You bet your life it does…..
The Pistons take on The Cleveland Cavaliers tonight for the first time this regular season since being ousted by them from the Playoffs six months ago. When a so called “payback” game comes up on the schedule we usually get the same old answer to the question “Does this game matter more?”
This time Chauney Billups strayed a bit from the standard, it’s just another game on the schedule of a long season answer.
“I don’t think you ever get past it,” Billups said. “I haven’t gotten past losing to San Antonio (in the 2005 NBA Finals) yet. You never really get past it. You just deal with it.” Via MLive
You ask any Pistons fans what they want out of tonights game and off the top of my head I would say that 90% of the answers would be BLOOD! The other 10% would be “total and utter annihilation.”
Lets hope Flip Saunders has some sort of game plan going into tonights game. Is he going to set some kind of defensive plan in action to limit opponents dribble penetration? Is he going to double team LeBron who has been single handedly carrying his team on his shoulders averaging 31 points per game? Will he limit Sheed’s minutes in his first game back since his knee problems?
Rip and Rasheed should be ready and in the lineup tonight. Do you actually think Sheed would miss this one?
In my eyes a lot of things must happen to ensure the Pistons come out with a W tonight.
- Chauncey needs to show that he is the elite point guard.
- Rip Hamilton needs to start getting shots off the curl instead of trying to create his own shots. Play your game Rip and things will fall into place.
- Limit Cleveland on the offensive glass.
- Contain LeBron and let the role players do whatever they may.
- Maxi and Dyess need to help gobble up boards.
- Tayshaun needs to dominate like we know he can.
- SHEED – Redeem yourself! When you do, the rest of us will be right there with you.
I am excited for the game, I even upgraded my tickets to be closer to the action. I am donning new Pistons attire for the first time tonight and expect every Piston fan in the building to be ready to do their jobs.
Some obnoxious Cavs fans have already started to stir things up for Pistons fans here at Need4Sheed, so more than ever I’m leaving things up to you, Team Need4Sheed, to set things right in the comments.
Here’s to Piston red, white and blue.
On a side note, how fitting is it that Sheed is on Tonights Ticket.
http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/features/optimist_pistons_071128.html
if for some odd reason any of you need another reason to hate the cavs…
Yes I’m so happy I’m goin to the game tonite!! Cavs are going down Sheed is going to play like a man possessed. Am I the only one who thinks he missed those games just so he can be rested when we play the Cavs? Tell me what you think 🙂
lol i read that piece of writing on the Cavs site, and I see “all for one one for all” on their banner. It’s very fitting for them to have that motto since everything they do/have come from one person. I find it funny they think of us as arch-enemy, while I think of them as like an annoying kid in your class. Like they just desperately want to beat us because they need to prove something, and we just want to beat them because we hate them so much. But anyways, remember to be as loud and intimidating as you can be tonight, Pistons fans! Oh, and they mentioned how Mason will “bark” Deetroit basketball, they’re just jealous cuz it will literally take them a million years to think of something that catchy.
DEEEEETROIT BASKETBALL!
good stuff!! I hope we beat them N.E. Patriots Style.
I’m just waiting for Sheed (and EVERYBODY else) to put the Cleveland James’ in there place. If anybody else noticed…tell me why do they have a Ad over the whole little ‘All for one. One for all’ thingy, saying, ‘The Official Auto Dealer of LeBron James’? Just a thought…
-BabyBen
I think the Cavs players and their stupid fans should go ask Kobe how well it works when you have to try to win a championship with just one player and a pathetic supporting cast. I think Kobe could tell them it doesn’t really work out too well. Now if they really want to win a championship — or even get through the finals without embarrassing themselves by getting swept — they should take a look and try to learn from the Pistons & the Spurs instead of spending all their time kneeling in front of LeBron… Oh and as long as they’re down there…
GO PISTONS!!!!
ohhh HELLLL YESSSSS!! IT DOES MATTER !
