The Pistons dropped their first game this season to the Cavs Wednesday night in a 73-89 loss in Cleveland. Detroit looked almost as good as they did in their win against Denver when the game in Cleveland started, but right before the half things started to drop off. It didn’t take long for Cleveland to take over when The Pistons shooting percentage took a nose dive in the second half. The season series is now tied at one all, with two more games against Cleveland to be played in this last stretch of the regular season.
Key Points:
- The game looked promising from the start, but things started to break down in the second quarter when Detroit scored just 13 points and let the Cavs go on a run to take the lead into halftime.
- Is it just me or do you think that the NBA wanted Detroit and Cleveland to duke it out in the last few games of the season? They played them 3 times in the last 15 games. Something to think about.
- It was pretty simple, The Pistons stopped moving the ball and hitting their shots.
- Settling for the jumpshot again. The Pistons went to the free throw line just 7 times.
- LeBron was impressive with 30, but he didn’t do it alone as he had help from Ilgauskas who scored 20.
- Rasheed led the Pistons with 16 points on 6-for-17 shooting. Ben gave him trouble down low when he wasn’t putting up the 8 3-pointers he attempted. He grabbed 6 boards with 3 blocked shots with no assists.
Photo/Getty Images
- From 42 assists one night to 17 the next.
- Look, I don’t dislike many people. In fact I consider myself to be a pleasant person but I can’t stand Anderson Varejao. He could could be the nicest person in the world, donate all his time to charity, help orphans, give me a kidney to save my life and I would still want to punch him right in the face. Everything about him annoys me, from his hair, to his flopping and his facial expressions. Oh, and I hate when coach Brown calls him Andy.
- Perfect way to describe the Pistons second half. Flat.
- Rebound war lost 36-49.
- 16 points from the Pistons bench who did a decent job when they were out there.
- The Cavs clearly had the game at this point I will give them credit, but this was just pathetic.
- I showed that clip to Steve (Team Need4Sheed Captain) because he didn’t get a chance to catch the game and this is what he had to say. “That announcer makes me want to send flaming shards of something straight to the Q or whatever the %^&* they call it now.”
- The few moments Theo was in the game he blocked a shot and hustled down the other end of the floor for this jam.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and myTV20 Detroit
- Tayshaun Prince shot 5-for-14 for 11 points, 4 boards, 3 steals and a blocked shot.
- Taysahun posterization of Ben and a nice fast break and dish from Chauncey to Tayshaun.
- Chauncey was just 4-for-12 for just 10 points and 4 assists.
- The Pistons biggest lead in the game was 5 points. The Cavs was 16.
- The Cavs got 15 points on the Pistons 11 turnovers.
- “We started out good, but then we bogged down, they locked in (defensively), and we didn’t get the ball to the weak side,” Saunders said. “We had (Antonio) McDyess open, but we didn’t pass him the ball. We didn’t hit the open people.” Via The Detroit News
- Saunders looked and sounded extremely annoyed in the post game press conference.
- When Rip scores just 14 and has more assists(7) than Chauncey Billups, it’s usually not a good thing.
Photo/Getty Images
- Sheed feels the same way I do about Varejoke. “We didn’t go at it,” Wallace said. “I know the kid’s a flopper. But if I am going to foul him, I am going to beat him up.” Via The Detroit News.
- Pistons Forum uploaded Sheed’s appearance March 13th on Sirius radio in 2 Parts on YouTube. Part One – Part Two.
- Maybe this will make you smile. Highlight of the night.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and myTV20 Detroit
- DetroitBadBoys get together at The Palace in the Pistons.com suite.
- Do you have your tickets to Blogfest yet?
- Don’t forget you have to have an account to comment now and I would love to hear your thoughts about this one.
Horrible game.. There was no ball movement..Sheed thinks hes Jason Kopono from the 3 and needs to stay down low..The curse of Ben Wallace is very much alive the pistons cannot and will not ever beat Ben Wallace cuz Ben only shows up to play the Pistons..Where was the time out when we were down by 7 in the 4th? and why did flip not bring in any energy when he eventually called time out? Im really starting to dislike Flip and i think its championship or bust for him because he single handedly flushed a dyanasty down the toilet..I fear the playoffs for the fact that detroit cant beat rivalry teams they get scared i guess..o well at least the Tigers will go all the way and possibly red wings…
here we go again….people its one game!!! however, i do understand the frustration. remember how pistons punish most team for any mistake they made (i.e. turnover and bad offense by opposing team) well, that didn’t happened last night, they didn’t capitalize on those. in fact, we were practically the ones in the receiving end. cavs’ offense in the first half was so poor and somehow they were up by 6 or 7 in the halftime. now u know something has to be wrong. pistons — completely no energy on the defensive end especially rebounds and loose ball. mc dyes was the exception, as always. im sure most people saw rip’s hot shooting in the first half..what happened in the second half? well, lebron started guarding him and from what i saw pistons only took advantage f that once when they finally swung it to prince. dyes was also mostly open but didn’t get the ball more often. my only hope for this is they played less than 24 hours prior to this game. offcourse no excuse on that but im just glad that postseason doesn’t have a back to back game.
nat, no doubt about varejao….i hate his guts, i actually don’t have this feeling toward any players but i just feel like he cheats his way in by flopping. i wouldn’t be surprise if he does practice that more than practicing basketball normally.
