http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/team/DET_3079.gif http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/team/at.gif http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/team/SAC_832.gif


Detroit 3-0 Sacramento 1-2

November 8th
10:00pm EST

at Arco Arena

FSN Detroit -- NBATV -- WDFN-AM 1130



http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/ben_wallace.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/rasheed_wallace.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/tayshaun_prince.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/richard_hamilton.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/pistons/chauncey_billups.jpg
http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/kings/brad_miller.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/kings/shareef_abdur-rahim.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/kings/predrag_stojakovic.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/kings/bonzi_wells.jpg http://www.pistonsforum.com/img/resources/kings/mike_bibby.jpg


Injury Report


Detroit Pistons (http://fantasybasketball.rotoworld.com/content/clubhouse_news.asp?sport=NBA&majteam=DET)

Lindsey Hunter (http://fantasybasketball.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.asp?sport=NBA&id=1281) G Out Nov 5 ankle Out indefinitely


Sacramento Kings (http://fantasybasketball.rotoworld.com/content/clubhouse_news.asp?sport=NBA&majteam=SAC)

Francisco Garcia (http://fantasybasketball.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.asp?sport=NBA&id=3949) G/F Out Nov 6 ankle Day-to-day



Pistons Stats (http://www.nba.com/pistons/stats/index.html)

Kings Stats (http://www.nba.com/kings/stats/index.html)

Team Comparisons (http://www.forecaster.ca/detnews/basketball/tott.cgi?Det)


Game Preview:

Sacramento will be playing their first home game at Arco arena this year. The Pistons have not won their in the last 8 meetings. The Kings are coming off a 118-117 victory in Phoenix. Four of their starters have played in the all-star game. All prolific scorers.
Players added: Bonzi Wells, Jason Hart, Sareef Abdul Rahim, Fransisco Garcia.
This is not an athletic team with very little defensive presence (no player averages 1 blk p/game).
On offense they like to use Bibby in high Pick & rolls with various players. They utilize a lot of off the ball movement with back screens.
Miller is capable of drawing our bigs outside freeing up the cutting lanes.
Peja loves to shoot the trey over his opponent. This will be more difficult with Prince providing the perimiter defense.
Rahim likes to face the basket and use his spin moves and hook shots.
Bonzi likes to back lighter SG's down and use his turn around jumper... he has a history of lighting up the Pistons.
The Pistons should be able to use their size and quickness to get inside often.
Corliss has only played 6 minutes without scoring a point.


Comments on this game?

Reserved for admin additions

Opening night at Arco, the loudest arena in the NBA. This is going to be a big test.

we still have the best fans.

They still have a pretty solid starting 5. And Stoyakovich had a huge last game.

they won't look that good after we're done with them. I want to see us play maurice he probably wants to play more than usual.

They still have a pretty solid starting 5. And Stoyakovich had a huge last game.
I'd say they are in the top 5 for the best starting unit.

Don't forget Bonzi. He's a Pistons killer.

i don't know why i like these really late games, but i do.

We've always had a hard time with Sacramento. We're gonna have problems with Wells, Bibby. Not worried about Reef with Sheed and Miller with Ben and Peja with Tay, so much coz they can play good defense the last time I checked. But hopefully they don't go off.

Wells concerns me coz Rip might not be able to guard him. Chauncey and Bibby are about even.

I say Let Mo Loose!

Anybody who gets traded from any team always wants to get some measure of revenge and he could get this game for us.

I'm optimistic we can win this one.

GO DETROIT! :nod:

Merc, its time to update your player photos!

Will Flipper give many minutes tonight to anyone past the first six and maybe Arroyo?

Will the bench other than maybe Dyess be able to produce 10 points tonight in total?

I expect Mo to be fired up tonight. Hopefully he will get the minutes to pour in few including a couple of long ones.

Stay tuned

it'll be interesting to see how Mo wants to show his game to the Kings. it's been too long between games!

Pistons will rotate 8 plus Darko will get 3-4 minutes. Delfino will sit it out unless they open up a big lead.
or...
what about darko on Peja? Mo on Bonzi?

Yes, it will be a good test in many ways tonight. We always seem to have trouble with Sac; long trip and time change out there; west is usually tough on us (until year before last).

