This stat line from last night’s 94-82 loss to the Cavs in game two pretty much sums up the series thus far for Pistons fan, the Cavaliers never trailed in the ball game and were up by 27 points after three quarters. Another lackluster game for Detroit, whoa are now on the ropes going into game three and four at the Palace.
Key Points:
- Dyess says it all “They are the best team in the league and they are at home, but at the same time, we’ve got to play with some type of heart,” We’re just going through the motions, it seems like.” When asked why that was, McDyess said, “Your guess is better than mine.” Via The Detroit News
- If you watched just five minutes (besides when the bench made their comeback) of the game you could see the flat performance Detroit put forth. A carbon copy of Game One eerily like most of the season for Detroit. Is it that they just don’t care or are they just outmatched? Maybe 50/50.
- 14 first quarter points, 18 second and third quarter points aren’t going to will you any ball game let alone a playoff game against the #1 seed.
- The Cavs were up by 29 points in the fourth quarter until their bench blew most their lead against Detroit’s bench courtesy of Will Bynum. James had to return to hold off the Pistons and secure the win.
- Rasheed Wallace, who scored just 8 with 4 boards in 25 minutes on the floor scored zero points in the paint and quite honestly looked like he wanted nothing to do with what was going on Tuesday night. To me he looked like he checked out as soon as he stepped on the court. The fire is obviously gone. Wasn’t it Sheed who claimed they needed to Knuckle Up? What happened?
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- Though I tried to watch the local broadcast in favor of TNT, High Def won out and I heard something that I hoped wasn’t the case but just might be form Doug Collins when he said “It looks like Detroit doesn’t’ want to come back to the Q for a game five.” It sure looks that way now doesn’t it?
- At this point you can cry Fire Curry all you want, but he’s not the one on the court playing like he doesn’t give a damn.
- Four Pistons in double figures and two of them are Afflalo and Bynum.
- Amir Johnson on his Tech after shoving VareJOKE: “I wasn’t going to let him punk me. I did what I had to do.” Via The Detroit Free Press Good for you Amir, too bad you couldn’t slap that smirk off of that clowns face.
- The opposite of small ball when Curry put a lineup of Tayshaun Prince,Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Kwame Brown and Antonio McDyess. That didn’t work either.
- Start Will Bynum at point is the chant I’m hearing from Pistons fans, and quite honestly they have nothing to lose at this point. Bynum once again was the spark for Detroit sparking a 27-5 run in the fourth quarter. Sure it was without LeBron on the floor for the Cavs, but it put Detroit back in striking distance. Bynum finished with 13 points in 18 minutes adding 5 assists, 4 boards and 2 steals.
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- Was it just me or did most of the game consist of either Rip taking a jumper or Stuckey trying to drive the lane or settling for a shot. Rip or Stuckey….I wanted to scream for them to move the ball and try something else because it clearly wasn’t working.
- “Our bench played well,” McDyess said. “As far as the starters, we didn’t come out and do the job we were assigned to do. It’s like they were doing anything they wanted on offense. We weren’t giving no resistance to stop them or making it tough on them. Via NBA.com
- Rally comes up short.
- The Cavs held the Pistons to 39.5% shooting and outrebounded the Detroit 43-34.
- I used to appreciate Mo Williams, but it seems as though he’s caught come cockiness now that he’s in Cleveland.
- Rip Hamilton led the Pistons with 17 points on 7-for-16 shooting. But but that isn’t saying much either, he was a -30 for the game
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- Tayshaun Prince, another less than stellar game (and that’s being kind). Prince went 1-for-5 for 2 points and three boards. Dana Gauruder of the Oakland Press “Prince is a more maddening case. He seems to be full of excuses every postseason. Before, he’d decline in the conference finals. This year, he’s gone into the tank from the start. He’s averaging 6 points in his last six postseason games.”
- Aggressive in game 2….nope! Detroit was 13-for-16 for the line. Cleveland….32-for-43. LeBron once again went to the line more than the entire Detroit team going 13-for-17.
- Huge Piston Roundtable over at Pistons Powered with all of your favorite Pistons Bloggers as well as Newspaper columnists.
- The Cavs have now won six straight playoff games over The Pistons.
- Highlights from NBA.com if you dare.
- You can will them to Win all you want, but if they don’t come to play how does that help? I will support the Pistons no matter what, but being confident in a team that hasnt even shown heart is another thing altogether. You may feel different, but this team hasn’t showed me much to beleive in. How do you feel after game two?
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You don’t win a title unless you trade for a top 5 player in the NBA…Kobe, Lebron, Chris Paul, etc…that’s not going to happen. The only solution now is to tank next season and get the SUPERSTAR we need out of the DRAFT. Other teams did it this way and now look at them…Cleveland (LeBron), NewOrleans (CP3), Nuggets (Melo), Bulls (Rose), Portland (Oden)….you have to be absolutely GARBAGE before you can get a great player….Joe D blew it with DARKO…and now we have to do it again! TANK 2010 and be back with some pride in 2011.
