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Erin Podolsky in an e-mail to me two days ago:

The even larger problem is that it seems the stons have forgotten how to run.  Their offense looks like a slow Larry Brown halfcourt set wet dream right now, only the ball isn't going in.  I think they've gotten away from running Rip off screens for way too long now and they need to make that their go-to move, since it's usually pretty successful.

It makes zero sense -- yes, you're always hearing the color guys talking about how everything slows down in the playoffs, it's more of a defensive test to play the same team for 4-7 games, but COME ON.  Detroit made it through most of the season without reverting to their grind-it-out offense of the past three pre-Flip seasons -- why change now?

John Eligon in The New York Times today:

After Wednesday's film session, Saunders made it clear that the Pistons' lack of ball movement — a result of their decision to run a lot of one-on-one plays — hurt more than his team's poor shooting in Game 1.

"Our arena has not been as loud as it was during the regular season, and I think part of it is because how we have kind of played," Saunders said. "It's been a very monotonous offensive game at times."

So early in Game 2, Detroit returned to constant movement on offense, and the results were a 25-12 lead and a 55.6 shooting percentage in the first quarter.

I know, I know, she wasn't the only saying the Pistons needed more ball movement (I am certain this is true, as I myself have been yelling it at the TV screen throughout the playoffs). But it's cool how the timing matches up.

Good win, Erin.

By the way, her thoughts on game two:

There will not be in anything in the remainder of this series that will top the 30 seconds of pure joy I received from watch Dick Bavetta box out Rip Hamilton from Shandon Anderson. Did you see the way he sidestepped across the floor? It was as if he was afraid that Shandon was going to toss a beer at Rip.  Easily the highlight of the evening.

Photo of that incident.

I didn't know. Nobody told me! It's good, too.

You have to sign up for the ESPN Insider to read the blog by the former head coach (and Jack Ramsay's son-in-law). I won't republish the whole thing here, but here are two highlights of his blogging so far:

If the Suns pull this off, coaches will have to formulate a new line. Players will look at their coaches and say, "baloney" when their coach tells them the importance of stopping the other team.

I can just hear it.

"Come on coach, Phoenix won the championship and didn't play a lick of defense."

Horrors of all horrors, three out of the four teams in the conference finals allowed their opponents to shoot over 50 percent. Is this new, dangerous philosophy contagious?

In the Western Conference semifinals series with the Suns, coach Mike Dunleavy and the Clippers scrapped their whole philosophy to try to compete. If you play two big men, you will get embarrassed and lose. For most of their series the Clippers' tallest player was Shaun Livingston, who is practically the same height as Elton Brand.

DeSagana Diop was the Mavs' defensive star down the stretch of Game 7 of the conference semifinals in San Antonio, but Wednesday night against the Suns he did not see a minute of playing time. Erick Dampier played 17 minutes, which might have to be adjusted down.

Can you just imagine a Miami Heat-Phoenix Suns NBA Finals?

Pat Riley: "Shaq, listen, we decided to sit you out tonight because it's really important that we try to win."

I also really like this little story about veteran NBA coach Dick Harter:

Dick Harter, my highly valued assistant during my time in Boston and Philadelphia, was hilarious when it came to officials. We would be relaxed and in good humor until the door opened and the media relations person gave the names of the officials. If Harter did not like who was assigned to our game he would transform into Darth Vader, and a dark cloud would descend upon his mood. If there was a video camera monitoring our conversation after the crews were given to us, we would have either been fined or it would have made "America's Funniest Home Videos."

My only question remaining is: how bad does it suck to be an NBA media guy?

Your job description has to do with how the reporters (and, by extension, the public customers) interact with and view the team. It's about shaping the message. That's a real, difficult profession that, done properly, is no small feat. But they spend a lot of time obsessed with gopher duties like telling the coaches who the refs are, making sure players get the tickets they need, and babysitting everyone's friends and families. The Nets PR guy is even the public address announcer too. And they're never home. I have great admiration for the men and women pull this off with a good attitude.

