Yes the Pistons are now on the brink of an abrupt end to what turned out to be a painful NBA season. Down 0-3 to the Cavs after their 79-68 loss Friday night at the Palace, they are in jeopardy of a first round Swiffer if they don’t win Sunday afternoon at home.
Key Points:
- This one started out just right, Detroit came to play and even started the game in glorious fashion with this Richard Hamilton steal that lead to a Rodney Stuckey dunk, which led to an 8-0 Pistons run.
Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and ESPN
- The Pistons showed some heart, played defense and controlled the tempo of the game and held the lead until the Cavs took a 33-31 lead with five minutes left in the half.
- Yes the Cavs have went to the line a whopping 100 times this series compared to 40 times for Detroit. Don’t point all the fingers at the refs or David Stern, you don’t go to the line when you shoot jumpers, it’s as simple as that.
- Tayshaun Prince played hurt and was responsible for helping the Pistons start the game strong. He finished the game with 7 points, 5 boards, and 2 assists in 33 minutes.
- Rasheed….well Sheed either has lost more than a step or checked out before the series started. Sheed scored 5 points, with 7 boards and a steal. With similar numbers this whole series and for the later half of the season, it’s fair to question if Sheed still has it at all or for this team.
- Though Dyess had trouble knocking down his shot (4-for-10), he still put his heart on the line and was pivotal in Detroit’s third quarter run. He finished with 8 points, 2 blocks and 8 boards. Unfortunately it looks like No Ice4Dyess.
Photo/Getty Images
- Two Pistons in double figures is disastrous.
- The Pistons are on Life Support.
- This one wasn’t hard to watch, they came to play but are clearly outmatched. Tied at the end of the third quarter and then settling for Rip Hamilton jumpers in the fourth maybe was a mistake.
- Rip led Detroit with 15 points on 6-for-17 shooting with 6 assists, 8 boards and 2 steals in 41 minuets.
- “This is killing me, I can’t even lie,” Hamilton said. “Knowing how great we were, and then being down 0-3 and being the eighth seed and watching them celebrate shot after shot, it’s hard. It’s a terrible situation.” Via The Detroit News
- This was actually the first time in the series that Detroit was in a position to win the game but a horrible 4th (something that haunted them all season long) was the cause.
- Just 6 points for Bynum in 18 minutes but it was this leaping steal that made me rewind the game about three times.
Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and ESPN
- Sick and tired of “Andy” AKA CLOWNFISH getting in everyone’s face. I’m not one for violence but I wouldn’t mind clocking the dude myself. Yes he’s and energy guy bla, bla, bla….he’s a punk. And as Mr. Blaha said, ” Don’t the referees even watch this guy?” He pushed Kwame and Brown gets a tech. Great.
- Speaking of Mr. Kwame Brown, he’s been the surprise of the series. Bringing energy and banging down low ever time he steps on the court. Kwame scored 4 points in 13 minutes with 3 boards and 3 blocked shots. And he won’t let you get in his face either.
Photo/Getty Images
- Something so wrong at the Palace – Who was the genius that decided to get Cavalier phone service to sponsor the thundersticks so CAVALIER is written in bold across the thing?
- “Right now, we have to have a focus that is a game-winner, every possession,” Detroit guard Arron Afflalo said. “Just looking at a lot of the teams in history that are good teams, they played with a certain intensity, a certain focus, and a certain energy level, every possession. And being down 3-0, that’s what it’s come down to.” Via MLive
- What is really more to say, at least they tried. The Cavs are a better team and quite honestly it hurts much less to loose to them this year than it did in 07 when Detroit was the better team. I’m not giving up, but a Sunday home game looks daunting.
being optimistic is fine..but.. the “pistons” is not in the ryt groove to win this series..
lets accept the fact that we are losing this series..
nxt yr is the only choice we have..or maybe the nxt yrs 2 come
lets face the facts here
we will lose..this is not our year
lets just watch and enjy..
The “Cavalier” thundersticks make me laugh. A wry joke on themselves for a rough season. I’ll save my optomistic look ahead comment for when the season’s acually over, but for now let’s enjoy what’s left of the post season.
