Essentially blaming the coach for what's going on...
Right or wrong, now is NOT the time to be doing it...
Ben Wallace, the NBA's defensive player of the year, can't stomach being on a team that allows the opposition to shoot nearly 60 percent in two of the last three games. In fact, he said he can barely recognize the defense his team is playing in this series.
"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."
To be fair, the Pistons locked the Heat down for all but 1:46 of Game 2 and set playoff records in holding the Cavaliers to 61 points in Game 7. The defense has been inconsistent, yes, but not altogether horrible.
"It doesn't matter how I feel," Wallace said. "No one player is bigger than the team. I don't think we're that far off. Some nights, we come out and show it. Some other nights, we come out and go through the motions. We're not that far off. We just need everybody to get involved defensively and commit ourselves to getting it done on both ends of the floor."
Players decry Hack-a-Shaq
The Pistons have long criticized coaches and teams who deployed an intentional fouling strategy on Ben Wallace . Thus, they were taken aback when Flip Saunders used it against Shaquille O'Neal in Game 3.
"Yeah, it is (disturbing)," Rasheed Wallace said. "It never worked when I was in Portland and it didn't work now. To me, if I was a coach, I don't like it. That's just my opinion."
It was the consensus opinion among the players, as well. Saunders, though, stuck by the move.
Right or wrong, now is NOT the time to be doing it...
Ben Wallace, the NBA's defensive player of the year, can't stomach being on a team that allows the opposition to shoot nearly 60 percent in two of the last three games. In fact, he said he can barely recognize the defense his team is playing in this series.
"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."
To be fair, the Pistons locked the Heat down for all but 1:46 of Game 2 and set playoff records in holding the Cavaliers to 61 points in Game 7. The defense has been inconsistent, yes, but not altogether horrible.
"It doesn't matter how I feel," Wallace said. "No one player is bigger than the team. I don't think we're that far off. Some nights, we come out and show it. Some other nights, we come out and go through the motions. We're not that far off. We just need everybody to get involved defensively and commit ourselves to getting it done on both ends of the floor."
Players decry Hack-a-Shaq
The Pistons have long criticized coaches and teams who deployed an intentional fouling strategy on Ben Wallace . Thus, they were taken aback when Flip Saunders used it against Shaquille O'Neal in Game 3.
"Yeah, it is (disturbing)," Rasheed Wallace said. "It never worked when I was in Portland and it didn't work now. To me, if I was a coach, I don't like it. That's just my opinion."
It was the consensus opinion among the players, as well. Saunders, though, stuck by the move.
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