I didn't know. Nobody told me! It's good, too.

You have to sign up for the ESPN Insider to read the blog by the former head coach (and Jack Ramsay's son-in-law). I won't republish the whole thing here, but here are two highlights of his blogging so far:

If the Suns pull this off, coaches will have to formulate a new line. Players will look at their coaches and say, "baloney" when their coach tells them the importance of stopping the other team.

I can just hear it.

"Come on coach, Phoenix won the championship and didn't play a lick of defense."

Horrors of all horrors, three out of the four teams in the conference finals allowed their opponents to shoot over 50 percent. Is this new, dangerous philosophy contagious?

In the Western Conference semifinals series with the Suns, coach Mike Dunleavy and the Clippers scrapped their whole philosophy to try to compete. If you play two big men, you will get embarrassed and lose. For most of their series the Clippers' tallest player was Shaun Livingston, who is practically the same height as Elton Brand.

DeSagana Diop was the Mavs' defensive star down the stretch of Game 7 of the conference semifinals in San Antonio, but Wednesday night against the Suns he did not see a minute of playing time. Erick Dampier played 17 minutes, which might have to be adjusted down.

Can you just imagine a Miami Heat-Phoenix Suns NBA Finals?

Pat Riley: "Shaq, listen, we decided to sit you out tonight because it's really important that we try to win."

I also really like this little story about veteran NBA coach Dick Harter:

Dick Harter, my highly valued assistant during my time in Boston and Philadelphia, was hilarious when it came to officials. We would be relaxed and in good humor until the door opened and the media relations person gave the names of the officials. If Harter did not like who was assigned to our game he would transform into Darth Vader, and a dark cloud would descend upon his mood. If there was a video camera monitoring our conversation after the crews were given to us, we would have either been fined or it would have made "America's Funniest Home Videos."

My only question remaining is: how bad does it suck to be an NBA media guy?

Your job description has to do with how the reporters (and, by extension, the public customers) interact with and view the team. It's about shaping the message. That's a real, difficult profession that, done properly, is no small feat. But they spend a lot of time obsessed with gopher duties like telling the coaches who the refs are, making sure players get the tickets they need, and babysitting everyone's friends and families. The Nets PR guy is even the public address announcer too. And they're never home. I have great admiration for the men and women pull this off with a good attitude.

I didn't know. Nobody told me! It's good, too.

You have to sign up for the ESPN Insider to read the blog by the former head coach (and Jack Ramsay's son-in-law). I won't republish the whole thing here, but here are two highlights of his blogging so far:

If the Suns pull this off, coaches will have to formulate a new line. Players will look at their coaches and say, "baloney" when their coach tells them the importance of stopping the other team.

I can just hear it.

"Come on coach, Phoenix won the championship and didn't play a lick of defense."

Horrors of all horrors, three out of the four teams in the conference finals allowed their opponents to shoot over 50 percent. Is this new, dangerous philosophy contagious?

In the Western Conference semifinals series with the Suns, coach Mike Dunleavy and the Clippers scrapped their whole philosophy to try to compete. If you play two big men, you will get embarrassed and lose. For most of their series the Clippers' tallest player was Shaun Livingston, who is practically the same height as Elton Brand.

DeSagana Diop was the Mavs' defensive star down the stretch of Game 7 of the conference semifinals in San Antonio, but Wednesday night against the Suns he did not see a minute of playing time. Erick Dampier played 17 minutes, which might have to be adjusted down.

Can you just imagine a Miami Heat-Phoenix Suns NBA Finals?

Pat Riley: "Shaq, listen, we decided to sit you out tonight because it's really important that we try to win."

I also really like this little story about veteran NBA coach Dick Harter:

Dick Harter, my highly valued assistant during my time in Boston and Philadelphia, was hilarious when it came to officials. We would be relaxed and in good humor until the door opened and the media relations person gave the names of the officials. If Harter did not like who was assigned to our game he would transform into Darth Vader, and a dark cloud would descend upon his mood. If there was a video camera monitoring our conversation after the crews were given to us, we would have either been fined or it would have made "America's Funniest Home Videos."

