The Philadelphia Seventy Sixers played more like the 2nd seed in Friday’s romp of The Detroit Pistons. The Sixers got it done convincingly at home beating the Pistons 95-75 to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
Key Points:
- Seriously?
- 23 $%^& turnover, this from a team who leads the league in fewest. Most turns for the year for Detroit.
- Does someone have to remind this team that this is the playoffs?
- Antonio McDyess suffered a broken nose before the half while going for a rebound with Iguodala. Dyess didn’t return and his availability for game 4 has not been announced. If I know McDyess he’ll be on court mask and all to try to right the ship.
- I can’t quite remember the exact number but the Pistons shot around 22% in the third quarter.
- I never thought that I could feel worse about a loss in this series after being at The Palace for game one. I was beyond wrong.
- This is not what you want to see in the fourth quarter of Game Three. The game was out of hand by late in the third.
Photo/Getty Images
- To me game 2 was a must win, but Chauncey said otherwise. Wonder what he’s got to say today.
- Andre Miller has really taken it to Chauncey. Billups finished with 11 points on 2-11 shooting.
- I have said this before and so have many of you. We are tired of Chauncey basing his game on trying to draw the foul. Work of it…. come on.
- Credit the Sixers, this team came to play and seem to do everything right to take away any sort of comfort zone the Pistons gave.
- We thought Game 1 was a fluke, but after watching Detroit play maybe it’s Game 2 that was one. I hope I’m wrong.
- Too bad this ridiculous Jason Maxeill block will go unappreciated because of the final score.
- Sheed was nowhere to be found. Rasheed scored a whopping 2 points and went 1-for-6 from the floor. Reggie Evans and Dalembert locked him down.
Photo/Getty Images
- Though frustrating, I have to agree with most of your comments.
- Bad enough some of you were talking about the Dallas – Warriors series last year, but it made me sick when Kelser mentioned it. Is it that bad?
- I still feel Detroit is going to pull it out, but if they have to do this in the first round to beat the Sixers what’s next?
- NBA.com Highlights of The Game, if you actually want to see them.
- In one second half stretch the Pistons shot 0-for-17 with six turnovers.
- Dalembert was a monster he led The Sixers with a double-double on 8-for-14 shooting with 22 points and 16 rebounds.
- Tay held down Iguodala again, but who really cares.
- Had it not been for Tayshaun and Rip it would have been uglier than it was and it was monumentally grotesque.
- Rip led Detroit with 22 and 6 boards.
Photo/Getty Images
- To be quite honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the television after the third quarter. I didn’t turn it off but why abuse myself.
- At this point do we still believe it’s arrogance or can this team just not get it done.
- Tayshaun put up 18 on 8-for-9 shooting, while playing fantastic defense. Tay played pretty well, except for his 5 turnovers. Besides Maxiell’s block, this is all you can really smile about if your a Pistons fan.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and myTV20 Detroit
- Now when are they going to turn it on?
- Game 4 Sunday at 7.
- From Olivejz28 reminded us (in the comments) of something Kenny Smith said – “Kenny Smith said it a few nights ago, the Pistons “have a superiority complex.” The last time I saw the Pistons play with any meaning, any fire was the ’05 Finals, but even then they lost it in the last two minutes. I love the Pistons, but reality is starting to sink in. I pray that they go out there and prove me wrong, but I can’t help feeling dejected about what they’ve become.”
- Also, if anyone would like to add something that they heard on the ESPN broadcast for those of us that watched locally, please do. As always Im curious to know what they said, especially after this stinker.
I didn’t see the game. Maybe the broken nose had something to do with this? Did it mentally affect Chauncey and Sheed?
This game was brutal to be at. I took a verbal beating from the home crowd the entire game, and I really had nothing that I could really say back to them. Blah, I hope its not like this for game 6, which I will be at.
idk but if this is what its gonna take for them to get going, im done being the anti christ on this site that game pushed me over the edge, hope they get it done on sunday if not i hope saunders has his bags packed..and activate juan dixon if we need scoring he should be out there to get us going i jus hate out coaching flip every game cuz i will do it for half of what he makes.. seriously i think everyone here out coaches him and if they lose round 1 look for this “family” to be broken up and im all for it…
thats it from me
everyone have a fun safe weekend and enjoy it without thinking of this massacre look forward to the lions draft lol woo hoo
steve
g, im sorry but im not buying sheed and chauncey’s reason about dyess nose…NO MORE EXCUSE for the vets….we’ll give tay and rip a break on this because pistons would be nowhere to found without those two…..and please, if were gonna blame flip on this, sheed and chauncey should be included otherwise ur just one those ignorant fans who puts everything on the coach….nat ur blog about this game is as depress as the game and its a compliment, i like it. for side note, i really really hate kobe’s gut!!! but now i thought about it, i rather trade sheed and chaunce for kobe!!! thats how disappointing i am to this team…..chauncey and sheed are suppose to be the heart and soul after ben left…but now, their the disease of this team. its time to count on the zoo crew.
g…i think u would’ve killed ur self if u saw the game…hahahaha!!! or maybe not! but for sure, ur not as traumatize as us who saw the game.
