Rd 2 Gm 5: Pistons vs Cavs (Wed 5/17, 7p, TNT, Chat)

[Black Dynamite]

i think a few adjustments and we'll be fine..

yea, unfortunately you havent noticed that we've been saying that since game 3. no adjustments were made. at this point its a safer bet that there wont be any good ones from our coach. if we win it'll be on will alone. which is great huh?

EDIT: i do appreciate your positivity though diddy. and i apologize for not being able to relate on your view of flip.

[b-diddy]

we've lost 3 games streight, but they've all been heartbreakers. if chauncy takes the dunce cap off tonight, we're probably going back to cleveland up 3-2.

even if flip gets outcoached in game 6, i think we have the personel to win... if everyone has a good game. this team has seen must win game 6's before. they know what they have to do. and im guessing Joe D will have more than a few things to say.

plus, the cavs all the sudden are the favorites and all the pressure will be on them to win in cleveland. i dont think they can do it. i think i'll be putting money on the pistons.

[realistic]

i'd rather bring this squad back for 4 more years and be good pretenders than to just blow it up. these guys have accomplished too much to sell them out like that.

I'm attached to these players, but I'm more attached to winning--playoff games specifically, championship games ideally. If this configuration of players and coach either can't or won't beat a team like the Cavs, why not make changes? Isn't the whole point to win championships? (Unless you think this whole series against the Cavs has been some kind of cosmic fluke. I don't know, it's hard to figure. I didn't know a team could win 64 games and play this poorly. Will the Real Slim Shady please stand up?)

I really hope that a week from now, we're talking about beating the Heat and laughing about the hilarity of the Cleveland series... But I have my doubts.

[Tahoe]

I refuse to put the blame on one player. This is a team. Win as a team. Lose as a team.

Now that I've settled down a little...Its not just flip its the starting 5 too. Even Ben 'pay me' Wallace.

[Black Dynamite]

i'd rather bring this squad back for 4 more years and be good pretenders than to just blow it up. these guys have accomplished too much to sell them out like that.

I'm attached to these players, but I'm more attached to winning--playoff games specifically, championship games ideally. If this configuration of players and coach either can't or won't beat a team like the Cavs, why not make changes? Isn't the whole point to win championships? (Unless you think this whole series against the Cavs has been some kind of cosmic fluke. I don't know, it's hard to figure. I didn't know a team could win 64 games and play this poorly. Will the Real Slim Shady please stand up?)

I really hope that a week from now, we're talking about beating the Heat and laughing about the hilarity of the Cleveland series... But I have my doubts.

i dont get the automatic equating of splitting up the core to keeping us a contender. but whatever.

either way i wont be laughing about shit. we can draw up laughing scenarios when the parades on tv. otherwise no laughs at all.

[realistic]

i dont get the automatic equating of splitting up the core to keeping us a contender. but whatever.

Changing one starter isn't exactly blowing up a team (at least not the way I think of blowing up a team, the way PHX did a few years ago) Is it good enough to just change the coach and the bench? Maybe. Maybe not.

[Black Dynamite]

i dont get the automatic equating of splitting up the core to keeping us a contender. but whatever.

Changing one starter isn't exactly blowing up a team (at least not the way I think of blowing up a team, the way PHX did a few years ago) Is it good enough to just change the coach and the bench? Maybe. Maybe not.

your over/under is far wider on moving a core member. the point is that you're a contender probally for atleast 2-3 more years as is. removing a piece to gamble is very pat rileyish.

[realistic]

i dont get the automatic equating of splitting up the core to keeping us a contender. but whatever.

Changing one starter isn't exactly blowing up a team (at least not the way I think of blowing up a team, the way PHX did a few years ago) Is it good enough to just change the coach and the bench? Maybe. Maybe not.

your over/under is far wider on moving a core member. the point is that you're a contender probally for atleast 2-3 more years as is. removing a piece to gamble is very pat rileyish.

And placing an inexhaustible faith in a group of players who couldn't get by the baby-faced Cavs--what do you call that?

[FP22]

your over/under is far wider on moving a core member. the point is that you're a contender probally for atleast 2-3 more years as is. removing a piece to gamble is very pat rileyish.

I agree pretty much, but this is a different situation. The Heat were a team that was just put together facing the defending champs, and really, they were a Wade injury from the finals. The Pistons are a team that has gelled all they ever will on the brink of being eliminated by a Cavs team that has been to the playoffs in YEARS. With a freaking 21 year old who has never been to the playoffs leading them.

And need I remind you.. The Heat are sitting there waiting for the winner of this series in the ECF. They're already back to where they were last year, so it doesn't really look like the moves hurt them in the long run. Especially if the Pistons lose to the Cavs, because then chances are good they're going to the finals.

Though I agree that cutting up the core would be tough to do. It's hard to imagine not having one of the starting 5 here anymore, and it's hard to predict how the team will react. But that's why we got Joe D.

[Matt]

i didn't have the intestinal fortitude to read or listen to anything last night, after the game. i woke up this morning hoping that last night was a bad nightmare. i mean, only in my nightmares do we end two games w/ the ball and don't even get a shot off....