Or maybe they have, and I just can't see it with all of this spam crap (I wish I could cut that dude's head off).

CV had 3 blocks, Ben Gordon had a sick tip away early on to prevent an alley oop. This team did not look bad defensively at all.

It was a pleasant sight to see.

*off topic - I'm not thrilled about how the ref's let Marc Gasol pretty much do whatever he wants. There were several occasions where I saw Kwame go up for a rebound, that should have been his and Marc just wrestled it out of him in mid air. He's going to end up hurting someone, and he looks like a cheese cube with that hair cut.

With all due respect, this was the Memphis Grizzlies

I know, but...

With the way people have been talking, you would have thought we'd be on par with the Grizzlies this season.

We beat the tar out of them, there was a 20-30 win difference between the two of them last night.

Yeah, and on top of that, their defensive rotation seemed pretty good. Rarely did a man miss his assignment, and when he did, he at least ran at the guy with his hands up. Last year, we would've just let them shoot.

They have some work to do on the defensive side still, but what was really encouraging was the effort they were putting into it, the traps, the presses, the blocks and tip aways. That sort of effort will translate into better defense even against upper-tier teams.

"only morons truly doubt the pistons" - ME

The team defense was pretty good,, especially in the interior. Gotta give credit to Kwame Brown, Maxiell and mostly Ben Wallace. I also like how Bynum was being aggressive on their ball handlers.

Yup, these are the Grizzlies which was supposed to be improvement from last year. But I remember how we struggled even with easy teams.

I just hope the Pistons keep giving this kind of effort.

For the first game of the season, the defense was acceptable. I think the important part was that we saw most of the players put a genuine effort defensively.

But, it wasn't great by any means. Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol seemed to be able to get whatever shot they wanted off. Charlie will struggle against teams that have both a PF and a C capable of scoring down low with size and strength and he's forced to guard one of them. That was his problem last night.

And as Slap alluded to, the Grizz did not play well offensively outside of Randolph, Gasol, and Gay. Those three shot 19-for-34 from the field for 56%. The rest of the team shot 7-for-38 for about 18%. They literally were playing 3-on-5 the entire night offensively. And, I'm not convinced it was all or even mostly because of Pistons defense on the other players.

But like I said, at least the effort was there defensively. Well, except for Chris Wilcox. 2:29 minutes at the beginning of the second half and he gets the hook and is already in the dog house this early on. If he doesn't improve his defense, he won't get a lot of opportunities in a front court that has a lot of options, maybe not a lot of great bigs, but there are plenty of them.

quote:

Originally posted by Liquid Slap:
With all due respect, this was the Memphis Grizzlies

With all due respect, recall last season when the Pistons with supposedly much better talent lost to crap teams like the Grizz? Remember the games against Charlotte where the Pistons with supposedly much better talent nearly blew double digit fourth quarter leads? Remember those losses to the Knicks and Pacers and the like of the NBA world?

I don't care if it was the Memphis Grizzlies. The Pistons blew them off the court and once they got up in a double digit lead the game was OVER. So already an improvement over last year which is all I ask.

quote:

Originally posted by Dr. Huxtable:
The team defense was pretty good,, especially in the interior. Gotta give credit to Kwame Brown, Maxiell and mostly Ben Wallace. I also like how Bynum was being aggressive on their ball handlers.

Yup, these are the Grizzlies which was supposed to be improvement from last year. But I remember how we struggled even with easy teams.

I just hope the Pistons keep giving this kind of effort.

We didn't win a single game by 22 points last season, we did lose some by that many however, in 2 meetings against the grizz last year we lost by 5, and won by 8 because of one of AI's very few good games he had last year, looking down the roster memphis has definately improved on paper from last year, and I think it's clear that we have already improved as a team from last year, and that this team should continue to gel and look better and better as the year goes on...tonight was a promising start to what should be a very fun season, let's keep it up!

Honestly any pro player should be able to play at least solid defense all you have to do is keep your eyes on the waist and keep your hands down and out to the sides and slide right or left depending on your opponents movements, very simple, but it shows that some guys in the NBA don't make an effort at it.

Pistons gave up 17 offensive rebounds to Memphis. What will happen when they face Orlando, Boston, Cleveland, etc? It's not going to be pretty.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeA:

quote:

Originally posted by Liquid Slap:
With all due respect, this was the Memphis Grizzlies

With all due respect, recall last season when the Pistons with supposedly much better talent lost to crap teams like the Grizz? Remember the games against Charlotte where the Pistons with supposedly much better talent nearly blew double digit fourth quarter leads? Remember those losses to the Knicks and Pacers and the like of the NBA world?

I don't care if it was the Memphis Grizzlies. The Pistons blew them off the court and once they got up in a double digit lead the game was OVER. So already an improvement over last year which is all I ask.

Well said.

charlie v's defense is worse then i thought

quote:

Originally posted by MikeA:

quote:

Originally posted by Liquid Slap:
With all due respect, this was the Memphis Grizzlies

With all due respect, recall last season when the Pistons with supposedly much better talent lost to crap teams like the Grizz? Remember the games against Charlotte where the Pistons with supposedly much better talent nearly blew double digit fourth quarter leads? Remember those losses to the Knicks and Pacers and the like of the NBA world?

I don't care if it was the Memphis Grizzlies. The Pistons blew them off the court and once they got up in a double digit lead the game was OVER. So already an improvement over last year which is all I ask.

to add a bit to what you said, this is my own opinion here, it was over, cause they kept trying to kill the opponent, from start to finish we gotta bury these scrubs, so the mentality is there, cause it should be there, which it is there. cause were DA ALMIGHTY PISTONS

quote:

Originally posted by Catari:
Pistons gave up 17 offensive rebounds to Memphis. What will happen when they face Orlando, Boston, Cleveland, etc? It's not going to be pretty.

orlando gonna fight us so i dunno, boston will be a battle, they tryin to copy cat the pistons, an speed up the tempo, we shall see who prevails. an cleveland just wait till the playoffs! whats that? "DETROIT SUCKS" haha we shall see who sucks. everyone else gotta show me whats crackin with them till i can see how the rest paints out

I was so happy with the defensive intensity in yesterdays game. I don't care who we're playing, it's encouraging to keep a team to such a low shooting percentage! And the team defense didn't just look okay, it looked good. People were switching when necessary, contesting shots, Ben was playing with a certain energetic flare I haven't seen in a long time, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeA:

quote:

Originally posted by Liquid Slap:
With all due respect, this was the Memphis Grizzlies

With all due respect, recall last season when the Pistons with supposedly much better talent lost to crap teams like the Grizz? Remember the games against Charlotte where the Pistons with supposedly much better talent nearly blew double digit fourth quarter leads? Remember those losses to the Knicks and Pacers and the like of the NBA world?

I don't care if it was the Memphis Grizzlies. The Pistons blew them off the court and once they got up in a double digit lead the game was OVER. So already an improvement over last year which is all I ask.

Just because they are better than last year's team (which isn't hard to be) does not mean they are great defensively this year. Let's see how their defense is when we play a respectable opponent and come holla at me, because with all due respect, that was the Memphis Grizzlies.