Atlanta December 23rd, 7:30 PM

TV - (Local) WDIV, NBALP


The Hawks come to town with high scoring Joe Johnson (28.3 ppg), and his backcourt mate Speedy Claxton. The Pistons should eliminate any hopes the Hawks may have of pulling an upset early, by being agressive from the opening tip and not letting up.

Of course no rubbing it in "a la Nuggets"..................

Hopefully, I will have arrived in Atlanta by tip off of this game. I am sure it is on local TV there.

I have informed my sister and brother-in-law to have the wings and refreshments ready for me as a I plan to arrive around 7 or 8PM.

But will they have the correct channel on though?
It might be hard to keep this athletic bunch below 90 points.

You make it sound like you are the president!

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They are the archetype for dominance. They are the gatekeepers of the conference. They are the Detroit Pistons.

Nothing wrong with that.

Chat is open!

http://www.pistonsforum.com/misc.php?do=flashchat

Great to get a total blowout, giving our starters a lot of time off. Atlanta only had one starter who could dress, Joe Johnson. Even a couple of key bench players were out. So we beat up on a very young inexperienced team. With that said, here are some details.

Mohammed finally led the team in scoring this year, and he had double digit rebounds to go with it. Pretty good for about 20 minutes. However, at one point, Atlanta had us 14-3 on the offensive boards, and that was keeping them in the game. Mohammed got about half his points by simply runnng the floor, getting post position before their centers made it down there, and made easy jumpers over smaller players. He also got some offensive rebound putbacks. I had just finished watching the Cleveland game, where Mohammed time and again pretty much walked down. An excellent change for Mohammed in this game. Still, Mohammed never got any points for us posting up their center, even with a very depleted Atlanta lineup. No, you won't see me singing Mohammed's praises until he scores like this consistently, running the floor consistenly, and does it against a good team. (And clears the defensive glass and plays help out D when players drive the lane against us-don't hold your breath.)

Flip Murray got some scoring for us. Thats welcome. However, in the 2nd quarter, with Maxiell in the game, we never managed to get the ball into the post. What a waste. Still, its always good to see any Piston hit shots.

Delfino only scored in garbage time. Yet he made a great difference in this game, with his ball handling, defense, and rebounding. And the announcers even kept praising him for doing all these little things. The steals and rebounds and feeds into the post all add up to quite a game for Delfino.

Blalock made his first NBA hoop, a shot off glass from close in. That same shot has been missed by him before, just a matter of nerves. Blalock can score once he settles down. He got to play the whole 4th in this blowout and thats great for what ails him, lack of playing time.

Dyess had a fairly forgettable game. A block or two. Rip and CB did not do much. Tay scored quite a bit as he was a complete mismatch against Atlanta, and he even hit some outside shots too.

Maxiell was a one man highlight film, lots of dunks. He just basically bulls right thru the defense, and still makes his shot. Hit some free throws too. Very impressive.

Dale Davis again only played about 6 minutes for the 2nd straight game. Again, we did not get to see the bruise brothers in action.

Sheed nailed a triple to start the game, and thats about it. In a poll, it was found that about 5% of us believe in Santa. (choosing Sheed in the post as their favorite Piston play. 60% chose Tay's blocks.)

Dupree got some garbage time play, nothing to note. Two things of note from this game. One, its the 2nd straight stand alone game we won after losing our first 7. Two, for the first time in a long time, our four stars, all of them, got plenty of rest. In a very long season, that is very welcome. GO PISTONS!!!!!

good one lee

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Gee, all those quiet points by Hamilton added up to 16 points, same as Tay. Its easy to miss something so darn expected. Just not noteworthy, except to mention the consistently good scoring Rip provides.

Billups was the highest with 29 minutes. (the other 3 stars got 25)

We gave up 24 offensive boards. That was mostly young athletic players for Atlanta easily beating the slow footed Mohammed to bounds. Remember the other day we got 26 offensive bounds, and that leads the league so far. Giving up 24 is a whole lot.

I have to mention, to be fair, that Mohammed was in there as we made the game a blowout toward the 2nd half of the 3rd quarter.

Blaha made the comment that Jason Maxiell would always be playing from now on. Kind of an advertisement for us to come on out, the Palace is going to be fun now.

Kudos to both Flip Murray and Mohammed for making 5 of 6 at the line each.

26 to 7 assist to turns, pretty darn good. It is great not to have to bemoan our non-existent ball handling when Billups is out of the game. Blalock is making a difference.

Looks like the bench played as much as the starters.
Dice & Maxiell played similar minutes... Brahma out score Antonio 14-2
3 blocks each for Dice & Maxiell
The Hawks had no inside presence yet killed us on the offensive glass.