The new players impressed and the seasoned ones did the rest. The Pistons pummeled the Memphis Grizzlies in the season opener 96-74, led by 25 from Rip Hamilton while Ben Gordon added 22. The big question has been could the two exist together, and I think they answered that one emphatically with 47 points between them.
Key Points:
- The Defense? Well it didn’t look that bad, holding the Grizz to just 74 was a nice way to start.
- I mentioned before that Charlie Villanueva was a little (and that’s being nice) lax on playing “D” but he looked like he was really trying to step it up before he got into very early foul trouble. Let’s hope that’s not an issue.
- Coach Kuester started his tenure with Detroit the right way.
- This was the team I was hoping to see this season.
- First official points from Ben Gordon as a Piston… leaning glass gunner with the shot clock expiring. Four point play, followed by a buzzer beater at the quarter. Ben impressed with 22 points on 7-12 shooting in 25 minutes on the floor.
Video Courtesy of The NBA and The Detroit Pistons
- You know how it feels for Pistons fans to see Sheed on the hated Celtics. Well just bask in the glory that Bulls fans are killing themselves right now watch Ben Gordon don the red, blue and white!
- Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon’s first Pistons points – triples.
- I love the George Blaha (don’t we all?) poster in Memphis…priceless
- Bynum is really trying to cement this whole point guard position. Bynumite with 5 points, 5 boards and 7 assists in 23 minutes.
- Rip tweaked his ankle late in the game after a very impressive performance. Hopefully he will be just fine. I was worried about him as the game started as well as the preseason but he looked great. He loses his ducktail and he gets his shot back, coincidence? I think not.
- Ben Wallace back to his “Big Ben” status? Fear the fade?
Photo/Getty Images
- Wallace not only started for Detroit, but he was very impressive making his defensive presence felt while making it contagious to his teammates. Ben finished with 9 boards, a blocked shot and 3 points in 28 minutes. Pleasant surprise…
- Rodney Stuckey 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting with three assists and two boards. I’m hoping his assists are better this season, but either way I think he’s going to be substantially better than last season.
- Tayshaun Prince looked good with 14 points, 5 boards and 3 assists in 31 minutes.
- Will rebounds be a problem? Probably – Pistons outboarded 39-49.
- I was thinking that Rip’s ego might be a little bruised by Ben Gordon but the fact that Gordon scored the coveted Dr. Rahmani commercial was like writing it in stone. That’s Rip’s gig, my man.
- Rip started slow but totally stole the show with 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting with 4 assists and 3 boards. Great start for Rip who was looking a little confused during the preseason.
Photo/Getty Images
- I’m hoping Jason Maxiell really plays the way I think he can play. Maxi with 2 points, 6 boards and a ton of hustle in 14 minutes on the floor.
- 51% shooting on the nigh – WOW.
- Charlie V started the game and scored 7. A great dunk but he’ll have to watch the fouls.
- No Austin Daye or Jonas Jerebko, (The Second coming of Detroit Bad Boys) who were both suspended for their skirmishes in the preseaon. Pistons dressed just 10 players.
- 37% for three.
- Highlights of the Game
- Nice way to make Pistons fans feel after the mess that was last season.
- I can’t wait to see what the crowd is like Friday night at the Palace. Ben Wallace with a serious ovation during the intros I predict.
Nice write-up Nat. Great start by the Pistons. Really liked the fact that Hamilton was consistently finding and knocking down the Mid range ‘J’. Can’t expect it every night, but the efficiency of Gordon and Hamilton was great. Hope we don’t have to rely on Kwame, Wilcox, or Big Ben to win us a game with their free-throw shooting 🙂 but that’s really the only negative(…and the offensive rebounds).
Tayshaun played great by the way…who said we should get rid of him????
Don’t worry about the assist numbers for the point guards. This is a Larry Brown offense and the point guards just manage the game. The offense is predicated on ball movement so the assists will be more distributed through the team, unlike a Flip Saunders offense where one pass and a shot was common.
Love your post as usual, nice to see that Pistons get back to work.
By the way, really like the new style of need4sheed.com
Very impressive win. I am hearing people say don’t get too excited it was only Memphis. I disagree. I thought they looked very sharp. Its hard to win opening night on the road. I loved Maxiel diving on the floor for the ball. This is a really good team with fight and heart. I am excited to see this team grow. Also love the new layout Natalie. I think I might love our new coach. However our home opener will be tough. Kevin Durant is the BEST player in the NBA and is on a good young squad. Should be a good game.
im junior who are you?
The O.G. Junior…get off me
u not the og junior i been on here for 2 years
hey natalie look at this.. over at a celtics blog they think rip is on the move.. what do u think about it?? http://www.celticsblog.com/2009/10/28/1104643/could-rip-hamilton-be-on-the-move
Man – if we get a center – look out. Kaman?
“Hamilton suffered the injury while being fouled by O.J. Mayo with less than five minutes remaining. X-rays were negative, but the ankle was so sore after the game that he had to be carted around the locker room in a wheelchair. We should know more after the Pistons re-evaluate him on Thursday.”
Hope Rip will be fine…
good start…I hope Joe is patient and waits till mid season to make a move(if he makes one at all). For all it’s faults, I think this squad has a big upside and could be a big time spoiler in the east. Let’s see where we are at after 20, 40 games.
What a great start to the season. I agree Natalie, WB is going after that pg position hard. Nice wrap of the game and the site looks amazing.
Great post Natalie. Yeah, Hamilton was awesome, and he showed me, since I lost faith in that quick release jumper of his. Must be his trip to the barber. Maybe knowing he’s the leader will make him even better.
