** NBA Conference Finals **

[teamdonkey]

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I was trying to prove a point using absurdity, then edited to make it more absurd, and you didn't get it.

[/ QUOTE ]

except it wasn't absurd....

what point exactly were you trying to prove?

[Phoenix1010]

Did I miss something where the Pistons players are blaming Flip? Link?

Of course I blame Flip but I'd be interested to see if the players are too.

Edit: Donkey, I think he's talking about sample size.

[Jack of Arcades]

Breaking down the season and looking for "trends" can be very misleading, especially when the last 28 games includes garbage games that hardly mattered in the scheme of things.

[Fallen Hero]

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I'm just having trouble accepting that the manager who was a godsend the first half of the season, and was talked about by all the players as amazing, liberating, etc, is now the cause of all the troubles.

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my thoughts exactly

[Jack of Arcades]

"It's like night and day (from last year)," he said. "We've gone from like the first- or second-best team in the league in holding teams to low field-goal percentage to now we're in the middle of the pack. It's night and day."

He put some of the blame on coach Flip Saunders for putting too much emphasis on the offense.

"We work more on offense," Wallace said. "We practice more on the offensive end, than we do on the defensive end. What you practice hard you usually bring to the game."

Clicky

[CharlieDontSurf]

Did you watch any of the pre-game?

Both Wallaces ragged on flip and the game plan.

Chancey seemed to stand up for him.

I hope Rasheed just keeps blaming him instead of actually trying to score points. The Heat will as long as that happens

[Phoenix1010]

Ugh. With this new information, I say Detroit has no chance of winning this series.

[disjunction]

[ QUOTE ]
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I was being sarcastic. I suppose I should be grateful he won us a title, but I think we could have won with Carlisle and that we're better now with Flip in part because of Flip.

[/ QUOTE ]

History may yet be kind to Larry. There's a 1-year grace period between when a team loses a great coach and when they lose all discipline and fall apart.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wrote the above response in February. This is a recurring story in sports, very good team loses very good, tough coach. Team temporarily does better under new, laid back coach and complains about the old coach. With time, team performs worse and worse. I was thinking of Bill Parcells specifically when he left the Giants and Patriots, but there are other examples.

My hypothesis is that the loss of practice habits degrades performance over time.

[Spellmen]

Does Rasheed really regularly stand at half court during timeouts? He did this in game 3 late in the game and the announcers pointed it out, but right at the beginning of game 4 they made a big deal saying how he did this every game and that it wasn't because of any troubles with the coach or team.

[bottomset]

[ QUOTE ]
"It's like night and day (from last year)," he said. "We've gone from like the first- or second-best team in the league in holding teams to low field-goal percentage to now we're in the middle of the pack. It's night and day."

He put some of the blame on coach Flip Saunders for putting too much emphasis on the offense.

"We work more on offense," Wallace said. "We practice more on the offensive end, than we do on the defensive end. What you practice hard you usually bring to the game."

Clicky

[/ QUOTE ]

ok you have basically the same roster as you have had for the 2yrs before this, where you were a top defensive team, much weaker offensive team, finished 1st, 2nd .. and Ben is saying that they need to spend more time on defense??

come on they shouldn't need to practice very much on the defensive side