And the blows just keep on coming. The Pistons added another loss to their now 27-24 record at home to the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday night at the Palace. Detroit was in this one from start to finish, but once again couldn’t put things together enough to get the win. The 99-95 loss to the Hawks was Detroit’s last game before a much-needed All Star break.
Key Points:
- When Flip Murray is the game maker and burns you over and over again is it time to give up? Seriously, Flip Murry lit the Pistons up for 23 points on 10-18 shooting off the bench for the Hawks. Still a little funny to me that Flip took more shots for the Hawks than Joe Johnson did. Johnson led the Hawks with 27 on 10-for-16 shooting.
- Has Sheed given up? I was at the game and I was bitching (to myself) that we were going small down the stretch, again, and wondering why Sheed wasn’t in the game. On the ride home I heard Curry explain that he said that when he asked to return to the game Rasheed said he wasn’t able. An old injury re-aggravated or is there something we don’t know? Maybe he just wanted to rush home to catch the rest of the North Carolina – Duke game.
- Allen Iverson led all scorers with 28 points on 11-for-20 shooting. Great performance from AI who missed Tuesday’s game against the Bulls with Flu like symptoms. He added 3 steals and just one turnover, but the one he did give up was a critical possession late in the game that could have made a big difference in the outcome of the game.
Photo/Getty Images
- AI highlights complete with the diving assist to Rip.
- If the playoffs started Wednesday, the Pistons and Hawks would face each other. And Detroit would NOT have home court advantage.
- The Pistons actually won the war of the boards 40-35.
- They even had 45 points in the paint.
- They really have no defensive identity. Oh how we miss the Wallace x2 days.
- Rodney Stuckey struggled a bit after suffering a slight ankle sprain in Tuesday’s game with the Bulls. Rodney scored 12 on 5-for-11 shooting in 30 minutes on the floor. A complaint by many Pistons fans is that our point guard doesn’t distribute the ball…and his one assist last night is a shining example.
- Feel bad…some Jason Maxiell Highlights will make you feel good. At least it did for me when I was putting the video together. Dunk you very much Jason for easing our misery just a little with your hustle and heart.
Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and FSN
- Jason finished with 6 points, 4 boards, 2 blocked shots and a steal in 17 minutes. You can ask yourself all you want why he didn’t get more time when he was a difference maker when he was on court and when Sheed couldn’t return. Should Need4Sheed have a “mail bag” of questions for Michael Curry to answer? I think we would keep him pretty busy.
- Tayshaun Prince 12 points on 4-10 shooting, with 8 assists, 5 boards, and a steal. Thank goodness someone is racking up assists.
- 17 lead changes with the game tied 8 times.
- Double-double for Antonio McDyess with 10 points and 10 boards.
- FSN Highlights by the Quarter.
- Jason Maxiell likes to block shots, and we like to watch him do it. Al Horford……..not so much.
Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and FSN
- “For some reason, when we come home, we have a lull,” Curry said. “When we’re on the road, we’re all together and you have to fight, that’s all you got. (At home) everyone is finding reasons why we’re losing.” Via The Detroit News. Dear Mr. Curry, just so you know, in case you haven’t paid attention, IT’S NOT JUST AT HOME!
- Richard Hamilton 14 points on 6-for-16 shooting with 5 assists, 4 boards and zero turnovers.
- It may be every bit of reality that the Pistons don’t even make the playoffs. There, I said it. Just look at the standings and see for yourself. They have the same record as Miami and Philly and the only team below them in the hunt are The Bucks.
- Did you know that Antonio McDyess hit the Bulls Derrick Rose so hard that he was in tears? I knew he was hurt when watcing the game but apparently the Bulls think action should be taken against Dyess.
- Anyone have the feeling Joe Dumars is just some kind of Evil Genius and something just might happen? I am thinking if something does go down it will be after the All Star break. For all we know a deal is already put in place, but the NBA wants All Star weekend to take precedence. Just me thinking to help stop the madness in my head. But I could be right.
If i was bill davidson i woulda had curry fired a month ago.. he was a mediocure player and a shitty coach he wasnt shit and still isnt shit..well i guess he is jus plain shit.. this team is horrible and if dumars doesnt have this team contending in 2 yrs he should be fired as well.. i think he got lucky puttin together the team of misfits..i dont think he can do it again and terry foster on 97.1 agrees with me and he rides joe ds jock as hard as the people who are gonna bash me for this post.. Pistons suck i hope we make the lotto instead of playoffs.. we have no shot.
I knew we were going to move down a space or two in the east. With the rate were going at now, we won’t make the playoffs. Winning 3 out of every 10 games won’t get us there. The fact that we have the possibility of not making the playoffs should set off a nuclear bomb in Joe’s face. 6 straight eastern conf. appearances and now basically 3 games from being out. What the hell is it gonna take? joe acts so calm, “oooo it’s all part of the plan”. Bullshit you dont bring AI to a team and expect to do this bad. He needs to punch Curry in the face, fire him, and cut his loses. Get avery johnson for christs sake.
I really hope that something happens before the All Star break. This is ridiculous. Is there any possibility of Jeff Van Gundy looking to coach again? I’d rather try out Laimbeer rather than Avery honestly.
Eddie Jordan anyonone?
From what I hear Laimbeer isn’t in the running for the job. He’s got a bit of a reputation and his coaching style and attitude may not bode well with NBA egos.
That’s just what I have been told when I mentioned him as coach a few seasons back.
I don’t think Sheed’s heart is into basketball anymore.
And Davidson simply doesn’t care enough about winning. If he did we’d be adding pieces. Actual productive pieces, not guys that’ll never make an impact on the team like Walter. SA replaces parts year after year, and it’s usually successfully. Truthfully our bench has completely sucked (and I don’t count Rip asa bench player, more like our 6th starter. Even our “monster gamble trade” was a cost-cutting measure. Just because we’re in uncharted waters with this group doesn’t make it interesting. I’m not sensing it from the players.
And more food for thought. Do the Pistons REALLY THINK Stuckey is “the future of the franchise?” Or is it just a euphemism for “we need to think of a clever excuse for dumping Chauncey’s contract onto someone else?” Until the organization gets serious about winning rather than just recording profits, then fan interest will continue to disintegrate. The Pistons are a DISTANT 4th fiddle in the City of Detroit.
LETS GO RED WINGS! SIGN MARIAN HOSSA AND FRANZEN! LETS TURN THIS INTO A RED WINGS SHRINE! woooooooo!!!
Dumars should have every player walking around with a “For Sale” sign from now to the trade deadline.
Depressing stat from ESPN:
The Hawks’ victory at Detroit dropped the Pistons’ record in home games to 14-13 this season, including a 3-11 mark at The Palace against teams that are currently above the .500 mark. Only the Timberwolves (2-15), Kings (2-11) and Clippers (3-15) have a worse record in home games against teams with a winning record than the Pistons.
How about all us spoiled fans accept a losing season? Wow what a thought. If we do make the playoffs who cares what seed we are. If I remember correctly the Hawks took the Celts (champions) to 7 games last year as an 8th seed. The year before the Warriors took Dallas down in the first round and they were an 8 seed. It really doesnt matter what seed you finish in, it just makes it an easier road.
Regardless I’m convinced and have been all year that the NBA (David Stern and his crooked refs) already knows who will be in the finals. Cavs vs. Lakers. Its all about the ratings ladies and gentlemen.
Oh yeah. Kobe wins this year vs. Lebron then next year Lakers dont make it but Cavs do against whomever. Lebron will have his championship in 2010 before he becomes a free agent and stays in Cleveland.
The big mean man hurt me! No fair! Doesn’t he know I’m special? Setting hard picks is for poopyheads! I’m going to tell Daddy Stern! Waaaaaaaaaaah!
Reading through I think everyone is down but I think I have a video that might make might help people put things into perspective.
Just replace “girlfriend broke up with me” to “pistons lost” and “stiletto shoes?” with “nikes?”
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154323
Just remember “don’t go gentle into that good night”
Heh, thanks for the pick-me-up Prince. As a Lions fan I’ve built up quite an immunity to this sort of crap so watching the Pistons struggle doesn’t really get me down. Besides, it’s trading season and Dumars has never been shy about making a big splash. Who knows what will happen in the next week?
we could trade iverson, amir, and sheed to phoenix for amare, leandro, and shaq
Why on earth would we get rid of two huge expiring contracts for barbosa and Shaq?
According to RealGM Sheed and Amir for Amare works perfect for their respective contracts.
Sheed30,
Actually now looking at it salary wise it works and we would be gaining 15.2 ppg, 4.7 rpg but losing 2.7 apg.
Now Shaq is having a comeback of a year but who knows when the wheels will fall off that old beatdown pickup. I say we try for Amir/Sheed first and then consider other options.
Damn if we gave them Sheed that would have to make the avg. age of their starting lineup around 34…is Kerr really that stupid?
I’m not all that high on Stoudamire. His defense stinks and he’s probably going to want a $20,000,000 contract in a few years. I’d love to get Bosh but Toronto would have to be desperate to trade him to an Eastern Conference rival. As much as I’d like to see the Pistons make a trade and try to salvage this season their best bet may be to wait for free agency.
that trade would be dumb. i mean r u actually considering our D? losing sheed and amir for amare? i mean it would deffinitely be a huge offensive boost but will be left to defend?
You know what I always liked coming on here to talk about Pistons but it’s really annoying when EVERY POST gets taken over by trade talks. Man, I know something needs to happen, but I don’t need to read about trades every single time I come on here.
“Anyone have the feeling Joe Dumars is just some kind of Evil Genius and something just might happen?”
LOL! You Dumars “in joe we trust” IDIOTS!
This was Joe’s call this lost season and god knows how many more seasons until the pistons return to their level just last year is on Joe.
FIRE JOE, FIRE CURRY
Left to defend? I havnt seen much defending going on from anybody on our current team. I take that back, Dyess defends.
I think one of the biggest problems we have right now is our inability to force turnovers. The Hawks had only 7 turnovers last night! 7 off a young team like that is pathetic, and you wonder why Detroit is struggling.
With the speed and defensive capabilities, it is amazing our defense was so ineffective.
Yeah I agree. That and the fact that Stuckey is not a true PG and more of a SG. Not many assists now that Bup-Bup is gone.
LETS GO RED WINGS!
Pistons Pride
Something positive: J-Max has #6 and #3 in Wednesday top 10 plays.
Screw this team. We are not going to win this season. Joe D is waiting for 2009 and 2010 because he thinks he can actually get someone good. Nobody is going to get traded. We have no many bad players and old players that nobody wants. We know without a trade there is no hope for championship. So lets atleast trade AI and Wallace for someone who does not even get paid a million bucks and just increase our cap room. The player does not have too be good just very cheap. And lets not play at all this season and be a bad team so we can get a good draft pick. That is the only option if we are not going to trade and get much better players escpecially in defense.
Joe is cooking something interesting, you’ll see…
The problem with having so much success as a basketball team is that when you don’t continue to have it things can get really bad. For players and for us fans. Sure I don’t like what’s been going on this season, but at least they’re not the Clippers, Bucks, Thunder, Grizzlies, Nets, I could go on forever. I probably wouldn’t even watch basketball at all if one of those were “my team”. All I hope is that Joe D. didn’t just get lucky with this team’s success and he’s secretly terrible at his job. I would have never thought anything like that in years past, but some of things he’s done recently really have me wondering.
Hey, when chris bosh got injured, why wasn’t rasheed wallace selected as an all star reserve? Oh yeah, because he is over rated and mo williams has more talent in his pinkie finger than sheed has in his entire body.
bronzilla
you smell ugly.
And sheed is still better than mo, sorry dude, I know you Cleveland fans love comparing yourselves to us and all we’ve accomplished these last few seasons, but jeez. I got a lot of respect for Mo Williams and his game so don’t cheapen his all star status by being a dusche.
It’s just so sad watching them now. I dont think really any trade is going to do them any good. They don’t play with PASSION! Doesnt matter who you get, without passion and fire you will get rolled by any team any night. It seems to me that they just go to practice, go to the game, collect their paycheck, and go home. No TEAM attitude. At this point, Curry neeeedds to go, Joe D better get his shit together or he is out, and to me right now, the best situation would be to trade Rip to Denver. That would make him happy, and we would get to watch Rip and Chauncey play together again and witness some TEAM basketball!
i am deffinitely a detroit fan but mo is muchhhh more valuable than sheed..
Like I said earlier, AI did lead our team in scoring, YET his mistakes at the end of the game ruined our chances of coming back. The turnover late and taking too much time to score with only 15 seconds left.
Can’t wait til 09-10
good point, nat. the deal probably let amare play out west as a starter, so he wouldn’t have to come off the bench behind Howard. hadn’t thought of that. I’m still putting my faith in Joe. This is chess, not checkers. He’s got something brewing.
LOL!! “AI blew the game” LOL! hahaha. You fukin make me laugh xD. AI made one mistake and your all over him. What about the rest of his effort? That didn’t count? What abt ur beloved Rodney Stucky aka “wannabe d-wade”, he didn’t make any mistakes? LOL.
DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE THAT IN THE SLO-MO REPLAY OF MAXIELL’S DUNK, IF YOU LOOK AT THE HAWKS’ BENCH, YOU CAN SEE ONE OF THE PLAYERS REACTION.
LOOK WHAT HE DOES.
TOP RIGHT CORNER.
HE’S LIKE “OH DAMN!” AND IS HOLDING BACK THE GUY NEXT TO HIM EXPECTING THAT HE’S GOING TO START GOING NUTS AFTER A CRAZY DUNK BY J-MAX.