My only question remaining is: how bad does it suck to be an NBA media guy?

Your job description has to do with how the reporters (and, by extension, the public customers) interact with and view the team. It's about shaping the message. That's a real, difficult profession that, done properly, is no small feat. But they spend a lot of time obsessed with gopher duties like telling the coaches who the refs are, making sure players get the tickets they need, and babysitting everyone's friends and families. The Nets PR guy is even the public address announcer too. And they're never home. I have great admiration for the men and women pull this off with a good attitude.

I didn't know. Nobody told me! It's good, too.

You have to sign up for the ESPN Insider to read the blog by the former head coach (and Jack Ramsay's son-in-law). I won't republish the whole thing here, but here are two highlights of his blogging so far:

If the Suns pull this off, coaches will have to formulate a new line. Players will look at their coaches and say, "baloney" when their coach tells them the importance of stopping the other team.

I can just hear it.

"Come on coach, Phoenix won the championship and didn't play a lick of defense."

Horrors of all horrors, three out of the four teams in the conference finals allowed their opponents to shoot over 50 percent. Is this new, dangerous philosophy contagious?

In the Western Conference semifinals series with the Suns, coach Mike Dunleavy and the Clippers scrapped their whole philosophy to try to compete. If you play two big men, you will get embarrassed and lose. For most of their series the Clippers' tallest player was Shaun Livingston, who is practically the same height as Elton Brand.

DeSagana Diop was the Mavs' defensive star down the stretch of Game 7 of the conference semifinals in San Antonio, but Wednesday night against the Suns he did not see a minute of playing time. Erick Dampier played 17 minutes, which might have to be adjusted down.

Can you just imagine a Miami Heat-Phoenix Suns NBA Finals?

Pat Riley: "Shaq, listen, we decided to sit you out tonight because it's really important that we try to win."

I also really like this little story about veteran NBA coach Dick Harter:

Dick Harter, my highly valued assistant during my time in Boston and Philadelphia, was hilarious when it came to officials. We would be relaxed and in good humor until the door opened and the media relations person gave the names of the officials. If Harter did not like who was assigned to our game he would transform into Darth Vader, and a dark cloud would descend upon his mood. If there was a video camera monitoring our conversation after the crews were given to us, we would have either been fined or it would have made "America's Funniest Home Videos."

My only question remaining is: how bad does it suck to be an NBA media guy?

Your job description has to do with how the reporters (and, by extension, the public customers) interact with and view the team. It's about shaping the message. That's a real, difficult profession that, done properly, is no small feat. But they spend a lot of time obsessed with gopher duties like telling the coaches who the refs are, making sure players get the tickets they need, and babysitting everyone's friends and families. The Nets PR guy is even the public address announcer too. And they're never home. I have great admiration for the men and women pull this off with a good attitude.

Brian Windhorst knows LeBron James as well as anyone covering the NBA. On his blog (after taking time to dispell the "Yankee Hat" rumors) he drops an interesting little tidbit: is it possible that the NBA's best star is not moving much product?

It should be pointed out LeBron hasn't had a new sponsorship deal in more than two years and the word on the street is that Nike is still a long way for breaking even on his products.  Don't assume anything as far as his pitchman status goes.

OK, I won't assume anything, except this: LeBron James would be moving more product if his local market was the biggest in America and the media capital of the world.

In the big picture, though, I'd bet that James moves plenty of product in the long run no matter where he plays (and all indications are it will be Cleveland). He has only really been at this current plateau of stardom for a few weeks.

Also, for what it's worth, Windhorst says that it's not true James makes more from Nike if he's in a big city. Unclear what the source of Windhorst's information is, but I'm inclined to believe Windhorst.

