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Spurs, baby.
SPURS own J00.
Spurs, baby.
Pistons are playing well. Three blow-outs in the first four games is nice, even against below-average teams.
Starting to feel the way most Spurs fans feel in that I think that almost every game is winnable, and most are ones they SHOULD win.
I really hope the Pistons can get around 60 wins this season.
But, I must also say this ... this early in the season and just because of their talent and coaching, the Spurs still have to be considered the best team in the league as of right now.
the le of the thread states "Right Now" ....... The Pistons are better than the Spurs right now based on an early record and the way they are playing as a team. You cant say a team who got blown out in one game and took another to OT isnt as good as an undefeated team who has an amazing +/-. Sure the spurs might be the better team in a couple of weeks but currently Detroit is the best in the NBA, only blind spurs homers would argue that.
I didn't think any team could beat the spurs this year but by the way the pistons are gelling and how they almost beat the spurs last year I think the Pistons can beat the spurs in the playoffs if they continue to play this well. That is a big if though.
Who cares, if the spurs beat the pelts/harry potters back to back games this week, then i dont see us losin a game till next months games...
Truly, I don't know.
What I do know is we're 4-1 with injuries to Manu, Finley and Bones. That's not too bad.
(must say that Tim looks better - more energetic, softer touch, competent FTs, awesome D - than just about any time last year when he looked very tired most of the time and lacked any sort of explosiveness... and Tony, well, making better decisions, not shooting the 3 ball, driving like a demon; let's hope this is the TP that's here to stay!)
I think we have a consensus. It's Detroit which is scary because this means that they are actually playing hard during the regular season.
If Flip can build up their offense and maintain their defense, they will be tough to stop.
I would say the Spurs are not playing well enough at this point in the season to be considered in the top 6.
We played okay during the home games, but Manu clearly a key player is having subpar games due to his injuries. They absolutely must rest him at least a week or perhaps two weeks. He is not getting better.
We really could not have played much worse than we did against Dallas.
We played okay in Chicago.
We played bad and were fortunate to beat the Bobcats.
Tony Parker has been the man. Tim has been Tim, except he disrespected the Bobcats by being so careless with the basketball.
Following Detroit, Indiana. After Indiana, pretty much everybody right now is playing bad basketball.
On current form, Detroit. The team that can perform best if they have to? The Spurs.
I have to give credit to the pissed off Pistons at this moment. They are one very scary team. I throw away everything that was said about Indiana & Miami and also all the BS that the East is better than the West. If Indiana has a hard time beating Miami w/o Shnaq they are overrated.Both teams are overrated!
Detroit on the other hand look like the class of the East and if they are kicking in all cylinders on offense and plus they play scary defense,they will cut through the Eastern conference like a hot knife on butter!
The Eastern conference is overrated at this point (after the Pistons).
We could easily say there's two clear great teams the Pistons and Spurs in the league.
Every other team is just fodder.
I wasn't impressed with either Miami nor Indiana last night. There were times in that game where both teams looked like they had never played together. Miami can hang their hat on that excuse because they basically blew up the roster during the summer, I'm not sure what the Pacer's excuse is (go read a Pacers web board and take your pick).
If you say "right now", you have to give it to the Pistons. They're already looking pretty damn near mid-season form. The "adjustment" to Flip seems pretty much seemless so far.
However, "right now" doesn't mean a whole lot, as we all know - unless that means the Pistons can keep it up well enough to secure the best record in the league.
To a man, the Piston players really want to show people that the past couple of years have been more about the players rather than the coach. "Right now", it's certainly looking that way. We'll see how it plays out.
Pistons > Spurs >> Indiana >>>>>>>>Miami
At this point. All Pistons starters are playing at playoff level + their bench is better. spurs better get their straight.
I have to give the Pistons props. They are getting it done right now.
Spurs are looking good. I can't wait to see us at full strength.
I have yet to see Miami and Indiana play.
It will be interesting to see how Indy responds to not having Reggie Miller.
I expect Miami to have some serious chemisty problems which, if not worked through, are going to hurt them.
As of the report I heard last night, they are the only undefeated team in the league.
The Suns are going to get their heinny's(sp) torched.
I told you the clips would be decent this year. But it means nothing since they're all offense. After 4 games means little, the wolves are 2-2 after losing there two games in overtime. Would they be in the hunt for best team if they won those two? Hardly. But like i said about the Pistons, they will start strong but fade at the end of the season under flip. There offense is clicking under him and it always will. But like that quote of Skiles goes something like this. Defense is a religion. Many believe but few attend. Also like a religion, if you stop going to church and hear preaching, you will start to lose faith after a while. Come talk about detroit after a down period when the cohesion starts to break and they get away from the typical detroit defense that we've come to known. Because like Pop slacks on the FT practice/coaching, Flip slacks on the defense.