This game is INEXCUSABLE & the players’ response that they “didn’t come out to play” is painful. They get paid MILLIONS to play. I am ashamed to be a fan of a team that doesn’t bother to show up. The Pistons claim the regular season is boring & come playoff time they will step it up. Come playoff time, the Pistons preach championship dreams & their focus to “get that hardware”. Now, in round 1 against an inexperienced 76ers team (the Pistons should be sweeping) they are DOWN 2-1. If the Pistons truly had the desire they speak about — THEY would be up 2-1or 3-0. The Pistons make promises but don’t come through. I don’t see the fire this team claims to have & I no longer believe their promises. Do the Pistons need fans? They mistreat them & they don’t care that THE FANS work hard to be able to watch & support them. It’s clear the players don’t worry about embarrassing fans year after year. They don’t deserve fans. Teams that work hard & play hard deserve fans. Go Boston
Natalie, is there anything that you can say at this point? As a fan I can’t give up on them but the highlights and comments about the game is hard to stomach.
I agree with all of you, I really don’t have a lot of respect for Chauncey’s game. I’m sure he’s a good guy in person and he‘s someone you‘ll wanna be friends with in real life, but as a basketball player he really isn’t someone I’m anxious to cheer for. because he flops and wants the refs to win the game for him (Boston anyone?) and he is too much brain not enough heart.
And that’s one of the biggest thing with this team. We have 5 brains on the floor and no heart. Dyess is the closest, but even he takes games off and just waits for the ball to come to him.
Tayshaun gets a pass because he does the “intangibles’ but he doesn’t box out for rebounds, extend his ridiculously long arms for blocks in order to keep the bigs out of foul trouble, nor does he really a great passer, I believe he led the team in turnovers, because he never forced himself to learn how to dribble with his right hand. But he did play good d on igudala I’ll give him that but he didn’t help shut anyone else down.
And just so you know, Tayshaun is my focal point in the game. I watch him by default every game and I have all season, I’m pretty good at seeing his tendencies. And most of the time he is not playing as hard as everyone is duped into believing. It’s easy to be a good defender when you only worry about one guy and let everyone else on the opposing team shoot right over you or beat you to loose balls and stuff. Also if you watch closely he’ll shoot contested jump shots when he’s got teammates wide open under the basket. Rip was open at least twice in one game, dyess another time. Instead Tayshaun shoots jumps shots and misses them.
if youre upset/dissapointed about the game im with you…but if youre here to reclaim as a boston or any other teams fan, u must be in the wrong crowd…..we hated what happen last night but moving/cheering for another team? i guess u were never a fan of anything….we need to start counting on the players who can produce, isn’t that what joe d’s reason of having a great depth in this team. in game 4 tomorrow…..this is the time of the zoo crew. i can’t believe out of all the pistons jersey, i have a billups one…so embarass to have it, i rather have hermann’s jersey!!!
OK Rosenberg(Fpress) has made me sooo mad..
He said “Pretty much everybody deserves some(cred for the loss) except maybe Tayshaun Prince, who was the best Piston on the floor, and McDyess, who missed the second half.”
http://www.fpress.com
Nothing about Rip….grrrr
Rip had less turnovers more pts and no props???
I can’t say he did as well on the D as Tay… But he was shooting better.. He was agressive he was working his butt off…
I’m just so mad I could spit fire….
stupid flippin reporters anyway…
Great points Ameri-can Prince. I can’t say that I have done what you have and watch Prince all season long but from what I have seen this year he hasn’t lived up to his potential.
Arica,
I can truly understand your frustration, but as fans are we really owed something? I think becuase of the sucess of the team we are given to think we should get it done year in and year out but it just doesn’t work that way. However, Im not giving them a pass on this one.
As a season ticket holder I drop a fair amount of my money on the team and if they are going to come out like this….they might as well do something for me as a fan and lose early so I don’t waste my money on playoff tickets.
^^^^I hear that Natalie
I know Flip does not have the stones to pull this off, but it’s time to cut Chauncey’s minutes by 10-15, and give ’em to Afflalo. what’s the worst that can happen?
Time to see more of Amir also. With McDyess in limbo, I expect to him to get significant minutes. He can disrupt some of what Dalembert and Evans are getting away with.
Jarvis Hayes is the new Flip Murray!! This guys has brought nothing all season. He got hot for a 3 game stretch…and that was it!! He is a liability of defense and is the streakiest shooter since John Starks.
