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Tuesday January 24th, 8:00pm
Target Center (http://www.targetcenter.com/)
WDWB20 -- NBALP -- WDFN-AM 1130

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Comments on the game?
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Write it down. Pistons 107 Wolves 83

BoxScoreAndPlaybyPlay - From nba.com (http://www.nba.com/games/20060124/DETMIN/boxscore.html)
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Sure, Flip. Just another game. Uh-huh. (http://www.startribune.com/511/story/200972.html)

....Saunders, in return, appreciates the professionalism of his players and his bosses, especially President Joe Dumars, the Pistons' former blue-collar, All-Star guard who has fashioned the roster in his own image. Center Ben Wallace has been an All-Star and former Wolves point guard Chauncey Billups surely will join him in Houston next month, but there is no ego-stroking pecking order on their team.

"I've been here for five months, there hasn't been one time where anyone has said, 'Run this play for me,' " Saunders said. "Joe Dumars has yet to talk about when he played for the Detroit Pistons and what he did, because his vision is about moving forward. It's all about winning."

Translation: What have you and Larry won lately, Kev?

I have a feeling we are going to see a motivated Pistons team tonight. When I first looked at the schedule for the month of January I circle this game as a potential lose. I figured Detroit would go 13-2 for the month and with five games left this is a potential lose. Now with that being said I had their first lose for the month of January coming to the Spurs not Utah and I had the secound lost coming to either Minny or New Jersey.

With this game tonight I get the feeling that Detroit will come out to win this game it will be a hard fought game, the last two years Detroit got jobed in Minny with bad calls costing the both games. Who can forget the one call in 2004 where C-bills hit the game winning shot only to be called an offensive foul and the Pistons lose. Later only to get a letter from the league apologizing for the bad call. I think the Pistons will win this game with the same intensity they played with in San Ann. I will go out on a limb here and perdict a Pistons win 92-87.:laugh:

Lets get this one for the Flipper. GO PISTONS!!!!!

I expect inspired play by the T'Wolves tonight. They're coming off a close loss to Philly at home and they'll be extra motivated for the EC Champs and their former coach. Detroit will have to be on top of their game tonight, which means Prince better bring it tonight.

We just may have caught the Wolves at a good time though since Olowokandi is questionable with a toothache.

No Delfino tonight. The following is from AS Blakely:

"Update from shootaround:
Delfino has the flu and did not make the trip. Expect to see Mo Evans log around 20 minutes tonight."

Which is in contrast to what Chris McCosky wrote in his article this morning:

"Reserve swingman Carlos Delfino missed practice Monday with flu-like symptoms. He made the trip to Minnesota and is expected to be available for duty tonight."

So it looks like McCosky is out of the loop yet again. Or did he pull a Mitch Albom and submit that in his article before he actually had the facts? :confused: :ohwell:

No Delfino tonight. The following is from AS Blakely:

"Update from shootaround:
Delfino has the flu and did not make the trip. Expect to see Mo Evans log around 20 minutes tonight."

Which is in contrast to what Chris McCosky wrote in his article this morning:

"Reserve swingman Carlos Delfino missed practice Monday with flu-like symptoms. He made the trip to Minnesota and is expected to be available for duty tonight."

So it looks like McCosky is out of the loop yet again. Or did he pull a Mitch Albom and submit that in his article before he actually had the facts? :confused: :ohwell:

The flu's a bummer especially considering Delfino's play of late and the back-to-back. Depending on it's severity, it could impact him right thru the Kobe Lakers. I hope he has access to some homemade chicken stock. Hell, I'd make him some if I could get it to him. :laugh: You can't forget the chicken feet.


FYI: McCosky reads this forum to get the latest poop. :)

Mitch luvs himself too much to worry about facts. :P

Has Ben ever missed a game with the flu?

Has Ben ever missed a game with the flu?

Ben's wife makes him chicken stock. :nod:

Has Ben ever missed a game with the flu?

Awww, c'mon Merc. Give Delfino a break. He can't help it if he's sick.

Besides, we don't want him doing what Rodney did all over the court. :puke:

Naw, Delfino's been playing well lately... The soft image won't go away till he makes it thru a whole season without major downtime (hmmm poll material?)

For the game, I'm inclined to agree with ggazoo, the Wolves should be highly motivated with all of these last minute losses lately... we don't have the instant Sheed advantage coming in...so guys like Tayshaun better step up.

Haha, I knew Michigan's weather would soon catch up to one of the Piston's players. :P

I think both teams will be inspired for this one. The Pistons will want to win this game for their coach. It should be a good one.

Game Chat is open.

Nice to see Amir Johnson get some playing time and his first NBA hoop, courtesy of Darko. You could tell he had been looking to get the kid involved and made it happen with a steal and cross-court pass for the big windmill. Good job, DMC.

Very exciting to see Johnson score his 1st 2 points. Officially in the books. Too bad PT is so hard to come by for him.