The Wolves boasted 94 points for an 89 against during the 2003-04 season, one of the best at stopping their opponents from scoring so where's the defensive problem?
On top of that the Piston's have better defensive players than the Wolves so I don't expect any problems defensively
Pistons won but not overly impressive last night. Before we get too carried away on their point differential Spurs last year were on a near record pace in that statistic before Duncan's injury.
Right now give them their props and a 1A ranking, but wait until Christmas before that becomes a full #1 if they beat the Spurs then.
Pistons needed 0.8 against Boston. But they are playing weel. They are 5-0, which means #1.
You might pull your head out your ass long enough to know that that was the year Trenton Hassell pulled his head out of his ass long enough to make us believe he was Bruce Bowen in a skinnier form. The Pistons DO have better defensive players. But there's a reason coaches matter. Would you won that le with Sam Mitc or Lenny Wilkens as your coach? no. A coachs job is more of a team counselor. Flip is a glorified offensive coordinator. You'll see his inadequecies when theres a down period. Maybe its when Rip goes down with an injury and they lose a couple, Rasheed will think, this, i'm going to do it my way. Flip has proven in the past that he will be a players coach and defer to them. He will not get in there way and put his foot down. Everything looks hunky-dory when your winning.
Maybe your missing what the rest of the NBA world already knew. Ever wonder why when you had one of the best perimeter defenders in Hassell, one of the best post in KG, a rock solid center in Earv, and a decent one in spree why that year Flip continually played zone?
"When he was hired, Casey started stressing team defense to a group that basically considered it an afterthought in 10 years under Flip Saunders"
-AP
I caught some of the Pistons game last night and they looked very good in the crunch. They are probably playing the best ball of any team out there right now.
Had we not been bitten by the injury bug, we might be gelling better than we are at this point but maybe this 5 game road stretch will help us build some character.
The Pistons seem to be playing with a chip on their shoulder right now. I can understand that given how much they are slighted by the media. If they can continue to play inspired ball throughout the season they will be our toughest compe ion by far.
Lucky for the Pistons, their head coach is NOT Sam Mitc or Lenny Wilkins. I don't pretend to claim that Flip is the greatest coach ever or a perfect fit for the Pistons. But, I think the PLAYERS make the coach most of the time. If Sam Mitc coached this Pistons team, maybe they wouldn't be championship contenders, but they wouldn't be as bad as Toronto either.
Ervin Johnson a "solid" center? Two years ago, he was still 59 years old. Please don't tell me you're going to even remotely compare Trenton Hassell and Ervin Johnson with Tayshaun Prince and Ben Wallace. That's just silly.
Are players supposed to just FORGET what Larry Brown and Rick Carlisle instilled in their heads about fundamentals and defense?
Not sure why when Detroit beats Phoenix AT PHOENIX by playing an uptempo style, it's not "impressive." But, when the Spurs beat the Suns last year with an uptempo style, it was so impressive because the Spurs were able to beat them "at their own game." In the Conference Finals, Spurs allowed the Suns to average 104 ppg, even more AT PHOENIX. In the regular season games, the Spurs allowed Phoenix to average 115 ppg in the two games AT PHOENIX, 109 if you take away the one overtime.
Argue their not the same team without Amare Stoudemire, but their style of play and additions still make them a pretty good offensive team. Being that the game WAS at Phoenix, I think it was still a pretty good win. Maybe not the most impressive win, but still a pretty good win.
You lost me at the beginning and I read no further when you showed your lack of intelligence by choosing to inject childish insults into the discussion.
Save your opinions for someone that might enjoy lower echelon discussion.
I would think those habits would fade in time if they were not being reinforced by the coaching staff.Are players supposed to just FORGET what Larry Brown and Rick Carlisle instilled in their heads about fundamentals and defense?
"given how much they are slighted by the media"
My guess is that they are more motivated by being within 12 minutes of repeating last June, and let it get away. They don't intend for it to get away next June.
In the 4th qtr, with 37 pts!!, but esp in crunch time, the Pistons really hit the big shots, while Suns went pretty cold in crunch time. Pistons shot 54% for the game, and 58% 3Gs, which is awfully damn good for early in the season, and on the road. They seem, so far, to have overcome their difficutly last season of scoring.
Suns have a huge hole up front, with Amare out and Shawn disappearing, not being a goto guy.
Last edited by boutons; 11-11-2005 at 11:05 AM.
As far as right now? The Pistons are probably playing better than everyone else. I am surprised to see that I am in the minority thinking they will win the East this year.
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