at Portland Trail Blazers Saturday Mar 16 2013 - 10:00 PM EST Rose Garden, Portland, OR TV: FS Detroit RADIO: 97.1FM GO PISTONS!
He wasn't. I think Duckworth had weightproblems all through his career with his weight going up and down.
Monroe has no motor. Stuckey is a selfish player but there was no question about his effort tonight. I'm not really sure I'm pleased with Monroe's demeanor whatsoever.
The Pistons are now 0 for March and 0 for Hill coaching. A 10 point lead that they had right before the half turned into a 5 point deficit 2 minutes into the 3rd qtr. They played with spirit but could never get over the hump coming to within 2 points with less than three minutes, but a couple bad plays by Singler allowed the Blazers to pull away. He allowed Batum to get an uncontested three to put them up 5 and then he blew a reverse bunny a couple possessions later with the Pistons down 7 with less than a minute left. Despite stellar play on the offensive end by Stuckey, Bynum and Caleron with 68 points, they only got 18 from their forwards, including 2-1o shooting from Singler...who played a team high 40 points and contributed 4 points, no boards and no assists. .....next loss Brooklyn? What is wrong with Larry's wife? Is he really coming back?
I think Portland is actually a pretty good matchup for the Pistons. They're not overly athletic nor loaded with shooters. The Pistons are just talent challenged now.
Same theme. Our bigs can't even begin to handle their business. And Kravtsov sits. We played a make believe front line, only we could not make the other team believe we were there. Monroe did score. And he was not really the problem on defense so much as the guys who pretended to be power forwards like JMAX and JJ. Sure, I sound like a broken record, but if it happens game after game, I got to mention it game after game. Our bigs could not defend, and the other team got to shoot over and over again until the ball went into the hoop. Middleton played, but was invisible as Bynum was always in with him and taking all the shots. Now mind you, Bynum did have a pretty good game, scored a whole lot from continually getting inside. Stuckey too got inside all night for 32 points. Thats a lot of getting inside. Calderon, our 3rd string point guard apparently - as he did not get to finish either half - also did well. But none of this makes either Stuckey nor Bynum a shooting guard, and so poor Calderon had to contend with playing without one. (In all, our point guards, sure did outscore theirs, not that it matters any. 'Course we use 3 of them, and would use a 4th if Knight was able to go.) Neither Singler nor JJ is of any use to this team if they can't knock down an outside shot. Tonight, neither did. CV plays so little he can't get into rythm at all. Not that I miss him any - but if you are going to play guys who can't do their jobs defensively, you might as well put one out there who can hit a three on occasion. Although we did ok in the first quarter, hey, the fact our starting unit is really a mismatched group of players really showed to start the 2nd half as they could do nothing on either end of the floor. Free throws, I can't mention enough. Fire our coaching staff. Find one that can teach our guys how to do something as simple as hitting a free throw. Me, I am no professional basketball player, but when I played basketball, I would practice incessantly until my free throws were automatic. We had this little game called cut - throat that we played for an hour or so each day before we started playing full court. You make a bucket, you get to shoot up to 3 free throws. To give the other guys a chance to win, we moved the free throw line out to 45 feet so that I would not make every one. (They of course also had to basically have everyone defend me - even before I got the ball, to have any chance. Man I was good. Love to recall those days.) Anyway, my point is, its a shame the Pistons can't even do the simple things right. You change the talent around at the line, and its the Pistons blowing this game open tonight. Kudos by the way to Bynum and Stuckey for being the exceptions on this team. Of course, although we have not seen Calderon play that much yet, he too can nail his free tosses.
A bicycle loaded up with newspapers might be just what the doctor ordered for some of these Pistons players.
