The Pistons made it two in a row last night beating the Sonics 97-93 thanks to a 10 footer with seven seconds to go courtesy of Mr. Maxiell. The Pistons, behind Rip’s 24 points and Chauncey’s 21 had no easy task against the Sonics.
The highlights of the evening came from Dale Davis and Jason Maxiell who once again shined in Rasheed’s absence. Over and over we see Maxiell get “the max” out of his minutes, no matter how many they may be. Davis again played like he is in his 20’s, clogging the lane and grabbing every rebound in site. They both add a spark to the team when they are on the court.
You know of my fondness for Maxiell, I have been pushing for him to get more time all season. After the past two games and the effectiveness of Dale Davis and Jason Maxiell, I am hereby officially campaigning for each of them to get permanent spots in the rotation. They are both scrappy, big, fearless and they seem to be solving our rebounding problems. Did I mention the added D?
Other Key Points:
- Maxiell got his first double-double of the regular season 17 points and 12 rebounds.
- McDyess looked lost again. He was 0-for-5 with no points and 3 rebounds.
- Chauncey hit back to back 3’s late in the fourth to pull the Pistons ahead.
- Although Will Blalock didn’t score he played a solid 11 minutes and really needs to back up Chauncey instead of Flip.
- Rashard Lewis is underrated.
- Tayshaun is still in a shooting funk but his defense wins games.
- I hope Flip Saunders rethinks his rotation.
- A fellow Sheedologist thinks Maxiell is going to replace Mohammed in the starting lineup by the end of the season.
- Davis and Maxiell had 25 rebounds between them.
- I want to punch Gwen Stefani square in the mouth (her video plays while I write this and I can’t find the remote)
- Nazr played well with 9 points and 8 rebounds in 21 minutes.
- Delfino needs to take it to the hole.
- The Pistons had 54 total rebounds.
- The Sonics Glyniadakis was a Pistons draft pick from Greece who never made the team.
- Chauncey trusted Maxiell enough to give him the winning shot.
- My Pen came yesterday….more on that later.
- “Max … Mac … Maxwell, whatever his name is, he out rebounded our whole team,” Rashard Lewis said. “Every time I turned around, he was coming out of nowhere. I don’t think we put a body on him all night.”
- Detroit’s 26 offensive rebounds were the most in the NBA this season, and was one more than Seattle’s defensive-rebound total.
- Flip talks about Flip’s future in the rotation.
Great Gwen Stefani remark. What the hell happened to her anyway? About 10 years ago she was the hottest thing and biggest breath of fresh air. She sold out hard and I am not sure what she is now….annoying I guess. Speaking of 10 years ago….I think getting in trouble with the law made Dale Davis feel young again. I haven’t seen him play this good since….well, when Gwen Stefani WAS cool.
I love how they don’t even know Jasons name it is funny. Before we know it how ever everyone will know it and I can see it now he will be the next ben for us. Hes already rebounding and he also has it on the offensive end as well. Just could be a little better than ben on that end. I am happy we keep it over this season and hope we do not trade him, if he brings this all to the table. Also Ben is the one who told him not to give up and make most of his minutes when he gets them. Did ben maybe leave the team knowing waht we had in Jason?
I am soo happy for Jaon!!! He impressed me soo much in the pre-season and I’ve been wanting him to get minutes for the longest.
Nat.. why was that comment deleted??? I wondered what it said???
I hope they play Max when Sheed gets back, I dont want him to be another Darko, and trade him. Look at Darko hes playing great and finishing games. Joe do the right thing and keep this guy and make Flip play him. You dont want wornout players in the playoffs.
(PLAY MAD MAX)
Im glad this combo worked out soo well!! i was worried in case if/when sheed gets the 1 game suspension coz of Ts, we might struggle. but these 2 more than did their jobs. im watchin the seatle game tonight since i had 2 work yesterday, i cant wait!!
Natalie, what did that comment say?
Is it just me or have the past two games, and the dallas and orlando games really stated to look like the pistons we’re used to? Timely offensive as well as gritty defense, dominant rebounding when it’s necessary and even big games out of ou lesser known/used players. It just gives me a warm christmas feeling all over…gotta love the stones
I didn’t delete the comment, the author did so I dont know what it said. It was great to see the boys pull out the win last night.
Once Sheed is back we will have 5 big guys, and all of them are playing great except for McDyess. I never saw that coming.
If Joe D can work a trade where we dump Murray and McDyess for a valuable player that would be ideal, and I think it’s possible.