Brian Windhorst knows LeBron James as well as anyone covering the NBA. On his blog (after taking time to dispell the "Yankee Hat" rumors) he drops an interesting little tidbit: is it possible that the NBA's best star is not moving much product?

It should be pointed out LeBron hasn't had a new sponsorship deal in more than two years and the word on the street is that Nike is still a long way for breaking even on his products.  Don't assume anything as far as his pitchman status goes.

OK, I won't assume anything, except this: LeBron James would be moving more product if his local market was the biggest in America and the media capital of the world.

In the big picture, though, I'd bet that James moves plenty of product in the long run no matter where he plays (and all indications are it will be Cleveland). He has only really been at this current plateau of stardom for a few weeks.

Also, for what it's worth, Windhorst says that it's not true James makes more from Nike if he's in a big city. Unclear what the source of Windhorst's information is, but I'm inclined to believe Windhorst.

Brian Windhorst knows LeBron James as well as anyone covering the NBA. On his blog (after taking time to dispell the "Yankee Hat" rumors) he drops an interesting little tidbit: is it possible that the NBA's best star is not moving much product?

It should be pointed out LeBron hasn't had a new sponsorship deal in more than two years and the word on the street is that Nike is still a long way for breaking even on his products.  Don't assume anything as far as his pitchman status goes.

OK, I won't assume anything, except this: LeBron James would be moving more product if his local market was the biggest in America and the media capital of the world.

In the big picture, though, I'd bet that James moves plenty of product in the long run no matter where he plays (and all indications are it will be Cleveland). He has only really been at this current plateau of stardom for a few weeks.

Also, for what it's worth, Windhorst says that it's not true James makes more from Nike if he's in a big city. Unclear what the source of Windhorst's information is, but I'm inclined to believe Windhorst.

Brian Windhorst knows LeBron James as well as anyone covering the NBA. On his blog (after taking time to dispell the "Yankee Hat" rumors) he drops an interesting little tidbit: is it possible that the NBA's best star is not moving much product?

It should be pointed out LeBron hasn't had a new sponsorship deal in more than two years and the word on the street is that Nike is still a long way for breaking even on his products.  Don't assume anything as far as his pitchman status goes.

OK, I won't assume anything, except this: LeBron James would be moving more product if his local market was the biggest in America and the media capital of the world.

In the big picture, though, I'd bet that James moves plenty of product in the long run no matter where he plays (and all indications are it will be Cleveland). He has only really been at this current plateau of stardom for a few weeks.

Also, for what it's worth, Windhorst says that it's not true James makes more from Nike if he's in a big city. Unclear what the source of Windhorst's information is, but I'm inclined to believe Windhorst.

If you're not a big basketball fan, please reconsider.

If you're not a big basketball fan, please reconsider.

If you're not a big basketball fan, please reconsider.

If you're not a big basketball fan, please reconsider.

My friend, and colleague at the NBA's official magazines, Erin Podolsky is a huge Pistons fan (check out her blog). She went to game one the other night, and sent me an e-mail afterwards. Reprinted with her blessing:

Don't know if the cameras captured this but during a second half timeout Ben Wallace was off all by his lonesome while the other four starters powwowed at midcourt.  I don't know if this is because he went on to inbound the ball or what, but it looked iffy to me.  I don't know if this is a larger issue (Arn Tellem in his ear?) or he's just miserable because of his free throw percentage.  Shooting <25% would be enough to drive me to drink.  The even larger problem is that it seems the stons have forgotten how to run.  Their offense looks like a slow Larry Brown halfcourt set wet dream right now, only the ball isn't going in.  I think they've gotten away from running Rip off screens for way too long now and they need to make that their go-to move, since it's usually pretty successful.

It makes zero sense -- yes, you're always hearing the color guys talking about how everything slows down in the playoffs, it's more of a defensive test to play the same team for 4-7 games, but COME ON.  Detroit made it through most of the season without reverting to their grind-it-out offense of the past three pre-Flip seasons -- why change now?  It also doesn't make sense to me that the players would be tuning Flip out, so why is he coaching like this?  Maybe the reason LB has been laying low the past few days is he has actually completed a mind-swap with Flip.  Watch out, Knicks fans!  Here comes high octane offense!  Next week.. KG!