Missed the 1st half so I will catch in the 1st rebroadcast later tonight. Chauncey had all his points in the 2nd half.

Very fun game to watch. By the end of the 2nd quarter, you knew two things. One, we were going to win this game easily. And two, we are going to win tomorro night too. Why? The bench played plenty. Arroyo gave CB a good long rest, just under 8 minutes. Just at the end of that 8 minutes, we were down 2. A blown call by the official where Arroyo gots utterly wiped out by one guy while the other cleanly strips him. Hey, call the foul, please. Horrid officiating, constantly in the favor of Minny, kept Minny in this game more than anything. I got a long list. Just trust me though. It was pretty bad.

I see someone (detnew.com board) bemoaned Arroyo passing the ball to Dyess. I wonder if that poster is a bit repentant now. Dyess had one of his best quarters of the year in the 2nd quarter with 12 points. Point guards that get the ball to the shooter are kind of important for that. Arroyo also assisted Evans on his first triple.

Evans had a truly fine game. He did well on all his defensive assignments, especially on Hassle after Hassle was giving Rip fits. And Evans only took those two shots, both triples, and made both. (Yes, he scored more later, but I am mostly talking about shots that clearly helped win this one.)

Why did the bench fall behind at all with Arroyo in the game? Pretty simple. We took Sheed out and put Dyess on Garnett. All the sudden, they had an advantage and hurt us with it. And of course, Hassel got the best of Rip those two times. The point guard can't do everything. He can get the ball up the floor. Check. Get his guys good shots. Check. Play decent defense on his own guy. Check. But he can't defend your man, and he can't hit your shots.

We did the same thing in the 2nd half, sat Sheed while they kept Garnett in. But Ben guarded him this time for one, and two, Minny was in shock from Billups just lighting a fire in the building. About an 8 alarm one.

After going 0-7 with 3 points in the first half, he ends up with something like 27 points, hitting 6 tripples, all in one big bunch at the end of the 3rd / beginning of the 4th. He unabashedly planned to hit the triples as he came down the floor, and the whole darn gym knew it full well. Man he was hot. Anyone think Arroyo is coming in for him when he is like that, forget it.

But those fireworks by CB did not win this one. Not even close. The game was won before CB started launching. The triples just ended it quick. What won it was stellar defense our starters played. They just completely shut down Minny in the 3rd quarter. For the game, we see just why Sheed is so much a better player than Garnett. Sheed can pretty much completely shut Garnett down. What a performance.

Tay was just solid in every way. We needed more rebounding, he got the rebounds. An outside shot, swoosh. How about another. Swoosh. Tay as usualy overmatched them inside, and shut them down on the other end.

Rip hit some shots. And he went inside. A rare game without a triple made or taken by Rip. By the way, Rip tightened up his D on Hassel bigtime in the 3rd, basically denying the guy that good position he was getting earlier.

34-5. Ever so close. I just know that come Friday night, I will be cheering the Pistons on at the Palace for 36-5. Yep, we got to take care of business tomorro night yet. I am not worried. Our starters are well rested and raring to go.

Between Evans and Dyess playing the whole 2nd pretty much, and Arroyo getting a good stint, plus about 4 or 5 minutes of garbage time, our bench played plenty. And they produced. 18 points between Evans and Dyess (or was it 20-maybe Evans got a hoop late in the 2nd?)

One thing kept me very, very interested in garbage time. I wanted to see Amir Johnson get to play. And he did. Darko stole the ball and fed Amir for a dynamite windmill jam. Darko tried to feed him earlier, but the rook was assuming Darko was going to shoot. Anyway, great to welcome Amir Johnson to the team. Man, us fans would be truly entertained if the coach would only play him some. Heck, play him for the fans. This season is looking awful darn good.

Darko took, and made, yet another outside shot. And looked darn good in doing so. McCoskey did us a favor the other day, reporting that Darko was working on his outside shot mostly after practice in those 3 on 3's. I sure like the result. Forget the bust label. 7 footers who can come in cold, for three games over about a week, and hit each outside shot they take, well they don't exactly grow on trees.

I did not get a good look at the play, but I guess Amir had a spectacular block. I guess I will go review that. GO PISTONS!!!!!

During a dead ball late in the second period, Wallace turned to Wolves coach Dwane Casey and barked, "You know he can't guard Chauncey," referring to Minnesota's Marko Jaric.

Hahaha, gotta love Sheed!

This is from the Yahoo recap of the game:

During a dead ball late in the second period, Wallace turned to Wolves coach Dwane Casey and barked, "You know he can't guard Chauncey," referring to Minnesota's Marko Jaric (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3429). The taunt turned out to be prophetic, when Billups single-handedly guided Detroit on a 25-8 run that closed the quarter. He made four 3-pointers and had 18 of those points, the last 11 against Anthony Carter (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3396) after he subbed for Jaric.

The recap also called the Pistons "the streaking Pistons". Um... I think they're a bit past streaking in my opinion. They left streaking behind about 20 wins ago.