Here are some other thoughts:
-Nick Collison is hilarious to watch, ever since his NCAA finals loss to Carmelo & Syracuse when he missed something like 20 free throws. how can anyone take him seriously?
-delfino stinks. let’s send him back to italy for a few years.
-it’s nice to see Big Ben figuring things out in Chicago and pulling down monstrous amounts of boards
-what happened to ray allen?
-thursdays game at cleveland could really help us pull away in the division race … it’s the most important game yet of the season
-let’s all just talk about how beastly dale davis is. what makes him so beastly? the way he rips rebounds out of the air? the glare in his eyes when he’s runnning down court? the fact that he was born during world war 2? somewhere in south beach shaq has is shaking at the thought of facing dale and mad max in the playoffs
-i wish i could cast a negative all-star vote to gilbert arenas. what a selfish player, he would rather score 60 than win.
-i hope we don’t have to play the suns in the nba finals
-long live sheed
I wish no ill on Ben either. I’m happy that he’s producing–maybe that means he’s happy. Allen hurt his ankle about two weeks ago or so–I thought it wasn’t too bad but he’s been out a while I guess. A lot of players aren’t playing their best ball right now–Tay too–but I think that just shows the depth of this team. It’s kinda nice to have Sheed out and key players play badly but they still win. It seems like you are in the majority wanting Flip gone, but do you really want Dyess gone too?
theSHEEDabides
I am not running to get rid of Flip I just think he hasn’t had time to adjust to his playing time here. I do think that he will be unhappy with this team because he wants to start and that’s not going to happen in Detroit. I do think he could be used in a trade because he’s most likely going to opt out of his contract after this season, so why not get something in return for him.
As for Dyess…He needs time to warm up, he’s been like that every season since he’s been in Detroit. He starts off slpw but heats up mid season. I happen to trust McDiggity.
dyess is a good player….But he kind of bores me and I can never tell if he’s on the court….But he has good production nights.
Tays in a slump but when he needs to come up big he will just sucks cuz given some lack luster perfomances he probally wont make all-star but hey thats life.
I’ve yet to base to much harsh judgement on flip and isn’t he facing his old team tomorrow maybe he’ll come out with something to prove and maybe be a team player at the same time.
i’m very happy for max and dale davis I wonder if lenovo stats saw them as a good 2 player combination.
Also anyone seen jason grill they look worse then reggie the pirrana millers(i’m talking about teeth)
I almost feel bad for him
On final note I wish that guy wouldn’t have tripped on his way to beating the hell out of carmello….And when the hell is A.I gonna get traded?
On the teeth note I find a lot of guys in the NBA have bad teeth. Tayshaun is one of them. I am not sure if they went to the denisit very much as young kids but alot need braces. I know if it was me one of the first things I would have done was get them as soon as I got my pay cheque. Or at least after a few. If I didn;t want to have them during my career it would be the first thing I did once I retire. Tay is my fav player but what is up with his teeth they are all pushed over to the side and they are brown yellow looking not white at all.
Natalie
I think (hope) we agree. I agree that Flip wants more time and that there isn’t time available because his role is so narrow. They tried to give him more mintues as pg and he was terrible. If they can move him to get someone more flexible, I’ve got no quams with that. I’ve said before, maybe in the forum, that Flip isn’t a Tony Delk but he’s an excellent guard after Rip and Lindsey and the Pistons are fortunate to have him. Whether he’s fortunate to be a Piston is another story…
I didn’t mean to come across as a Dyess hater. He was awesome last year and I love what he’s able to do, I’m just thinking that since he’s in the decline of his career and Maxiell is looking like a stud, it might be time to pull the plug while he still has value. But I trust Joe D to do this thing.
As for Flip Flippin Murray, that dude frustrates me. We have a great recent history of backup guards … Jon Barry, Chucky Atkins, Mike James, Bobby Sura, Lindsey Hunter, Tony Delk … and so far Murray is a disgrace to that tradition. He isn’t providing the spark of energy that those guys brought to the court, he isn’t a crowd favorite, he’s just not very loveable. He makes me miss Chucky Atkins.
I’m not sure how I feel about Nazr still. He is pretty dependable, but at the same time I certainly don’t trust him. What a strange dichotomy. Can someone clear this up for me.
I suppose you have to sell high and buy low, right? I still have a hard time parting with him, though. About the guards, the Pistons have definately had some good ones behind Rip but a disgrace?? His game is different since he can’t play pg and his skills do not necessarily fit the needs of the Pistons right now. I won’t say anything more about him, lest I become the Isiah Thomas-whipping boy of this blog.