<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span class="storytext"> AUBURN HILLS -- The numbers themselves are probably more alarming than what they actually represent, but the cold truth is, Richard Hamilton's offensive production the past two seasons has fallen off significantly after the All-Star break.</p> He was averaging 21.6 points before being selected to his first All-Star team in 2006. He averaged 17.7 the rest of that season.</p> Last year, he was averaging 21.7 points before earning his second All-Star invitation. His scoring fell off by 5.6 points a game, to 16.1 for the rest of the season.</p> In his three other seasons with the Pistons, his scoring average increased slightly after the break.</p> "It's different reasons," Hamilton said Wednesday. "The last couple of years, we've been so far ahead of the rest of the league (in the standings) that I didn't need to average 40 a night. And last year with Chris Webber coming in and trying to get him acclimated -- yeah, I might have taken my foot off the pedal a little bit, but just for the benefit of the team.</p> "This year, I will probably put my foot on the gas more, because the way we finished the last two years is unacceptable."</p> Coach Flip Saunders will be happy to hear that, because in both years, Hamilton had a hard time regaining full offensive acceleration in the postseason.</p> "Our mindset is, they can't be reading the articles that you guys (media) write about the only thing that matters is what you do in the playoffs," Saunders said. "You know, it's a process. In order to have success in the playoffs, you have to sustain the success that you had in the regular season."</p> Hamilton said his goal for this season was "to attack, attack, attack."</p> "I thought about it a lot over the summer," he said.</p> "I was like, 'Yo, this year, every game, regardless of how the game is going, I am going put the pedal to the metal. We are always going to play off each other and I am always going to bring that energy, but I need to be more aggressive -- not selfish, but just try to make more plays."</p> By attacking more, Hamilton made it clear that he doesn't plan on driving to the basket on every possession. There will just be less standing in the corner waiting for somebody else to make a play.</p> "It's just about being in attack mode all the time," he said. "My team looks to me to score. I am not trying to just relax and feed off other guys. I am not going to just come down to a spot and work off what the other guys are doing."</p> Saunders calls the approach, "attack and adjust."</div></p> Source: Detroit News</p> </span></p>
