It didn’t matter however, the Pacers scored the next 8 points and won 102-106.

Key Points:

• I don’t care what you say there is some kind of issue going on with Rip Hamilton.  When I guy like Rip does his best “Kobe” impression by not looking for his shot and scoring ZERO points, something is up.  Rip was 0-for-3 in 18 minutes on the floor with 1 assist, 1 steal and 3 turnovers.  When he was resigned to the bench….he either looked pissed off, or he was sulking.  Let’s keep our eyes on this situation.
• Detroit had 7 turnover in the first quarter, but clamped down and finished the game with 13.
• Limited minutes for Ben Wallace who looked good in his 24 minutes.  Ben scored just one point, grabbed 7 boards, with 3 steals and an assist.  How we did miss the man.
• Ben Gordon scores 17 on 4-13 shooting with 7 boards, 6 assists and 2 blocked shots.  Great game for Ben, but when it counted late in the fourth quarter he couldn’t knock down the shot.
• Sometimes I think Gordon is still getting his check from the Bulls, not the Pistons.
• If this wasn’t a statement from Rodney Stuckey than I don’t know what is.  Rodney was on fire as soon as he checked into the game.  Not only was it good to see him play, he didn’t look apprehensive about anything considering the circumstances.  Stuckey scored 25 in 26 minutes for the Pistons with 3 assists, 3 steals and a turnover playing most all of his minutes at the 2 guard position.   Stucktacular!

Photo/Getty Images

I feel all right,” Stuckey said of his 26 minutes. “The plan wasn’t to play all those minutes, but it was just in the heat of the game. I feel fine, and my wind felt fine. Via The Detroit Free Press

• Detroit shot a shocking 50% from behind the long line.  Only bad thing about that was Indiana shot 53%.
• Jerebko with 10 points, 6 boards and 3 steals.  You can count on him each game with numbers like that or better.
• Best thing I can say about Charlie Villanueva is that he’s been a disappointment this season.
• Nine points for Will, with 4 assist in 21 minutes.
• What a miserable 3 quarters for Detroit, I was almost happy FSN didn’t broadcast this game in HD.  Who wants to see all that blood?
• We just bettered ourselves in the Lottery standings!  The Pistons are tied with the Pacers for the fifth-worst record in the league.
• Give DaJuan Summers some minutes!  Summers scores 12 points in 17 minutes on 4-7 shooting with 4 boards and a blocked shot.  Just check out his highlights.

Video Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and the NBA

• Cavs again Sunday.

The 23-45 Pistons are in Indiana to take on the 22-46 Pacers tonight. Like it or not, this is a battle for Draft Lottery placement. You always root for your team to win, but in this case it wouldn’t be so bad if they did lose with the Pacers, who are little ahead of Detroit in ping pong ball status.

The biggest news is not the game, but who will be playing in it. Rodney Stuckey and Ben Wallace are Good to Go.

Some words from Stuckey, Kuester and Rip before today’s practice. Via Pistons.com

The Scouting Report via Pistons.com

Tip is at 7:00 pm EST and will be broadcast on FS Detroit with the radio broadcast over at 97.1 The Ticket or follow the action online over at NBA.com.

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The 23-43 Pistons are in Boston tonight to take on Rasheed Wallace and the 41-24 Celtics. I realize the Pistons aren’t the team they used to be, but this particular opening sentence to the NBA.com preview of the game sort of made me mad.

“It was a rough week for the Boston Celtics. A visit from the lowly Detroit Pistons to open a brief home stretch could help them get back on track.” Via NBA.com

Lowly….really? We aren’t New Jersey just yet.

Ben Wallace is still listed as day to day and as we know Rodney has no timetable on his return.

The Scouting Report via Pistons.com

Tip is at 8:00 pm EST and will be broadcast on ESPN with the radio broadcast over at 950 AM WWJ or follow the action online over at NBA.com.

UPDATE

We had to Cancel Celtics Late Night Show tonight.  Sorry I won’t be able to take your calls after the game but I am sure we’ll do it again soon.

NEED4SHEED GAME CHAT

Key Points

Disclaimer – This will be a Bynum filled recap.

• Things just started good in this one, Will had a handful of assists in what it seemed like a few minutes and Rip was on fire.
• Regardless of the fact the Washington is not a great team, this team looked great and Will just dominated.
• One of those pretty Rip to Tayshuan alley oops that reminded me of the good old days.  You can thank Maxi for it too!

Video Courtesy of the NBA and the Detroit Pistons

• Speaking of Maxiell, he seems to be back! A double-double with 10 boards, 12 points, a steal and 2 blocks.
  Haven’t had that much fun at the Palace in quite a long time, thank you Will.
• Tay and Rip both finished the game with 18 points.
• I’m amazed every game with the amount of fans gained by Jonas Jerebko.  18 points for the Swede with 3 steal, 8 boards and a heck of a lot of swagger when Singleton got in his face.  That’s the kind of technical foul I like.  Jonas = he anti Sheed.
• Will just looked like he had eyes in the back of his head and made a point of getting the ball to his teammates in any manner that he good.  The career high 20 assists where the most from a Detroit Piston since Isiah Thomas on April 12th 1985.
• “That means a lot to me,” said Bynum, a Chicago native like Thomas. “I grew up watching Isiah play, and to do something that he did is huge.” Via The Detroit Free Press

Photo/Getty Images

• Will’s Bynumite Highlight Reel.

Video Courtesy of the NBA and the Detroit Pistons

• Can’t tell you how excited the crowd was, we knew something special was going to happen as soon as he hit his previous mark of 14.  The crowd went nuts after each one…I almost lost track.
• Even the few points Bynum did score were pretty.
• When will was at 18 the bench never sat down and when he kept feeding DaJuan Summers and he was missing it we all could feel the pain.
• I really didn’t think he was going to pull off 20, but Ben Gordon finally made Pistons fans smile when he knocked down the last shot.  Here is the last play of the game, Will’s 20th assist.

Video Courtesy of the NBA and the Detroit Pistons

• Love how Maxiell handed him the game ball.
• Will Bynum post game interview.

Video Courtesy of the NBA and the Detroit Pistons

• At the end of the first quarter, I thought I had a chance to get Kevin Porter’s (team) record of 25, but I don’t think the coach and I had the same mindset,” Via The Detroit Free
• A meaningless game just turned into something special for Will and a whole lot of Pistons fans. Something tells me if you leave Will a message in the comments, he might just see it.

The 22-42 Pistons are at home to take on the 21-41 Washington Wizards at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Simply put, this is a battle for lottery position.  The Wizards will attempt to break a five game losing streak to the Pistons and earn their first win at the Palace since Jan. 26, 2007.

Will Bynum will start again in place of Rodney Stuckey and Ben Wallace is till listed as day to day.  Chris Wilcox is also unavailable for Detroit with a bad back.

The Scouting Report via Pistons.com

Tip is at 8:00 pm EST and will be televised on FS Detroit. For the radio broadcast tune in to 97.1 the Ticket or follow the action over at NBA.com.

NEED4SHEED GAME CHAT

Key Points:

• Another game without Ben Wallace and another game that shows just how much the man anchored the entire defense.  Besides the Swede, we look as soft at the Pilsbury dough-boy.
• Nice to see Stuckey on the bench in street clothes.  He’s missed dearly, just hope he really is ok.
• The Pistons second unit is NOT getting it done.
• The Utah streak against the Pistons now stands at 10 in a row.
• At one point during a run, the Jazz were shooting close to 70%, while they held the Pistons to 31%.
• Yes, it really was that bad Jonas.

Photo/Getty Images

• Never noticed this lineup, which Kuester showed in the third. Tay, Daye, Ben Gordon, Charlie V and Jonas.
• It just has to be in Ben Gordon’s head at this point. He can’t hit a shot for anything. Ben shot 4-for-11 for 11 points…it will come.
• Utah is a very good team.
• Charlie Villanueva led Detroit with 19 points on 8-for-18 shooting in 26 minutes on the floor. I know he played ok, but it’s like a Sheed deja-vu ——POST UP CV!
• Detroit allowed the Jazz a 56% shooting night and seemed to contest absolutely noting in the paint.
• At this point, more A Daye and DaJuan please.
• Another start for Will Bynum who wasn’t hitting much either. Will went 4-for-10 and took some ill advised shots. He was clearly outmatched against Deron and he wracked up just 2 assists.
• Double-double for Jason Maxiell with 11 boards and 10 points. He’s doing what he can to pick up the slack for Wallace.
• Looked like the Pistons were all playing one on one basketball until they got into trouble and either jacked up a bad shot or passed it away when getting trapped. No semblance of any types of plays or organization offensively or defensively.
• Jonas Jerebko 13 points, 5 boards and three steals. I’ll not even going out on a limb when I say he’s currently the fan favorite at the Palace and it really shows.
• Best part of the game, The Need4Sweed putback jam.

Video Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and The NBA

• Oh and BTW, did anyone notice the Need For Sweed custom jersey in the crowd!

The 21-41 Pistons are at home to take on the 30-30 Houston Rockets Sunday evening at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

What’s most important is the health of Rodney Stuckey, who returned to Detroit and undoubtedly will receive more test to make sure he’s completely healthy before he takes the court again.

The Scouting Report via Pistons.com

Ben Wallace is still listed as Day to Day.

Tip is at 6:00 pm EST and will be televised on FS Detroit. For the radio broadcast tune in to 104.3 WOMC or follow the action over at NBA.com.