I am sick of Lebron getting EVERY call and getting away with Cussing out a reff and taunting the opposing team without possibility of a technical foul. At least they call techs on Kobe about half the time when he does that. I feel like Lebron has degresses rather than progressed in terms of maturety. He used to be well composed and humble. Now every time he scores he acts like he’s never done it before.
It’s to the point that I grind my teeth everytime Varajoke is on the screen. I’m so glad he doesn’t play on my team. He’s NOT a basketball player. He’s a tall off that couldn’t cut it in soccer, so he tried to play basketball and flop around like a soccer player and under todays NBA rules, a guy like that gets called an “energy guy.” I cringe to think of a guy like that riding Lebron to a ring while a man who’s played intense passionate basketball his whole life and wears 24 may retire iceless.
Argh!
tayshaun was playing hurt, we need him a lot. honestly i still don’t get it, we could’ve easily won that game, the problem is sheed is not making any hard moves in the post, simply settling for fade away jumpers, and yeah he’s good at that but you can’t send the cavs a message unless you make moves in the paint and power through for those high percentage points. at this point i think kwame should start at center, let tay rest the next game and come off the bench, sheed at the 4, dyess at the 3 and same backcourt. rip is not happy at all, but hell whee is ou supporting cast?! the wb is a great dude he comes off the bench and gets things going.
what kills me honestly is how beatable the cavs were last night, and still we couldn’t make the statement.
can the pistons win 4 in a row? i’m a pistons fan, so until that game where they get eliminated, i will believe, because i honestly feel we are a better team.
i just hope tha if the cavs make it to the next round they get their asses kicked in by philly or the magic. right now it looks like the sixers might be that team and they ae fast as hell and got a young athletic team. they could run circles around the cavs.
When we lost to Boston last year I was so pissed! I screamed at the TV FIRE FLIP! Like most of the Pistons faithful. I was just so frustrated. I wanted change. Something had to give. Watching Chauncey walk the ball up the court, watching Sheed settle for 3’s. None of the Piston’s played like they cared… except for Rip & Dice. Enough was enough. I wanted Avery Johnson, maybe a trade of Sheed & Billups for Bosh. Something had to change. I loved the no sacred cows from Joe. He was as fed up as me. Then he did the right thing, Flip, GONE! Yes, my prayers would be answered. Avery Johnson led the pitiful Mavs to the finals in his first seaspn as coach & to a 60 win season all be it 1st round KO to the even more pitiful Warriors. He would be the voice & hard nosed coach we needed. He’d command respect. Then Joe did the unthinkable. He announced Michael Curry as our coach. I was once again screaming at the TV. Joe What the hell are you doing! No! This guy was a scrub as a player, he won no rings, accomplished nothing in the NBA. Why the hell would you think this guy was capable of guiding us back to the finals? What about a guy with only 1 season as an assistant made him qualified to be a coach? Nothing. Other than he was a great Bull Shitter. Great at telling Joe what he wanted to hear. I mean seriously. My family & friends just laughed & laughed! But a funny thing happened. Curry sat down & talked. He did say all of the right things. He was going to hold the players accountable. Any player dogging it would be yanked, no matter who you were. She would live on the post. Dice would get the rest he deserves. Our young guys would be developed & added to the rotation. Then we get Kwame. Ok a decent move. A bargain center that rebounds & plays D. Could he finally be home? Most of the Pistons were journey men & roll players that made names for themselves on the Pistons bench. Why couldn’t a #1 pick & athletic big guy like Kwame do the same? Ok so Joe is attempting to pull another rabbit out of his hat. So Kwame will be our Center with Dice off the Bench. I can live with that. Stuckey will back up CB & Rip, Afflalo will back up Rip & Tay & Dice & Maxiel would back up Sheed & Kwame! Cool. I can live with that. Maybe just maybe we can come out the gates as one of the top teams. All of a sudden AMIR. Wait, Amir? The ultimate D leagueer as the starting center. That can’t be right. But again, Curry made sense, the guy was long & athletic & defended the pick & roll well. So the season starts BOOM 3-0 out the gate! Nice! Then he does it again. Billups & Dice to Denver for AI. What the F-CK! No, we’re