OK so i didn't see anybody else starting a gamethread.......

well flip shocks me by going back and giving our bench heavy minutes again. nice move.

j-max and davis have been amazing- all over the offensive rebounds, setting a team record for offensive rebounds in a quarter! (12)

we're up 1 at the half but you get the feeling we can run away from these kids anytime we want.

hey greek man is in the game for them. andreas glyniadikos or however you spell his damn name. the greek dude we took in the 2nd round a couple of years ago...

He looked like the stiff I remember. He touched the ball once and quickly looked for someone with game to give it to.

Just tuned in...Mad Max playing and stuff? 2-4 pt game, 3 mins left in 3rd? Fairly typical game?

Rip was driving the lane and I was No NO NO and then he makes it, with some harm and I think a Tech too. Yes yes yes

10-2 Piston run and a 4 pt lead. Sweet. Mad Max with a block. He is giving us some interior D that we lacked, imo.

how about that alley-oop in the open court from my boy blalock to maxiell, AND ONE!?

:)

If MM had another inch or 2 he'd be a superstar in the making, imo.


Nice board by MM and then a 3 by MBS. And another by MBS

Mad Max is killing mofos tonight.

13 pts 10 rebs so far........dude's a BEAST!!!

yeah i'm loving our big men on the boards tonight.

yeah i'm loving our big men on the boards tonight.

most impressive: 25 OFFENSIVE rebounds w/ 2 min left.......unreal. [smilie=llama_banan:

tied up............................20 sec to go!!!

MAXIELLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

he hits the jumper to put the Pistons up 2 w/ 6.8 sec left!!!!

Mad Max with a huge late bucket.

You can see the kids confidence growing.

maxiell is unreal!!!!!!!! LOL

first he hits 2 clutch FTs in a close game inside of 2 minutes. that's BIG.

then billups trusts him enough to dish it to him for a baseline jumper with about 6 seconds left, we're up by 2!!!!!!!!

come on D, let's close this out!

Ja see the smile on AJ after MM hoop went down? He says, let us rookies play damnit!

Sonics fail to get it inbounds, call time out.

i'm still reeling over that Mad Max jumper!

Delfino and MM with huge plays down the stretch.

delfino with a huge steal that might lock up the W. :)

Delfino w/ the hustle defensive play to knock away the inbounds pass!! then he hits the floor diving for the loose ball.

the youngins have been AWESOME tonight.

FlipS obviously regards Delfino as a solid defender to put him in, in the last few seconds.

Nice game by the boys

of course mr. clutch locks it up with 2 FTs.

huge performance by j-max. player of the game along with davis.

Sheed and Lindsey being hurt has been a blessing in disguise. the rooks are looking hungry everytime they step on the floor.

Mad Max was gently asked by Palace security to stop eating babies during halftime, as he was scarying the kiddies....

Mad Max easily the player of the game.

17 points, 12 rebounds (8 offensive), 2 assists, 2 steals, 5-10 FGs, 7-11 FTs.

led all players on both teams in free throws attempted.

That was a damn fun game to watch. Nice play by the tykes, but Blalock was a bit sloppy, looked to be rushing/forcing it a little bit at times.

yeah there was a 30 second stretch where blalock forced things a bit and was a bit sloppy.

but you know what? he also had some nice dishes that other players didn't finish.

i still say i'd rather him run the backup PG spot than flip. flip is as careless or worse when handling the rock. play blalock and let him learn on the job. he will get over the butterflys and will get more confident and comfortable.

look how j-max has improved and gained confidence! blalock can also be a contributor.

Crazy statline for our team. Wish I could have seen JMax's coming out party. DD with 13 boards is a nice surprise too.

Yeah, people tend to forget that double D was an all-star. You know he's got skill.

if Mad Max hasn't earned his 12-15 minutes per night now after Sheed's return, I will personally kill Flip Saunders.

To be somewhat fair to Flip, we have a bit of a big man logjam. Dice, Davis, and Maxiell are all there for the backup spots.

Yeah, people tend to forget that double D was an all-star. You know he's got skill.

I can speak for myself in that I havent forgotten that, he just seemed quite past his prime for the last couple seasons and ready to move on with his record label. More power to him though if he can keep producing. (all double Ds are all-stars in my book ;) )

I would rather play maxiell more now and save davis for the playoffs (when sheed gets back). Maxiell needs the time to develop. Davis needs the time later in the season to get into condition. You can never have too many big men. On the other side of ledger, what is up with mcdyess? We're more than a quarter of the way through the season and he hasn't done much of anything.

Foxnews.com:


Maxiell Lifts Pistons Over Sonics 97-93

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Jason Maxiell knows that he doesn't have long to work his way up the Detroit Pistons' depth chart. Sunday night, with Rasheed Wallace sidelined by sore ankles, Maxiell made his case.

The second-year player finished a career night with the winning shot in Detroit's 97-93 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics.

"Maxie isn't going to play 30 minutes a night when Sheed gets back," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "But he will play. He's earned that."

With the score tied at 93, Maxiell took a pass from Chauncey Billups and hit a 10-foot baseline jumper with 6.8 seconds to play.

"Mr. Big Shot had the ball, so I wasn't expecting to get it," Maxiell said, referring to Billups. "I was about to go to the rack when he dished me the ball."

Billups said that he didn't think twice about putting the game in the hands of a little-used reserve.

"As great as Max played tonight, he deserved the chance," Billups said. "I gave him a crack at it. This is the type of game where you learn a lot about young guys, and he got some respect."

Maxiell had 17 points and 12 rebounds in 33 minutes, all career highs for a player that some of the SuperSonics couldn't even identify.

