The more they play the more the new-look Detroit Pistons look like a cohesive unit. It wasn’t pretty at times in Golden State, but The Pistons prevailed late last night with a 107-102 win over the Warriors.
Key Points:
- Kwame Brown started in place of Amir Johnson and it may become a bit more permanent. Curry wants to throw a big body out there in the next few games when Detroit will be facing big centers. I’m cringing now as to what Brown will have to face (Andrew Bynum and Laker fans) tonight against the Lakers. It’s going to be brutal.
- “I am glad this has happened,” Brown said. “I love playing with ‘Sheed in the starting lineup. I think (the coaches) noticed last game that with me ducking in (toward the basket), it was getting guys open corner 3-pointers. But they brought me in here to play defense, run the court and rebound. That’s what I am going to try and do.” Via The Detroit Free Press
- Detroit started this game allowing Golden State to get pretty much anything they wanted down low. That changed in the second half as Detroit not only shut down the lanes but dominated them, finishing with 50 points down low for the game.
- Will Bynum is killing it out there. The punch of Will and Iverson on the floor with Arron Afflalo sped this team up like I had never thought possible. Fearless Will scored 6 points in 11 minutes and continues to impress the Pistons fan base as well as the TNT broadcasters.
- Five Pistons in double figures as well as five Warriors.
- Detroit didn’t need Tayshaun to put up a ton of points, but they did need his career-high rebounding night. Tay had a double-double with 10 points, 16 boards, 3 assists, a steal and a blocked shot in a whopping 45 minutes on the floor.
- Curry isn’t shy to tell the viewing audience that Amir make a mistake so he got yanked. That was after Amir was subbed in for the first time and was quickly pulled 30 seconds later.
- Maxiell thunder dunk is always a pleasant sight, the one he missed before the dunk almost brought the building down. In 12 minutes Jason had 6 points and 4 boards. Love you Jason, but you got served on this play.
Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and TNT
- NBA Highlights of The Game.
- Chauncey is really lighting things up in Denver.
- Detroit’s biggest lead was 9, while Golden State led by as much as 12.
- 17 Detroit turnovers, that stat has to change. Luckily the Warriors handed the ball over 15 times.
- We sorely miss Antonio McDyess.
- TNT – Iverson, Rasheed Wallace Interview.
- One of the best games from Sheed in quite some time. Ninteen points on 8-for-15 shooting but it was his key defensive shot and his back to back threes late in the fourth that put the game away for Detroit. Another double-double for the SHEEDtastic one.
Photo/Getty
- We complained about Flip using the starters, well Iverson, Prince, Wallace and Hamilton logged 167 minutes.
- “Now I have to learn A.I. It’s like starting over,” Hamilton said. “With (Chauncey Billups ) at the beginning, at least we had a training camp. With A.I., we have to learn on the fly.” Via The Detroit News
- Fourth quarter tech for Mr. Wallace.
- Out-rebounded 49-51.
- Rip got his touch back leading Detroit with 24 points. It took him most of the game to get in a rhythm, but it was so great to see his shots falling. As soon as plays start getting run for him and he’s coming off screens things will get much better for Rip, who seems to be standing around a lot on the offensive end.
Photo/Getty
- Walter Herman got some time but he picked up three quick fouls in his 2 minutes and 45 seconds on the floor and didn’t return.
- Allen Iverson put up 23 and had some “Iverson” moments.
- “That really hurt my feelings, that tip,” Wallace said. “You can’t let that frustrate you. I missed two point-blank foul shots. I’m upset at myself about that. You can’t let that one thing get you down. That’s what we did, just dug deep and came up with some stops down the stretch.” Via Yahoo.com Steve made sure we didn’t miss that quote.
- HUGE night for Arron Afflalo who seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Great defensively but his key layups in the third and fourth brought Detroit back to life again. Afflalo scored 11 and was out there when it counted in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.
Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and TNT
- Detroit shot 45% on the night.
- Important to get this one, especially after the slow start again. It’s going to be a tough one tonight against the Lakers but it with Rodney Stuckey on the floor again things should be a bit better. Although I’m loving Will Bynum.
