12/15/25 7:00PM Pistons @ Celtics

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

New Orleans said Dejounte Murray is set to return after New Years.  Him coming back and drafting Fears, their PG position might be a bit crowded.  The Pistons could take a run at Jose Alvarado.  At 6' he is small, but that is more acceptable as a backup.  Can shoot the three and plays solid defense.  Some concerns about his injury history.  But he will be cheap enough it would be worth the risk.

[Betrayer]

Intense game that had me screaming at the tv more than a few times.

Another game against Boston and another look at what teams will do against us in the playoffs. They hunted Robinson on every play and probably scored 40 points in matchups against him alone.

Speaking of playoff gameplans, this is another one where Duren goes against a weak front line and doesn't produce because Boston wasn't going to just let him rim run and lob all day (6pt, 3 reb). This is why you don't pay him over 30M/yr. It's not like you can put him out there when Cade's on the bench and run the offense through him and he certainly isn't a DPoY candidate. Don't be fooled by Cade having the Chris Paul effect on his Center and making him look like an All Star..

Holland does a lot of dumb stuff out there, but he was also one of the few guys who ran through the gaps and attacked the zone defense as you should.

Javonte was great in his minutes. I thought he'd be an end of bench guy, but I actually don't mind his minutes this year. He really defends and plays his role on offense as well. 34% from three isn't outstanding, but on this team he's one of the few guys you might be able to call "3 and D" - something we sorely need more of.

I liked the defensive effort from Ivey in this one. On offense he settled for threes way too often when he should have been using that speed to penetrate. He looks slower...maybe he's just getting back into game shape.

JB almost blew this one with his lineups in the last few minutes. Javonte shouldn't have been taken out for Robinson who was getting hunted all night. You're basically giving them points. And Stew should've been on the court instead of Duren - this is probably true on most nights, but especially in this game. Luckily Cade did his thing and closed it out regardless.

[gehringer_2]

54 minutes ago, Betrayer said:

And Stew should've been on the court instead of Duren -

I wonder if he kept Stew on the bench as a lesson in keeping his cool. He was a little too emotionally out of control in this one - it was a quick whistle crew but they were abusing Boston too so just shut up and play on.

[Deleterious]

Just like how you said Killian Hayes was the #1 pick in his class?

 

[Betrayer]

21 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

I wonder if he kept Stew on the bench as a lesson in keeping his cool. He was a little too emotionally out of control in this one - it was a quick whistle crew but they were abusing Boston too so just shut up and play on.

That doesn't seem likely to me. He didn't even take Stew out after the T he got (if I recall correctly). This is Stew, I think JB knows he plays with high emotions, and more than that I think the team likes it and rallies behind it.

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Betrayer said:

That doesn't seem likely to me. He didn't even take Stew out after the T he got (if I recall correctly). This is Stew, I think JB knows he plays with high emotions, and more than that I think the team likes it and rallies behind it.

just a guess. It surely wasn't because we were getting much from Duren!

[casimir]

On 12/15/2025 at 11:10 PM, Deleterious said:

 

You didn’t show the technical afterwards.

[casimir]

On 12/16/2025 at 2:25 PM, Betrayer said:

Intense game that had me screaming at the tv more than a few times.

Another game against Boston and another look at what teams will do against us in the playoffs. They hunted Robinson on every play and probably scored 40 points in matchups against him alone.

Speaking of playoff gameplans, this is another one where Duren goes against a weak front line and doesn't produce because Boston wasn't going to just let him rim run and lob all day (6pt, 3 reb). This is why you don't pay him over 30M/yr. It's not like you can put him out there when Cade's on the bench and run the offense through him and he certainly isn't a DPoY candidate. Don't be fooled by Cade having the Chris Paul effect on his Center and making him look like an All Star..

Holland does a lot of dumb stuff out there, but he was also one of the few guys who ran through the gaps and attacked the zone defense as you should.

Javonte was great in his minutes. I thought he'd be an end of bench guy, but I actually don't mind his minutes this year. He really defends and plays his role on offense as well. 34% from three isn't outstanding, but on this team he's one of the few guys you might be able to call "3 and D" - something we sorely need more of.

I liked the defensive effort from Ivey in this one. On offense he settled for threes way too often when he should have been using that speed to penetrate. He looks slower...maybe he's just getting back into game shape.

JB almost blew this one with his lineups in the last few minutes. Javonte shouldn't have been taken out for Robinson who was getting hunted all night. You're basically giving them points. And Stew should've been on the court instead of Duren - this is probably true on most nights, but especially in this game. Luckily Cade did his thing and closed it out regardless.

Does Holland have some Rodman to him?  A guy that is interested in doing the unheralded stuff and maybe has a bit too much wild horse in him that needs to be refined a bit?  I’m not suggesting he’ll have that career type, at least not to Rodman’s level.

[Betrayer]

1 minute ago, casimir said:

You didn’t show the technical afterwards.

He did get fouled so he had legitimate beef with the no call.

Also, I don't think he expected to ref to start moving forward like that to where they wound up running into each other. Without his momentum carrying him right into the ref's face I doubt they call a technical. Guy's jump up and down like that on every play.

[casimir]

1 minute ago, Betrayer said:

He did get fouled so he had legitimate beef with the no call.

Also, I don't think he expected to ref to start moving forward like that to where they wound up running into each other. Without his momentum carrying him right into the ref's face I doubt they call a technical. Guy's jump up and down like that on every play.

No question.  And after that dunk, I don’t blame him for being amped up like he was.