But we took one of the players who gave us a lot of trouble, away from them. Evans played us very tough. I would like to see him return the favor.

Yes, I would like to see Darko on Peja. I would like to see him on anybody and for sure, I would like to see him make some use of his offensive talents; maybe earn a few more minutes.

I think the Pistons will make it worthwhile staying up later for the game, though. We will pass the test, tonight.

I think it helps that they got out there early and had a practice yesterday... jet lag should not be an excuse.
I've seen the Kings play 3 times already... man they are really slow footed on defense.... I hope we use a lot of motion.

Yeah the Bonzi matchup is kind of a concern... maybe Rip can run him to the ground... give him a case of Bonzi wobble legs:crutch:

Tayshaun should use his handles and go to the rack early & often... once we get Miller in foul trouble they're sunk inside.

Anybody up for switching up CB and Rip, and putting Billups on Wells (CB's strength would be useful on Bonzi in the paint) and Hamilton on Bibby (he seems to do a better job on quicker points and his length could interfere with some of Bibby's passing lanes).

i don't know why i like these really late games, but i do.

I know what you mean, himat, to me it's almost like only the more devoted fans are going to stay up later watching, and so I feel like I'm in a more elite group. It's a fun ego trip. :)

I know what you mean, himat, to me it's almost like only the more devoted fans are going to stay up later watching, and so I feel like I'm in a more elite group. It's a fun ego trip. :)
Some of us gotta work at 6:30 am. These midweek late games are a killer. Mind you, I loved living on the left coast. You could watch the early games and still go to a movie...

This should be a very telling road trip. Saunders has talked often about the need to be deep, make use of the bench. Will Flipper walk the walk. In our only road game (albeit a close one) he cut the bench PT significantly, looking much like his predecessor. Dare I say he showed a WIN-NOW mentality in playing several starters 40+ minutes. Warms the heart doesn’t it, but I digress. Will he trust the second unit this time??

This should be a very telling road trip. Saunders has talked often about the need to be deep, make use of the bench. Will Flipper walk the walk. In our only road game (albeit a close one) he cut the bench PT significantly, looking much like his predecessor. Dare I say he showed a WIN-NOW mentality in playing several starters 40+ minutes. Warms the heart doesn’t it, but I digress. Will he trust the second unit this time??

I agree. Its still early, but I haven't been impressed with his lack of minutes for our bench. Maybe he wanted to get comfortable (and whats more comfortable than a 3-0 start) before he started giving the bench heavy minutes.

Its a new system for most and maybe he wanted to get the starters comfortable before getting the bench going. Lets face it, our bench isn't terribly experienced. Maybe this is the best approach. Just as long as this isn't a pattern, but an exception to the norm.

...I live in Houston and I've gotten 4 straight games and will get the Phoenix game, too. They are imposing their will on the Kings on a 13-2 run here in the first qtr. Offense getting whatever it wants. Defense only so-so so far!...We the best! My bruddahs

Listening to Blaha and he said they showed pictures of burned-out buildings in Detroit on the big screen at ARco before the game. Really classless move by the Kings organization. That is totally ridiculous.:mad:

Listening to Blaha and he said they showed pictures of burned-out buildings in Detroit on the big screen at ARco before the game. Really classless move by the Kings organization. That is totally ridiculous.:mad:

what's the story behind that?

what's the story behind that?

I dunno. Hopefully, either the Freep or Det News writer will mention it in their notebook. Blaha mentioned it pretty casually and said the Pistons brass weren't too happy about it. Not sure if he knew this for sure or just assumed it. Yeah, I want to know what the deal is. That's bush league if it happened.

anyone staying up over there who can provide a few comments on the game?

Wow. Did anyone else see that jam by Corliss in the first half? That was nice.

I actually get to watch this one on tv. Finally, RaptorTV is good for something (although, it was titled Sacramento vs. Denver on my satalite. I almost didn't bother flipping to it because I thought it was a repeat of an old game or something).

It sure looks like Evans likes to shoot the rock. He made a nice rebound and the Sac announcers said something to the effect of "The Kings should know he can do that", then he took a bad shot and he says "yeah, and he does that too".

