With the game still tight (within 7) with a little more than 2 mins to go Dunleavy starts hacking Ben. Flip quickly pulls ben out for Dice.

I understand why Flip would 'want' to pull Ben but I don't like the message he sent by doing that.

Flip just told the league that you can take the DPOY out a close game if you start hacking him. Not many coach's do what Dunleavy has now done twice but you got to wonder if more will now try.

Poor decision by Flip in my opinion.

Nobody else is going to do that to Ben. He has too much respect around the league. Dunleavy is just an asshole. Besides, if you are a coach, it sends a bad message to your players when you start telling them to foul a player.

what would keeping Ben have proved?

what if the Clippers had pulled the game within a few baskets?

i think the message is, try that crap, and we're deep enough to make you pay. Dice came in, got a rebound and a tip in. players like Sheed probably got fired up because of it....resulting in back to back three pointers.

the egg was on Dunleavy's face tonight. he's tried it twice and it didn't work either time.

http://img215.exs.cx/img215/6804/nelson_haha.jpg

It was a fine decision. In fact, I bet Ben told him to take him out. You think he likes that situation? Having everyone rely on him to do something he isn't comfortable with?

Yeah. Great move on Flip's part. LA was hitting some baskets during the short "Hack-a-Ben" stretch, so I dont have any problem with it.



Dunleavy can suck a dick

i think the message is, try that crap, and we're deep enough to make you pay. Dice came in, got a rebound and a tip in. players like Sheed probably got fired up because of it....resulting in back to back three pointers.


what he said.

Message to Cindy Kate please alter the word filter so that when anyone types "dunleavy" it is displayed as Bumleavy. Mike and his sone suck balls.

Flip said in post game that ben said to give dice minutes. So he put dice in

good for ben. kind of funny though, that flip did it because ben said so. either way, love that team mentality. [smilie=applause.gi:

Flip said in post game that ben said to give dice minutes. So he put dice in

That's good to know.

I feel much more comfortable knowing that Ben was not only OK with the decision but he was the one who proposed it.

Yeah. Great move on Flip's part. LA was hitting some baskets during the short "Hack-a-Ben" stretch, so I dont have any problem with it.



Dunleavy can suck a dick

I agree. Flip countered Dunleavys retarded plan.

IIRC, everyone was praising Flip for not taking Ben out last time.

If Ben called for it, then I'm cool with it. But if not, then its definately unneeded since I'm fully confident in the Pistons being able to stop a team when they are always allowed to set their defense up for, and find a way to produce points even when the other team is hacking Ben.

Ben averages 45% from the line.

Clips average a 43 percent feid goal percentage on the road.

Does that seem like a very good strategy to you guys knowing you're facing an elite defensive squad?

Why pull him for Dyess though? He's not a good FT shooter either. We'd be better off with Darko shooting FT's (or going small with Prince at PF). But then they'd probably stop hacking us too. Did they hack Dyess? They should have since he's not much better at FT's.

I don't have a problem with Flip pulling Ben out in these situations.

If Ben doesn't want to come out, then he needs to stop making himself a liability at the line late in the game.

I say this as a huge Ben fan.

Why pull him for Dyess though? He's not a good FT shooter either. We'd be better off with Darko shooting FT's (or going small with Prince at PF). But then they'd probably stop hacking us too. Did they hack Dyess? They should have since he's not much better at FT's.

no, they didn't hack dice.

btw, dice is a career 67%FT vs ben's career 42%.

well, if they didn't have Dice then the substitution worked.

I think it's obvious to rest of the league that Ben can't shoot FTs for shit. We have a stacked front line with Dyess and Davis who can hit FTs better, so don't fret out on making a statement by pulling him out. Only people who would do this is Bumleavy and Doc Rivers anyway.

Ben Wallace is about the only guy that Dale Davis can say that he is better at shooting free throws than.

The papers all say that Ben asked to be pulled.

Yep,


"It didn't matter, they were still going to lose," said Ben Wallace, who had 13 rebounds and two blocks. "As long as we win the game, I am good. I don't have so much pride that I can't see the big picture."

"It didn't matter, they were still going to lose," said Ben Wallace, who had 13 rebounds and two blocks. "As long as we win the game, I am good. I don't have so much pride that I can't see the big picture."

id still like to see ben spend many an hour working on free throws though. i havent even played a pickup game since i broke (shattered) my foot well over two years ago playing some b-ball, but i will still sit there for a couple hours and just shoot frees.

According to everybody I talk to and hear about, Ben Wallace works his ass off in the gym during and after practice on free throws.

According to Chris McCosky, he's a great free throw and 3 point shooter in practice.. but it gets in his head during games, and that throws it off. I can buy that, too.. he'll hit a perfect shot.. but then the next three will be UGLY airballs.. you can see it in his eyes like he's afraid to be on the line.

Flip said a problem with Ben and free throws is that he exerts so much energy during the game that he's dog tired when he goes to the line. I can understand that. He is mr hustle.

regardless of it being psychological or being tired, he's a 42% career FT shooter and he's a liability if a team decides to do hack-a-ben in the playoffs.

i'm glad we've got quality bigs like Dice to come in and the Pistons might not skip a beat.

i'm also glad that Ben's got the maturity to want the win and sacrifice his pride to sit.

regardless of it being psychological or being tired, he's a 42% career FT shooter and he's a liability if a team decides to do hack-a-ben in the playoffs.

i'm glad we've got quality bigs like Dice to come in and the Pistons might not skip a beat.

i'm also glad that Ben's got the maturity to want the win and sacrifice his pride to sit.

No team is going to Hack-a-Ben in the playoffs. You can't do it in the last 2 minutes anyways and if you do it much sooner, you put your team in the penalty and Billups will spend the rest of the game at the line.

It's a ploy that shit ass teams try that has never worked. Not on Ben, Not on Shaq. The other night was the first time that it showed some semblance of being effective and Detroit countered very effectively anyways.

Let teams do it! Do the math.

Ben hits close to 50% of his free throws. Say the Pistons get 5 possessions where Ben gets fouled. 10 free throws and he hits 4 or 5 of them. The team employing the hack-a-ben is now going against a defense that is pissed and is also getting 5 possessions. How many of those are they likely to score on? 3 at the most? Gee, so they gain a point or 2 max?

No team is going to make up an 8 point lead by employing the hack-a-ben and no team is stupid enough to do it in a close game. If a team does it, let them get into the penalty and than you have the option of taking out Ben or not. It's a really simple concept