Pistons look for real. NFL officiating... Not so much

It's time to acknowledge the Pistons as semi-legit. They extended their post-Josh Smith winning streak to 6 games with Brandon Jennings' magical game-winning floater over the Spurs last night, in a game I thought they had next to no shot of winning. Well, they did. The win over San Antonio represents their biggest & closest win of this 6-game streak.

• 12/26 - Beat Indiana by 10
• 12/28 - Beat Cleveland by 23
• 12/30 - Beat Orlando by 23
• 1/2 - Beat New York by 16
• 1/4 - Beat Sacramento by 19
• 1/6 - Beat San Antonio by 1

Notice that 4 games in that streak have a differential higher than 15. In part the Pistons were taking advantage of an easier stretch in their schedule, prior to last night. Cleveland was the only team in those 5 games with a winning record at 18-11, but the Pistons caught them on the downswing & the Cavs are 1-5 since (LeBron was healthy at the time, but Varejao had just gone down for the year & Irving missed the game as well). The combined winning % of the 5 teams prior to San Antonio was .377%, which is still better than Detroit's is NOW, but is still pretty weak.

Starting last night, the Pistons were entering a 5-game stretch that would test their mettle. The games - @ San Antonio (.600), @ Dallas (.722), vs. Atlanta (.765!!!), vs. Brooklyn (.471), and @ Toronto (.706). All 5 teams would make the playoffs if the season ended today. Brooklyn represents the weakest of the group followed by the defending champs, who Detroit managed to beat last night. Also factoring in, Detroit played no back-to-backs in that 5-game stretch. Well, the Pistons play 2 back-to-backs in these 5 games, with Dallas getting game 2 in the 1st back-to-back tonight and Brooklyn getting game 2 in the 2nd back-to-back. Detroit needed to start this run off well (even a well-fought loss would have sufficed), and they certainly managed that.

The Spurs had a HUGE first quarter, but the Pistons fought back in the 3rd and got some big-time boards & putbacks from Drummond & Monroe (combined for 37 points & 28 rebounds). For the first time in 5 games they didn't shoot the 3 well, but they still managed to overcome a very good opponent. The play of the game was the steal/game-winning floater, both by Jennings. This was a classic opportunity for over-coaching, and SVG opted to let his players play. Often the coach will call a TO here to draw up a final play, which often looks like a lot like desperation three (you know, because the OTHER coach also gets a chance to set up his defense, often taking away your first option). Instead Jennings took advantage of the turnover by getting to the hoop before San Antonio's defense could get set. Jennings made this happen by poking the ball lose and then sinking the floater, and SVG allowed it to happen, which you don't alway see. Very nice. SVG also did a good job of calling the correct defense on SA's final play.

Dallas presents an interesting matchup. It's the 2nd of a back-to-back, and the Mavs are also on a 6-game winning streak. The Mavs are pretty good on offense and less good on defense, although they have a couple good defensive players in Tyson Chandler and Rajon Rondo. Detroit's defense has been better than average recently, but Dirk & Monta create havoc for defenders. I'm not expecting Detroit to win this one (but then again I didn't expect them to beat the Spurs), but I'd like them to be competitive.

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This is the last I'm going to bring up the penalties in the Lions loss to the Cowboys. The NFL sent the Lions an apology letter for missing a holding call on the game-winning drive that would have made it 4th & 16 from the Cowboys' 48, most likely punting to the Lions with 6 minutes left. That makes 3 bad calls/non-calls in that game that really hurt the Lions:

1. The picked-up PI flag. Everyone agrees that at the least defensive holding should have been called, which would've given Detroit a first down. A majority think that either PI should have been called or at least it was a 50/50 call and the flag shouldn't have been picked up.
2. The missed holding call on Dallas' 4th down conversion. Suh was getting bear-hugged, allowing Romo time to get the ball to Witten. A correct call here means Detroit gets the ball back with 6 min & a chance to run out the clock. It wouldn't have sealed the deal for the Lions since the offense was struggling to extend drives in the 2nd half, but this no-call was more blatant than the PI no-call (although the PI no-call exhibited more incompetence on the part of the officials).
3. The defensive holding call on Levy. He tackled the RB behind the line of scrimmage AND between the tackles after a play fake. That's legal according to the rule book, only the officials didn't seem to think so. If that goes uncalled, Dallas most likely would have kicked a tying FG, giving Detroit the ball back with about 3 min and a chance to win.

This was by far the best game of the Wild Card round and all anyone is talking about is the officiating. That's a problem. Some attention has been called to the fact that this officiating crew had never worked together before, which may have led to the mistakes on calls 2 & 3 and DEFINITELY led to the craziness on call #1.

Another suggestion that was brought up is whether coaches should be able to challenge pass interference and other "judgement calls". I'm against that, but I do think the refs should be able to request to see a play again if they can't agree on a call. The problem with the call when they picked up the flag is 2 refs saw 2 different things, had to agree, and blew it. If the officials had the ability to request to see the play again, like on a tablet or something, they would've had a chance to make the correct call. Again, this wouldn't be a challenge, just giving the officials access to replay when they can't agree on a call.