He's been shooting a very high percentage on his 3's though, I'll give him that.

Dice still hasn't found his rythem. He looks a bit lost out there and his shot doesn't look very pretty.

anyone staying up over there who can provide a few comments on the game?

He has taken over this 3rd quarter scoring 19 pts in this qtr and 25 overall. 3rd qtr score Pistons 81- kings 67:laugh:

Nice to see a lil spankage action going on...

Joe D nice timing on the Tay signing!

Little bench production; no Darko; and lots of minutes for the starters tonight. Does this sound familiar? McDyess and Evans have played quite a bit though.

He has taken over this 3rd quarter scoring 19 pts in this qtr and 25 overall. 3rd qtr score Pistons 81- kings 67:laugh:

yeah nice, i've got the live stats going, sounds like we're getting any shot we want. I guess they thought they could just try and outscore us like they did phoenix.

teams always make that mistake of thinking we can't score. wrong!

Sounds like he is having a lousy shooting night. I guess that happens when you're completely "soft" and one-dimensional.

Little bench production; no Darko; and lots of minutes for the starters tonight. Does this sound familiar? McDyess and Evans have played quite a bit though.

flip played the starters long in the 3rd against toronto to put it away, then let the bench play the rest of the game.

perhaps he is thinking along the same lines here. that way he can play the bench more as a unit together.

Think he is giving MO some extra PT but the bench will get some PT in a few minutes.

... is Davis ever gonna play? This guy has "insurance policy" written all over him.

This is the way to play offense in the NBA today. Burn them on the break when our defense arises to the occasion or they miss a long shot. Use the players to their strengths--Tay in the flow (not posting up constantly like last year in the playoffs)--Sheed down low early and not Ben. Tay and Rip are fresh--that is the difference too. Take the open jumper and not just jam it in over and over. We should have taken it all last year with any kind of offense. It is like we played with our hands tied. This team will score so the league will soon find out.

We are going to need a lot better play at this position against Miami, SA and Indiana. Anyone else agree?

... is Davis ever gonna play? This guy has "insurance policy" written all over him.

I understand that it's not planned for Lindsey or Davis to be playing for the first part of the season.

1st half

We started out a bit slow, and they hit some shots. Our defense tightened. And Wells got real tired chasing Rip around. Soon, we built a lead that got all the way up to 12 at one point in the game.

Remember the Boston game where Sheed missed a bunch of shots inside. That was practice. Tonight, those shots were going in.

Mo Evans used his ups to get a couple of hoops around the basket. You could see we were going to him extra against his old team. And he continued his streak of hitting a triple too. On one trip, Corliss abused the guy, but Evans played good ball denial from there so ended up just doing fine against Corliss. Evans subbed for both Rip, then Tay. No Delfino.

And no Darko. Just an 8 man rotation, with Arroyo only playing 3 minutes due to foul trouble. But thats ok, cause Billups was wanting to get some of his own tonight. We knew things would average out for CB, and tonight is as good as any. He has hit a triple and went inside on them; this included an isolation against Bibby where CB shook him off and rose and hit it.

But the story of the night is the fast break. The Pistons are scoring on fast breaks, twice after a made basket even. And every time we pry the ball loose from them, which got pretty frequent in the 2nd quarter, we would score the hoop on a fast break. And more fast breaks on their misses. Gee. This is truly a change and Flip has has so little time. Man he must be some kind of coach. GO PISTONS!!!!!--Oh, and Dyess is still missing his shots.


Game report


Another triple by Evans. And what an explosive dunk when he drove in. He goes up real fast.

Tay. Ten straight buckets made. The one I loved best, he just pulled up on a fast break and nailed it with utter confidence. Ten straight. No words can describe how good he was doing tonight in that 3rd quarter. He started by nailing some 3's off plays where he was left open. Before the quarter was up, he was just knocking down any shot he felt like putting up. Peja is absolutely nothing compared to Tay tonight. Can Tay keep this up. If he can, forget it league.

Despite CB playing most of the first half, he did not get long minutes in this one. Arroyo came in with a few minutes to go in the 3rd qaurter and completed the slaughter. I am sure someone can find fault with something Arroyo did. Oh well, but he did just fine running things. Over and over, we got good shots, just like when CB was in. Not any dropoff I could see.

