The Pistons host the ailing 27-17 Houston Rockets this evening at The Palace.
The Rockets could be without their top three scorers, Yao left Friday night’s loss in Indiana because of a sore right knee. Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest haven’t seen action for Houston in some time.
That doesn’t mean a cakewalk for Detroit by any means. Houston has a talented team and Detroit…… nothing is guaranteed right now. Well maybe a game against the Flint Tropics is a given……maybe.
Chris McCosky of the Detroit New has a great piece on The Pistons struggles, I suggest you read the entire thing but couple of things stuck out, especially since most of us have been clearly upset with small ball and the fact that this team, this defensive minded grind it out team…..is one of the worst teams in the league defensively.
On The Rip Situation
“We will see how it goes,” Prince said. “I’ve been saying all along that with the bigger lineup we are a better defensive team and a better rebounding team, and that’s something we have always took pride in here.”
Iverson is caught in the middle. It’s not his call, obviously, but he can’t change who he is as a player, either. He can’t all of a sudden be a Billups-like point guard or a high-percentage shooter and high-efficiency scorer.
“I can’t say I necessarily like it,” Iverson said about the new lineup. “It is what it is. It’s something we have to adjust to. You are faced with a situation and you deal with it.”
The key to it all is Hamilton, and thus far, he is handling it like the team-first professional that he is
“You can be ticked off and think it’s about yourself and things like that, but I’m not about that,” he said. “I’m about winning. I’m about trying to get back to the promised land and get that feeling again with that gold ball (championship trophy). I just said to myself, ‘You’ve got to figure it out. You’ve got to go back to the drawing board and find a whole new different game plan and you can help your teammates win.’”
On Sheed
Understand this, though. No matter who starts or who comes off the bench, nothing is going to work unless Wallace gets rejuvenated and reengaged. Among all the reasons for the Pistons inconsistencies to date, Wallace’s struggles have to be near the top.
His statistics are down across the board and worse, his presence on the defensive end has been minimal. There is a chance he’s just worn down. He is 34 and has played heavy minutes, first when McDyess was gone and then when the Pistons went to the smaller lineup. On top of that, he injured his right foot and that set his conditioning back.
This could just be a lull, a slump — something he can work himself through. That’s what the organization is banking on. Curry plans to reduce his playing time over the next 20 games to facilitate some fresher legs and spirit. But if that doesn’t work, the Pistons will be facing the worst-case scenario — that his legs are gone, that Father Time has finally caught up to Wallace.
Good News/Bad News
- Will the Sunday blues continue?
- Rasheed Wallace will be playing PF and Kwame Brown is starting, which means traditional basketball, unless Mr. Curry goes back to his small thinking midway through the game.
- The Pistons have lost 3 out of 4 at the Palace.
- Houston has lost 11 of its last 12 road games against Detroit.
Tip off is at 6:30 P.M. and will be Nationally televised on ESPN. If you can’t watch the broadcast, tune into 1130 AM WDFN The Fan, with pre-game coverage starting at 5:30 P.M. with Matt Dery. Can’t do either? Follow the game on NBA.com.
UPDATE: Artest and TMac will play for Houston
January 26, 2009 at 9:38 am
too much and too long.
I look every day too. I still think a mid season firing is as good as giving up on te season, but I still look for it.
January 26, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Sheed obviously didnt look at the clock when he jacked up that 3 – we had 9 seconds – -not .9 Sheed and then as the game goes off the air he is just smiling and doesnt care
1. Dumars had no idea how deep the effects of Trading chauncey would hurt – we see it now
2.Curry is over his head on how to manage players
3. They say small ball is dead but yet we have 3 gaurds on the floor over half the time – and not that it would save us but why cant Walter get any run the guy can ball
4. I am so tired of hearing about 2010 – Lebron, Bosh, or anyone else arent coming to the Pistons – maybe we can get a package deal for Stackhouse, Hill, and Ben!!!
January 27, 2009 at 12:11 am
It’s very frustrating to watch Pistons Captain Rip Hamilton as a bencher. If Sundays game hadn’t said enough: Rip scored 27 points in 31 mintues more than any of the starters for that game. Hamilton or Iverson should ever have been consider to be a 6th man. Come-on were looking at Stuckey, and Johnson here. Stuckey has shown that he can be a star; however, he can be selfish at times.
Really what Detroit and Dumars needs to do is find a good center. Rasheed cannot play a center. He certainly wants to shoot three-pointers and post up. We need a center who will rebound and stay near the paint to help get the ball back in. Rasheed is definatly a better offense player than a defense player.
The ideal pistons team for now Should be C:Rasheed PF:Mcdyce SF:Prince SG:Hamilton PG:Iverson. now that will be a good line-up as well as a powerful bench. Hamilton and Iverson would be the lead scorers. While rasheed can throw up some points by posting up and from his three pointers. Then we would get extra points by prince while Mcdyce reounds. We would have Stuckey who will sub in for AI and Brown who will come in for Rasheed, Amir for Tay and Allfalo for Hamilton.
It seems to me that Dumars is not interested in winning the championship this year. His focus is to build back up the Pistons. First losing Ben Wallace, and now Chauncey Billups has hurted the Pistons. We have lost focus in winning at home court. We are letting teams come to Detroit and beat us on our home court. That is definatly not GOOD at all.. It’s embrassening.
I think this needs to end. I am a huge fan and it’s very SAD to watch something like this happen to a good team.
Dumar really NEEDS to fire Curry. Something needs to change quick or the Pistons are really going to DIE out soon..