The Pistons added another W to the win column Sunday evening, sweeping the season series against The Heat with a 91-75 victory in Miami. Detroit has now won five games in a row by putting a very talented makeshift lineup on the floor to get the starters rest and ready themselves for a long playoff run.
Key Points:
- Arron Afflalo started again for Richard Hamilton, while Jason Maxiell replaced Antonio McDyess in the starting lineup.
- Detroit allowed Miami only 27 first half points, the least amount given up at half from The Pistons all season.
- Block Party! 10 blocks on the night for Detroit, how didn’t let Miami get anything down low, or any second chance points for that matter.
- Tayshaun was on fire in the third quarter going 5-for-5 and finished the game with 14 points in just 19 minutes. Tay added 6 boards and an a assist, while getting plenty of rest on the night.
- Rodney Stuckey continues to put up strong games and led the Pistons again Sunday night. Stuckey has 3 steals, 19 points, 3 boards and 4 assists and even broke some ankles. His teammates on the bench LOVED it.
Photo/Getty Images
- Detroit started off slow, letting the Heat keep the lead in beginning of the first, but once The Pistons took a 14-13 lead, they never looked back. Miami did get The Pistons lead down to 9 halfway through the fourth, but Detroit quickly stepped things up.
- Pretty slow and uneventful game, but still good to see how great Detroit has been on the defensive end.
- Rebound war won 41-33.
- Miami’s Chris Quinn just doesn’t look like a basketball player to me. I just realized that he reminds me of actor DJ Qualls. He’s actually doing a heck of a job for The Heat, but looks like he’s going to start to break out in tears in this picture. I am also wondering if he can actually grow a mustache or if he likes to go with the dirt style as the way to go.
Photo/Getty Images
- The Pistons led by as much as 21.
- 10 points each for Hayes, Maxiell, Afflalo and Dixon.
- I was right about to mention the Miami crowd, if that’s what you call it. Keith V. made had a great quote in the comments, that I totally feel the same way about. “Did you see how empty the place was? That’s just sad. Where are all those “White Hot Heat” fans now? Bandwagon jumpers I guess.”In fact there were more Pistons fans in the house than Heat fans, or at least that’s what it sounded like.
- NBA.com highlights of the game.
- The second masked man Cheikh Samb had five uneventful minutes on the floor. Well he did commit 2 fouls while he was in and looks pretty intimidating in that mask.
Photo/FSN Detroit
- 24 minutes for Billups, 19 for Tayshaun and 20 for Sheed.
- Plenty of Deeeeetroit Basketball chants in Miami.
- “I’m not really thinking about shooting the ball now,” Stuckey said. “It’s just coming off my hand and releasing. I’m not really second-guessing myself anymore because the guys have been telling me, ‘Don’t do that.’ “ Via The Detroit Free Press
- Does Ratliff have a 15 footer in his arsenal? The only two shots he took were in Dyess’s range and he missed both.
- Maxiell had a nice night starting in place of McDyess. He scored 10 and grabbed 7 boards with 3 wicked blocked shots. I would just like to mention how great he’s been at the line for quite some time.
Photo/Getty Images
- With the win, The Pistons wrapped up the second seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs. They are currently one game ahead of The Hornets record for home court for the NBA Finals.
- Four blocked shots and 7 boards for Amir Johnson in 27 minutes.
- 50% shooting on the night for Detroit, while the Heat shot 35%.
- Waltzing Walter…I bet he’d be a great dancer.
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and FSN Detroit
- Hilarius Herrmann story told by Flip Saunders from The Detroit Free Press: “I was laughing in our game at Minnesota. Walter had that one move where with one hand he faked, brought the ball down and then shot it off the glass across his body. Kirk Snyder was taking the ball out of bounds and he turned to (referee) Danny Crawford and said, ‘Have you ever seen anything like that?’ and Danny just shook his head. “Snyder then says to Walter, ‘Hey man, congratulations.'”
- I wonder if Stuckey will get Sheed back for the ball toss.