Darko and Delfino just got some garbage time. Maxiell a couple of minutes. Among the 3, an offensive rebound and two free throws made from it from Maxiell is about all we got from them.

Arroyo fed Dyess for a couple of made jumpers. Just seems like there is some kind of connection there or something. Ben Wallace had a fine rebounding game. And only tried to stretch his offense once. A travel resulted.

Thats 75%. 3 out of 4 on slaughters. Rip continues his hot shooting, as does Evans from the 3 point line. And thats 2 in a row for Prince on hot shooting nights.

Did you see that little stat? 50 some wins by Sactown against only 2 losses vs. East teams at Arco. The Pistons made it 3 losses tonight. Last time Pistons won 4 to start the season was 1996, the same year we won last at Sactown.

Thats about all I can think of at the moment. I will enjoy watching this one a few more times yet. Our execution on both offense and defense was so flawless at times its hard to believe. Going to watch this one again just to make sure I am not dreaming all this.

A note on Sacramento. You can see at times that they are a very well coached team, getting a whole lot from what they have. But they don't really have that much. Not a blessed soul near the basket to challenge any shot. Nobody who can begin to guard Tay or follow Rip around. And nobody who has a prayer of stopping Sheed. Did I mention CB was just abusing their guards. Hey, its just Sactown. But still 4 in a row is awful nice.

Our boys did their thing tonight. Were in complete control after the first three baskets from the Kings. Prince was deadly.

Glad to see Maxiel got some burn. Was looking forward to seeing him make his first pass. But it was not to be. One of these days I just know he's going to make a pass, and it's going to be a beaut.:nod:

We are going to need a lot better play at this position against Miami, SA and Indiana. Anyone else agree?

Not really. Arroyo was very good in the first 3 games. You could tell he was in for a bad night tonight right away. As long as he bounces back we'll be fine. Arroyo gets in trouble in garbage time (with the circus shots and overly fancy passes). When the game is on the line he is much more under control.

Listening to Blaha and he said they showed pictures of burned-out buildings in Detroit on the big screen at ARco before the game. Really classless move by the Kings organization. That is totally ridiculous.:mad:

i heard that too, thats just awful. why would you do that?

Great game if you could only see the boxscore it showed almost everything except for rasheeds play he was huge in that first half he was a big prescence in the paint on both sides of the floor especially in the first half.

You have to concerned over the declining interior D. Last night in Sac-town the Interior D of Detroit looked like vaporizing blue smoke. There's nothing worse than watching Bonzi Wells take it to the rim from 20 feet out without even touching any blue material on the way to the strings.

I hope Flip makes them run some sprints.

You can't judge the defense from one play man. There are gonna be those times when someone is gonna go uncontested for a layup, and I'm sure the players took it to themselves that it wouldn't happen again.

From what I see, keeping opponents to scoring less than 90 if I'm not mistaken, and giving ourselves opportunity to run away with the game, that's great defense for me.

Let's go PISTONS. :nod:

You must not have seen the game. The went to the rim endlessly against our starting 5. Not once. Both Rahim and Wells. I thank we gave up the Big Nasty's world rattling throw down as a sympathy dunk, I'm not even counting that one.

The final score was equally indicative of their having plenty of good looking shots simply rolling off the metal. The Kings looked like queens.

Here is the question would you rather guys out of position try to get in the play late and get called for the cheep foul , or get hurt trying to stop a bucket that was gonna go anyway? I would rather see our guys bang it out in close games not when the other team is killing themselves trying to get back into a game.

I didnt see the game but I watched the highlights on nba.com and checked the box score. Yes guys were out of position but we out rebounded them 44-32 so let that slide by. We had 4 blocks they had 3 so our d gets another freebie. We had the same amount of turnovers as them (4 coming from our bench) but 12 steals to there 6 so we let that slide too. The way I see it we got the W :) nobody got hurt :) our team got the job done. From the way lee made it sound our fastbreak points counter the few easy buckets they got anyway. I'm all about calling the guys out if it resulted in a loss or if it becomes evident its because of poor execution but so far I just dont see it being a problem.