to me the cavs are our BIGGEST RIVALS! to the pistons and to me personally! i go against a lot of friends becuase theyre allll cavs fans.. but i think the biggest reason is because im an “I HATE LEBABY JAMES” FAN !!!
ohh yeaaa thers nothing more i love or satisfying to me than to see the baby [literally] of all superstars who is ALWAYS getting bragged about on espn and during games look up at the scoreboard once the fourth quarter buzzer goes off at the count of zero seeing that the PISTONS have a LARGER number than HIS SIDE!! proving that a TEAM is better than a ONE MAN BAND.. that equal skill shared between five men is more true than a single man with lots of talent and the support of the MAJORITY of the refs on his side on a team with men who dont have that much skill !
and on that noteeee
LETS GO PISTONS
LETS WATCH LEBABY JAMES AND HIS CLAN OF LEBOOBIES CRY TONIGHTTTT!!!!! AND IF NOT THIS TIME [ due to players being sick/injured ] THEN SURE AS HELL GET HIM NEXT TIMEEE!
haha sorry i get a liiittle carried away
btw anybody know anything about stuckey and when he might play??
When i read this line of the aticle i just wanted to kill those stupid caviliers (or atleast their fans)”And together with you little Queequegs, the Cavaliers smote the big fat Moby Dicks from Detroit.”
or when he said that they have 3 players playing at all-star level i can’t remember who he said though. This game matters alot (a)for pride (b)for the record and (c)so we can shut that stupid optomist up. (and because i live in cleveland and i have probably said some things i shouldn’t lol).
I just read that article by the optimist. Leave it to an immature Cavs fan to insult an innocent child — who btw is cute as hell. What a f’ing moron!! Grow up asshole. There’s a special group we created for people like you… it’s called Assholes Annoymous and you need to attend a meeting ASAP! The Cavs will not see the finals again for a long, long time. LeBitch can’t carry them forever. They disgraced the Eastern Conference in the finals last season by getting their asses handed to them by the Spurs and they will disgrace themselves tonight by getting their asses handed to them by the Detroit Pistons!!
what the shit? Why do we care what LeBron’s shoes look like?
Hi, I’m watching the game on TV now. Can anyone please tell me why Mason’s not there at the Palace recently?
Greg Kelser:
“Usually that call goes to the player standing outside the restricted area.”
I guess there’s exceptions to every rule, huh?
LeBron is a LeBitch. Shame on those who worship him.
lol I love the way ‘Sheed looked at LeBron after he got hit. Kinda like “I hope Chauncey broke your face” or something.
^^UGHHH youre so lucky youre watching this amanda ha
That is bullshit. LeBron cannot be SO hurt that he can’t play. What a fucking baby.
That being said, I’ve been wishing since like the 2006-2000 season that LeBron would get hurt. lol Who knew it’d actually happen…
2006-2007*
i dont no if this has been answered, but where is mason??!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sprained finger? Why the hell did he grab the side of his face then?
I haven’t got a clue where Mason is. Hopefully nothing’s wrong.
WHOO! DId you see that hang time and altering Rip did mid air for that alleyoop to Tay?!?! PLAY OF THE GAME!
Chauncey hit LeLousa, damn, I wish I could see that. Le Bitch is probably crying like a baby because his ugly mug got more ugly….
As to dogs from Cleveland, start your own blog, you cheap bitches, stop invading other fans’ blog sites. Just like the freakin’ gnats that came out during that World Series game. Most disgusting thing I have ever seen in any professional sports game.
Where are all the idiots from Ohio now?
Look at the numbers of rebound!! Optimistic, who are playing all-star level again??? LOL
thats right, Rip is 7-11 and Tay is 7-10! Where are all those idiots who say that Rip and Tay cant coexist?? Keep it up, Pistons!!!
what a baby. this makes me mad. because now their excuse is going to be that lebron had to sit out the second half. I wanted to beat them with their best players playing a good game out on the floor. I wanted them to lose playing their best. Now this will just be an excuse for them.
