I must admit that last nights game against the Jazz was not that exiting to be at. So for all of you who are upset the game wasn’t televised, you didn’t miss much. Once again Utah seems to know how to beat the Pistons. When was the last time we actually beat them (FEB 13 2005)?
Key Points:
- The Pistons got massacred on the boards 38-55.
- “Our two bigs are great jump shooters, but that means the rest of us have to help them out in the boards,” Billups said. “We didn’t do that tonight.”
- Cheikh Samb logged 18 minutes because the Pistons big men Johnson and Mohammed are both out with injures. Samb looked comfortable out on the floor going 3-for-5 for 6 points with a blocked shot and 5 boards. He eventually fouled out of the game, not what you want to see when your only out there for less than 20 minutes.
- The game has absolutely no flow, the refs called this one tight. 59 total fouls in the game.
- Jarvis Hayes led the Pistons in minutes (31) as well as points with 16 he also grabbed 4 boards. I really like what I have seen so far from Hayes. He should be a solid backup for T-Prince.
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- Rodney Stuckey had somewhat of a hard night, He was 3-for-10 with 11 points and had 4 turnovers. You have to remember he’s learning so we have to look at the good things. He had 2 steals a blocked shot and 7 assists in 29 minutes. He was also in foul trouble and ended the game with 5.
- “We played some of our reserves a lot of minutes, and those guys were really out of gas at the end,” Saunders said after his team was outscored 66-39 in the second half. “It was tough for them.”
- I was a bit surprised that I didn’t see much of Afflalo who only played 7 minutes.
- Sammy Mejia had a chance on the floor played 12 minutes with a rebound an assist and a turnover on 0-for-1 shooting. Apparently he sprained his ankle a week before training camp so they are being careful with him.
- Cheikh Samb looks thinner in person.
- Rebounding is going to be a real issue this season.
- “One player must be trimmed before the regular season, and Mejia and small forward Ronald Dupree are on the bubble.” Via The Detroit Free Press
- Let’s hope that Sheed is getting his technical fouls out of the way. He did put 12 points with 3 blocked shots and 3 rebounds before he got tossed.
Photo/Getty Images
- Speaking of Sheed, I saw him the other day at the mall and just like the last time my boy Mike D saw him, he was wearing his tattered Portland Trailblazers sweatpants. Gotta love that guy.
- Sunday’s game against The Nuggets is at the Palace and broadcast on FSN Plus at 6:00 PM.
I listened to this game on the radio Man that’s a lot of fouls, but still one team has to win and it seems a lot like the Pistons are the ones to always lose these physical games the last couple of years San Antonio, Utah, Cleveland etc(am I wrong?)My concern is that very subtly we’ve shifted from a hard nosed defensive team to a finesse team, but we’ve kept the hard nosed play swagger, which causes confusion on the floor. Must be hard going from a defensive team who won a championship and game 7 the year after to an offensive team that gets kicked out in the POs in the ECFs twice relatively easily.
I’m also a little concerned about the big man situation, when I heard about the rotation my concern was, our three big reserves are all foul prone (plus Cheik Samb)
I really like what I’m seeing from/hearing about Arron Afflalo. They weren’t kidding when they said he plays hard, I really want to see more of him on the floor during the season.
PS I’m not worried about Sheed’s techs I like that he’s passionate in the preseason, but also they don’t seem like the out of control techs he mostly gets, they were more playful, or they were warnings for the rest of the season by the refs which I think they will ease up on during the season.
Pistons + hard work = Championship
BTW yes I do get that it’s just the preseason just making a couple observations on my favorite team
Preseason or not i dont like the new trend that seems to occur quite frequently…..us evaporating double digit leads…
^ id have to agree.
& Natalie, what mall did you see Sheed at? that’s awesome.
^^ Hey cut the Pistons some slack a 6’7 center (maxiell) and a 6’6 swingman (Dupree) as our frontcourt? It’s hard to mantain the lead with a lineup like that but I do agree I thought the complacency disease that ails the pistons was over guess we won’t know until the ECF’s come round
fantasy basketball??? I hope we are doing it
So Natalie,Sheed got ejected this game too?
Yes he was ejected automatically for 2 techs.
And I saw Sheed at Somerset Mall.