Sheed's Last Stand

As all zero of my loyal readers (possibly) know, the title of this blog is taken from the catch phrase of Rasheed Wallace, one of my favorite Pistons of all-time.

Before he came to Detroit, I hated the guy because I bought into the media hype that he was a bad guy and a bad teammate, as well as a bad role model for all the young players in the league.

But most of that turned out to be overblown and I began to find out that 'Sheed was one of the most respected teammates and humanitarians in the game as well as a thoughtful, smart, creative guy who was misunderstood and distrusted the media (justifiably so).

Now, 'Sheed and the Pistons are on the verge of another heart-wrenching playoff flameout and in much the same way as their last two losses.

I think 'Sheed was onto something when he badmouthed the refs but the tirade wasn't a good idea at this stage of the playoffs. When Rasheed says the refs are calling a bad game and something fishy is up, people just chalk it up to 'Sheed being 'Sheed.

Perhaps Flip Saunders should have taken his pulse and then said something in his press conference to the same effect, that would have gotten the refs' attention. Using the media to air frustrations about the refs works for coaches like Phil Jackson so maybe Flip Saunders should have done it instead of letting 'Sheed take the brunt of the criticism yet again.

Maybe it was too hard for Saunders to realize what 'Sheed was going to say and in that case I don't blame him but still, Saunders needs to do a better job of working the refs both in the game and outside the game because they clearly haven't done their jobs in this series with all the missed calls. On both sides, sure, you can say that if you want, too.

It just seems like the Pistons are always running uphill in these later-round series. Tonight should be a win but the Pistons are hard to figure.

If they don't get it done this time, a trade is in order. More creators are needed on offense.

And Saunders will have a lot of questions to answer if Detroit loses, too.

First things first, though, time to get loud at the Palace and cheer these guys on yet again. You can't ever count them out even though they've let us down a few too many times in the past as well.