You must not have seen the game. The went to the rim endlessly against our starting 5. Not once. Both Rahim and Wells. I thank we gave up the Big Nasty's world rattling throw down as a sympathy dunk, I'm not even counting that one.

i can agree with you about our interior D for:
- the first 5 minutes of the game we decided to coast through
- the stretch of 4 straight plays - 2 layups + 2 dunks (ending in corliss's)

after those 4 straight plays the pistons did a pretty good job down low...and they got blocks at key times. i wasn't really bothered with it, it's not going to happen on a consistent basis.

arroyo had a really rough game...he got shanked on some calls but he was still off. we had a 3-on-1 fast break after he got a steal, but instead of passing he tried to get a layup over the defender and missed. he did do a good job of getting mcdyess some open shots though.

tayshaun's streak of 10 straight shots, including 3 3-pointers, made me think of that kansas game...and he realy looks like he's having fun out there. after one shot the kings called timeout and he ran back down the court with his arms doing a punching bag motion, hilarious.

sheed's minutes are really low this year - even with an effective offensive game last night he didn't play much in the 2nd half.

we had a ton of easy transition baskets...just about every steal resulted in an easy score, and we also chucked a few downcourt after the kings scored and were slow to get back on D - these were especially demoralizing because they kings would work really hard to get a decent shot off, and 2 seconds later it would be for naught. the fact that the pistons completely broke down the kings mentally, in their home opener, is incredible - especially since sacremento is 57-3 against east teams at home since 2001.

and finally, i have no idea why corliss isn't getting playing time. the only time they were back in the game was when he was on the court (7 points in 5 minutes), and he was able to plow through evans in the post. kings coulda used him last night

From the combo of Delfino, Maxiel and Darko, we had more than just JMax's contribution. Darko had a couple of shot alterations, an assist, a board, and two free throw makes obtained from a very good drive from the corner, when he had to be fouled to be stopped. Pretty good effort.

Interesting that Blaha spent so much time defending Flip's playing the bench such a short time. As far as I am concerned, he does not have to defend Flip. Coach is trying to win games and playing the starters a little longer on the road, especially the first game of a road trip, is to be expected. Gotta get the trip started out on a winning note. And he played Evans a little earlier and longer because he thought Evans would play hard to prove something to Sac. He was right there, too.

It is certainly not time to get sensitive about PT. He have a 'ship to win and a team to get ready for post-season.

Flip will "gitterdun".

The Pistons were easily destroying the Kings. No need to foul them or risk injury when they make a good pass and get to the rim on us. It looked like the starters could have held them under 80 even with all the gimme's and still scored 110 on Offense.

Does Mo Evans hit a 3 from the left corner every single game? It sure seems like it.

Before the game, Tayshaun was talking about the Pistons establishing an inside presence to open up the outside game. I had the feeling that Sheed would be working the post, and he finally did. Several easy baskets showed what he can do when he feels like it.

Even though Tay went off, I thought this was the best all around game from our big 5.

I didn't see the game but I listened to it. The pistons went on a run early. Made a few short runs during the 2nd and 3rd. In the 4th, they held sac scoreless for 5 minutes. Not too bad.

I had hoped the Darko would get some burn in the first half. Well, the season is long. On the PT issue, I'm not so concerned with the starters playing so much...the preseason was given over to the bench so the starters need this part to come together under the system.

This team always has had the occasional defensive lapse. It's no biggie. Bibby was threading the needle to Peja. Not much you can do about that. Plus Bonzi pretty much always owns Rip. His strength is just to much for him. He's bound to get a couple of easy shots on him. Plus, the Kings have 2 big men who can hit shots out to the three point line, so our bigs can't help nearly as well as they can against most teams. I'm not concerned about the defense at all.

Listening to Blaha and he said they showed pictures of burned-out buildings in Detroit on the big screen at ARco before the game. Really classless move by the Kings organization. That is totally ridiculous.:mad:

Totally uncalled for. :mad: :mad: Maybe we should get a hold of that Shaq interview when he called them the Sacramento QUEENS and play it just before the Pistons vs. Kings game on the big screen at the Palace. Then have a Sharman bathroom tissue mascot dancing on the court with a Kings jersey on wearing pink tights.:laugh:

The ill-advised SAC Piston video was a hot topic on the Jim Rome show today. Nobody thought it was funny.

