Pistons are stacked and they are going to destroy any competition. They can beat you any game you want to play. You are seriously off base if you are under-rating them. The only thing that can slow that team down is Dick Bavetta.
I didnt know he was gonna be that good but he was the player I wanted the rockets to take when they drafted Nachbar.
Detroit is 3rd in the league in points allowed. Think about that when you criticize their defense. They do not allow other teams to hit threes against them and they do not put the other team on the free throw line. So, you have to beat them by grinding out 2 points at a time. They don't care if one guy on the other team scores a ton of points because they know that means the ball isn't being moved and when it actually matters at the end of games they'll be able to squeeze off the hot one and the other teammates won't be able to do anything. They rarely double because of this. One guy will not beat them and they know it. Detroit is a machine. There is no one in the NBA as varied in their attack and defense as Detroit. They have so many parts that are interchangeable. They can switch on every pick if they want and it's still tough to do anything against them because their bigs are so quick. Overrated? Hardly.
It was awesome. Bulls didn't lose to the Mavs in 1995-96, but they did lose to them in 1997-98 in OT, giving up an 18-point lead in the 3rd. Off the top of my head, here are the Bulls losses I remember: Pacers (twice, once by one with Pippen/MJ/Rodman playing like 35 combined minutes on the last day of the season) Magic (no Shaq, first game with the bad black unis) Nuggets (came back from 19, still lost) Suns (their only back-to-back loss, after the Nugs) Hornets (by one point, Bulls missed 4-5 tip ins before the buzzer) Knicks (by 30, in JVG's second game) cRaptors (Doug Christie always killed MJ) Heat (only 8 Heat dressed for the game, Rex Chapman went off) Seattle (don't remember much about this one) It's ok to criticize Detroit's defense. Until the last three weeks, it's been mediocre. They were a top-5 team in points allowed because they slow the game down so much, second-slowest to the Grizzlies. They've turned it on, though. They're sixth-best in the league in defensive efficiency.
I'm sure Detroit is all of that and a bag of chips. But is there a team that cries, whines and b****es more then them? They are like a team full of Kobe's. They all expect to get all the calls. Except for maybe Prince. He is all right. I am guessing that Rasheed taught em all how to b**** and cry.
OK, I'm way off for thinking the Pistons aren't as good as 36-5 indicates. Let's see how they perform during the 2nd half of the season and then the playoffs.
They may not be overrated, but Larry Brown definitely is. He always has been; this season just further underscores it.
How is Larry Brown overrated? What this Pistons squad learned under him is completely thrown out the window due to the success they've had under Flip? Larry Brown isn't a good coach unless he immediately turns around the Knicks in his first year? Or does only Rudy T. get a free pass when his teams painfully underacheive?
didn't the pacers beat them like twice in the last 4 games? one was in chicago and kept them from tying boston's all time 40-1 home record (and the bulls actually started 37-0). edit: espn has the entire season listed out at http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/features/best to compare them to the pistons. i was just thinking of them losing 2 of the last 4 home games. while the last pacers loss did keep them from tying boston, the other was early in the season. the way i remember it, it was even more incredible. i was watching wgn and the nuggets were up 25 in the 3rd. then i went downstairs and when i got back in the early 4th, the bulls were leading. turns out, the lead actually got to 31, and the bulls managed to erase that and take a 4 point lead with 10 minutes to go. 35 f'ing points made up in about 10 minutes of play, just incredible. even more incredible was that a crappy team like denver actually withstood that momentum shift and recovered to beat a team like chicago. and for some reason i remembered them losing to vancouver b/c i thought they lost to both expansion teams, but your list has all 10 losses accounted for w/o them so i guess not. edit: well they were definitely down at least 25 at halftime. http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/boxscore.htm?yr=1995&b=19960204&tm=DEN they didn't lose to vanc but did win one of the games by only 6 so i guess that's what i remembered.
Couldn't agree more. I'm not saying he is a bad coach. Probably one of the best. But he is definitely not the single best coach that some people make him out to be.
Has any player on their starting 5 or top 8, for that matter, been injured whatsoever? They are great for sure but have been lucky to have no injuries.
my philosophy is that the nba champion have a good mixture of 3 things: talent chemistry luck luck in the sense of a few bounces here and there, calls going their way (boderline calls) and namely injuries. I cannot recall the last time there was a nba champion that wasnt healthy (at least to their top players) and still won the ring. the last team at least i can think of that made it to the finals with a number of major players injured was the 01 sixers. pretty much everyone was hurt in some sort of way and they kept playing. i am hoping that with all the injuries we've had so far if we can get fully healthy (everyone cept sura) we can make some noise in the playoffs. but as for detriot they are just damn scary good. i am glad flip got a chance to coach them i thought he was a good coach just in a bad situation in minnesota created by management.
25 sounds right, it was a Sunday night game and I was a sleepy 15-year old, so I may have forgotten quite a bit. I have every one of that season's games on tape, but I haven't watched them in a while. I do remember the Bulls tying the game on a Ron Harper 360 layup off a fast break. The Pacer game was the last one of the season, and the first Pacer loss was around Christmas. They probably should have lost to Vancouver, but MJ went off for 18 in the 4th quarter to win in BC.
Oh that's right, they're good now because of what they "learned" from Larry Brown. Good one cabby. I know times are tough for the Gundy worshippers, but geez.
You have got to be kidding me. It's been pretty much consensus that Brown transformed this current Pistons squad into the defensive juggernaut that they are and that Flip has added upon that success with offense. Or are you going to completely dismiss the accomplishments they had under Brown simply due to New York's struggles?
Whatever. They went to the Conference Finals the year before, then added Rasheed Wallace the following year. But go ahead and believe it's all due to Larry Brown if you want. You seem to overvalue the impact of coaches in the NBA, so I can't say that I'm surprised.
Rick Carlisle = good to very good defense-first coach Larry Brown = good to very good coach, control freak, flake issues Flip Saunders = good to very good coach, balanced, soft with players Right guy, right time. LB doesn't get credit for Pistons defense, or building the team. Carlisle built the defense, Dumars built the team. LB gave them the swagger that comes with knowing they could get the prior coach fired, and Flip gives them a tool kit to showcase the mature talent on both ends. Detroit is a great, great team. I hope they crush the Spurs 4-0. They are much, much better and much, much more entertaining.
Where did I say that their success is "all" due to Brown? His track record speaks for itself. They struggled his first year in Philadelphia too before becoming a perennial Eastern Conference contender his next season.