winning! Why trade so early in the season? Are we throwing in the towel? You can’t have Rip & AI on the court at the same time. No way in hell this works. So Joe fools us again, “I knew we’d win games with the team we had, but we wouldn’t win a championship with the team we had” Ok I give him that & AI is a prolific scorer. But giving him CB’s #1 a HUGE smack in the face. HUGE! So a friend of mine is an assistant on the Cavs. He’s the player Development Coordinator. Name is Lloyd Pierce. When Joe made the AI Billups trade he called me & literally laughed at us & said we were done. He said that Chauncey was the only player they had no answer for. He said we’d be lucky to finish 6th, turns out he was giving us too much credit. I honestly was unable to watch most of the season. I don’t think I’ve watched a full game all season. I took my fiance & kids to the Warriors/Pistons game here in the Bay Area & we went down by 20 points by half time. I got so sick to my stomach watching this team that I took my family home early in disgust. This was not my team. Not my Pistons. Not the team that I grew up with. This was that crappy team we put together in 93. This was that crappy team we had in 2000. Bad coach, no team leader, no team chemistry. Week after week we watched as Curry flip flopped the line up. Kwame starts, no Amir starts no Dice starts, oops Sheed goes down, now it’s Amir & Dice, no wait Dice & Kwame. Hmm Rip & AI doesn’t work (wish I would have thought of that) Let’s try Stuck at PG, AI at SG, Rip at SF Tay at PF…Tay is too thin to play a SF but now he’s gonna bang down low with KG, Amare, Duncan…can’t be good. SO what happens? Everyone gets hurt. Everyone out of position, hmmm. Let’s try Rip off the bench. Rip is only our leading & most consistent scorer. No big deal. Maybe it can work. Uh oh, Rip is only averaging 12 points a game off the bench, we lose what like 8 in a row with that line up. Maybe, just MAYBE we’ll see what it looks like with AI off the bench. GULP. No way he accepts that. And what happens? OUCH, my back mysteriously hurts. The dr says nothing is wrong, no damage to the back, what’s the problem AI. Uh it’s stiff, I need to go to a place where I am loved (Georgetown) & have my own dr’s look at it. Still no problems. What the heck is up with AI’s back? Wait, this can’t be because of the bench thing can it? At 33 he can’t be that prissy, that spoiled, can he? What happened to “what ever the coach, the team asks me to do, I’ll do it. I just want to come & fit in & help win this team a championship”? So he finally comes back. Just in time. Last 10 games we got Sheed, Rip AI & the rest all back on the court at the same time. Now we can see what this team will look like for the playoffs. No one wants Detroit in round 1! My laughed. He knew we were done. As a true blue Pistons fan I knew he was wrong! 1 game in, AI gripes, “18 minutes!” The next game “I’d rather retire than come off the bench again” UGH! Not now. Not when we’re trying to get out of the 8th seed, not with Charlotte on our asses for the 8th spot. Philly, Chi, Mia all playing just as bad as us. We can get up to the 5 or 6. We want Orl & they are in our sites! Nope! AI goes down for the rest of the season. Ok I can live with that. I can breathe. Now all we have to do is come together. With Stuck in for CB we’ve seen this. Last year, Stuck filled in for him nicely. This starting 5 & our bench in tact. We can do this. Uh NOPE. What is happening? We lose to Ind. Our division rivals? We lose to Chi in a must win game. We lose our last 4 out of 6 games without AI. We lose those games after going up by 10 in at least half of them. Freakin terrible man. Seriously! Now we’re down 3-0. All season our boys have played like Sh!T. All season our coach has fumbled around with the line up, the play calling & his interviews. “You can write the obituary but you’ll have to change the date on it!” What the hell does that even mean? Is this guy retarded! Is he coaching a Jr High team? What the hell? Now 1 game left. No way to win 4 in a row. No way at all. It’s a sad day Pistons fans. Sorry to say but if Curry is our coach next season & we do go get Boozer. I can’t watch? Not another season like this. Terrible. Thanks for letting me vent.
I just inished reading DD3’s comments/vent. I agree with everything that DD3 said, but one thing stuck line PAINFULLY stuck out….”THIS WAS NOT MY TEAM”…that says it all…..
Chauncey for AI…team leader that makes Team better (emphasize TEAM)for AI (selfish “Me” player that has abandoned ship, like a prissy diva)
Stuckey a replacement for Chauncey…maybe in three years….great off the bench last year, outplayed by Bynum this yeah, completely outlayed!
