Game Recap

Detroit 92 / Dallas 82


The good news: Pistons play probably their scrappiest game of the year. Clearly things were said as there is little resemblance to the team The Low had the misfortune to have to write about the other night.

The bad news: It takes five Rasheed Wallace threes to make up the final margin. He finishes five for eight from three and two for six from two.


Game Flow

The Pistons start the game well edging out to a four point lead halfway through the first. In what becomes the pattern of the game Dallas fights back to tie at 18 with 3:10 left. From that point on it is all Pistons through the rest of the first and into the midpoint of the second quarter. Two unforced turnovers from Flip and one from Chauncey, but Sheed shoots the lights out.

The ten point gap the Pistons open up at the 8:50 of the second mark turns out to be the final margin of victory. From then on it’s a tie game with each team making runs that the other answers. The Pistons push the lead out to sixteen two times in the third, but a burst from Nowitzki pulls it back to ten when the Pistons call time out at the 8:31 mark of the fourth. From this point until late in the fourth the Mavs hardly involve Dirk in the offense.

Two Billups’ steals help to break the Dallas offense down and their late flurry in the next to last minute of the game falls short as the Pistons turn the defensive pressure back up to secure the win.


Pistons on Defense

Particularly in the first half the Pistons did a great job of mixing in a zone on the Mavs’ pet pick and roll play, effectively taking it away. Without it the Mavs turn into a jump shooting team and decent man to man coverage drops the Mavs 0.454 season shooting field goal percentage to 0.419, their average three-point shooting of 0.385 to 0.286 – down 25%. The Pistons outrebound the Mavs by eight in total and by five on the offensive boards. They double up the Mavs in the hustle stats, with a combined twenty steals and blocks to ten for the Mavs.


Pistons on Offense

Without Chauncey and Rip the Pistons shoot 53% from the field for the game and 60% from three lead by Sheed’s 63% five for eight night. Chauncey and Rip combine for eleven of twenty-nine from the field – 38% including one for seven from three – 14%. All together the team shoots 0.475 overall and 0.412 from three. The Pistons rack up 23 assists (to 13 for Dallas) versus 13 turnovers including at least three bad unforced ones.


Player Summaries

Prince – Leads the team in scoring on 50% shooting with seven boards, many in traffic. Great floor game.

Wallace – The best of times, the worst of times. Sheed puts up eight threes, but hits five to go along with a team leading nine boards in 33 minutes. Add a couple of blocks and a steal against three turnovers and you’ve got a pretty good line. The worst of times could come when he shoots one for eight next time. Still, it’s worthwhile just to hear him yell “don’t leave me” as he back pedals down the floor, and of course “GLASS!!!” after (not before) knocking one down off the backboard. Sheed gets exposed a couple of times not getting out on Nowitzki, but tightens up with some prompting from the coaching staff and forces a couple of late misses.

Mohammed – Nice game for nineteen minutes – eight points on 80% shooting with a couple of dunks and three boards. Each shot was an adventure though as the hands of stone reputation did not suffer.

Hamilton – Fifteen points on 40% shooting (50% from the line, 25% from three) with five boards and some nice in your face man to man defense against Howard. Thirty-nine minutes.

Billups – Twelve points on similarly bad shooting, but eleven assists versus five turnovers plus five steals including two key ones to turn back the Dallas scoring tide early in the fourth. Five fouls in 36 minutes.

McDyess – When will this man ever manage to take a charge? Somebody needs to sit him down and teach him how to stand still. Five fouls in 22 minutes but eight points and five boards. And he was on the floor at the end of the game helping to spread the floor and keep the Dallas defense honest.

Murray – Two points (from the line) in 20 minutes, but five boards, four assists, and three – count ‘em – three blocks. Couple of bad unforced turnovers. But maybe for the first time I’ve seen him this year, Flip was active on the defensive end.

Davis – Nice game off the bench with six and four in fourteen minutes plus a block. Not shabby for an old guy.

Delfino – Two points on a nice dunk off a pass from McDyess in fourteen minutes. Three boards and an assist and should have played just a bit more. Ran the floor well and to my eye still looks more comfortable in the offensive and defensive schemes than Murray – to be expected given his tenure with the team.

Dupree – Goose egg in half a minute at the end.


More fun stats on the gameflow tomorrow when they get released.

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"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi