When 6 foot 11 Austin Daye isn’t working on his game, he’s working on his other game.

Bowling

FSN ran an entertaining segment of Austin and FSN Reporter Justin White going at it at the lanes (not in the lane). I won’t spoil the ending.

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Kelly Bennett of Chicago Illinois, who snagged the Need4Swede T-Shirt.
More contests to come, so stay tooned.

Pistons fans can thank The New Jersey Nets for putting some smiles on our faces. After a miserable night in Indiana on Friday, the Pistons bounced back with an impressive 92-99 win Saturday night.

Key Points:

• A whopping 52% from the floor for the Pistons.
• Rodney Stuckey with a double-double. A tale of two days for Stuckey who went from zero assists Friday night to 11 on Saturday. He may have went 4-for-13 on the night for 10 points, but when you help you’re teammates get buckets that is good enough.
• Really, how do you let Kris Humphries put up 21 on you? The Pistons always have the habit of letting role players look like all-starts against them.
• One of the best crowds at the Palace all season long.
• Charlie Villanueva 4-for-4 from downtown for 12 points, with 2 boards and 2 blocked shots in 16 minutes.
• SWEDETASTIC night for Jonas who was a perfect 9-for-9 on the night with 7 boards.  Jonas led the Pistons with 20 points  in just 24 minutes.  Jonas didn’t even play a minute of the fourth quarter thanks to the solid play of Jason Maxiell.  Personally I thought Jonas should have been in the game in the closing minute over Prince with the game he was having.

Photo/Getty Images

• Ben Wallace with 4 block on the night and it should have been 5 if you count the block on Lopez that was called a foul.  It looked clean to me and Ben was so sure it was good he got a technical foul for it.  Huge night for Ben who really drove this team with 10 boards, 9 points and a steal.
• 29 Detroit Pistons assists on the night…huge.
• DNP for Austin Daye.
• The collision between Harris and Hayes looked horrible in person.  I hope both are ok, it felt like it took them forever to move.
• “Maxiell had it going at the end,” Pistons head coach John Kuester said. “We sort of rode him and that’s why we didn’t put Jonas back into the game. He had two key rebounds and a dunk.” Via NBA.com
• Let me tell you that this Maxiell Dunk shook the ground and the crowd at the Palace.

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Video Courtesy of NBA.com and the Detroit Pistons

• Jason has really started to pick his game up the last month.  Maxiell finished with 13 points a blocked shot and 6 boards in 24 minutes.

Photo/Getty Imaes

• New Jersey scored just two points in the final 2 minutes.
• Jonas Jerebko just gained a whole lot more fans last night.
• The Pistons biggest lead was 12, the Nets 2.
• Rip scored 17 on 5-for-14 shooting with 5 assists. Rip tried to connect with Tay again on an all oop that almost had the crown on their feet.
  Just 4 points for Tay.
• Ben Gordon 5 points on 1-for-5 shooting. From hot to not.
• Another great performance from Will Bynum who returned a few games ago after his ankle injuries. Bynum scored 9 with 4 assists in 19 minutes.

Highlights Via NBA.com
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Video Courtesy of NBA.com and the Detroit Pistons

• Loved the guy I saw with a red t-shirt on that he took a permanent magic marker to that said “Devin Harris Loves (it was a heart) Snookie” !
• Yes it was the Nets, but at least they played defense, were hitting their shots and put forth a lot of effort. Talent aside, win or lose it’s the effort that fans want to see. Thanks for making my drive home from the Palace bearable. Wait, do I thank the Pistons or the Nets?

Just got back from the Pistons 92-99 win against the Nets and I just had to put up the Swedetastic highlights.

Yes, we had a perfect Swede Saturday night – Jonas Jerebko 9-for-9 with 7 boards for 20 points.
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Video Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and the NBA

And I witnessed Ben Wallace’s 2002nd, 2003rd, 2004th and his 2005th blocks.

The 16-32 Detroit Pistons are back home at the Palace to host the New Jersey Nets. The Nets would like to exact some revenge and The Pistons need to at least try to give some effort and play up to their potential. Yes that was a shot, but do you blame me? Did you see how they lost to Indiana their last two meetings?

Injury Report:
Charlie Villanueva didn’t play last night with back spasms, I am assuming he’s a game time decision though nothing official has been said.

The Scouting Report via Pistons.com
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Tip is at 7:30 pm EST and will be televised on Fox Sports Detroit. For the radio broadcast tune in to 104.03 WOMC or follow the action over at NBA.com.

On a personal note, I really hope the Pistons come to play tonight, it’s getting really difficult to watch them…especially in person. I will forever love this team, but it’s depressing leaving the Palace feeling like an even bigger loser than when I walked in the doors.

NEED4SHEED GAME CHAT

A horrible performance by the Pistons in Indiana led to Detroit being pummeled by Indiana 83-107.

• It was so bad I don’t really care that Ben Gordon, who scored 26,  may have gotten his shot back. Most of those points came in the  second half when the Pistons seemed to have waived the white flag and 13 of them came in 4th quarter garbage time.
• Not even the Jonas Jerebko Jam can put a smile on my face.

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• Can’t really win when your starting guards don’t have an assist on the night and you only have 10 as a team.
• If you watch this mess you know…it’s not worth picking out the good when there was so much bad.
• We got spanked by Indiana…deal with it.