When there is a clear problem with your team, Great coaches make the necessary moves to fix it.
As far as I am concerned..A Lot of jobs are on the line in the next week.
The play is what it is, I’m not too upset about that. Everybody has bad games, every team has bad games, whatever, they’ll bounce back.
What pissed me off was the attitude. They should haev blown Philly out from the moment Dyess left the floor. They should have taken that as something to rally around, and then gone out there and played their asses off. But at that point, they had already conceded the game, and Dyess getting hurt was just adding injury to insult.
I’m down with the team no matter what. I won’t believe they are losing a series until that 4th loss is in the books. If you wanna talk about it’s time well yup, it’s time alright.
junior, agreed. its time for joe to shop around unless we win the ship this year. build this team around stuckey, maxiell, afflalo, amir and samb….we need a leader in this team, similar to kevin garnett i don’t care if we lose all our all star player.
Hi folks.. good comments.
I don’t see that Flip or the rest of the coaching staff is the problem here.
And we know the starters have the talent. It has been proven many times.
I think it’s either
(a) Another 3am at IHOP the night before: Sheed was just running at half speed last night, compared to game 2. Message to starters: Guys, I know it’s just a game and all, but you’re being paid more in 48 minutes than the average fan’s annual income. And, at least in the play-offs, you have to EARN it, like your fans have to earn it so they can keep selling out your home games. You can’t mess around. You are required to give your BEST for EVERY playoff game. If you can’t do that, please terminate your contract.
or..
(b) The starters are too old and can’t jump with these young teams. Look at the difference Max made in game 1. Look at the woeful rebounding and all the steals. Even if the Sixers don’t have the experience, being able to move twice as fast sure makes up for a lot of it. If you don’t think you can keep up with the young guys anymore, please terminate your contract.
I think last night was the worst performance I can remember.. not just because it was so awful, but because it left the fans with nothing to go on. Not just a bad night: It made us look like we’ve been taken for a ride by a load of millionaire jokers who really don’t care enough to even try. That’s a cardinal sin fellas.
I agree with most of the comments but as a fan and after beeing a real fan for long time now i cant talk about trades or changes before the series is over!
I know the history of this team and i know how disappointing the last playoffs ended but after all the wins we got from them we should support them and give this team a chance to come back and not just win against Philly but show the HEART and soul of CHAMPIONS so i dont know if this is still possible with this Unit but i hope so!
GO PISTONS
I too am a season ticket holder and I agree with you Natalie that I hope they don’t make me waste more money on playoff tickets and not get it done…
I am not even close to being a Boston fan, I just cannot express my frustration in any other way. I want more than anything for the Pistons to get back on track and move on to the next round, but I don’t understand how a team that can’t focus enough to play in round 1 can make it to the Finals. I have been the daughter of a season ticket holder since I was born. I was a baby when I flew to LA for the finals in 1989. I will never not consider myself a Pistons fan, but as of now I am embarrassed to admit that.
I don’t think that as fans we are “owed” a trip to the finals every year, I just don’t think it is too much to ask for them to try.
oig….theres a different between confusion and halucinations. know what i mean?
@ric
I know what u mean and maybe its true that da time of this Unit is over and im frustrated when i hear them talk but dont back it up on the court but its still my favourite Team and i will support them till its really over!!
It’s cool to love to win but we need to hate to lose
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ApViOWj83a0AlICnUzHt_cO8vLYF?slug=ap-pistons-mcdyessinjured&prov=ap&type=lgns
this cant be good mcdyess had to have surgery on his nose
Exactly why I agreed with Bennie. . . . .
Can someone explain to me why Juan wasn’t in uniform and hasn’t been? During the regular season, when we needed offense, he was someone we could always depend on. It would have been nice to see him last night when we were shooting 0-17. Tayshaun was doing well last night, and Juan and Tay work remarkably well together. If they would have been on the court at the same time, possibly we would have had a chance at winning. Also, why are we focusing so much on stopping Iggy? Obviously we need to focus on the entire team. It isn’t like we’re playing Cleveland. Iggy isn’t Princess Bron.
amber, stuckey is ahead of juan in the rotation and i couldn’t blame flip because rodney obviously earned it, juan has only been here for a couple of months but i agree that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to put him on a uniform knowing chauncey has completely lost it. by the way, wheather chauncey and sheed play good or bad tomorrow, it wouldn’t make any difference coz if they do play good, why the hell didn’t they do that or at least try that in game 3, and if their bad, well then, its time to let the younger generation take over the thrown. its beyond humiliation that their even part of the 50 season celebration especially chauncey’s speech. he should be ashame!!! and i can’t believe that i even got really close to comparing rip and chauncey to joe and isiah….not even close, but for the sake of forgiveness….i guess its not too late, maybe they will be in parallel to them but until we see sign of passion and heart their just another player that came to pistons and LUCKY to win 1 championnship.
