I noticed that in Sheed's press conference, he didn't forget to mention Nazr when he talked about the depth at his position. He said something like 'I don't mind going out of the game when I get in foul trouble because we have guys like Dale, Dyess, Maxiell, and Nazr who can come in and bring what I bring.' That was a classy thing to say, cause Nazr is definitly not being used and doesn't bring what Sheed brings anyway.
Cleveland is not that good but better than people give them credit for. One thing, their coach knows our offense and what to do to jam it up. Agree with DBA that Billips (or Saunders) hasn't figured out how to counter them. We still haven't countered their assault on our offense. We just are not scoring at key points or worse, making turnovers The wins are big, a bit lucky, very gutsy, very skillful (like that Sheed shot) but lucky too. A championship run always has that luck factor going one way or another. 2-0 is not over and done but we are near to tasting our initial goal. Yes, we are a better team yet they have outplayed us for huge patches of games. They compete with us quite well. A puzzle. Right DBA, they slowed down Rip without losing much. Amazing. Our defense is still our calling card but we really need to have a more functioning offense. Maxiel is that type of speed/change of pace type player that Larry was calling for way back when. I wish he were more experienced but I will take what he brings right now: plus or minus.
We are living on the edge here with these close victories. We have to give the Cavs more credit than we have and the Pistons need to respect them a little more so that they are not in this position. Like Magic Johnson said, we are winning these because we have more weapons than the Cavs, but our intensity has to be for 40-48 minutes and not for 12-20. Eventually they will win one of these games so we have to cut the turnovers and exploit their so called weekeness....but do we know what they are?? Although we won the second half 41-26, we had 8 turnoevers in the 4th qtr and and only one Fg in the last 5 minutes of the game....We got to stop slacking off, protect the ball and get both CB and Tay more involved in the offense. Scoring in the 70's does not bode well for the Pistons and it will be a nailbiter. Lets get this in the high 80's with another combined 15 pts from CB and Tay.
I'm not so upset by game 2. We seem to have taken care of the game 1 rebounding woes. Took care of Big Z and Gooden while continuing to keep Hughes down. Sure, we were hurt more often by the 3pt shot and LBJ had a little more fun early on. The mix changed a bit but all in all our defense was just as effective. I'm pleased that we found Webber better shots. FlipS recognizes no value in playing Hunter and is exploring other options like Tay and Los at PG. In a series one should witness continuous improvement. Of course that dosen't mean the Cavs won't pull a Chigaco in game three hitting everything launched.
Isn't that Flip's calling card? Wasn't he brought in to shore up the offense? 79 points both games. I guess he doesn't have the guys to run his offense.
Gazoo, Offense was Flip's calling card. Don't know who to blame: the players (including Billips), the coach or Cleveland defense. Our main offensive problem in this series is not that we don't have a back up although that is a glaring deficiency. For two games, even the first team has been turnover city. LA Dre, it is too close for comfort. Lemonpen, the defense has been very good but can we continue to expect that level of defense? I think we have to score some to lock away this series. Otherwise, it is a struggle. I felt that they would go after Rip in game two. So, what were our adjustments? What we showed in the third quarter was comforting. We showed that we could locked them down and score some. But just when we get in a good position the offense stalls. Two wins to none is still huge any which way. We need to get the team operating on all cylinders to finish this series the way we want it.
I thought one of the adjustments was to get CWebb more involved in the offense early (which may have also been in part to get Big Z to expend some energy on that end of the floor so he couldn't do as much damage on the offensive side), but CWebb couldn't finish his shots in the paint --- if he had, the Pistons would've had a 6 to 10 point lead at the end of the first quarter. Agreed about the other point of yours (quoted). Pistons held serve, which is good, but nothing to be too proud of at this point.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a372/ddot313/wall2wall.jpg thank you for the poster material maxiell.
Hey folks, just wanted to mention that there is some extra stuff at the end of the Sheed interview you can hear on the audio file here http://www.pistonsforum.com/90804-post35.html I won't ruin it, but he cracks a joke that isn't in the transcripts and then the NBATV guys, Frank Isola and Rick Kamla beef on him playfully for his comments on the refs. Sheed got a ton of love on NBATV last night.
Sheed's a cool dude...comically honest no matter the circumstance...nice balance of swagger & humility. The kids can learn a lot from a guy like him...I hope he retires a Piston.
hey guys. sorry no hog blog yet, and probably by the time i post it no one will care anyway...but i PROMISE i have some fun stuff to share. but! i've been busy, and i'm off to the airport in a few minutes, so i'll try to give my report when i get to (hopefully) sunny FL sometime during the day.
woops. sorry, just got on a computer now...seems kind of late to post a report...but this game was awesome. it was really loud at the end, the crowd was pretty into it for much of the game, and yeah. other random notes - alan anderson was at the game, the little girl next to me made the loudest thunderstick noises ever, and after the game i was walking in the parking lot and saw a couple making out in a truck, and as he went to kiss her neck she looked at me and we started laughing. that is all!
Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you. This was the first game I've ever been to and I was planning on doing a write-up on it when I got home, but I got back pretty late and was too tired to do one and I've been pretty busy ever since. Needless to say, my dad and I both had an awesome time. Our seats weren't the greatest, but that didn't matter. I bought my 2 year old daughter a Rip Hamilton jersey and a Pistons hat from the gift shop and had a lot of fun this week dressing her up and posing her next to her basketball net for pictures!