- Again….Must read Chauncey Billups interview.
- Sheed’s New Tattoo…Thanks to Alana for sending us the Link ASAP!
Wow… I’ve been wondering what that new tatoo was! ‘Sheed the Family man. All of his Tats a VERY symbolic.
Good game for sure as soon as rip gets fast pace good lord watch out, but damn whats with sheed and egypt? isnt he muslim? idk jus weird i guess its cool but i woulda got somthin better with the money he makes..o well..hopefully they dont get killed too bad tonight. Dyess we need u
I really don’t like the uncertainty of our line up and rotation. We had a few games with slow starts due to that. Once we find the right mix later into the game, we played well.
I really have huge problem with Kwame. There is one word to describe him as a basketball player— unreliable. You can’t count on him making layups, you can’t count on him getting you most of the rebounds. Once thing about Tay and JMax is they don’t make many mistakes. They are reliable, Jason will always be near the lose ball and the rebound. We are covered now, but when it come playoff time, you can’t have player like that. Hopefully we can get Dyess back soon.
I agree with you about the rotations gMac but my hope it that this is just Curry seeing what works.
Man hope the starters don’t get worn out too much. The bench is really struggling. Herrmann, I knew you had slow feet, but come on three fouls on like three possessions?
You’re right Natalie about RIP, if Michael Curry doesn’t recognize RIP is struggling and doesn’t make a CONSCIOUS effort to run plays that let’s RIP come off curls and catch and shoot I see RIP struggling a lot this year.
That’s the Tay I want to see, doesn’t force offensive and does the little things like blocking shots and grabbing boards. Now he has to that even when he’s not frustrated. Unfortunately we’re playing LA so I expect Tayshaun is going to revert back to the other Tay.
You know Sheed’s into a game when he gets a dunk like that
AI 8 for like 23 that has to improve.
That Chauncey article nearly left me with tears. Poor guy didn’t want to leave, and it looks like Rip is struggling with the loss of his teammate too. This is going to be a tough year for the Pistons.
I love the give n go play Sheed has with Rip for many games now. That’s a nice one. I always thought flip was running way too complicated plays for us.
We should seriously consider playing more small balls with Tay at 4. He’s a much more effective help defender and rebounder that way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NGBHuR2F0Y
Curry needs to stop with this Kwame Brown experiment
I think every coach with Kwame always things like this “He can’t be that bad, right? After all he’s the number 1 pick, gotta be good for something”….
HELLO!! ever heard another guy named ‘Darko’?
This was your best post in a long time, Nat. I loved the Chauncey link you posted. It lends to insight to many of the questions that were posed over the summer and even questions we had during the runs through the playoffs.
Situations played out in my mind (in hindsight) and a lot of it makes sense. One in particular… why wasn’t sheed with the boys when they went to chauncey’s room? I don’t think they are as tight as once believed. Sheed also went to curry’s conference (alone), but he was the only one there. Related issue? I think Joe brought AI to Detroit to work well with sheed in particular. Tay plays a faster game and obviously he’s benefitting from this system change. rip can play faster too, however, I’m not sure rip will be around next season unless some serious chemistry develops this season. Detroit will go PG shopping, as well as Center shopping to put Sheed back at PF and AI at SG.
We’ll see, but according to the reaction chauncey gave about letting his guard down and being blindsided… on the flipside of that coin, Joe gave plenty of warning, including paying him a huge salary to be the leader he has the potential to be. Even chauncey admits to getting “comfortable”. I will miss chaunce, but joe said lets get moving and step up… nothing changed. Chauncey being the leader, let that oft referred to “bored” attitude infect the others and joe didn’t want to keep paying dudes top dollar to loaf.
The potential was ALWAYS there. This was evident because we played horribly all playoffs last year and still beat some good teams. we play horrible against boston and it’s still close. the missing element was desire and regardless of how it played out, the warnings were always given. joe is in the right. if he does nothing, his judgement is in question and his job is on the line. he did what was necessary to get things done. he made the best decision he knew how to make.
Damn, why didn’t Sheed get the big one?