Natalie wrote in the recap, “At this point do we still believe it’s arrogance or can this team just not get it done?”
I still believe it’s the Pistons arrogance and superiority complex that has become the start of another playoff downfall. There are doubts that linger in mind however, for there’s a fine line between a losing mentality and expired talent.
This is going to be a tough hole to dig out of, for the Pistons gave a young, hungry team proof that they can not only beat them, but embarrass them. It’ll be interesting to see how we respond.
Go Pistons.
-Nate
Hi Pistons Fan, its been a while since I have posted but I have to because I seriously think that this will be the year that I will break down like a baby if the Pistons don’t at least make it to the Finals. This was so dreadful, I was mad for the whole day, its pathetic for them to be playing that way, I mean I love Chauncey with all my heart, but his game was a mess last night and he mad everyone on the floor look a mess, what the heck did Ra do, go home and party all night with his hometown buddies, it was sad to see them that way, I hope that this is not going to like last season where they looose to a team that they know damn well they can beat, my feelings are hurt for Antonio, I don’t know what the hell is going onm, they need to get hit in the head with a stick, I mean damn, I won’t blame Flip but if they breakdown Sunday the way the did last night, he has to pack his bags and move back to Minnesota, before the summer is even over, I’m nervous and mad.
It´s not that the Pistons have lost it. I mean, during the regular season, the team was superb, you know? There were some stinkers of a game, but there were many more where the starting five´s talents were on display, and damn, it was splendid!
No. It´s all about the heart. These Pistons think winning is about playing a trick on people who doubt them. But when they are the favourites, when things aren´t going their way on the court, the trick is on them.
They have to find it in themselves to give the utmost effort no matter what. Flip isn´t going to hold them accountable. They are still on time to react. Go Pistons.
Celtics lost in Atl, if that makes you feel any better.
All of the teams are human, well, except for the Lakers….
I think that the Pistons are not out yet. Yes they are down 2-1, yes McDyess has his nose broken, yes Sheed and Chauncey are in a slump. But remember how they bounce back many times before? Many are saying that they’re too old and can’t make it with the young teams. But they know how to deal with situations like this. In 2003, they beat the Magic when they were down 3-1 in that series? Sheed and the other young guns were not there. And they prevailed winning 4 straight. In 2004, they were in the verge of elimination against the Nets who was the East champs back then. When their back is against the wall, they bounced back and won Game 6, at the road, and come out winning that series. I know you saying that they lost to the Spurs in the Finals, lost to Miami and Cleveland in six games because of not playing well during late game situations. Well, this season is all about building a good bench. They didn’t just do that, they have build a great bench filled with energy and talented guys. Jason Maxiell has emerged as their best bench player, who I can say can also start in games. Rookies Stuckey and Afflalo, both new to the NBA ground, yet promising talent at their young age. Johnson, a great shot blocker and leaper, who is yet to be discovered. Jarvis Hayes, on-and-off shooter but can be dealt with. Ratliff, a great shot blocker and rebounder with veteran experience. Dixon, an instant offense guard. Hunter, a player-coach guy who can counted on at times. And Walter Herrmann, a guy with a great game who is yet to be used frequently. I know that this comment can bore anyone, but what I’m trying to say is that Saunders can ALTER or CHANGE his lineup or rotation to adjust to the Sixers. Because right now, I think, that the Pistons are having difficulties with their younger matchups. Right now, McDyess is injured and is questionable for Game 4. And I think, or even DEMANDING that Saunders start Jason Maxiell at forward, for reasons that it could change the energy of the team, can cause mismatches against the Sixers, or even change the game or not so the whole series as well. Just last year, Dallas went on an early off-season due to the Warriors great mismatches against the Mavs. Avery Johnson just didn’t find a way to match Don Nelson’s lineup. But this series is different, so much different. If Saunders makes some changes early off. Because the ONLY FACTOR WHY THE PISTONS ARE LOSING RIGHT NOW IS THAT THEY LACK IN ENERGY AND MISMATCHES. The bench is too good to be limited with their minutes if the starters are not in their usual selves, they could make an impact instantly with their energy and enthusiasm to play, that’s why they’re called the Zoo Crew.
Bottom line is this, the Pistons must play with MORE ENERGY, MORE PASSION and MORE INTENSITY in able to win the next 3 games.
i think the pistons need a new coach. look at the past few years. the championships have been won by the tough coaches. 2003-gregg popovich, 2004-larry brown, 2005-popovich, 2006-pat riley, 2007-popovich. the coach means a lot in todays nba.