I feel the same, anonymous 9:37. NBA.com has made a big announcement of LeBaby’s injury already.
im not from the area so i cant watch the game, but could anybody tell me how he “sprained his finger”? and i love how the write up on NBA.com is titled “king leaves motown wounded” or something along those lines…i dont know how he got king as his nickname but it just makes him sound more conceited.
wow, whatever, every team has injuries, they shouldnt even make a big deal out of it. Wait, i take that back, may be they should, since James is basically the Cavs, that’s like the whole team’s injured.
Can anyone tell me how he got injured again? Does it have anything to do with Chauncey?
I wonder how do Boston fans feel about Lebron’s injury?f
It definitely isn’t as satisfying without LeBron out there, but it’s exciting that Rip seems to be getting back in a rhythm and our bench boys are playing superbly.
Let the media and the Cavs and their fans claim they lost on a technicality, we all know the Pistons would have defeated them (though maybe not as soundly) with James playing 48 minutes. What happened last season was a fluke. The Cavs are faux champs.
See, people say that we “whine” when we said the refs help them win against us, etc. So what gives them the right to justify their loss on injuries? Shit, we have injuries too! Our top scorer was out for almost a week due to ankle sprain, then he missed 2 games, our point guard, power forward, center, hell, even our rookie got injuries. So suck it up, Lebron-worshippers!
I wonder if Gooden’s still talking smack to Sheed now that Lebron’s out.
He got injured when Nazr blocked his shot in the 2nd quarter. In an attempt to battle ‘Sheed and Chauncey for a rebound, he reaggrevated it.
dayummmm haha i just saw the final score.. whyyyyyyy wasnt this game on tv???
i wish i lived in detroit :/
it looks like it was a perfect game.. chauncey smacking lebaby in the face.. then he injured his poorlittle finger and just couldnt go on any longer !!
ha yea whateverrr pistons as a whole have more talent..they need to suck it up .. and they call themselves a “no-excuses team!”
…my ass
Rip is back! He’s a player of the game today!!
Detroit is everyone’s reality check.
^ haha. I like that.
Thanks for the info Amanda!
And yea, this win is not as satisfying without Lebron. So here are the things I’m thankful for in this game: victory (of course), Rip seems to be getting back on track (while battling the flu, mind you), The starters play like half the game. Only Rip and Chauncey was in the low 30 minutes (See, our starters didnt play the entire game, our second unit could handle the Lebron-less Cavs). I thought Sheed’s stats would be crazy, like 20 blocks, 50 rebounds (maybe not that crazy) or something like that. But I guess because Lebron wasnt in, so Sheed lets Maxy and Co. handle the Cavs. The stars of the game are Hamilton and Prince, no? I was shopping today, and I saw Hamilton’s poster for Jordan (I think it was him, he looks kinda mean in that picture though)outside this shoes stores and I stared at it for like 10 seconds lol
It’s a game of chess, Bron wasn’t feelin it, so he didn’t wan’t the stones to gain any confidence. There is no doubt in my mind bron could have played, and will play on fri. in toronto. Watching him talk about his finger to his teamates, and then put a wrap on 15 minutes after walking out fully dressed was like watching a soap opera, stuff like this makes me sick at the direction the nba is headed; reality television.
seriously guys as much as i hate the cavs Lebron would have played if he could have those finger sprains hurt like heck.
