inside... inside help is sometimes there... if it is they simply dish it for the layup. Since our perimeter guys can't stop pentration they resort to hacking. Transition defense is also bad. Why Sheed couldn't dominate 6'7" Kenny Thomas & Ronnie is a mystery.... the roller coaster continues.