- 45 Piston bench points.
- I am particularly excited for Tuesday nights game where The Pistons will name The All-Time Pistons Team. It’s probably the one time that I will actually bring the camera along to capture the moment. I’m a sucker for anything “Old School” especially when it brings back fond memories.
When i saw the ankle breakin of mi man Rodney i almost vomited mi food…. he is the best back up point guard in the league…. the future looks great
Walter Hermann is jus one smooth guy… jus hopes dumars keeps him next season
stuckey did have another great game tonight. still wouldn’t call him the best back-up PG in the league though. the future does look bright. i would like to see afflalo play a bit more aggressively on offense, and jarvis play a whole heck of a lot less aggressively. that man is out there for only one reason: to score his points. he only makes the extra pass if he thinks he can get it right back. one good game all season does not earn you the right to be selfish jarvis, especially with young bench players on the court trying to develop. other than him though, there’s nothing to complain about.
Well that was a quick recap post… didn’t catch the game, I was watching the Tigers play some more awesome baseball… ugh.
For some reasons, to me, this is the funniest quote from Dyess:
“I’d get to practice a little later, trying to be like the starters,” he said. “That’s not me, man. That’s not me. I had to fall back into what I normally do.”
It sounds like he was trying to be like one of the “cool” kids, by being late to practice haha. Perhaps, Dyess will start a new trend by going to practice early, and the other starters will follow him to do “starters things.”
DirtStache, lol.
I fell bad for the Heat players too. I mean, their head coach doesn’t even show up for th egames, how harsh is that?
Stuckey was hot fire today. Chauncey said the other day, that Rodney is better now, and further along, than he was when he was a rookie.
Hopefully this means that the future is bright for Stuckey.
we haven’t seen any anklebreaking since Grant Hill. godd*mn that was pretty.
as solid as the starting core is they are so boring compared to the Stuckey/Dixon or AA/Herrmann/Max/AJ rotation that its ridiculous. Granted the starters take much better care of the ball and are better (which goes without saying), but our starters are like watching paint dry compaerd to he zoo crew.
And Waler makes everything he does look so damn easy. hes a physical specimen.
good game but thats bullshit the pistons got screwed out of another TNT game which was sposed to be this one.. i know the heat suck and that sucks cuz miami heat is my 2nd team since im both a florida and michigan dude i rep all florida teams as well as detroit but the D is #1.. but i only got to see barkley early this season i miss him tellin kenny detroit is better than his teams but o well..
@david
Yes, Javis only looks to score! But I like that and I think that’s why Joe got him here. Last thing I want is a pussy like MoEvens kinda guy. I want our bench to be aggressive. Why shouldn’t Javis take shots? He’s proven he can score. We don’t want a guy who can shoot, we want someone who wants to shoot when it counts.
Every time I look at teams like Miami it makes me feel fortunate to be a Pistons fan. I mean that arena is never half full…
Highlights of the game here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VcDieYc7vm0
One more thing.
I might be a loner on this one.
With all those minutes our rookies are getting, I think they should intentionally just dump the ball to Walter, especially with such a big lead in the end. I know if Chauncy or Lindsey was playing , they would totally looking to get Walter a Jam.
i WANT TO Hermann DUNK!!!!!!!!
Gmac…. That is definitely an appropriate time to use half empty
Illmatic…That is so true. We are all so used to the starting four + Dyess that the Zoo crew is like a breath of fresh air. It makes me excited for those blowouts and I look forward to them because I know I get to see those caged animals be unleashed
Maxiell’s shoes are sweet from the bottom 🙂
Steve… it seems like your jumping back on the bandwagon!!? Why is that?? Cause they’re winning all of a sudden? I do remember you giving up on them! What happened?
In case you missed it, two Pistons going to the hall of fame: Bill Davidson and Dick Vitale.
Congrats guys.
Sorry, a Trio of Pistons, as Adrian Dantley is going as well.
Pat Riley is being inducted, I wonder if he’ll show up?
^ SNAPS!