Richie: good point, but I was thinking more about Sheed than Tayshawn.
Because you only mentioned standard injuries and not physically disabling diseases, I’m guessing that you’re probably not physically challenged.
I was thinking about all that Stephen Hawking has done and compared that to millionaires not playing hard because their “tired” (whether physically or mentally tired.)
miguel the draft is just a roll of the dice. Think about this, of all of the #1 and #2 draft picks we have had, Kwame Brown (2001), Allen Iverson (1996), Dark Milicic (2003), Antonio McDyess (1995), who on that list is worth anything ? Just McDyess, and he wasn’t a good player for TEN YEARS, because it took that long for his knee to feel good enough and for him to relearn how to play smart thinking basketball without having to use his legs as much.
Chauncy Billups was picked 3rd, was no good for the celtics, did nothing for the nuggets, and then did nothing for the magic, did nothing for the timberwolves, when Joe D decided this would be the next superstar for the pistons, where he earned a ring. He wasn’t born “Mr. Big Shot”. He turned himself into “Mr. Big Shot.”
Remember LeBron James could have fizzled. You never know, he could have Grant Hill (picked third by the pistons in 1994). Grant Hill was expected to be the Piston’s version of Michael Jordan. But for the next decade Grant Hill couldn’t play ball because his ankles broke all the time.
Anyway, what I am getting at is that you never know with the draft. But what Joe D has done is be like a K-Mart smart shopper, he sees players that are half up and buys them, that’s the one thing he is really good at, and I suspect that is the direction the franchise will take next year.
For goodness sake, Will Bynum was playing with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel, when Joe D brought him to detroit, talk about finding a needle in a haystack.
piston,,, fans crying. get a new coach
Eric Taylor,
You are absolutely right. The draft is Dicey. There are no absolute sure things in the NBA. Just a few years ago everyone thought Okafor was a far more dominate player & a better #1 choice than Howard. No one even knew who Deron Williams, Chris Paul or Brandon Roy were in their draft class & they were all skipped in the draft. There have been more busts that break out stars. Arenas, Rashard Lewis, Boozer, all 2nd round draft picks. Big Ben wasn’t even drafted. You just never know. Joe Smith was picked ahead of KG & Dirk. Again you never know. It feels like the pistons always make the wrong choice. We’ve gotten lucky twice. Had we lost the series to orlando in Princes rookie year, Melo would have been picked up, we wouldn’t have grabbed sheed, Memet Okur would never have been an allstar, Tay wouldn’t be a gold medalist & the 04 champs would be the LA lakers. You have to put thing into perspective. Nothing lasts forever. We definitely need a superstar on our squad, but the draft isn’t where we need to look. I would hope we get lucky with Stuck & he becomes that guy or Tay finally lives up to the expectations offensively but that’s all wishful thinking. We will have between 15 & 22 million to spend this summer depending on what the cap is. That’s a lot of cheese to lure the right guy. Most bad teams will look to shed deals. But most teams will also hold onto their star. We need to go after a young up & comer that is on the verge of being a star. Look at Danny Granger & the new AI in Philly. Monte Ellis in GS. There are young talented players out there but Joe has to be aggressive & pull the trigger, but we all know he won’t. Sad to say but we may be Boozer bound & stuck in the bottom bracket of the Playoffs for the near future. Sucks to be a Pistons fan these days, but the draft ain’t gonna get us over the hump. We need to make some trades to upgrade oh & FIRE Michael Curry. Bad bad choice Joe. Curry is the worse coach I’ve ever seen. If he is qualified, where can I get an application to apply for the job when you finally wise up & release that cat? Sad sad year.
I have been a huge Pistons fan my whole life and I can’t even make it through a whole game. I am pretty sure I am a Nuggets fan for the rest of the playoffs the game last night was fun to watch and it was fun to watch Chauncey play (who is on fire btw). I would love for Chauncey to get another ring to flaunt in Joe D’s face.
yeah! time to cheer for Chauncey!
I’m telling you, no one on the team right now is a superstar. Like miguel said, you need a superstar to compete for a title. It was dumb to bench Iverson. And for all you detroit fans who hate, he TRIED TO play detroit ball (passing more like a guarding, dishing after he drives in the lane). Almost 80% of the time, the person he dished it out to (sheed, tay, rip) botched the shot. it was horrible. Maybe if detroit basketball got over the fact that Chauncy left, the couldve let AI be the new leader. Egos to blame all over here, not just AI.
Lets think about this another way too from AI’s perspective. You’ve been THE star for the previous ballclubs you’ve played for and you’re going to a team that recently just won a title and has its own set way about playing the game. If you sacrifice the points (which he did btw), and adjust the game you’ve played your entire life for the chance to win, and then the administration says “yeah, you’re just not cutting it for us, we’re gonna bench you” that’s a slap to the face. If this same thing were happening to Kobe or Dwade, the public would be outraged and defend the player. But not Allen, right.
Only chance detroit has at game 3 or 4 is to play Iverson. That is unless Detroit ego prefers a sweep instead of putting aside stubbornness.
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