Curry over defensive minded Avery…can’t comprehend?
And next year we further break up our team for one superstar player…. it didnt work with Chauncey for AI…but I am sure that it would work next year (SARCSM)
Sheed is not plyaing, and to be honest with you, why would he..it must hurt to know that every move this year was made to ensure that you are gone next year. Sheed is at his best when he has a teamaround him, he has no team. This is not a team, THIS IS NOT DD3’s or MY TEAM…
OUr coach is horrible, does not utilze our bench, this whole season is KILLING ME…
THIS IS NOT A TEAM, THIS IS NOT MY TEAM!
One more game and this nightmare will be over! I havent been able to bring myself to watch them play the cavs, I just check the score on my cell phone. Its to painful. This years team is not my team! Joe had better make sure his next move is a smart one, because Mr D is not here to save his butt! ( no disrespect intended about Mr D at all )
the first game of the series was to see if the starters could win. they couldn’t.
the second game of the series was to see if the bench could win. at least they tried.
the third game of the series was for pride. we didn’t have it.
the last game of the series is for Joe D. He gets to see who gets thrown under the bus. If you dont play hard (or coach hard) this last game, it’s probably your last one as a piston.
Not your team…
Shows how much of a real Pistons fan are you. Together in good times and bad.
Is there a reason Maxiell only played 6 minutes, and sheed SUCKS?
Hmmm maybe thats why theres such a freethrow disparity?! Nobody actually playing PLAYOFF basketball on the Pistons.
Im sick of RIP getting so much praise, he shot 6-17, and turned the ball over too many times, how is that something to be ok with on a consistent basis?
How about playing Maxiell 20mpg at least? Bench Sheed as he has been out of this series since game 1.
Maxiell plays as hard as anyone on the team…actually no, only McDyess, and those are the only 2 guys on the team who give it their all (Maybe Bynum/Herrmann/Afflalo too)
Why not START the bench, and BENCH the starters? Looked to have some sort of an effect the end of last game!?
WTF is going on with this team? Why when something doesnt work, do they keep going back to it?
RIP shooting around 35% isnt going to win a game when he takes 17 shots. Sheed scoring no points in the paint and only having 5 points isnt going to work…Stuckey plays 1 on 1 basketball every SECOND he is on the floor, turns the ball over and takes many bad or contested shots…SO WHY PLAY THEM SO MANY MINUTES AND GIVE SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES IF THEY PRODUCE THE SAME OUTCOMES EQUALING A LOSS?!!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!
This is why I looked at this series realistically rather than optimistically. I don’t consider myself a bandwagon fan at all because, well, I’m still watching these games. But you had to know coming in to this series that they didn’t have a chance. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with admitting to yourself that your team just isn’t good enough. You always hope, but at least by admitting it to yourself you minimize the stress and can still enjoy watching the games without throwing things at your television. Those things are expensive these days. I’d hate to have to buy another one.
^^I agree. I’m ready for a very different team next season. Hopefully with a real coach.
For game 4 I think he should divide the guys into two teams of five and switch them every 5 minutes. What the hell? It can’t hurt. Then see which of the two groups is in better in the +/- column and keep them for next season. Then use the cap money for more hard playing hustling bench players.
Sure would make the game interesting.
AI-Gone!
Sheed-Gone
Dyess-Resign for veterans minimum
Stuck-Needs to be moved to 2
Bynum-Try him as the staring PG
Tay-trade with cash & Amir to Toronto for Bosh
Rip-If we can’t trade Tay try a trade him for an athletic young GF DO IT!
Plenty of cap space go after some shooters if we can get bosh. We still have Kwame & Maxiel. Go for Ben Gordon off the bench.
Let the rebuilding begin. We need to get younger & more athletic & I hate to say it, we NEED a superstar, BAD!
Gordon isn’t going anywhere to come off the bench…
This season is over unfortunately. All I can hope for is Curry getting fired. I think that is the first step. Honestly, I was happy Flip got fired but come on, Curry. I’d take Flip in a second over Curry. Go Denver!!!!!
