SanAntonio At Detroit - 12:30PM TV: ABC Radio: WDFN Max's Notes: Put the Festivities on hold for this one. 1st meeting between the 2 teams since the 2005 NBA Finals. Both teams will be warmed up and new players integrated. Will be a great one. Pistons were 2-1 at Home against SAN in the Finals blowing out SAN in both games. Probable Starting Lineups Your Detroit Pistons [table=600][tr=tcat][td]Ben Wallace[/td][td]Rasheed Wallace[/td][td]Tayshaun Prince[/td][td]Rip Hamilton[/td][td]Chauncey Billups[/td][/tr][tr=alt1][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr][/table] NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs [table=600][tr=tcat][td]Rasho Nesterovic[/td][td]Tim Duncan[/td][td]Bruce Bowen[/td][td]Michael Finley[/td][td]Tony Parker[/td][/tr][tr=alt1][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr][/table] ~Tale of the Tape~ BoxScoreAndPlaybyPlay - From nba.com
Best Game Pre-Cap / Recap We're going to hand out some posting awards in the New Year as voted by the membership. As this Christmas Day game is nationally televised, most everyone should be able to watch it providing the family obligations are met. ;) Here is the scoop. Write your best pre-game analysis or post game wrap up. No plagiarising, and linking images will be worth ZERO points. You need to provide TEXT to be considered. Offer stats, humour, insight but offer YOUR TAKE. Make it original and you might end up on the receiving end of some Pistons or forum schwag. Please don't post or PM questions. Give us your best work (meeting the above two conditions) and you will be eligible.
Gotta bring our A game for this one. I have a feeling Lindsey's presence will be missed against Tony Parker. His dribble penetration is going to be brutal.
Billups should make him play both ends. Billups should post parker at the offensive end and probably draw some fouls on him.
The Pistons will win this one because (1) It's a home game (2) Come on, you know this is the game they've been waiting for since last year (It won't be nearly enough vindication to compensate for the playoff loss but they need to know they can beat these guys). San Antonio will be pumped but not nearly as much as Detroit (because they won). (3) Ginobli is out (4) The Pistons are damned good (well, at least 5 of them are). (5) I'll be watching the game on TV, but the Darth curse only works against us when I watch it live in a visiting city. (I do have to admit I loved the Jazz colors and even ALLOWED the kids to get some overpriced Jazz souvenirs...ok...get over it already, Darth). I can't see Detroit losing this one. That's not a knock on the Spurs, but I'd be very surprised to see them beat us tomorrow.
Articles Here are a couple of articles on the game http://sanantoniolightning.com/spurs1now.html http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/5191234?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=73
No question that home court advantage will be a major factor. The Pistons have been playing very well this year, but even so, they will need the extra boost from the crowd if they are to get an assured victory. Rasheed and Ben will need to play great defense and stop the penetration by the Spurs. If we can keep them from driving to the hole like they did in the 2005 Finals, we'll be alright.
the spurs had trouble with the lakers because of their offense. the pistons now with flip play both O, and D.
Piston offense vs. Spur Defense That is the test. We need to use Sheed both down low and out on the arc. Make Duncan uncomfortable--he doesn't want to come out. Drive on Parker and post Horry over and over again. Take the quick look to keep them honest and then pass, pass, and pass as their defense does not want to go late into the clock as they become vulnerable. Forget the baseline drive--they want you to and are ready to collapse/trap. Use Tay from the top but let Tay shoot the bomber to open up the SA defense. Screen off Bowen as other teams are doing. Remember, they could count on us last year to not take the open look, to use Tay driving the baseline and to use Rip and Chauncey in one on one situations. We gave them what they wanted. If we make them really play defense, they will break down.
First, if Sheed leaves Horry open on the arc we'll have to question his intellegence.... Ben is a better matchup on Horry (and Sheed on TD) I think Tayshaun has a lot of proving to do after the champ series... he should be motivated... I really believe his ankle was bothering his mobility in that series. I hope Chauncey & Rip have it worked out if Bowen picks up on C.B.... Rip has to make them adjust to Parker gaurding him. S.A. has trouble with up tempo teams... we need to look for some breakouts instead of always playing the half court game. I would start the game with a hard foul on Parker...just for fun :^) If Finley is starting... the Pistons will exploit his age with Rip... we can crash the boards on these guys. As Jzchen mentioned Chauncey must make Parker pay down low. Yep Max, Christmas is on hold for this one.
Flipper's Pistons vs Tones I expect this to be a bit of a more up tempo game. Also the players might run more today thinking that by running the game will end faster and they will get to their Christmas dinner's faster. LOL By the way I heard rumors that there is another basketball game on the tube today. Though I can'd confirm if its a pro game or amatuer game. Happy Holly Days to everyone.
What is the cut-off time for submittal? It will be late tonight for me Very late, around midnight before I can watch the game and write a report on it.
@lee - There was no time limit indicated. We'll say 2 days... Game Chat is open for anyone interested. http://www.pistonsforum.com/news/853-pistonsforum-com-game-chat-debut.html
Game This is it folkes. One hour to the biggest game of the season. Time to see what our team is made of. With Ginobili out Parker will have to make up his offense and he will have to do it against the best defensive point in the league C.Billups. You know they will switch Bowen over on Rip since that worked so well in the Finals and with Rip's sore back he may have trouble. So to me the keys are for Billups to stay on the floor as much as possible to neutralize PArker and take advantage of Parkers smaller size offensivly, Tay to step up offensivly against Finley and Sheed to keep Duncan busy. Above all keep Netrovic, Mahomed, Marks and everyone else off the offensive glass. Spurs do not have anyone averaging over 2 offensive boards a game so lets keep it that way and limit their 2nd chance scoring opportunities. If there is one achillies heal thats it and we can lose this game by simply giving up more shot opportunities. With that said I believe the team will step up with Ben Wallace leading the way having a huge game defensivly and on the boards. Pistons 94 Spurs 88
Whether its Rip or CB, we have to take advantage of Parker's height and size offensively. Sheed, stay out of foul trouble. Tay and Ben, do what you always do. Has anyone wonder, has any of our opponent's big 3 (SF, PF and Center) foul out playing against us???
Parker Place It is okay if we talk about the Smush Parker? Actually on that note I think I will start a new thread. Smush or Tony Which Parker would you choose?
lol bill walton ... the score is 6-4 and he goes 'tony parker is outscoring the entire pistons team' ... just wow.
