At Philadelphia January 9th, 7:00PM
TV - FSN Detroit (local) NBALP


The Pistons head to Philly to begin a four game in five night stint. Detroit has dropped four of their last 5 games and hope to perhaps, start a winning streak as all four games will be against sub 500 teams.

Will JD recieve a call from new Philly exec Larry Brown to work out a deal?? Or is LB`s special project centered on; how to coach the 76ers again without anyone even noticing what happened?

Own this team and take control of the East again. Keep Chauncey benched for the rest of the week.

Pistons 106-79

Scouting report:

Andre Miller has been scoring lately. Is capable of taking Murray to the rim again and again. On the other end, he's not as good a defender as Hinrich or Duhon, but he's too big for Flip to post up on the baseline.
Andre Iguodala has been putting up a lot of shots and running the offense a bit. Sometimes he can hit jumpshots, but mostly he's a slasher. Good if overrated defender, excellent rebounder.
Rodney Carney is a rookie, high draft pick. Recently promoted to the starting lineup. Good slasher, good set shooter, but hasn't been depended on to carry much of the scoring load. Bad defender and rebounder.
Joe Smith is finished. Still a decent rebounder, but he won't make any other impact on the game.
Sam Dalembert is a dunker, shotblocker, decent rebounder with extremely low basketball IQ. Makes no impact on the game further than 1 foot from the basket.
Kyle Korver's a fantastic jumpshooter if he's open. Rarely drives but will post much smaller defenders. Doesn't rebound much. He isn't a complete stiff defensively, but he's by no means any good.
Alan Henderson's a poor man's McDyess. Like Smith, pretty close to finished.
Steven Hunter is a good defender, average rebounder, offensive skills limited to dunks.
Willie Green is an undersized volume scorer with absolutely no conscience. He'll take any shot, and occasionally he'll warm up enough to score 30 on more than 35% from the field. Doesn't do anything else.
Kevin Ollie is a very old LB-type player. He won't make many mistakes at either end of the floor, but he won't do much either.
Louis Williams, Bobby Jones, Chris Webber, and Shavlik Randolph: quite small, not yet NBA-ready, no longer NBA-ready, and a complete stiff from Duke. All have been collecting DNPs recently. Webber and Randolph can hurt us on the glass if they play but won't do much else.


Prediction: Pistons, 103-84

Great post AHB.
6ers started the season 0 for double digits.
Since AI left they are 4 for 5, with a win over those volitol Knicks.
They are not completely dead. Flip better coach his azzzzz off.
Or I want him fired!

uh, i think you'll find randolph is pretty much done for the season after breaking his ankle last year, but pretty good scouting nonetheless.

will sheed and c-webb be getting a preview of their new teams if some rumours are to be believed...

Prediction: The Pistons better beat this sorry excuse for a team or the complaining will be insufferable on this board.

Chat's open, y'all! Come on down!

But Sheed?

There we go Will! Showin some pizazz.

I'm still not sure why this happened, but JMax started for Sheed in this game, and again in the 2nd half, although Sheed ended up playing more minutes, 29 to only 18 for JMax. Pistons shot the ball well in the first quarter, but a few defensive breakdowns and a lot of second chance points for Philly kept the game close. The second quarter started with a big Pistons run to get the lead into double digits--Delfino was playing really well, and Ashton Korver almost single-handedly punk'd the Sixers into a hole with several missed shots and turnovers. The starters didn't hustle much in the last few minutes, and some sloppy play allowed the Sixers to get within 3 at halftime. Flip Murray didn't do a whole lot from the floor, but he did get to the line a number of times and knocked most of his FTs down. Rip and Tay both shot well in the first half.

But the third quarter was a whole other ballgame. The Sixers continued to crash the glass, with Dalembert and Smith getting second chances all over the place (they combined for 15 offensive boards in the game), but aside from that their offense was mostly one-on-one with Iguodala jacking up tough shots. The big story was that the Pistons were almost flawless on offense--15-18 from the floor in the 3rd quarter, with assists on 13 of those baskets!! Rip, Tay, and Flip led the way as the Pistons moved the ball beautifully and scored on almost every possession. Their lead ballooned from 3 at the half to 16 at the end of the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, both teams traded buckets for a while, with Tay still on fire. He ended up with 33 points, a new career high--13-18 from the floor, and 5-6 on threes! Rip ended up 11-16 from the floor. The starters got lazy and let the Sixers cut the lead down to 10 with a couple of minutes left, and then Flip threw in a few stupid turnovers down the stretch, but the Sixers never got it closer than the final margin, which was 9 points.

The key difference in the game was the Pistons' ball movement, particularly in that big third quarter. They ended up with 32 assists, which I'm pretty sure is a season high. Flip led the way with 12 dimes, Rip had 7, and Tay had 4. Blalock also had 4, in 17 minutes, and he also hit his first NBA three. Delfino started off really well in the 2nd quarter, though he only ended up 1-6 from the floor, but he did get 6 rebounds. Nice win to get things going after the recent struggles.