No, it’s not a nightmare Pistons fans. The Pistons actually got a smack down from the Minnesota Timberwolves at home. It wasn’t just another loss, this one was even harder to watch than the beating they took in Boston. How does this Detroit team lose at home by 26 against a team that was 2-9 and had not won a game on the road yet this season?
Key Points:
- Sure they traded baskets to start the game, but you could tell from the tip that Detroit wasn’t into the game.
- Can’t score 80 points and win, especially when you’re not doing your job on the other end of the floor.
- Detroit shot just 37% from the floor and let the Timberwolves shoot 53% on the night.
- The Wolves led by as much as 28. OUCH!
- Tayshaun Prince was the only Pistons starter in double figures. And the rest had miserable shooting nights.
- Rasheed 3-for-10, Iverson 3-for-11, and Rip Hamilton 2-for-11. Add a 0-for-5 Rodney Stuckey and that spells disaster.
- High point was Tayshaun Prince who, as bad as it was, kept Detroit in the game. Tay led the Pistons with 20 on 8-for-13 shooting with 4 boards, 2 assists, a block and 2 steals.
Photo/Getty
- You could see the frustration mounting with a Sheed Tech in the third quarter.
- Detroit’s bench did nothing in the second quarter except let the Timberwolves’ lead grow. Afflalo , Maxiell and Amir Johnson missed 7 of 8 to start the second quarter leading to a Timberwolves 11-2 run and a 12-point lead.
- Board war lost 45-36.
- Maybe if we close our eyes long enough we can pretend that the whole game was like this.
Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and FSN
- Maxiell did do his best to make this miserable game more watchable. In fact I had to make a Maxiell HL reel to make us all feel better. Jason finished with 12 points and 8 boards.
- No ball movement for Detroit who look almost miserable on court. A little cohesiveness would be nice, but right now they don’t have much of anything going for them.
- How does this happen after the showing they had out West?
- It hurts, but they should get things going. Right?
- Exposed again? Randy Foye had a huge night with 23 points and 14 assists against AI.
Photo/Getty
- “I stunk up the gym tonight,” Iverson said. “I couldn’t do anything right.” Via The Detroit News
- Rip can’t create his own shot and he doesn’t have Chauncey to feed him the ball in his spot. He may be better suited to be out there with Stuckey for a while until he gets things going. Just a thought.
- I miss the D.
- Coach Curry believes Detroit just wasn’t up for the game, in fact he’s changing things around when it comes to game day shootarounds. Listen to what he had to say in his post game presser. Audio courtesy of FSN
- Could it really be a Sunday issue? I know coach Curry takes the blame but the players need to show up.
- So if you can’t knock down a jumper, get in the paint for easy buckets. That issue has got to be addressed.
- Wasn’t easy for me to watch this one considering I knew the outcome before I turned on the DVR.
- If you dare, NBA.com Highlights.
- We hope this as bad as it gets.
- Remember Dyess is coming back!
- Let’s hear it in the comments…..I know you need to get it out.
I am tired of watching opposing point guards tear up Iverson all night. I think that Curry needs to stress the importance of Iverson’s defence or we won’t be going anywhere this year…
I wouldn’t call it a dream. More like a nightmare. I’m really hoping we don’t have the same results against the Knicks.
Simple…… We suck right now!!!!!!!!!
Okay I’m about ready to explode I’m so mad. I mean I am literally angry with rage and it is time for me to vent. I mean what the heck, I am so mad about Knicks game on FSN Plus channel that is not available in my area so now I can’t watch the game on Wednesday, this is redonkulous, I wanna watch my Pistons and I don’t like listening to the games on the radio I can’t see the small stuff that only shows on the tv broadcast. There thanks Natalie for letting me get that out, I feel much better. In terms of the game I think everything I would say was covered in the broadcast. But one thing that calms me down is that Michael Curry said they were going to have a long practice. The fact that he said “long” shows me that at least he recognizes there’s work to do, unlike some other coaches who would just say “shots weren’t falling” or just say we’ll look at some tape or some other politically correct crap.
This was a brutal game to watch. I was literally screaming at my television screen “GET IN THE PAINT” during that frustratingly long spell of jump shot after jump shot. I’m surprised that Rip even scored last night! I don’t remember that. I guess cancelling shootaround was not such a great idea.
