The Pistons started off Wednesday night’s game in Milwaukee right where they left off Tuesday night against The Magic, flat. The Bucks had control of the game from the opening tip and Detroit again played sloppy, uninspired basketball on their way to a second consecutive loss following the All Star Break. A huge night from Chauncey Billups and a tornado of a tear from Rasheed Wallace in the fourth got them mighty close, but Detroit came up short in the 98-103 loss.
Key Points:
- If you were like most Pistons fans and couldn’t bare to watch how this one was unfolded, you missed one heck of a fourth quarter from Rasheed Wallace.
- Amir down the stretch when in counted was a surprise for this Pistons fan. Johnson was out there with the starters with the game on the line gobbling up rebounds and making a difference. It’s nice to see that Flip didn’t pull him in favor of Dyess or Maxi when he was clearly getting the job done. One of the most promising things to come out of this game in my opinion. Amir finished with 6 boards and 3 points in 15 minutes.
- Sloppy play from the opening tip.
- Not the best game for Rodney Stuckey who was 0-for-5 on the night with 1 point and 4 assists. It was his decision making that puzzled me, he would drive the lane in a crowd to get rejected (or not get a call) and then when he was on a breakaway he hesitated (thinking to dish to Hayes) and blew a perfectly good opportunity. Not worried, those things will come, but I think he needs to realize he’s probably not going to get the benefit of the whistle.
- Huge night for Chauncey Billups who had a season high 34 points. Had it not been for Chauncey’s huge third quarter (16 points) this one would have been uglier than it ended up.
Photo/Getty Images
- Questionable no call on an Amir Johnson possible dunk late in the fourth that could have really helped the Pistons.
- Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess were the only Pistons to score in the third quarter.
- I don’t know for sure, but it sounded like the Milwaukee crowd was screaming Yi when he had the ball. Similar to the SHEEEEEED chant when Rasheed has the ball.
- Rebound war lost 40-47.
- Just 13 points from the Pistons bench compared to 27 for The Bucks.
- The Bucks gave the Pistons a glimmer of hope when Williams grabbed a rebound late in the fourth and began falling out of bounds. He called a time out and then fell out of bounds, problem was The Bucks had none left which sent Billups to the line for a technical foul free trow (which he hit) to make it 101-98 with 7 seconds left.
- Sheed was breaking the hearts of every fan in Milwaukee when he went on a three point shooting spree late in the fourth quarter to give the Pistons a shot at winning this one. Sheed knocked down four straight three pointers, his fourth came with 24 seconds left in the game and got Detroit within three.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and FSN Detroit
- Sheed’s last three point attempt could have tied the game.
- Maxiell seems to be playing with all the energy he’s had this season, but just isn’t getting the results he usually does. Not a bad night from Maxi but 3 points and 2 boards isn’t what we expect from our bench spark.
- Credit where credit is due, The Bucks played a great game.
- Trade deadline today at 3.
- NBA.com Highlights of The Game.
- Antonio McDyess – Rebound Machine, 14 on the night for Dyess.
- I would be very disappointed this morning had the Pistons not put up a heck of a fight to try to win this one, because for the first three quarters it looked like they didn’t care.
- Rasheed finished with 21 and 5 boards and despite Chauncey’s game high 34 points has to be considered the player of the game.
Photo/Getty Images
- I wouldn’t mind giving Walter a shot either.
- Tayshaun finished with 13 points and Rip had 11.
- The Bucks led by as much as 21.
- Pistons bench getting workouts before games.
- “I thought Amir changed the game for us,”captain Chauncey Billups said. “His energy alone changed the game for us. He got his hands on a lot of balls, tip-outs, got rebounds, and once we got rebounds we could get to the other end fast and didn’t have to set up a play.” Via The Detroit Free Press
- I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this game, especially from those of you who didn’t turn off the TV in horror last night.
- The Pistons have a chance for revenge tomorrow at home.
amir was great. if he’d gotten that call when bogut hit his left wrist i think things might have been different. i felt a total deflation when that happened.
Kyle, that left me feeling the same but no worse than the first three quarters.
The 1st half was very tough to watch. Almost unbearable. Chauncey knew he needed to give the team a spark, otherwise, we would have lost by 30.
I would totally support Walter Herrmann moving into Hayes’ spot. Jarvis looks uninspired most of the time and can’t shoot, for supposedly being a shooter. At least Flip could try it for a few games. It wouldn’t hurt.
“Jarvis looks uninspired most of the time and can’t shoot, for supposedly being a shooter”
AMEN!
Let’s try not to get carried away with the poor play in the past two games, but they need to get back to playing the way they did when they won 10 straight – with energy. I think Walter shot definitely get a shot to play. Rip and Tayshaun have seemed lazy the past couple games, but Afflalo hasn’t been playing good at all lately so how can we get more production from the 2? With the great play and energy from Amir and Maxi, plus the things that Dyess and Sheed can do, I’d like to see the Pistons play big more often. Less of stuckey, hayes and afflalo and more of the bigs. What if Tay played the 2 guard with Maxi Amir and Sheed out there, they could still stretch the court with sheed and dyess’s shooting and the defense would be unbelievable. maybe in the next 3 hours joe d will do something with flp murray .
