The now 16-11 Detroit Pistons are in Milwaukee to take on John Hammond’s 14-16 Bucks. The Bucks (3) are playing better and are just one spot behind Detroit (2) in the Central Division.
Damon Jones will be on court for The Bucks Saturday night after some issues with management.
“Jones has been on the Bucks’ 15-man roster since the start of the season. But he did not report to the team by mutual agreement while agent Mark Termini and Bucks management pursued other options.” Via JSOnline
The Bucks have won three straight and five of their last six. Milwaukee’s winning streak is its longest this season. It’s also won a season high five straight at home by an average of 14.4 points, while holding opponents to 92.0 points.
The Pistons have taken seven of the last eight meetings with Milwaukee.
Tip off is at 8:30 P.M. on FSN. If you can’t watch the broadcast, tune into 1130 AM The Fan. Can’t do either, follow the game on NBA.com.
Is Rip playing??
Guess he is injured…
Article
http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/2008/12/hamilton_out_tonight.html
uh oh red jerseys
You know I’m not going to lie. (before I knew he was injured) I had mixed feelings about looking on Espn gamecast and seeing Amir and NOt Rip in the starting lineup. I was thinking that I wished it was Iverson, but that one of the two needs to come off the bench. I think it is the best way. Although I’m saying this, yet Afflao has been great. They have so many great players that they don’t know what to do with… yet they can’t win.
oops Rip is injured I hope he’s ayt. I was reading the box score and I thought that Curry finally realized that either Rip or AI had to be our 6th man. Lets go Pistons!
ok we got the big lead again. now it’s a matter of maintaining it.
Great dominating win against a team that was on a winning streak.
On a side note, I live in San Antonio and was watching the Spurs/Grizzlies game. Sean Elliot commentates the Spurs games and he’s used sheed’s “the ball don’t lie” line 2 times already. After a missed free throw and after a jump ball.
We kept this lead because Curry kept 3 starters in. That and the Bucks were shooting so terrible.
I love Rip, but maybe he should come off the bench like Ginnobili, for the betterment of the team.
Not a bad idea “elainfan”…works wonders for the Spurs having Ginobli come off the bench. He rolls over opposing teams benches, as Rip could very well do as well. Would Rip take on a sixth man role as willingly as Ginobli though? I doubt it. I don’t believe he’d be happy coming off the bench.
It really would be nice for Rip or Iverson to come off the bench. No point in having two shooting gaurds in at the same time when you have plents og quality big men you could be playing. We all know it won’t happen though, which is a shame.
It was a shame watching yet another lead dwindle, considering the Bucks gave up on playing their starters before the 4th quarter started.
“Rip or AI needs to come off the bench” That’s what I’ve been saying since the trade!!!!! And every time one of them does or one of them doesn’t play we have a decent game. Amir killed the bucks last night with his hustle. Sure he didn’t fill up the stat sheet but he did a lot of little things that kept the team energized. Do you think Curry will see this pattern and change anything. NO, because he doesn’t want to make any of these guys upset. He doesn’t dare. I’m telling you guys, this team will be a lot better if one of these guys swallows their pride and comes off the bench. You know it won’t happen though.
Last night was probably one of the best defensive efforts I’ve seen out of this team throughout an entire game this season. And Sheed actually posted up a few times. Maybe he reads this blog and read my last post. 🙂 They just all seemed energized last night. You could see it in their body language.
Lets hope Curry saw some things he liked last night and actually changes things. I won’t hold my breath though.
I just watched the post game interview with Curry and it about drove me insane. He talked about how one of the things they loose in the small lineup is rebounding and defense. Gee do you think so? And this guy is a head coach. And then he went on to say how hard it is having two great shooting guards and finding time for both of them to play. Well Michael, you see it’s not really that hard. Here’s what you do. You decide which one is going to start, and which one is going to come off the bench and then just tell them that’s what you want to try. It’s not like either one of them is going to play less minutes. They’ll just be in the game at different times.
And another thought I had was one of those interviews with Joe D. that they never stop showing during times outs or breaks where he talks about how he told Curry from the start to not follow any kind of coach’s check list or a typical way of doing things. Basically he told him to just coach from what he sees as the games and season unfold. By starting Rip and AI at the same time I think all he’s doing is exactly opposite of that. It’s fairly obvious to me that he should at least try bringing one of those guys off the bench to see if it helps. That way you can keep using a traditional lineup with a true PF and C and not be lacking defensively. All you have to do is look at what Amir did last night in limited minutes. Something like 11 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 4 or 6 points in like 12 minutes or something. That’s what you’re sacrificing using a small lineup. And personally I think getting those kinds of stats from your bigs is a lot more important than possibly making one of your starters mad by having them come off the bench.
Will anything change? Nope probably not. Will we continue to use this stupid small lineup? Yep probably.
Rip Need To Come Off Bench!!!
AI needs to come off the bench!!!
i have NO idea why people think it would make more sense to bring rip off the bench??? he’s by far the better defender of the two (rip and ai) and we’re talking about starting games with better defense… so why start AI?? lol.. would make more sense for his “dynamic” scoring to come off the bench, and play rip in the starting lineup who is: a) the better defender (especially of 2-guards) and b) plays better with stuckey
Maybe Amir needs to start meditating before games so that he can be focused each and every game.
When he is focused he is a heck of a player. When he isn’t focused he sits which doesn’t help the Pistons win.
Amir should have been able to get more shots
For the most part I agree with “Pistons 4 Life” except about Amir playing limited minutes last night. He played 35 solid minutes, not 12.
We should not play Small Ball.
AI has to come off the bench with Stuckey and Rip starting and everything is working out.
Those who keep saying AI needs to come off the bench are more hating on Iverson than looking to help the Pistons.
Yea, it makes plenty of sense to bring your best player off the bench, simply because he’s the new guy and you want to shift any blame for losses on him. I love the blog but some of the readers are mindless.
AI is not the best player on this team.
he needs to come off the bench.
Mikey F Baby, just because he’s your favorite player, doesn’t make him the best player on the pistons. check the stats:
FG%
Rip
08-09 = .451
career = .454
AI
08-09 = .429
career = .426
3pt FG%
Rip
08-09 = .359
career = .346
AI
08-09 = .333
career = .314
as a 2 guard Rip is far more efficient than AI. AI makes up for his low shooting percentage by shooting a lot of free throws (even though rip has a higher ft%) and getting a few more assists. But these are negated when Stuckey is dominating the ball. They’ll be more useful with the bench unit when Stuckey is sitting and AI is dominating the ball.
ai is a clutch offensive player, but that doesn’t mean we have to pretend he’s good for all things at all times. rip is a better bulk shooter, plain and simple. he’s also a better defender. we need the tips and rebounds amir will give the starting unit and iverson is the most logical choice to come off the bench. he can still get 30+ minutes, he can still take over and close out games, he just won’t start.
and for the record, i think there are plenty of people froms fans to analysts to coaches, who disagree with iverson being the best player on the team. you can make a very valid argument he’s not even the best shooting guard.
keep lineup how it is. cuz if rip come off bench, afflo well get no minutes. THIS LINEUP WILL WORK
we shouldn’t bring rip off the bench, we should bring in ai. ai comes in for stuckey, afflalo comes in for rip. afflalo plays excellent defense and loves to push the ball, he’s also a decent with the catch and shoot. he and herrmann are perfectly suited to come off the bench WITH IVERSON and be successful.
well said kyle. i completely agree
You can’t determine who to bring off the bench by stat status, or by deciding who is truly the “better” player. Again, look at the Spurs. Ginobli would be a starter for any team in the league, yet he works best for the TEAM by coming off the bench. It seems after 2006 the whole team concept sort of went out the window with the Pistons and egos arose and have hindered this team.
It seems most think AI should come off the bench, but do you actually think he’ll tolerate being benched? There’s no question ego is involved here with him being a superstar. How many superstars in the league would come off the bench for the betterment of the team? None that I can think of. Hell, I can’t see Rip even tolerating losing his starter role. Detroit has struggled and will continue to struggle until they get back to achieving team success instead of individual success. Besides, with the starting lineup we have currently, there is no reason we’re playing so inconsistent.
sorry, meant star status or name status to better put it…
kyle is right..
rip and stuckey play great together and iverson and afflalo should come off the bench for stuckey and rip!!
and i saw how it says amir johnson reads the blogs i hope he gets a chance to look at these past couple blogs…
we should start off with
pg:STUCKY
sg:RIP
SF:TAYSHAUN PRINCE
PF:AMIR JOHNSON
C:SHEED..
AMIR JOHNSON HAS GREAT ENERGY AND HAS GREAT HUSTLE IF U WATCH HIM PLAY
I LIKE IVERSON BUT I JUST THINK HE SHOULD COME OFF THE BENCH
ALSO..RIP SHOULD BE A STARTER BECAUSE HE IS THE **CAPTAIN** OF THIS TEAM!
i dont really think amir is tht great of a player other than offensive rebounding, thts a really rare talent he brings, hes not the best defensively either, too many fouls, but can jump high for block
Richie, my bad about minutes played for Amir. I wasn’t actually looking at a stat sheet or anything. Just trying to go off memory. Whatever happens with this lineup and rotations Curry better figure it out pretty quick here and just stick to it. You can’t just keep changing all the time. These players need some consistency.
With Kwame or Amir starting, the Pistons are a much better defensive team and thats what counts most.
This small ball thing maybe works out against teams like Golden State, Sacramento, Oklahoma… but not against better teams.
AI isn’t aible to get Rip rollin. I mean Rip was the most important factor in the offense for years. We need him to get back to this.
I think Kyle raises several good points in the arguement to bring AI off the bench. Frankly, I don’t think Allen would mind at least trying it out if he is in fact devoted to the team concept that he says he is. That doesn’t just mean not being a ball hog, if it means giving up your starting roll but still playing the same number of mintutes, that’s included in the team concept.
heres the deal.. the team is starting to play a lot better from the past few weeks but i still think rip (who is my favorite piston) should come off the bench.. having a hall of fame player come off the bench just does not make sense to me (a.i. that is)… the line up should be as follows
Stuckey
Iverson
Prince
Wallace
McDyess
and the 2nd string should be
Bynum
Rip
Afflalo/Hermann
Maxiell
Johnson/Brown
Both are very effective lineups and could do some damage.. you wont play out of position.. except probably for afflalo but he is a taller and bigger player than rip so it really wouldnt matter..
Rip is slipping… hate to say it but he is, they played the best game that i’ve seen them play in a while the other night against the bucks without rip and just think if he came off the bench with the 2nd string.. who couldnt hit a shot the other night at the end of the game and almost blew it (the prince came and saved the day), give it a try like we gave the first lineup a try and are giving this small lineup a try, if it fails then go back, it couldnt hurt
aaron is a dumass!!!
rip is doing better than ai!!!
Ok Kyle since you like stats and all (Iverson vs. RIP) lmao:
Iverson PPG- 18.2
Career- 27.7
RIP PPG- 17.1
Career- 17.8
Iverson SPG- 1.7
Career-2.2
RIP SPG- 0.6
Career- 0.8
Iverson RPG- 3.6
Career-3.8
RIP RPG- 3.3
Career- 3.3
RIP Accolades:
MVP-no
All Star- 3-4 times?
Championship Ring
Career High of 51 pts
Iverson Accolades:
MVP- yes (2001)
All Star- 11? (not to include MVP there too)
Scoring titles- 4
17th All time in Career Scoring
3rd all time in PPG
NBA ROY (96-97)
Career High of 60
Not to include taking a no name 76er team to the finals against a stacked Laker team (01-02)
Just thought you would like the stats and all…I mean that is what you were goin by right? As far as on D, they both are bad you are just tryin to choose the best of the worst so good luck with that…
ai scores more per game because he takes more shots. ai is inefficient, i’m sorry, but he is. Rip happens to be extremely efficient.
rip is also a better defender, i don’t feel i need to argue this, but up until this year (coincidence?) the pistons have been a defensive juggernaut with rip playing bulk minutes. iverson has never been known for his defense or been on a team known for their defense. in fact he was universally mocked as a leader of the Enver Nuggets. 3 steals per game are negated when guys like chris duhon light you up like a christmas tree.
you’re right about ai’s individual accolades. if we could get the 97-01 iverson, i’d make him a starter without question. however, that don’t mean jack right now. this team needs to win games, not awards, and i’m sorry if the egos of ai and his fans are hurt, but strategically he’d be of more use to us coming off the bench.
however, if he can’t handle that and would rather take his ball and go home, i’ll understand it. hell, i’ll expect it.
Well Kyle,
AI scores more and takes more shots becuz he can create with the ball and be efficient something that RIP needs a PG to do…
RIP is not a good defender, you may think he is but he isn’t. Second game against Washington, for example, he got murdered by Butler but yet he is such a good defender. The 3rd game we played them we used Tay more on him and shut him down. Every two guard pretty much knows they can score on Hamilton. Duhon is decent with scoring this year, don’t underestimate him for a second especially on a team like that. I was just wondering how AI out-rebounds rip when there is at least 7-8in difference? The pistons D has been dropping off for a couple yrs now, so don’t kid yourself with it being AI’s coming that put us here.
And if you wanted the AI of 97-01, he would’ve been a more “about me” player. He knows his role on this team and I feel he is taking it well. He is a PT player that would NEVER come off of any bench. Trust me, you’re not hurting my feelings or pride, I’m just showing you truth in it.