I’m letting this one go and I’m not going to point to the back to back. We had some rest, we just couldn’t get it done. In fact we looked awful.
I think a lot of people can’t stand Varejoke.
I myself think Detroit will turn it up come playoff time…well at least I hope so.
Honestly, even if we scored only 1 point, and that one point came from a tech from the opponent during a game in the regular season, I still wouldn’t start packing my clothes to jump off the Pistons wagon.
With that said, last night’s loss doesn’t really bother me, but it would have killed me if it was during the Playoffs. But it’s just something about the Cavs and the Bulls that annoy me sooooo much.
Natalie, you think Varejao is annoying? How about this one: I hate Varejao and Noah, I also hate the Bulls and the Cavs. Noah is on the Bulls, Varejao is on the Cavs. They’re both in the same division as the Pistons…if it wasn’t for the Pistons, I’d probably hate the entire central division just because of those two teams.
Yeah, sideshow Bob’s flopping and cringing gets under my skin, but of course, that’s why he does it.
I’m with Sheed on this one, he’s going down whether you touch him or not, you might as well hurt him, make him feel the hardwood, make him think twice about going against you.
Our only problem is passing. If we roll we have more than 20-25 assists per game. If it’s lower that that, we have a harc game.
is there a way that we can get all the cavs fans, put them in a box and throw them in the ocean because i am tired of all my wannabe, bandwagon, just cause we got leBron and we beat yall last year cavs fans callin me and rubbin it in my face that they won last night! who cares about last nights game.. this year it is different.. i will not accept a performance as horrible as it was last night and i really didnt even watch the full game..
Id rather play boston than cleveland in the playoffs jus for the fact we dont have to deal with the fans from the shitty, boring, cow shit smelling, lame state of Ohio..them people r nasty..but hey if i lived in a boring ass state id be pissed off too.. Ever drive to cedar point and get the lovely scent of cow shit? mmmmm smells good ohio since u smell like shit u gotta act like shit…
eat that ben wallace
sincerely,
tayshaun prince
I hate this loss because I don’t like losing to the Cavs. I don’t want to give Ben the satisfaction of winning against us in a game more important than the regular season. Varejoke gets on my nerves because he’s always flopping, but Cavs fans claims he plays this incredible defense, but it’s flopping. I can’t stand the fact that people call Lebron King James. That is unexceptable. I can’t stand how Cleveland fans are calling themselves witnesses. I can’t stand the way they kept showing that one drunk, backwards hat wearing guy during the game. Lastly, I’m tired of the game of basketball being all about tricks and superstars. It’s becoming lame and it’s turning the sport into a show. With all that said, I hope the Pistons come out to play the next time we meet. The Celtics or the Bulls don’t get on my nerves as much as the Lebrons. That guy gets anything he wants, but yet they feel as if he get’s no respect. YA DE YA DE YA!!!
it would’ve been nice to go on a few days off with a win. oh well at least i get to watch them again on national tv this sunday.
sean….EXACTLY!!! i was thinking the same thing except mine was IN YOUR FACE BIA*&#!
haha
i love your comment about varajao (or however you spell, you know he’s not good enough for anyone to memorize it).
actually one of the things that bug me the most about the cavs, most notably from varajao and the former cav drew gooden, was that they actually thought they were good players by themselves. they completely ignored the point that they were good cuz of lebron!!!!
I HATE THAT!! WTF!!! PUNCH VARAJAO IN THE FACE!!!!! AND THE OVARIES!!!
How ugly was that side show bob 7 step behind the back lay up. I actually dry heaved when i saw that. I really can’t stand losing to Ben again. It seems like every time they play he shows up as the Ben of old and the Pistons just go through the motions.
“here we go again….people its one game!!!”
How many times are we going to say that its just one game? If it happens over and over doesn’t that make it 2 games we played below our expected level..then three…then four?
The whole tired excuse was used last year. I thought we had those fresh legs off the bench now?
Why did the Cav’s bench play 20 more minutes than ours if we were soo tired? Is their bench better?
We have some serious internal issues that is going to drastically hamper our championship chances.
It seems as if Flip and Sheed’s relationship is back to it’s spring time hatetred after Sheed was heard cursing out Flip during the Boston game. (See Bill Simmons Podcast with Gus Johnson…18:30 mark…it’s on the ESPN frontpage)
Guys…I am as die hard as they come… but what scares me the most is that type of loss was history repeating itself. I was watching game 6 all over again.
THAT TEAM IS NOT ON OUR LEVEL!!!
As I have said before..that funky smell in the air is all too familiar.
Sure..we’ll probably play well against the Suns..probably even sweep Cle the in the next two. But that stench of a letdown has not gone away.
was it just me or did everything go downhill starting in the second quarter when Sheed decided to turn the game into a one on one with Ben?
he did it like four times in a row and only got one bucket out of it. the cavs on the other hand took all our misses and turned them into points and a lead.