Pistons had little to no defense last night. What bothered me the most was when you are obviously suffering a beatdown (20 points or more) and time is of the essence why not apply full court pressure? Bynum started to do this in the fourth quarter. I mean, it’s not as if we don’t have guards that can keep up with the Timberwolves and hey, you might get a stop that way. Because Pistons sure weren’t getting stops any other way.
If Curry is what Dumars thinks he is, then he needs to send the message(s); Move the ball on offense or sit. Bring energy on defense or sit. Who cares if our bench isn’t as good as our starters? I’d rather see them scraping and fighting and lose by 20 than having no heart and losing by 20. This would not have happened (Losing by 20+ to the T Wolves) to the Bad Boys.
PS. It’s also very painful to watch sometimes when Max and Amir are on the floor at the same time. Need to mix that up better and always have a shooter (Afflalo, Rico or leave Sheed propped up at the three point line). McDyess will surely help with that issue.
screw missing the “D,” we miss CHAUNCEY. Im sorry but Dumars made a stupid trade. It is becoming very clear that Iverson does not fit into this system. Maybe im a little premature but i highly doubt these pistons will make any damage in the post season and that’s sad, cuz that means another heartbreaking summer for us die hard piston fans. Maybe with Mcdyess we will be better, but I do not understand why you would trade Chauncey for Iverson. Who cares about getting a big player in 2010, the time is now, and we need a championship NOW.
Wow, I was at the game and it was truly awful.
I really don’t understand how it happened.
Now I know everyone’s starting to hate the AI trade since the Pistons are 4-5 w/ him. But remember 2 of those losses came against Boston, who the Pistons can’t beat period.
But last night was inexcusable. There were no injuries, no one was sick, they had plenty of rest.
Look, I know AI was bad, but it wasn’t his fault Rip was trying to create his own shot and missing everything or that Stuckey hasn’t hit a shot in about 20 games.
Remember that the Pistons started out last year 8-5 as well and still won 59 games.
But I think we’ll get a better grasp on how the rest of the season will go once McDyess comes back. His abcense has really screwed the Pistons in the meantime. It leaves no big man that can score in the 2nd unit. Like last night when Amir and Maxiell were in at the same time (why?).
I think we should give them about 10 games or so after McDyess comes back to truly gauge the season.
But if another blowout happens like this against a really bad team (one that starts Corey Brewer), look for another trade.
No defense, no offense, no intesity.
Does McDyess have the answer. I don’t think we need the coming back from Dyess, so that three acutally four all-stars, as Prince only deserving to be an all-star, can’t get it together.
Sure, it’s what makes the game so great, intensity wins it, but skill helps a lot.
Now we have the skill, but the intensity comes and goes, and it has gone more than it has come.
Stuckey needs to finish if he goes to the rim, not only attack, Rip should keep running around screens instead of dribbling, and please, you can’t tell me, Iverson can’t passs Rip the ball when he comes around sreens, even Brown can do that.
Rasheed: if he hits it, everyone is 100% okay with him playing around the 3, when he doesn’t, it’s: “get your ass to the paint Sheed”.
Yes he should take 5 shots down low, but it’s his business, and not Curry’s, to select his shot selection. Wallace is a veteran, a great coach already, so he should know best.
These are all little things that can and surely will change. Well maybe not all, but they can be changed.
I’m not pissed at all at Dumars like some, I just want to see that the team shows improvement from game to game, even if we lose the next 3.
I love how all the Joe D cool-aid drinkers are SO baffled on why we KEEP LOSING. “Buhh buhhh Joe D couldn’t ever make a bad decision! Iverson is “The Answer” ”
What a JOKE. We KNOW why we’re losing. We lost the core of our team. We lost the finals MVP and one of the best defenders we had.
Blaiming it on sunday games!? give me a break!
Denver was 1-3 before billups and 8-2 after
Detoit was 4-0 before Iverson and 4-5 after
As sheed would say. THE NUMBERS DONT LIE.