NEED4SHEED GAME CHAT

The 21-40 Pistons are in Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers tonight. Good news for Pistons fans not in the local area…finally a nationally televised game for you. Bad news, it’s the Cavs.

This is what it has come to, this is an outtake for NBA.com’s preview of this game.

Another inferior opponent awaits the Eastern Conference’s top team, but this club won’t be in the bidding for the reigning league MVP.

Detroit used the money it freed up in last season’s franchise-altering, Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson deal to sign Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, who are now relegated to reserve roles. It could now take a couple of seasons for the Pistons to again be competitive.
Detroit allowed a season-high for points as its losing streak continued with a 128-104 loss to the Knicks on Wednesday.

Another defensive effort like that could spell trouble for Detroit as the Cavs are averaging 114.8 points on 52.3 percent shooting during their winning streak.

The Scouting Report via Pistons.com

Ben Wallace is still listed as Day to Day.

Tip is at 7:00 pm EST and will be televised on ESPN. For the radio broadcast tune in to 950 AM or follow the action over at NBA.com.

NEED4SHEED GAME CHAT

When I was asked to do another guest post at Need4Sheed, I jumped at the opportunity. When I was asked to pick a game, I naturally chose the Knicks game because they can’t possibly beat the Pistons right? No? So for guest post #2 of my N4S career, I am stuck writing a recap of the worst loss of the season. Earlier, if you’ll remember, I wrote about the Pistons disastrous loss to the Indiana Pacers on the 22nd of January. So, whether you want to remember or not, here we go:

Final Score Pistons 104 Knicks 128

• Jonas Jerebko is above and beyond the player of the night: 15 points (4-9 fg, 2-2 3pt, 5-7 FT) with 13 rebounds (4 offensive) in 34 minutes.
• Only Austin Daye had a positive plus/minus (+6) for the Pistons, everyone else was a negative (Richard Hamilton was a team worst, -22).
• With the Pistons down 20+ with a little over 2 minutes to go DaJuan Summers, Chucky Atkins and Kwame Brown got some burn. I guess being down by as much as 27 at one point doesn’t mean that perhaps another group could provide a spark huh Coach Q?
• Actually since you’ve been reading this, the score is now 134-104 as Al Harrington has hit 2 more 3 pointers.
• At least the Maxiell did what he could in place of Ben Wallace.

Photo/Getty Images

• I remember when I played basketball, they taught me to put my hands up on opponent’s shot attempts. The Knicks shot 55% from the field, 52% from 3. The Knicks made 6 more shots than the Pistons on 4 less shots. Where’s the D?
• Newly acquired Bill Walker scored a career high 22 points on 9-13 shooting. So tell me Rip, Tayshaun, Daye, and whoever else guarded 2nd year SG/SF Bill Walker who couldn’t see any time in Boston… how does Bill Walker absolutely embarrass you like that?  This dunk didn’t help.

Video Courtesy of The NBA

• Tracy McGrady with a near triple-double (21 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists). The man is playing on one leg.
• The New York Knicks did not start a point guard.
• The only players on the Knicks that shot under 50% on the night were Sergio Rodriguez and Toney Douglas.
• 4 Knicks scored 20 or more. 0 Pistons scored 20 or more.
• Poor ball movement – 19 assists on 41 field goals made for Detroit.
• Remember New York didn’t start a point guard? They had 33 assists on 47 field goals made.
• Ben Wallace out after injuring his knee against the Celtics. Jason Maxiell started in his place and played 30 minutes, scoring 10 points and securing 8 rebounds.
• Awful game. Just awful.

Photo/Getty Images

• Why is Tayshaun Prince playing 33 minutes in a 20+ point blowout loss and Austin Daye only playing 10 minutes?
• Why is this team as bad as they are? They have 7 road wins. 7. They’ve played 30 road games.
• Al Harrington usually does not play well against us (12.2 ppg career) but he exploded for 26 points on 10-17 shooting with 8 rebounds.
• Thanks again to Natalie for allowing me to write this re-cap. Nothing positive came from watching this game, writing this re-cap or thinking this team has a chance against cellar dweller teams anymore. The Detroit Pistons are a bad team right now.
• The High-Low lights

Video Courtesy of The NBA and The Detroit Pistons

The 21-39 Pistons are on a second game of a back to back to face the 20-39 Knicks. We know the Pistons are struggling, but did you know that the Knicks have lost 10 of their last 11 games and allowed an average of 111.6 points over their last 18.

Here is a Pistons fun fact for you:
The Pistons are ranked 29th in the league in scoring, averaging 92.6 points. Only league-worst New Jersey has a lower average (90.2).

The Scouting Report via Pistons.com

Tip is at 7:30 pm EST and will be televised on Fox Sports Detroit. For the radio broadcast tune in to 950 AM  or  follow the action over at NBA.com.

NEED4SHEED GAME CHAT