Off to a great start on the Western trip. The other 2 are very winnable games.

So far its looking like a lot of offense has been added to the leagues best defensive team. Still early to get too excited. With 3 of the 4 games scoring over 100 and all 4 opponents held under 90 its hard not to.

I'm with G-Man on this one... there were several occasions when it looked like our bigs had a clear path to block the shot and just decided not to do so. Granted they would have made the effort (mostly Sheed) if the game was on the line... but it's just not something you expect to see from our bigs... we don't want anyone getting comfortable going to the rack... Sheed had no fouls and could have made the plays (at least three of them).
You could see how intimidated they were early in the game (Peja missed 10' er etc.)
It catches ya by surprise when the efforts not there... that's all

Gotta like how Tay set em up on that one block.... it was like a spider spinning it's web and just hanging around waiting for the prey.

So far its looking like a lot of offense has been added to the leagues best defensive team. Still early to get too excited. With 3 of the 4 games scoring over 100 and all 4 opponents held under 90 its hard not to.

I'm looking forward to seeing the offense against some of the better defensive teams (Pacers, Spurs)... that will be a true indicator of the progress... so far we haven't played a good defensive team yet.

I'm looking forward to seeing the offense against some of the better defensive teams (Pacers, Spurs)... that will be a true indicator of the progress... so far we haven't played a good defensive team yet.

I have wonderd that myself. But this is not the pre-season and there is some defense there. I think it will hold up. So much chemistry now with the starters.

I would not expect 100 points against a good defensive team. Bottom line the defense has not slipped and the offense has gotten better. That has to be a good sign.

Last season Pistons started off letting in a few over 100 and now they are scoring over 100.

Besides that cruel pre-game wideo everything looked great. After the arco arena was gatting loud because of the kings quick start we had the skill and toughness to just suck it up and beat them not only beat them blow them out.

-Chauncey Billups: Great game good job of taking it to the kings and getting everyone elsre involved as well He finished 16 points and 8 assists, he did especially well in the first half with 14 and 5 assists. also mr. big shot pulled down 4 boards and had 3 steals.

-Richard Hamilton: So far he has done amazing, and he didn't stop yesterday scoring 21 and dishing out 5 assists. he shot above 50% again (9-17). Rip and his backourt mate chauncey both did a great job in helping with the rebounds (rip had 6) along with the wallaces because tay was out on the perimeter gaurding peja.

-Tay: Did a great job shutting down Stojacovic the entire game by keeping one of the good shooters in the league with only 9 points of 4-13 shooting. Was very quiet the first half, but he lit up the kings with 19 points off a perfect 8-8 shooting and 3-3 from 3 point land in the second quarter to give the POistons a huge lead.

-Rasheed: Even though he had 0 fouls he only played 26 minutes, but he made his prescence early by scoring all 10 points inside and stopping his opponent from scoring. Very active getting 4 steals in the game. sheed also got 4 boards and the 3 asists.

-Ben: Another dominant performance on the defensive end by getting 14 rebounds and getting kings center brad miller frustrated by keeping him to only 8 points, and getting him to turn the ball over 5 times. Ben had a very quiet 9 points and almost snuck up on a double-double. Ben shot good at the line for the second straight game by shooting 3-4 against the kings and 7-10 against toronto. Ben also had 3 assists the pistons combined for a total of 26 assists.

-bench: hte bench had 21 12 coming from evans. the bench in my opinion didn't do as well as the other game mainly because Arroyo was in foul trouble, and he creates many plays for other people. Dice had 4 points and 9 boards to help the bench as well.

I have Big ben on my Fantasy team and he's shooting 66% from the line. :faint2:
Considering his past performance, its an eye opener to say the least. Compare that to Antoine Walker. :eyebrows:

I think the early fouls in the last several games have had an impact on the way 'Sheed's playing defensively. He's trying to stay on the floor as opposed to contesting the shot.

Hopefully he can find a happy medium there.

He had 0 fouls and 4 steals today. good sign, mo evans did good coming back to scaramento, maybe dice will do good when he goes back to phoenix, and same with sheed going back to portland.