Nice stat line from Mo Evans tonight...
No TO's
5 for 5 shooting including two 3's
5 rebs
2 Assist

Looks like he's starting to fit in well now.

Nice stat line from Mo Evans tonight...
No TO's
5 for 5 shooting including two 3's
5 rebs
2 Assist

Looks like he's starting to fit in well now.
Mo is a beast. He's at just about 50% shooting this year, and with today's performance he's now over 40% on treys despite a bit of a slump there earlier in the season. I just love his hustle. The loose ball steal/dunk was priceless. He just has a knack for knocking down timely three balls. Such a huge boost from what we had last year. Throw Delfino in the mix and our bench is one of the best in the league (if only we had a reliable PG!).

Just thought I would throw this at you guys, look in editors picks

Amir got play of the day on nba.com
Ben got dunk of the night for his slam over kg also on nba.com

Lee- one of your better recaps.

Also, this was one of the best garbage time performances yet. It is fun to watch when there are guys that are thankful to be playing. And I think that Darko enjoys himself a little more when he is not the sole focus. He's a little Sheed-like in that way.

I'm a little nervous to see the Pistons approaching the record of...
Larry Herndon, Chet Lemon, Kirk Gibson, Tom Brookens, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Darryl Evans, Lance Parrish, Morris, Petry, Wilcox, Berrenger, Lopez, and Willie/ Guillermo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never thought I'd see the day.

I'm a little nervous to see the Pistons approaching the record of...
Larry Herndon, Chet Lemon, Kirk Gibson, Tom Brookens, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Darryl Evans, Lance Parrish, Morris, Petry, Wilcox, Berrenger, Lopez, and Willie/ Guillermo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never thought I'd see the day.

TODAY could very well be that day! :nod:

Piston three ball can destroy teams. And we don't have to play as hard--at least in the regular season. Garnett is not playing hard for Minn. He is still awesome if he wants to be. This will probably be his last year there.

That's a good point about the 3's and the effort. You know how when you play someone in 1 on 1 and you're just drilling 3's? It seems like you use up about 10% of the energy.

Nice stat line from Mo Evans tonight...
No TO's
5 for 5 shooting including two 3's
5 rebs
2 Assist

Looks like he's starting to fit in well now.

those 2 trees were huge he hit those in the first half when he were down by 5, or 6.

It would have been interesting to have been in the Pistons locker room at halftime last night. Did the yelling come from Flip or did the players just sit down and say what needed to be done? Certainly the bunch who came out in the third and shut down the Wolves offense and used that energy to start up their own looked a lot more like a team with their heads in the game than the group who muddled through the opening quarters (particularly the first).

Sure was a world class dismantling in the third though.

~~Video~~

Amir Johnson - Play of the Day - Windmill Dunk (http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/nba/nbacom/pod/pod_060124.asx)

NBA.com Highlights of the Game (http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/nba/nbacom/recaps/recap_602_detmin.asx)

You need Windows Media Player to watch these. nJoy!

Great clip. I'm not sure what I enjoyed most.
Darko's feed...no.
Amir's jam...no.
The bench exploding and cracking up. Yep!!

Man that clip was for lack of a better word...touching. What a way to start your nba career. Nice highlight. Loved the bench reaction.
The most impressive part though was Darko's steal and a very nice pass. Great to see those guys working together!

Funny how little things can reveal big things ...

* Like Darko, notoriously indifferent in garbage time, suddenly buttonhooking back on an inbounds pass just so he can steal another chance for Amir's first NBA basket. When did he ever show us his heart before?

* Or like the most celebrated starting five in the NBA exploding to their feet when a #56 pick scores in garbage time. BTW, does any adult look more like a child than Tayshaun Prince whipping a towel around?

* Or like the TWolves scrub who showed the "every man for himself" syndrome of a losing ball club by shooting an undefended basket instead of running out the last two seconds. Classy.

Assuming all the hyperbole is true, that's typing with fire. Yep, 8 alarm. That's what I'm takin' about. Lee

those 2 trees were huge he hit those in the first half when he were down by 5, or 6.

Absolutely. Both 3's were huge. Its darn good to see Evans get that 3 ball working again. When I don't like his play, I write about it. But when he nails a 3, I love it as much as anyone.

Twolves getting thumped again by Memphis. Glad the Grizzlies didn't lose tonight going into Friday's game.

ATTN moderators: there is no January Grizzlie thread. I tried to start one, but I'm not worthy :P

Twolves getting thumped again by Memphis. Glad the Grizzlies didn't lose tonight going into Friday's game.

ATTN moderators: there is no January Grizzlie thread. I tried to start one, but I'm not worthy :P
Mercury is on the job. To keep from having multiple game threads, on the CAdmins can start threads here.

If you see a discrepancy, PM one of them from the staff list.

http://www.pistonsforum.com/forumleaders.html

Thanks!!!