In dumars we trust myyyy asssss. Dumars made an idiotic choice.
look, we suck, and we are mos def letting AI go after this season and will sign a free agent big man. No i dont give a shit about the 2010 FA class, because the teams they are currently on can pay them more then any other team can. All of these teams saving up for LeBron, or Bosh will be sorry we they sign mid season back to their respective teams.
I think we either need to trade Amir or Maxiell for a true big man. I’d put my money on Maxiell since his game is one dimensional, don’t get me wrong, i love maxie’. But it’s either Amir or Max.
Richard Hamilton has never played this bad, he’s questioning the teams trust, and is handling the ball. I expect a trade request if things get out of control.
pistons=suck
Wow. First of all, Chauncey is not a +50 point differential over AI (we would normally beat the Wolves by 25), so get over that. Someone mentioned trust and intensity. There’s your answer. They don’t like the trade…too bad. Get over it and play like your paid. The Pistons don’t suck, let’s at least make sense in your comments. Give Curry a little time to whip some of the pre-madonna’s into shape (and he will cause this coach is backed by Dumars), and we win 48-50 games, get the third seed and make a deep playoff run. I’d rather peak in May anyway.
For you Dumars haters; you must be too young to remember the 90’s. Now that was hard for any true basketball fan to watch sometimes…
after watching tht game i was wondering why wolves only had 106 from such bad D by the pistons, dissapointing, this is lik when no teams knew jason maxiell is a threat in the paint, dotn get to see many dunks tht often now tht all they doo is fould maxiell every time, great to see the old jason maxiell when he never got fouled
You know what really bothers me. The fact that the only player that the media cares about anymore is AI. I mean come on the guy’s been here like 2 weeks and they worship the ground he walks on. Isn’t Rip the captain now anyway? I have to wonder if there’s a problem with chemistry that nobody knows about or is talking about. Maybe they just keep it to themselves but personally I think a lot of these guys were not happy about the trade.
At the same time I don’t blame Dumars for the trade. That doesn’t mean that I like it. But in his position he has to think about the future of the team. Why not roll the dice. We’ve gotten beat by 3 different teams in 3 ECF’s. why would it be any different this year is we still had Billups?
The team as it’s currently constructed could be a great team. I just don’t think that it’s going to happen. I think everybody was juiced up for another run with Billups in the mix, and they all got their bubbles burst when the trade happened. We all saw how good they looked in the first couple games this season. Now they just all look confused.
The thing that puzzles me the most is the consistency of this team. How do you play so well one night and stink it up the next?
One things for sure. I don’t look at any game on the schedule anymore and assume anything. In my mind right now there’s no easy wins coming. There’s something wrong with this team and only time will tell whether or not it can be fixed. Hopefully it can and we have a great season. But I’m preparing for the worst based on what I’ve seen.
106 from Minnesota and NO pistons in foul trouble means Detroit did not play defense. Wolves had nothing to fear going to the rack because they knew the Pistons would let them. Seriously, Sheed picked up his first foul in the 4th.
Ok, I’m not thrilled by getting our asses whooped by Minnesota the least… in fact I think it sucks and I hope all of the Pistons are ashamed of themselves for laying that OSTRICH EGG at the Palace (sorry, a goose egg doesn’t even begin to explain it!). They sure lacked fire, intensity, desire, and cojones (by the way, this is the way you’re supposed to spell it!)!
Am I disappointed? Yes… am I getting off the bandwagon? NO! Like Mike, I remember the post-Bad Boys Era… that was PAINFUL (teal uniforms aside!) to watch. We were terrible, kinda like… the WOLVES or the WIZARDS right now!!!