As it turns out, I couldn’t watch the game on TV as I had work to do, but I had ESPN GameCast up and had to do a double-take when I saw them closing the gap to 6 points with a few minutes to go. Then I stopped working and went down and turned on the TV. I am glad to see them put up a fight in the second half, for sure. It definitely seems that Sheed’s ‘mood’ has a profoudn effect on this team. Chauncey took control in the 3rd and seemed to say, ‘well, if you guys aren’t going to be agressive I will go with the hot hand for right now…ME!’ Sheed looked PO’ed at Rip when he pulled up for a jumper on a fast break when they were down by twelve. There were no Detroit people down there with him and then Charlie Bell hit a three.
I too am behind the Hermann for Hayes switcheroo. I would like to see Amir get a little nastier down low (like Max, pretend the hoop just said something about his family/mom/whatever). His dunk attempt seemed to be little too polite.
TWALCH……….Brilliant LOL
“I would like to see Amir get a little nastier down low (like Max, pretend the hoop just said something about his family/mom/whatever). His dunk attempt seemed to be little too polite.”
like i said b4 pistons suck make a trade! phoenix dallas and lakers knows whats up!
I honestly couldn’t tell if the Bucks were playing good D or if the Pistons just didn’t come to play(i’m leaning towards they didn’t come to play). But everytime it seemed like we were trimming the lead, the Bucks would have an answer to our less than impressive defense. We almost sent it to overtime so I do give our guys credit. As for Stuckey, do any of you think he maybe the next flip murray? It sort of seems that way, but I hope not.
Come Friday though the Bucks better be ready a beatin.
Someone did a tally for the past 5 years and the Pistons average like 2-5 after the All Star Game.
What’s up with that? And why is Chauncey waiting for the Third Quarter to take over a game?
Thank goodness they are not making any crazy trades like Phoenix or Dallas (Steve Kerr is a San Antonio homie, I am convinced he’s out to destroyed the Phoenix Suns)
All I know is that if they keep chugging on auto drive, no ship this season. Garnet is showing his hunger and so is Kobe, Pistons need to that slow burning fire going again.
I am a little down after these two losses in a row , but the Celtics have also lost two in a row. That makes me feel a little better!!!
I know we will be okay. GO DETROIT!!!!!!!!!
I don’t think it’ll hurt to give murray a few minutes here and there. Besides every rookie hits the rookie wall their first year, so Affalo’s minutes should be divided with Murray. What scares me is that Stuckey may hit that wall when the playoffs start.
I watched the whole game, even the first 3 quarters. Sheed was incredible…as George Blaha pointed out: “I don’t believe what I’m seeing”!
If he made that last shot, it would probably be one of the best finishes I’ve ever seen. If we made it into overtime, I know we would of won, because the momentum changed and the bucks were the ones struggling at the end.
I’m going to the game on Friday, and I’m EXCITED =]
hey nat, blaine and jess….i guess i missed some moments last night huh? even though it was a loss. especially amir’s effort. well there u go blaine, amir was the one who turned on the switch and all they have to do now is get better at it….they have to start playing like that from the beginning of the game. just like before the all star break. the way i see amir is that majority of his game, he has a good timing on a lot of things….rebounds, shot blocks, steals, dunks but at the same time, he goes with his intincts without thinking too much, just like what joe dumars said about him, reacting to what’s happening, a fearless young athlete.
just found this on yahoo sports
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/nba_experts/post/Raptors-send-Dixon-to-Pistons;_ylt=AjCOFRV4qasjJZa7W0pLnEc5nYcB?urn=nba,67968
CHECK IT OUT is he any good?
I’m not going to lie, a lot of the times I thought that Detroit was glued to the court when a lot of the Bucks shots went up, I barely saw a hand go up, none the less them jumping to contest the shot. But what really got me was… D. Mason got hot and Detroit was all, “Don’t worry, he’ll miss a shot and that’ll kill his confidence. No biggie.” O.o Are you kidding me!? He was open so many times I couldn’t count, don’t get me wrong.. when somebody was in his face with a hand.. I was happy… but by that time, he was already in a deep enough groove that you’ll break your toe in if you step in it. Sometimes I think I would hear ‘etroit… because the “D” was defiantly gone.
Big ups to Mr. Big Shot, Chairmen of the Board, Antonio McDyess and Sheed down the 4th quarter stretch. Amir had his share of highlights to, bright spot on the bench was only from the young rook.
I had a gift from above.
It was a lunar eclipse here and just as it was a full eclipse the TV went out. It did not come back until the 4th.
So for me the game was great. Nice battle at the end. I did wonder what the deal was w Richard.
Sheed is simply amazing!