Orlando comes into town, could be the last time to see Howard in a Magic uniform. Can the Pistons start out 2012 on a winning note? Tune in to see. local tv: FS Detroit
I'm goin to go out on a limb and say that the Pistons winning streak gets snapped tonight at one game.
I'm goin to go out on a limb here and say that Tweets gets frustrated with the Orlando layup line and goes bananas on Justin Harper (who has just entered the game) and earns himself a 5 game suspension.
So far, our worst weakness is our starting front line. Too many layup drills for Orlando so far. This has to change. Gordon is really on with his game tonight keeping us in this one - and coach can't get into too much trouble as far as the front line cause foul trouble keeps forcing him to get that unworkable starting tandem of JJ and Monroe out of there. Daye is again out of the rotation. He made a quick appearance at the end of half. Still see nothing from Wilkens. CV got a couple of minutes also at the end of the half. I also like Stuckey on offense, continually taking it to the hole.
Great game for the Pistons! Defense is the name of this win! I'm sure the "clueless" coach should be able to cool down some of his critics with this one. Glad to finally see Daye see his minutes go down after playing so badly, IMO. Ben Gordon found his shot tonight, and should it continue, we could do a lot worse there. Great game by Knight, using his speed. All his positives were marred with rookie mistakes but, we could also do a lot worse there. As long as JJ plays the way he does wanting to win every game and getting to every ball, I don't care if he starts at PF or C or PG, he can definitely take a place on my starting 5. Great impact game by Maxiell. Decent job on Howard and making his medium range. Hmm, maybe some plays for him wouldn't hurt? Thank you for Ben Wallace. CV got in some garbage minutes due to foul trouble to our primary bigs. You gotta love that.
Yes, breaking news, the Pistons have won two games in a row....yep I was the one who said that they may open 0-8 after seeing them get spanked by last week by the Cavs and Pacers. They stopped two streaking teams with great defense and excellent role playing by the bench. Big Ben and Max who had been a disaster pairing the first three games, actually frustrated DHoward and gang. The Pistons not only won by 11, but also outrebounded the Magic by 11, including both JJ and Monroe each out boarding Howard by 11 and 9 to 7. Even Tay had a resurgence in his skill sets. BG, Big Game, er Ben Gordon looks like the guy who used to play for the Bulls a few seasons back and led the team in scoring for the second straight game, scoring 26 pts. Stuck got most of his points at the line, as he continued to be aggressive going to the hoop. Max had his best game in two years being very active out there on both ends, and at one point had 7 points in six minutes. Only 2 boards for him, but he did get a great block on Howard and hit all but one of his four shots. He has a new baby, so maybe this is inspiring him ...and not keeping him up late at night. (probably he and Brandi have a nanny I guess... Can't get excited yet, but for the time being there is hope at the Palace, and maybe the fans will start showing up soon.
A lot of going out on limbs... The Pistons are trying to win us over. The Magic must have had a little fatigue after a big comeback win last night, but that wasn't the whole story. It doesn't matter how many we scored or how well we shot- we just held the Magic to 78 points!!! For this team that needs a legit center in the worst way, that is incredible, since we were going up against a hall of fame center in his prime. All of our bigs played their butts off- Ben Wallace showed that he is still our best defender against an NBA center (he's now playing the Dale Davis role). JJ and Monroe continue to build chemistry. And Maxiell looked like his old self, but with actual touch from the FT line extended. The pairing of Big Ben and Maxiell actually looked pretty formidable off the bench. Technically, they shouldn't be a good duo b/c they aren't complementary, but sometimes when you do something well enough, you don't need variety. They just went retro on the Magic and brought the 80's style. And one of the assistant coaches had some intelligent comments about the JJ/Monroe partnership at halftime. Basically, he was saying that he liked JJ at the 4 spot because he 1) is an active cutter with shooting range that will benefit from Monroe's passing ability, 2) he's helpful on the boards, and 3) everything else- energy, attitude, etc. Random premature conclusions: Ben Gordon just needs to feel like he has a green light to burn down the net. Good move buying out Rip b/c Gordon shoots just as well and his baggage is smaller than Tay's. Lawrence Frank's hard working attitude seems like it is working on the guys. He's getting cohesion, effort, and the team seems to be improving by the game. Frank is favoring players who can play defense + Ben Gordon (who's a special case). Bynum, Daye, and possibly Villanueva aren't getting the minutes and seem bought in still. Jerebko's shooting consistency has improved since his injury. He probably spent a lot of time working on it. He is as fast as ever in a straight line right now going up and down court. Wilkins' shot is rough. He must be in for his defense/ practice attitude/ size or something that we don't know about. It's so limited that it doesn't matter much, but I would have expected him to be buried on the bench on this guard heavy team. Knight is clearly feeling his way out there. I can't help thinking that he's still shaking off the college bball habits. For instance, when he gets passes, he immediately goes to the next step like he's up against a zone and is trying to beat out the defensive shifts. He also takes every single shot when it's open instead of getting greedy like a true PG and looking to turn an open shot into a bunny for someone else. All in all, he's in that phase where the game hasn't slowed down for him. His flashes are impressive though, so I think that Frank is handling him correctly so far (bring him off the bench and give him consistent minutes with lowered pressure until he graduates).