"Max ... Mac ... Maxwell, whatever his name is, he outrebounded our whole team," Rashard Lewis said. "Every time I turned around, he was coming out of nowhere. I don't think we put a body on him all night."

Maxiell helped the Pistons outrebound Seattle 54-32, including 26-7 on the offensive glass.

"This game was about rebounding," Seattle coach Bob Hill said. "They moved us right out of the way and Maxiell jumped over the top."

The SuperSonics tied it at 91 on Mickael Gelabale's layup with 59.2 seconds to play, but Richard Hamilton countered with a driving bank shot in traffic.

Tayshaun Prince fouled Lewis at the other end, and Lewis' free throws tied it with 28.4 seconds left, setting the stage for Maxiell's shot.

Seattle got one more possession, but Carlos Delfino tipped away Luke Ridnour's pass, and Billups clinched it from the line.

"We felt like we were in a position to win this game, so this is very tough," Lewis said. "One guy just killed us."

Hamilton finished with 24 points, and Billups had 21. Dale Davis added 13 rebounds.

"Dale looked like he turned the clock back 10 years tonight," Saunders said. "When he and Maxie are on the floor, the whole identity of our team changes."

Lewis led the Sonics with 25 points and 11 rebounds, and Chris Wilcox added 21 points.

Detroit outrebounded the Sonics 29-14 in the first half, but led only 51-50. Lewis kept Seattle in the game with 16 points in the half on 7-of-9 shooting.

Wilcox had 10 points in the first 8 minutes of the third, helping Seattle go ahead, but the Pistons tied it on Hamilton's four-point possession. He was fouled by Nick Collison while scoring, and added a second free throw on Collison's technical.

Hamilton's short jumper on the next possession put Detroit ahead 71-69, and the Pistons still had a 77-74 advantage going into the fourth.

Seattle tied it at 79, but Billups answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Pistons a six-point lead with 8:51 left.

Detroit only managed Billups' two free throws in the next 6 minutes, but played enough defense to keep the lead. Hamilton's short jumper made it 89-85 with 2:48 left, but Seattle kept coming.

watch our rashard, max is gonna eat your kid!!!!!!!

i love playing davis. he and j-max have been playing together so him being in the game has not recently taken minutes from j-max.

if that is the situation, i'm all for it. because when those 2 are in the game we're a different team. it give you flashbacks of rodman and mahorn! LOL

Let's put this in a -little- perspective. We beat a Ray Allen-less Sonics team, whose best-performing PF/C-sort is Chris Wilcox, by 4 points at home, largely by outrebounding one of the worst rebounding teams in the league. Our bench shot 12 of 33.

the guy from outer space brings us back down to earth.

I think seeing the youth play causes a fire in fans still hung over from the darko experience that left most of us with blue balls.

I'll be damned, we had the post presence we needed all along (JMax). He reminds me of a raw Elton Brand.

That was fun as hell to watch. That is one way to get the fans energized again, and maybe get some of our lazy vets motivated as well (or maybe they start seeing their PT get widdled away).

All I kept thinking was, "Gee, do you think Dale could have helped us in the playoffs last year?".

The bench players have now officially forced Flip's hand, it's on him now to find them PT (see Prick Carlisle/Tay Prince situation).

That said, DD doesn't need to start, nor should he be playing big minutes. I think 1/3 of the center minutes would be fine for now, and then take the reigns off him for the playoffs.

Knowing full well that Flip Saunders is an idiot there's little doubt in my mind that he'll continue to give Mad Max DNP-Coach's decision's when Sheed comes back. Dumars needs to force his hand a bit.

I do believe it's time to trade Dyess. He's been consistently inconsistant this year and really is only a jump shooter. He can't defend the pick and roll anymore and doesn't really contribute much to the team other than an above average job on the defensive boards. With DD and Max proving capable of obtaining defensive rebounds there really isn't a need to have mcdyess on the club anymore.

It's still a bit unbelievable that Mad Max goes from not playing at all to closing out and winning games. Flip is a man of extremes.

dang, i need a Mad Max highlight tape, the highlights at nba.com suck big time, only seen Maxie's game winner...wtf? help me out guys!

I do believe it's time to trade Dyess. He's been consistently inconsistant this year and really is only a jump shooter. He can't defend the pick and roll anymore and doesn't really contribute much to the team other than an above average job on the defensive boards. With DD and Max proving capable of obtaining defensive rebounds there really isn't a need to have mcdyess on the club anymore.
McDyess would be better if not for the cheap fouls. Unlike Nazr, who tends to collect fouls because he doesn't D his man until he's deep in the pussy, McDyess seems to collect them just for being there in the open court, or in the wake of a normal-looking contested rebound.

He had an awful start, then was getting better (he had a 10 game stretch of shooting near-50% -- very McDyess-like #s) and now he's sucking bad again. I don't know what to make of him. I know that less than a year ago, he was consistent in the playoffs.

I see Maxiell as the future "first guy off the bench" kinda like Corliss, assuming he can make >60% of his FTs (which he did in college).

Don't forget those, "What do you mean that's not a charge?" last second slide in's he's good for once a game.

JMax got the #2 spot in ESPNs Daily Dime:


http://www.espn.go.com/photo/2006/1217/nba_g_maxiell_395.jpg
Quietly, the Pistons have climbed back to the top of the Eastern
Conference. Sunday's hero was soph stud Jason Maxiell, who
replaced the injured Rasheed Wallace and capped a 17-point, 12-
rebound day with this game-winning jumper with 6.8 seconds to
play in Detroit's 97-93 win over Seattle.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-061218