Detroit Pistons vs Philadelphia 76ers Saturday January 9 7:30 pm Local TV: FS Detroit Nat'l TV: Radio: 950 WWJ
Live game has been forecasted , thanks to AI. Ain't no disrespect, you know, sport channels over here don't have Pistons on their radar.
Detroit is at home...gets a couple of days off...and plays Philly after they play the day before against Toronto. We're also ahead of them record wise. All the signs point for a win.......
Another game, the Pistons just played on Wednesday!!! This has got to be the 5th game they've played in the last 30 days. Despite the appearance of these athletes, they're not super heroes. They get tired too. This inhumane schedule is an obvious attempt by the league and David Stern to derail Rodney Stuckey's Rookie of the Year bid and let one of the darlings from the larger markets, Tyreke Evans or Brandon Jennings, win.
No Iverson tonight, apparently. That takes a lot of the fun out of this game (for me, anyway). I wanted to see the guy get showered with boos. But alas... convenient time for him to suddenly be "nursing an injury".
Allen Iverson out for tonight's game The Oakland Press Blogs: Pistons' Point: Iverson out for Saturday
Iverson just had a very nice game last game too. Very efficient with a nice balance between scoring and passing. We really need a win and it's probably good for us that he's out. AI could have really used a win against us too.
I think the Sixers are better off without him, especially in this game, where he cannot hide defensively against our big backcourt.
I won't be in chat tonight because I'm going to to Denver/Sacramento game. They had a sweet 2 tickets for one in the lower bowl I couldn't resist especially because I have kind of a basketball crush on Nene. LOL. I just read in this thread that AI is out. I hope it's not a new injury. Anyway, mostly I hope the Pistons get a win tonight. GO PISTONS!
Haven't really been around in the last month and a half, and I apologize. We are nowhere right now. I feel terrible for the guys who do care enough to give it their all, despite them not being competent NBA rotation players. However it's evident that too many of our pieces have mailed it in for us to be truly competitive. Joe went against waiting to make a splash and signed our small shooting guard and a fringe starter. It's kind of depressing. Really depressing that only our hardcore fans are attending the games, considering that we're lucky to fill almost half of the Palace on any given night. Would anybody take on Rip or Tayshaun? It's quite clear that they are dead weight in Detroit. At what point do the Pistons get serious about cutting financial losses? We've committed a large amount of CV and BG as well, but should it not be out of the equation that even they aren't safe here? This truly feels like the Tigers of 2003. And FTR, I haven't really let any of this bother me. Although I did expect at the least an entertaining squad to watch grow up.
The streaking continues as a team with a worst record that the Pistons literally run them out of their own gym. The Sixers had a 29 pt lead near the beginning of the third quarter, but the Piston managed to score 64 pts in the second half and lose by 10 104-94. The closest the Piston got in the 4th was 7 pts. the Pistons scored more pts in the 4th qtr than they did in the first half....as it was pretty much brick city for the Pistons while the AI-less Sixers scored at will. No Stuckey or Tay in the second half, but plenty Elton Brand who had an all-star performance with 25 pts, including 18 in the second half to keep the Pistons at bay. Nice game by Daye who helped us get back in the game..in the 3rd and 4th qtr with 12 pts 7 boards, 3 dimes and a block. JJ once again led the team in shots getting blocked with 3...... Forgot to mention that Rip was at one point in the second half 0-10, but finished 6-22 for 12 pts.... wonder if we can trade him now and who would want him?? Are there any d-leaguers or 10 day contract guys we can sign that run the point or provide some beef up front?? Otherwise we will have the # 2 pick sewn up in about 10 more days....
12 straigt losses. However, Kuester actually coached a bit better in the 2nd half. Forced to change things up due to Stuckey and Tay not being available in the 2nd half, he started Gordon at point, Rip, JJ at small forward, CV, and Ben. And when JJ went out with some foul trouble, he brought on Daye to play small forward. We took a 29 point deficit and cut it down to 8, but fell short. Gee, it takes injuries to force Kuester to use small forwards at small forward. Getting players back healthy just means he reverts back to small ball. Daye got 10 points in a hurry when he came on. A pair of triples. Good defense. There is no excuse at all for Daye not playing. Rip had that one good game shooting, but by no means does he have his shot back. We started an injured Stuckey (knee injury), an injured Tay (knee injury. CV is still not really healthy, but he is improving. For them, Brand had a great game shooting - even when defended well. Bad news, Gordon got injured toward the end of the game. Don't know how bad yet. In review, we started two injured guys, and one who is still all rust in Rip. And Kuester expects to win like that? JMAX and Ben played good D. For a stretch, we were pressuring Philly very well in the backcourt, causing turns, and slowly getting back into the game. It does not have to be like this. We could have dressed Summers, and had Summers, Daye, and JJ, all healthy talented players featured heavily in the first half. And we could have started Gordon at point and used maybe a bit of Stuckey, and a bit of Atkins, to spell him here and there. There was no reason, except a poor coaches decision, to feature a bunch of injured guys. Will this guy learn. Probably not. In his mind, the rooks are just fill in until the vets return. He can't imagine featuring the rooks and having the vets play fill in roles as they slowly return to health. Just can't imagine it. Here is to the hope that someone will clue this guy in that he does not have to play vets just because they are vets. Wilcox apparently has a bad back. Ben Wallace is probably not 100% himself, having suffered an ankle injury recently. Atkins was in the game for a spell as we made a comeback attempt - but no, I could not tell you a thing Atkins did right to help. He was out there bringing the ball up the floor, and thats about it. Gordon played point most of the 2nd half, and looked fine doing it. And this time, he actually played as the point. (vs. last game where Tay was actually running the point, and Rip some, when Gordon was the only point on the floor.) Again, good 2nd half, good coaching, for the half. Does this mean Kuester has learned anything. Sorry, I doubt it. Unless he follows up this half with some common sense going forward, this half will mean nothing. No word on Bynum's return. But you know, if Bynum had been healthy today Kuester would have used that to play small ball. Not to help the team any.
First of all, the guys showed a lot of heart after being down so far. Ben Wallace led the way and then everyone else joined in with some very tenacious badgering in the full court press for 36 minutes. We were just too far down after an abysmal start. We could have completed the comeback at the end, but Philly hit some big 3's and burned us by breaking the press for surprisingly easy dunks. Dalembert looked 8 feet tall out there. As far as playing an injured Wilcox... is Kwame officially chopped liver at this point? Might be a good nickname for him. Maybe the lesson of this game is that we need to go more up tempo. We have a lot of energy bigs who can put pressure in a full court press situation and we have a fleet of guards who can do the dribbling when we get the ball back. It was working.