Rip obviously blew the game he was 6 for 16. All 10 of those shots he missed were dumb ass shots that he either rushed or he just felt like being a ball hog. Every time we got close, Rip would blow away a possession by taking a dumb shot. Curry should’ve put Maxy in for him with 4 mins left in the game. We would’ve won. Sheed (and many timed Dice) dont contest shots at the rim leading to a lot of easy lay-ups. Every ones talking about Amare. We don;t need another selfish superstar, we should be trying to get Chris Kaman. He would fit in nicely and the clips are trying to give him away
I don’t mind that Rip missed shots, no one is on every night. We all know he can just as easily made all of those shots. Don’t look at it as a game to game thing. Look for consistant shittiness, like coaching, Amirs fouling, Kuames horrible hands, Stucks ball hoggin, Stucks total lack of D. Thats what you should be complaining about not a bad shooting night from Rip. Also look at the lack of offense from Tay, its Stucks fault. If stuck passes, he passes to Rip or AI. But for the most part he sets players up for bail out shots deep in the shot clock.
Okaii i hope duriing the All-Star break they can get back and play better!!!!! I THIINK WE SHOULD STIILL TRY TO TRADE FOR AMARE STOUDEMIIRE NOW!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with American Prince saying about getting tired of trade talk. I hate all of that talk it just makes me more mad.
About last night I think Jason did amazing with all his dunks and blocks. What’s been up with Tayshaun’s defense lately, players have just been blowing by him like he’s invisible. I think Stuckey has to learn about when to pass the ball like Max-Aholic said. I’m getting so tired of blown games. The Pistons better get it together after the All-Star break or if they keep on blowing games they might not make the playoffs and that would be a terrible thing. I know the fans would just hate that.
The Pistons better do something over All-Star break to keep them from blowing more games.
After the trade deadline, if the team somehow remains the same, we will be a much better team than we are right now. As of now, it seems like [we] are showcasing our talent, rather than trying to win (say it ain’t so Joe.) Some players seem to be on a different page. The saga continues…
50 Cent much? lol
http://i44.tinypic.com/drdp9h.jpg
50 Cent much?
http://i44.tinypic.com/drdp9h.jpg
I dont think my first link went through..
All this talent and the Pistons can’t put together a clutch play to close out a game (something they used to be able to do). The last four games (with some variation) Dyess, Rip, A.I., Tay, and Maxiell have played hard and played well. So, why can’t we make a play to win close games? Because Curry can’t coach! Until Joe fires Curry or the players revolt and perform a coup, I will worry for this team. What happened to the days when teams were lucky to score 85 points on the Pistons? The Rip/A.I. chemistry problem seems to not be an issue anymore and they still can’t win a game. Ugh. Come on Joe! Make the call and fire Curry.
I heard from someone today that the deal was pending to trade Rasheed, Amir, and a first round pick to the Suns for Amar’e.
I don’t know where they got their source, as it’s nowhere online.
I’d hate to see ‘Sheed go if that were the case.
two words. big man. we need to get a big man that can start next to sheed. amir aint it. im sorry. he cant score and he cant stay out of foul trouble. and i still dont get how he has moved up in the ranks above max when last year max was tearing it up. i honestly would rather have kwame start instead of amir.
We should have traded Sheed in ’05 after he left Horry wide open in Game 5 of the finals. Or in ’06 after he unwisely guaransheed we would not come back to Cleveland. What good is his talent if he can’t play his best game against a superior opponent?
The best in the short run, though, would be to keep Sheed and trade AI for Shaq. Shaq could make us big and BAD again and maybe bring Sheed out of his slumber. We need some BADNESS!
I AGREE WITH THAT ONE, SEND AI, ACKER AN A DRAFT PICK TO PHOENIX AND TEH PISTON GET SHAQ AND BARBOSA.
I MADE THE TRADE IN THE ESPN THING AND IT WORKED OUT
I hate to say this but I have totally given up on the pistons and I think the Pistons have given up on themselves. Just to hear that Michael Curry asked Sheed to go in and he didn’t want or he was supposivly hurt just makes my point even clearer. Joe D needs to make a huge change that should involve Rasheed and maybe Tay. The Iverson-Billups trade was a mistake Billups needed time and Iverson works better with the Nuggets than with the Pistons. As all of you can see the Nuggets record is way better than the Pistons. Almost forgot the only Pistons that care- DYESS for suree! Rip-most of the time, and Stuckey
I don’t think Sheed is coming back after this year anyway so if you can use him to get a great center or power forward now DO IT!!! And then you still have AI’s contract coming off the books after this season to once again a center or power forward. (Basically the opposite of what you don’t get for Sheed) If Joe can somehow pull that off, watch out next year. Oh yeah, and get a real coach too.
I like how after games now Curry is saying basically it’s up to the players to play and he has nothing to do with the mistakes they make. Well actually Mike, the players are pretty much a reflection of what you’d like to see on the basketball court so stop passing the buck, and except the fact that you suck as a coach.