The only thing I can really think of is that the players are truly exhausted after the season and then slogging through those miserable performances in the CLE series.  This seems more likely to me.  They haven't had any time to lick their wounds and heal their injuries after Round 2, and I swear ever game Ben's wrist has another layer of bandages on it.  (I assume you saw Albom's column a few weeks ago about Ben's "magic" wrist.  If not I'll find it for you.)  And yet Flip continues to shorten his bench.  For this crew, right now, playing seven guys is not enough.  Carlos Delfino has been rotting on the bench for a month now, he played pretty decently against Miami this season, and I don't know why he isn't getting at least 7 minutes of run.  Sit Mo Evans down for a while.

Also, Sheed needs to get his ankle right or they're totally screwed.  He's ineffective right now.  But getting into Sheed is a whole different story that apparently nobody wants to touch.  Has anybody ever asked him, straight up, why he won't stay on the block for more than one play?  I'm sure it's not that those plays aren't being called -- or if it is, it's because he's made it clear that he just won't play that way.  He remains an enigma, albeit far more charming when he's on your team and not the opponent.

Steve Kerr watched the same game and made, essentially, the same observations (without any kind of reference to "wet dreams" however).

My friend, and colleague at the NBA's official magazines, Erin Podolsky is a huge Pistons fan (check out her blog). She went to game one the other night, and sent me an e-mail afterwards. Reprinted with her blessing:

Don't know if the cameras captured this but during a second half timeout Ben Wallace was off all by his lonesome while the other four starters powwowed at midcourt.  I don't know if this is because he went on to inbound the ball or what, but it looked iffy to me.  I don't know if this is a larger issue (Arn Tellem in his ear?) or he's just miserable because of his free throw percentage.  Shooting <25% would be enough to drive me to drink.  The even larger problem is that it seems the stons have forgotten how to run.  Their offense looks like a slow Larry Brown halfcourt set wet dream right now, only the ball isn't going in.  I think they've gotten away from running Rip off screens for way too long now and they need to make that their go-to move, since it's usually pretty successful.

It makes zero sense -- yes, you're always hearing the color guys talking about how everything slows down in the playoffs, it's more of a defensive test to play the same team for 4-7 games, but COME ON.  Detroit made it through most of the season without reverting to their grind-it-out offense of the past three pre-Flip seasons -- why change now?  It also doesn't make sense to me that the players would be tuning Flip out, so why is he coaching like this?  Maybe the reason LB has been laying low the past few days is he has actually completed a mind-swap with Flip.  Watch out, Knicks fans!  Here comes high octane offense!  Next week.. KG!

The only thing I can really think of is that the players are truly exhausted after the season and then slogging through those miserable performances in the CLE series.  This seems more likely to me.  They haven't had any time to lick their wounds and heal their injuries after Round 2, and I swear ever game Ben's wrist has another layer of bandages on it.  (I assume you saw Albom's column a few weeks ago about Ben's "magic" wrist.  If not I'll find it for you.)  And yet Flip continues to shorten his bench.  For this crew, right now, playing seven guys is not enough.  Carlos Delfino has been rotting on the bench for a month now, he played pretty decently against Miami this season, and I don't know why he isn't getting at least 7 minutes of run.  Sit Mo Evans down for a while.

Also, Sheed needs to get his ankle right or they're totally screwed.  He's ineffective right now.  But getting into Sheed is a whole different story that apparently nobody wants to touch.  Has anybody ever asked him, straight up, why he won't stay on the block for more than one play?  I'm sure it's not that those plays aren't being called -- or if it is, it's because he's made it clear that he just won't play that way.  He remains an enigma, albeit far more charming when he's on your team and not the opponent.

Steve Kerr watched the same game and made, essentially, the same observations (without any kind of reference to "wet dreams" however).