STILL LOVE DETROIT THOUGH
DEEEEETROIT-BAAASKETBAAAAL
I agree with anon 10:07 about the chess game. But also, most our starters play for like 25 minutes this game, that’s like 1/2 the game. Bron missed the second half, so did our starters, technically. What this says is that our bench outmuscles their whole team.
i agree with anon 10:07(2).. it seems like if the game isnt going his way or in his favor lebron bails out to save himself the embarassment and give his team an excuse as to why they lost to one of their biggest rivals [and greatest teams in the league ha :] ]
i mean come on.. im sure with all of the talent eveyrone is always saying he has and the bighsot hes made himself out to be .. he could have played with a little pain in the finger.. i mean its not like it was bent out of place and deformed or about to fall off .. and i hear they actually escorted him out of the game?!?!? haha COME ONNN! just sit out dont make a big thing about it .. he really was looking for an excuse
if hes gonna call himself the king of basketball he needs to suck it up and live up to the name!! dont run away from detroit cause theyre a challenge! ugh it makes me a little mad!
Read the game recap on NBA.com. It pretty much talks about his injury and then what he did in the finals, not much at all about what the Pistons did in the game.
If I recal correctly, the Pistons were winning before he was injured. They just really kicked butt when it was out.
Kind of sad that they tout them as a team over and over again, but win one player is out, they get destroyed. That’s no team. How many games have the Pistons had this year with all their starters?
^^ I agree. i just read the recap on nba.com, and just as expected, they mentioned James’ performance against the Pistons during the playoffs. Its like they’re saying “yea, you beat the cavs, but without JAMES! so technically you havent done anything yet!” That just proves that the Cavs is a one man team, so when that man is out, the team disintegrates even whey its playing another team’s bench. And what happened to Gooden and Gibson? Aren’t those guys the 2nd and 3rd best players for the Cavs? Didnt the idiot Optimist called them All-star? Why didnt they step up in place of James like Tay did when Rip was out? Gooden got 9 pts and Gibson got 5 pts. Tay got 34 pts and 12 rebounds when Rip was out. And when Rip is not performing well, Chauncey made up for him with 25 pt. Detroit has guys who back each other up (aka a team), while the Cavs has ONE player. So why are there idiots who claim their team is better ours when they indeed don’t have a team? I’m just mad that the media is trying to discredit the Pistons. Hell, i dont even care about this win, I’m just happy that Rip’s finding his way back. And I bet they’re never gonna let last year’s ECF go. They’re gonna hold on to it with their dear life because its all they have.
I also suspected Lebron created (or exaggerated) the injury when he seen the Pistons were playing well and figured His team would probably loose. He will be back in their next game like nothing ever happened.
Sad they are not giving the Pistons credit for a great game (even before the sissy decided to stop playing). We know though, we seen it. They rocked.
its whatever! let them hate on the pistons and doubt us.. afterall we’re good at being underdogs right???
and we alllll know how underdogs end upppp ;]
I don’t know if I am psychic or what, but when LeBitch got hit in the face by Chauncey (not even that hard) and made a scene and I said “I bet he is going to have to fake an injury and go out of the game because they are going to lose and he wants to have an excuse.” I swear I said that… and BAM!! All of a sudden a finger sprain he got a lot earlier in the game becomes too painful for him to continue. What a puss!! I’d bet a lot of money that he would have played through a boo-boo finger last night against the Celtics. He’s the leader of the “whine” & gold alright. I am going to sleep like a LeBaby tonight with a big smile on my face. =D The win is cheapened by sissy boy sitting out the 2nd half, but it still makes me feel all warm & fuzzy inside. I noticed that there are no asshole Cavs fans commenting yet… cowards. I figured they’d be here making excuses for their pathetic team. Guess not. (hee-hee) Great job Pistons!! I enjoyed the hell out of that.
GO PISTONS!!!!
^^ what other excuses can the Cavs fans make that the media hasnt made for them already?