Now, somebody run this by me… San Antonio has a bad losing streak early in the season = That’s their MO, they’ll catch fire in April/as soon as Manu’s back/As soon as Eva Longoria performs a Brazilian Wax on Tony Parker/(insert lame-o excuse here!). Detroit has a bad streak = FIRE JOE! DETROIT FIRE SALE! FIRE CURRY! FIRE BLAHA! even FIRE NATALIE (sorry about the cheap shot Nat… nothing personal!!!) I still believe the team’s getting accustomed to their new line-up and the whole hoopla of the trade situation. That has to take a toll on a team… It’s not even December and we’re already throwing the towel? Let’s just have some turkey this week, let things unfold and let’s talk again in December, shall we? In the meantime, let’s cut a team that’s been a staple in the NBA some slack…
Oh my goodness, I know the season is just beginning,but the games don’t even look like they are playing professional sports, blown out by Minnesota, how much more worse could it possible get? I was so mad at the whole team yesterday evening, I could barely watch this game and I love the Pistons, it was bad, they all looked bad, what the heck is really going on here, man oh man, Rip is not looking like the same shooting guard that we had, what is going on with him? Is he gonna get better without Chauncey to fed him the ball? There is no way that they can continue like this, it will be over before it even begins, I’m frustrated with them and they look frustrated with this whole new thing,they have got to suck it up and be tougher Chauncey is no longer there, they have got to shape up or its gonna be over before the playoffs or any where nearby!!!!!
check out this article I just found. Man it is annoying
http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/?p=5287&owa_from=feed&owa_sid=1030540004
That article is terrible, written by a bitter man. He’s correct about one thing, we knew Mcdyess would come back. He’s wrong about a few things too; we never would have made the trade without knowing he would come back. What is he looking for, a stagnant, never changing NBA where if a team makes a bad contract they are stuck with it and lose games and attendance(fans) and revenue for the duration of the contract. How do some of these people become sport writers?
I really dont know whats going on with the pistons, there as to be something wrong, its not iverson thats making us lose its not the loss of chauncey it’s our D, it seems more like Michael Curry is focusing on the wrong side of the court what happen to those other years when we won 90-70, we didnt score over 100 points?, now we are when we win we have to have a scoring night, thats a sign that our D has gone DOWN! as i heard during Pistons insider, “we didnt get any practice with A.I. we only got through some offenseive sets.”
why play A.i. if you only had 1 practice run, seriously i know there tryiing to make a favor for the fans but, hey, if we need a win then play the man tht knows how pistons play, RODNEY STUCKEY, will bynum has actually been a good fit so far also, its a guy tht no other team picked up accept Detroit, i ahve to say Detroit does have good scouts
PISTONS KNICKS WED.
2 fav teams, but pistons are BETTER
The Pistons are done for the season!!!! we are nothing like we used to be ….the Bad Boys have left the building
I love these sports writers who just can’t comprehend taking less money to be somewhere where you’re comfortable. Everything in sports is about money these days. It makes me sick.
Agree totally pistons 4 life!
It’s all about who has the most money…
Should be for the love of the game first!
When were shooting bad and they are making runs on us, we need to get to the foul line. A lot of our players can shoot free throws. It also slows the game down for the other team so they arent so hyped and ready to run run run. It will also stop the clock to give us more time to get back into the game.
It’s a business, but I agree. The business is different, because it has fans.
rip needs to take some time off and get hypnosis or psychotherapy. he is missing wide open shots regularly. he is mourning chauncey like he died or something. get out of the funk dude!
the timberwolves games was as bad as it gets. and i saw them lose to the isaah knicks last winter at the garden by alot
I LOVE THE PISTONS BUT, I GET SO SICK OF THIS TEAM NOT COMING THROUGH. THE REST OF YOU FANS ALWAYS THINK WE ARE A SUCCESFUL FRANCHISE BUT WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO IT, I DEFINE SUCCESS AS CHAMPIONSHIPS AND WE JUST CANT SEE TO COME THREW. AGAIN THIS YEAR I BELIEVE WE HAVE A DECENT TEAM, BUT WE ARE NO WHERE NEAR ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE CELTICS OR CAVS, EVEN WITH DICE BACK. THE CELTICS HAVE MANHANDLED US IN BOTH GAMES THIS YEAR, AND LOOK ON THEIR WAY TO ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP. I KNOW A LOT OF PISTONS FANS HATE TO ADMIT THIS BUT ITS TRUE. I WAS AT THE T’WOLVES GAME AND ONLY ONE WORD COMES TO MINE, EMBARRASING. AI IS A TOTAL WASTE OF TALENT ON THIS TEAM BECAUSE WE ARE USE TO PLAYING TEAM BASKETBALL, NOT ONE ON ONE BULLSHIT. IM JUST EXTREMLY UPSET WITH PISTONS BASKETBALL SINCE 04.