Thank God that the xrays were negative.
The biggest suprise for me was that Ben gave 28 minutes. 28 strong, defensive minutes. So glad Kue chose to start Ben. Now I hope he moves Kwame into the starting rotation and Ben to PF. CV31 doesn’t have the d yet.
Good game..feels good to have a real scorer.. i dont see how tayshaun had a great game he missed every shot he took same old dude.. i seriously think this team is 1 move away to compete again.. and no dr ramani is pavel datsyuks gig if anyones.
I love the what you did to your web site, Natalie. Excellent! We had to listen to the Memphis telecast down here in Florida. Those guys kept saying, “This isn’t the way the Pistons are supposed to play this season!” Made us laugh. They looked well coached too!
Thanks to everyone for the comments about the new look of the site, I’m going to write a little post soon when we get all the features in order and tell you how it came to be.
Hadn’t seen this before…
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d6fbe73108/rip-hamilton-shops-for-some-illegal-goods
yea that celtics blog is talking about rip for ray allen? It would b good for the pistons because ray allen’s contract is up after this season and we could sign a boozer mayb? I like rip i want him to stay but we’re not a championship team rite now so moves have to b made
Oh come on! The team’s looking great right now and swapping Rip for an older pure shooting gaurd won’t make us better. Can we FINALLY stop with the trade talks for a while?
I still wish the bigs would be rewarded for their hard work on the offensive end. But with that being said I think Will Bynum is really sacrificing his shot numbers in order to embrace the point guard roll. I really love him for that. I really want to see more Wilcox and especially MAX. Tayshaun diving into the stands, Max on the floor. I love seeing stuff like that
lol ben gordon was on sportscenter top 10 in his 1st game i kno chicago fans r sick lol
i love rip and he was very impressive yesterday. but we need to trade for either kaman or marcus camby. marcus camby would be even better cuz he has an expiring contract. thoughts?
Natalie nice job on the website. I hate to start with negative thoughts so…..Gordon was great, Tay was involved, the PG’s brought it, the C’s effective and the bench was impressive. BUT I know everyone can see that CV31 is absolutely dreadful on “D”. I’ve watched him look completely lost at times and just get over powered in the post. He is just too big to get pushed around like he does. Although he does make up (a little) for the lack of “D” by giving us that step out 3. Does anyone else think someone needs to step up and tell this guy to BRING IT OR SIT ON THE BENCH. Offense sells tickets and defense wins games.
Oh and CV31 should be with Daye in strength workouts.
well they are a little bit. Notice how much Ben and Kwame and the others played while CV was on the bench. Weird thing is he actually had the most blocks. Think it proves numbers can be liars.
oh and is there any way to request halftime shows? I was so psyched when i was watching the halftime show and saw the Jabbawockeez dancing in the background. I love them. I want to see them in Pistons uniform at halftime. So cool.
He had 3 blocks. That’s not too shabby “D” if you ask me.
Charlie’s D is only going to get better from practicing with Ben every day.
Great change in the web. I loved it. Also the Pistons had a nice start but let´s not forget that there is a long way to playoffs
That was a fun game to watch. I love the inspirational defense Ben Wallace brings, including knowing when to go for blocks and when to position himself for charges. Most importantly, his method of taking a charge rather than flopping makes me happy.
What I was the most excited about was Kuester’s use of all 10 players. I wasn’t happy with starters being on the floot during the last 5 minutes of a blow out, but I did enjoy that everyone played and if our other 2 rookies would have been there this blowout may have been bigger.
We don’t have the best starting 5 anymore, but we do have a solid starting 5 who can hang with other starters and a bench that is very deep. Combining that with Keuster’s willingness to use them, I think we will beat a lot of teas in the 2nd and 3rd quarter rather than having the starters do all the work in the 1st and 3rd like we used to see.
The first I wanna say: Ben Gordon is a huge scorer. Like it was last playoffs vs C’s, he will score when the team needs it the most.
2nd: I wish RIP is healthy. When I saw this incident, I remembered Bowen’s feet D. He might be on the move? If it’s true, there must be no variants like Steph Jackson+Monta+Turiaf for RIP+Stuckey+Tay, like a man on C’s forum wrote, that’s sick!
We need a good frontcourt player now, our rebounding is awful.
3rd: CV needs to be more aggressive playing D!
We will have many nights like +10. But we sould be ready for nights like -20 vs contenders…unfortunately…
Why would we do that trade when all three of Detroit’s players are (arguably) better than the corresponding Golden State guys they are getting swapped for? Let’s chill on proposing dumb stuff that’s gonna mess our team up.
nat how do you read the reply comments? they are under the original comment and i cant c them. ???
Yes they are under the original comment and when you reply you have a little red box instead of a REPLY… We must get used to the new system, I know it’s not easy.
Also trying to get the Trophy to be a clickable link to the comment section.
Doing my best.
Hey natalie did you know Maxiell got married? http://www.mediatakeout.com/2009/36408-great_story_nba_baller_helps_fiance_overcome_cancer____and_then_gives_her_the_best_baller_wedding_of_the_year_pics_of_the_lovely_and_classy_affair_inside.html
I did Al… good for Maxie
Ha, “fear the fade.” I like it. Or “fear the funny beard braid.” That could work too.
My god… did you see Kwame get pulled to the floor while going for a rebound on that buzzer beater play that Gordon hit?
I can’t believe that doesn’t get called.
I love the new look to the site Natalie…wonderful job.