Just so you know, all you Haters Anonymous, we eat your kind for breakfast!
it’s awesome to see our boys put the hurting on the cavs. the only problem is now they are going to have an asterisk by our win because bron went out hurt. as mentioned before, it’s as if our win is worthless now. we were up by an average of 5 the whole game until half. could it be that boston made cleveland a tad tired for our game. that remains to be verified, but the fact of the matter is every team has to play back to back games, many times not as close to home as last night. take a note from detroit’s new motto… no excuses. (i’m holding my breath to see that one stick).
the media will never talk about how everyone that played, except hunter, scored at least 5. how 7, potentially 10 players could have had double digits. this is awesome to see that we have many options to go to. that’s depth, y’all.
afflalo was perfect… good news.
max was one point away from a double-double in 15 min. that’s huge.
CAN WE PLEASE GET JARVIS HAYES MORE MINUTES???
tay finally got to break loose now that he didn’t have to chase around bron-bron for 40 min.
rip looked a bit more fresh than in the past few games, but chauncey still looks a tad off. can we get them both to play on the same night? i guess it won’t matter as long as we keep getting the w’s.
can’t wait to see stuckey healthy. it’s scary how good we’re going to be when we’re 100% healthy.
Ah shit, we beat them in the first half and we killed them in the 2nd…. didn’t matter if LeBron was out there in the 2nd or not — they were going down and they knew it. Let them make all the excuses they want.
HAHAHA wat a great game I jsut got back and everytime it got quiet I shouted as loud as I could “Lebron’s is a pussy!!!” or “Lebron Pays the refs!!!” or somethin along those lines and everyone in our section laughed when I did it. to bad he was out of it becase i really missed sayin those thigs and makin everybody laugh i mean its no point sayin Gooden sucks because everybody knows it hell even Gooden knows it 🙂
You know, I don’t care about an asterick. It’s fine, as a Cavalier fan, to say the game *may* have been different with LeBron in. That’s obvious, but I’d be pretty miserable about the performance of the rest of the team. They were a train wreck, start to finish without LeBron.
Take away Rip, and the Pistons won’t win as consistently, but they’ll get by. Most likely, Billups or Prince will step up. McDyess goes out, and Max steps up.
More importantly, our reserves are getting better and better. I don’t know why Hayes isn’t getting the minutes he deserves. He’s very useful off the bench. I think it’s the lack of a real backup point guard, though. They’re using Prince as a point forward, something Hayes can’t do. A healthy Stuckey will free up Hayes by requiring less point-forwrd minutes from Prince. It will also ship Flip Murray over to shooting guard, something he’s more suited for (and he’ll help offset some of Stuckey’s lack of court vision). When Stuckey masters the drive and dish, he’ll be as important as Billups and Rip.
Oh, and Amir looked pretty smooth out there, though Max was a monster and Nazr played very well, too. I’m getting more nad more confident in our reserve big men. Oh, and props to Afflalo! He was perfect, really. After that rough road trip and the struggle against the Jazz (who seem to really have a handle on the Pistons eh?), I felt like they needed a good game against the Cavs.
I could care less if LeBron got injured. It happens. It’s a minor injury, and he’ll be back. Lets see how the Cavs play without him. They’re basically the Timberwolves… without any upside.
Maybe the Cavs should just cough up the $$ and get Flopper (Varejoke) back on the roster eh? They are pathetic without LeBron, that’s for damn sure… as if EVERYONE didn’t already know that already.
rotflmao @ cavs = timberwolves w/ no upside. hahahaha.
cavs need a for real starting point guard. the guys they got should be very good bench players at best. if i were the cavs, i’d sign verajao and trade him to memphis (or other bottom team) for their draft pick straight up. hell, throw in snow and any other of their dead weight bench players. youth and a vet pg would do them a world of good.
Just look at the disadvantages of a “SUPERSTAR.” Once he’s gone, he’s gone. Their team without him is NOTHING! It shows what kind of team they are if he wasnt there.
At least Drew “Hair Turd” Gooden can shut up until March.
maybe lebitch sprained his finger from nail biting again. who knows?!
GO D!
The pistons owned the cavs last nite.. great game Detroit.. how about that rip steal and ally-opp to tay that was a perfect pass…
Go Pistons