The 16-31 Pistons are actually in place to start a winning streak with a win tonight in Indiana against the 17-32 Pacers.

Each team has posted just three winning streaks all season – the longest being five games – and the only one each has had since Dec. 12 was a three-game run in mid-January. They’re in a virtual tie for 12th place in the Eastern Conference. Via NBA.com

Injury Report:
Rip Hamilton, who is feeling under the weather, did participate in today’s shoot-around and is a game time decision.

The Scouting Report via Pistons.com
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Tip is at 7:00 pm EST and will be televised on Fox Sports Detroit. For the radio broadcast tune in to 97.1 The Ticket or follow the action over at NBA.com.

NEED4SHEED GAME CHAT

In honor of Jonas Jerebko’s participation in All Star Weekend, I’m giving away one the most Swedetastic thing ever.

I’ll be picking a winner at random for the Need4Swede T-Shirt on Monday the 8th, so everyone has a chance to get in on this.

You can enter one of two ways:

Email me at need4sheed@gmail.com
Subject Line: Need4Swede
with your Name and  Address

or

Follow me on Twitter and Tweet this Message:

I have the need, the Need4Swede #Swedetastic @Need4sheed_com

That’s it!  Good luck, I’ll announce the winner on Monday.

Barely…97-94

It looked as if the worst team in the league was about to hand the Pistons their 6th loss in a row, until the Pistons went on a fourth quarter run and then this happened…

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Video Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and The NBA

Key Points:

• Kuester said in the press conference that play was one of three options. Nice to see that it worked. As soon as they got that Dunk down, I knew it was over.
• Huge night for Rodney Stuckey with 21 points, 9 assists, 4 boards and 2 steals with zero turnovers. Stuck make it a point to really go at Devon Harris with his strength.
• Thankfully they won this one, considering I GuaranSweded it.
• 16 Straight missed games for Will Bynum who immediately started making plays as soon as he hit the floor. Will made his first 5 shots and finished with 10 points off the bench. I knew as soon as they got Will back, he’d be an immediate spark. BYUMITE! Plus I loved the new Blue kicks.
• Rip with the alley oops are becoming a regular occurrence, this one to Maxiell was quite impressive.  Remember when he used to connect with Tayshaun at least once a game?  The good old days.

Video Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and The NBA

• Watch the full video clip of the oop from Rip to Maxiell.

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Video Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and The NBA

• Maxiell is really starting to pick things up, just when most of us were about to give up on him.  Jason with a 27 minute spark added 7 points off the bench for Detroit with 6 boards.
• 11 in the fourth for Richard Hamilton, who was particularly clutch in this one. Rip led the Pistons with 22 points, 7 assist and 5 boards. He was coming off screens well and when he gets his teammates involved good things happen.
• Need4Swede started the game hot for Detroit, but played just 15 total minutes on the night with6 points, 2 assists and 4 boards. Hustle night in and night out.
• Very impressed with Brook Lopez.
• Board war won lost 39-40.
• No Daye or Wilcox.  Atkins and Summers inactive.
• Tayshaun showed signs of life.  Prince put up 15 points with 8 boards and 2 assists.
• 46% shooting on the night for Detroit.
• Pistons biggest lead was 6 and the Nets was 7.
• Win or lose, give it up for Ben Wallace who recorded his 2000th career block.  A feat that
• Defense – 10 steals on the night for Detroit.
• Ben Gordon a quiet 7 points in 14 minutes on the floor.  He’s clearly not his self yet.
• This one really could have gone either way, but for a while it looked like it was going to go to New Jersey.  There were 15 lead changes in this one. The fact that Lopez manhandled Detroit just show how bad we need another Big.
• 24 assists on the night for Detroit, that’s always a good sign.
• Charlie V with zero points in 8 minutes.  I don’t know if it was back spasms or Jason Maxiell’s play that kept him off the floor.
• This one really could have gone either way, but for a while it looked like it was going to go to New Jersey.  The fact that Lopez manhandled Detroit just show how bad we need another Big.
• Win or lose, you have bow to Ben Wallace who recorded his 2000th career block. Ben become the first player in league history shorter than 6-10 to reach 2,000.

Photo/Getty Images

• You can’t say that they are out of their season woes, but healthy and games with the Pacers and the Nets again this week could really start something good.

The 15-31 Pistons will look to snap their 5 game losing streak tonight in New Jersey.  Detroit playthe Nets, who currently have the worst record in the league at 4-42.

Will Bynum is back for Detroit and Charlie Villanueva is likely to play.  The Pistons at full strength against the leagues worst could just turn things around for Detroit.

The Scouting Report via Pistons.com
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Tip is at 7:30 pm EST and will be televised on Fox Sports Detroit. For the radio broadcast tune in to 104.03 WOMC  or follow the action over at NBA.com.

NEED4SHEED GAME CHAT

Will Bynum is ready to return and Charlie Villanueva should be good to go tonight. With the team a full strength for the first time in ages and the fact the Pistons are play the Nets, I GuaranSWEDE a victory.

Now I’m not quite steady yet with my new Pistons themed Flip Video, but I did catch Jonas Jerebko doing some creative dribbling.

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