At Orlando Jan. 21st, 7:00 PM TV20 Detroit, NBALP The Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons are experiencing a tough January. The Magic are 3-6, the Pistons 5-5 thus far in 2008. This is the first of two contests this week between the 2nd and 3rd seed teams in the EC.
We've lost 4 games in a row to teams with losing records. We should beat these guys since they're pretty good.
They are not that good. They have been slumping more than we have. And Pistons own them as of late. I wonder what effort to expect.
mediocricity, mediocricity, mediocricity... Trying just to adjust.Every new thing is strange at first...learning new words
Orlando just beat Portland, which is pretty much the hottest team in the league at the moment. (Although Toronto recently beat them too.) I have had a bit of an up surge since Arroyo began starting for them recently.
Interesting theory. By this logic, the Pistons are sunk in the East. Hey, hope springs eternal in the human breast. I get upsurges, but usually from hopeful breasts.
Odd stat. Orlando is 9-8 at home and 16-9 on the road. They are 4-6 over their past 10 games and the Pistons are 5-5. So we still are the "hotter" team even after dropping the 2 weekend games. Probably all boils down to how Howard responds after losing 8 straight games ( or whatever ) to the Pistons. Hopefully Sheed will decide to show up on the offensive end and actually take some shots from inside the 3-pt line. Going to be tough for him on Howard though. We should dominate both guard positions.
POR is really different team on the road which is expected since they are the youngest. CHI took them to double OT, Miami down to the wire. If we lose this game, something is definitely wrong. Jameer is out so more Dooling; don't know if that's good or bad. At time he was like our 6th man. Afflalo should get major minutes in this game.
The key will be stopping Howard, and to a lesser extent, 'Shard. I worry about that, though, given how uninspired the Pistons' frontcourt's play has been lately.
Orlando executed well down the streatch. In spite of 2 air balls. They got to the line, made all their free throws and did a good job limiting the Pistons to 1 shot. And 1 shot is what won this one. All the starters played well, not great but good. Some porous defense there on Turkoglu from Prince in the 4th. Beyond Maxiel we only got 4 points off the bench in a combined 38 mins. Thats not getting the job done. Is Stucky capable of making a jump shot? I know he must have hit some in College.
I am NOT happy. I don't want to analyze this game since it'd probably just turn into a rant. Pistons need to keep their heads in the game (I'm looking at you, Tay) and our D needs serious improvement. Antonio needs a vacation. He looks gassed.
That's why we are hoping that dumars sees it and can trade ending contracts to a consistent benchplayer ( except of course at PF position)