THIS WAS THE MOST TERRIBLE GAME I HAVE EVER SEEN THEM PLAY.THERE WAS MORE PENETRATION TO THE HOLE THAN A PORN FILM, ZYDRUNAS MIGHT AS WELL HAVE BEEN LARRY BIRD AND THE ENERGY LEVEL WAS AS ENERGETIC AS A DEAF GAME OF MARCO POLO. BUT NONE THE LESS I MUST SAY THEY MUST HAVE BEEN TIRED AND COME PLAYOFF TIME WE WILL GO ALL THE WAY
and for the record, and knowing this will not make me popular, but i like verajao. his energy reminds me of max, though he’s obviously not as good a shooter or shot blocker.
the main reason i like him, i think, is that he’s so insignificant, but he pisses sheed of so much. I don’t want him to be, but the fact that sheed gets totally thrown off his game by such a ridiculous nobody entertains me.
well, it entertains me and supports my belief that sheed is a mental and emotional liability to the team.
i also like varejao and nocioni… and even noah… haha i dunno, i like those guys who play hard, (i don’t like the flopping though I’ll admit), take charges, bring energy, do all the small things AND get under the skin of opposing teams’ players and fans (kind of like how sheed gets on the nerves of other teams’ fans often)… i like the fact that they dont care, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get their team a win, whether it makes them look good or bad
my one exception is dwade, he is the biggest flopper, worse than ginobli… and it’s just waaaaaaaaay too annoying, cuz he’s not even a role player… he’s their superstar, and he flops like a bitch, and loves the attention… i give lebron the respect for being able to run to the hole, get fouled, and finish… and still be on his feet at the end of the play… dwade runs to the hole, and flips over 20 times in the air whether he got touched or not… just in order to get to the line… no wonder he’s all banged up now, he deserves it
wade has practically signed his death warrant though. watching him his first two years in the league i’d tell anyone who’d listen that his style of play and constant crashing to the ground would end his career sooner than later. looks like he’s on that path, sure enough.
and for anyone who might care. I’m the poster formerly known as “Kyle”
junior, it is a one game. but i do agree about how we loss this game and other games. offcourse, no excuse on the back to back games because like most people said, they could’ve played better. although the fact that clev didn’t play the night before stands. marcos i completely disagree that this is the most terrible game, anybody remember new york when they massacre us this season? now that’s beyond. i for one is frustrated how we loss games in this season. i don’t really mind if we don’t win some games, but i hate it when they play with the lack of effort and lack of hardwork. i think that’s why most fans are mad when pistons don’t get a W because everybody knows that we are capable of putting any team away on any given night and the opposing fans out there are there to just pissed us off to get us discourage which is whats happening to some people right now. are you one of them?
i’m not really upset because it’s just one game. The reason y all of us say one game because when the Pistons lose a game we usually go on a streak, so i’m not that upset. I hate seeing the Pistons lose but if they have to lose some games and win the ‘ship in the end…HECK BRING ON THE LOSSES!!! so i’m not that upset, just sort of disappointed. Our focus now is on the wizards adn i think we just have to let this go and move on 😀
LET’S GO PISTONS AND LET’S GET THAT SHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2007-2008 IT’S OUR TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL BOUT DETROIT BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
like any of the high profile losses this season, if it motivates us and keeps us hungry for the playoffs, then it’s a good thing. only time will tell if it was a lesson learned or just a sign of the times.
You know the clip with the announcer kind of impressed me. Who knew that someone from the state of O-H-I-O could spell anything besides that word that begins with a F and has 3 letters behind it…..and they in Ohio usually puts it in front of Michigan.
^^^^
🙂
still cant figure out what the heck the announcer was spelling oh well, i could care less about the game though, we got the 2 seed on lock, a loss in a meaningless game is the same as a win in a meaningless game
the announcer was spelling “cav” i think… i didn’t get it either but the hubby helped me figger it out.
GO PISTONS!!!!
“cavs” is what i meant… yeah. but instead of “beat detroit” i was saying… “cleveland sucks!”
GO PISTONS!!!!
I’m just glad I didn’t watch this one live… and hey, not EVERYONE in the state of Ohio is bad! 🙂
Oh yea, someone stole my name on here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zcEeZKmyII
Why we don´t do this with LeBron?
Cavs x Pistons game are now symbolic. They do this Rome-stuff about beating us, everyone talks about game 5 all the time, we´re frightened, and playing like the good boys. Flip Saunders sound like a good guy.
We need something dirty, like in Jordan times, because we aint gonna stop Lebron using only basketball, puke his eyes, he´s a fag, everyone knows. Also, when double-teaming him, it has to be all the time and with bigger guys,like herman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f19uNvReH5Y&feature=related
Dont forget this, hes not a joke, he´s actually a jerk. Varejerk sound better.
Brazilian basketball fans hate him and think hes a desgrace to our country. Nene is a much better player, poor guy, so sick…, so as Barbosa and other true basketball players.