DD3, I love your last post and I think that you are right about everyone except I think that Dyess wants to play one more year before he retires. You only forgot one very important person. Michael Curry HAS to go. He should coach Little League! I hope that all those sportscasters are wrong about MC getting a pass for next year because this season was so difficult. With a good coach, it all could have worked out way better than it has. I have never seen so many kooky line ups in one season before. Ever.
Well after this series ill be rooting for chauncy and the nuggets all the way!
I just don’t think Stuckey is the leader, but read this:
“There is as much pressure on the second-year guard as there is on Dumars because whatever new faces arrive next season, Stuckey becomes the de facto leader. It’s interesting how he is already the designated Piston for the postgame news conference, a distinction usually reserved for veterans.”
Wade, me too! Go Chauncey!
look i like stuckey, when he develops he will be a great pistons point guard. no he won’t be exactly like chauncey, but who can fill such shoes? he will be a great guard for us in his own right. the problem is really sheed. sheed s not playing with heart i feel. a man as physically gifted as he is should dominate the post and get high percentage points instead of just taking trick shots. it’s like he’s always trying to show off.
this is still the pistons, i still like this line up, if sheed is gone next year we need a true back to the basket center and i tihnk we will be utterly unbeatable. think of it, if we had an andrew bynum type big guy on our side we’d be unstoppable. and kwame is not doing bad, could we develop him more? dunno.
the bench is pretty good, will bynum, walter hermann, maxiell there’s enough good dudes there. i want to get the fans to realize we ARE BETTER THAN THIS but sheed keep acting like a point guard…i honestly blame him…
sheed(knuckling up) wers dat now??? he’s just a show off now.. all he does is talking. not doing his job
he is the one to blame here
it is sad but it is true..Sheed era is over! he was a great player, and a had a big impact in 2004 ! Thanks Sheed! You are a great, funny guy and You were a great basketball player. But it is time to go forward and we need a superstar type of a big player. and about Ben Gordon? Wow ! That would be really nice
good bye Pistons……
Guys I don’t think I would blame Micheal Curry. Yes, he is not the best coach, but this is his rookie year and he got faced in the beginning with a huge change. On top of that we had to deal with injuries and confusion. Pistons lacked all year of leadership, that is what pushed them down the drain. They need a leader! I was hoping Rip would step up, but I don’t know what happened.
curry is a retard, excuse me but iverson a 2 guard? that’s when the pistons stopped being the pistons. our whole game is equally playing defense and offense that’s why we are so lethal, but when you put a guy at a position like AI who can’t do crap against guys in the same position on the opposing side who are 6inches taller than him and able to knock shots over him in seconds…well…then that’s retarded..i’m so jealous of the nuggets now because they are so deadly with chauncey…he’s nailing DEEP 3’s like half court shots…i miss him man his explosiveness and defensive abilities…i miss that aspect of him
the thing is what made sheed THE BEST overall player was his size, strength, shooting ability. now that is not the case…he just wants to be a shooter…shooting fall away jumpers instead of driving for a layup in the paint and trying to draw a foul. sheed need a kick in the butt, he’s not thinking about the team, in fact just frm the shots he takes it’s like he’s saying “i’m too good for any of this” but he misses a lot lately and the cavs make us pay on the other end somehow…ilgauskas is going to be hard to contain, becaus when a center can shoot so well it rally opens the floor for the other guys on the team…the pistons just need kwame to start and sheed can go to the 4
Worse feeling since we got swept by that other cat in 23. Can we please get a 23 in Pistons uniform. Tired of having a team full of Pippens! We ne & deserve a star. I’m sick of seeing us lose to teams with a star. Stars get those calls. I don’t care what anyone says no one man should be shooting more freethrows than an entire team in the playoffs. It sickens me. Seeing a bunch of guys too scared to go into the paint agaisn’t scrubs like Verajao & Z! They can barely jump. Sheed & Dice shoulda been running circles around those guys. They play well against Dwight Howard but can’t do anything against these guys. This is even worse than the 91 sweep because we didn’t even try this series. They just gave into the fact that they have LBJ. This sucks. Joe D better make something happen after throwing this season away!SHIT!
love this site.been readin all season.i say goodbye SHEED-herrman-admir-sharpe-brown.lets bring in some more young blood.
also needin a real seasoned coach!!!!!
swept like i said any ways its some romers that sheed askin fo a buy out he is my favorite player through out the whole nba