The Pistons did their best to try to pull out another game without Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, but the Raptors didn’t cooperate with Detroit’s plans. Detroit went down 99-110 in Toronto after another gutsy effort.
Key Points:
- Another start for Jonas Jerebko and his first NBA points. Hustle from Jerebko and defensive effort turned into 2 blocks, 3 boards and 8 points.
- Though not a 20 point night, Rodney Stuckey put up a solid double-double with 10 boards, 13 points and 4 assists.
- We have to face facts, it’s clear that Detroit desperately needs front court help. They can’t count on the guards to do all the scoring.
- I’m getting Ben Wallace DeJa vu. He’s as closer to the Ben that left to go to Chicago than I could have ever imagined. Now Kuester needs to limit his time a bit more so this lasts all season. Wallace finished with 9 boards and 6 points.
- Toronto became the first team this season to score more than 100 points against Detroit. Does that mean the “D” is officially back? Probably not, but it’s a refreshing surprise.
- Another heroic effort from Will Bynum, who did his best in the fourth to get the Pistons back in it. He tied the game up with this drive and finished the game with16 points, 6 assists and a steal in 33 minutes. I know he prefers “The Thrill” but I can’t help screaming Bynumite, when he does something spectacular like this…
Video Courtesy of The NBA and The Detroit Pistons
- Austin Day looks a lot like Tayshaun on court, especially when he’s blocking people with those long arms. Daye logged 16 minutes, blocking 2 shots, with 3 boards and 5 points.
- Jason Maxiell got 10 minutes of floor time and added a bit of a spark. A nice putback with 3 boards with 4 points.
- By the way….how many “trade rumor” stories did you read after the Orlando game?
- 20 trips to the line for Bosh, that’s big.
- How much do you enjoy watching Ben Gordon? I’m sure I’ll be writing this again but… Ben Gordon put up a career high in a Pistons uniform while leading the team with 30 points. He’s truly putting this team on his back with Rip and Tay out. Oh and I’m enjoying the fact the Bulls fans are sick about it.
Photo/Getty Images
- First official NBA time for DaJuan Summers who saw 40 seconds.
- Pistons shot well, shooting 45% for the game, but needed to get some stops down the stretch and couldn’t.
- Charlie Villanueva played his best game as a Piston against the team that drafted him. A pretty good stat line in all departments with 16 points, 7 boards a steal and a block. He’s looking better in red, white and blue every night.
- Tough to play a back to back shorthanded, especially after the battle against Orlando. You could clearly see the effort, but they just fell flat mid fourth quarter.
- A little more Ben
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McLiWRHWxJw
- Good to see Amir Johnson get some time on court. He really helped Toronto when the Pistons started making a run in the third.
- A day of rest and a tough rematch in Orlando Friday night. I hope someone bring some more Kryptonite.
- My good friend Ryan over at HoopsAddict got the inside scoop in the Pistons locker room last night. I’ll quote him, and then send you over for the audio. “Tonight the Pistons locker room was pure jokes, hence Rip Hamilton free styling before the game about “pimpin’ ain’t easy fo’ sheezy” Pre and post game audio over at Hoopsaddict.com
nat u hit hit the nail when u said we need some frontcourt help. charlie can score in bunches but he to gel some more, but hes more of a shooter fadeaway guy, rather than a banger.
so y not trade rip not tayshaun but rippp. ben gordon has been terrific, just a scoring machine. i like rip but it time for him to go, we need someone that will bang inside.
You know it kind of bugs me that everyone’s saying frontcourt help when the guards are the ones not even passing the ball inside or anything. I would say we need frontcourt help if i didn’t think any big we bring in would barely touch the ball with the guards we have. Ben Gordon said in his Lasik commerical “im known for my scoring, but soon everyone will see i have a lot more to offer” well I’m still waiting to see more
small ball killed us in the 4th
But Ben Wallace and Jason Maxiell I think are going to be a great tandum for us this season. Can’t wait for more Pistons basketball. And hope we can really make some noise this season.
About Will: Well, Nat, how about we form it and come up with something else; ‘The Bynamic Thrill’? Just something random I thought of.
Trades: I have no feeling about these trades right now, but in all honesty, I don’t see Tayshaun going anywhere if anything does fall through, he just does to much for us to get rid of. Hamilton, sad to say it, but would be the first to go if (and that’s a BIIIG if) things does fall through. We have Gordon to fill the void, get more bang for our buck. Yeah, Rip can score and he’s been starting to create his own. But Gordan has been doing that sense he got to the league and make big time shots (I’m still not giving him the nickname of Big Shot Ben that I have read in other posts prior of this game. I still haven’t seen enough from him to even consider that).
Development: But in all honesty, I don’t see trades in the future.. not the near future to be a bit more specific. We got help in the power positions; Charlie is doing what we want him to do (on the offensive end), Kwame is (finally) coming into his own with hustle and defensive plays and Wallace is doing exactly what we all hope he was going to do when we heard of his return, play defense and bring intimidation back to the paint with a touch of leadership.
and here’s a nice article from ESPN on will and the pistons.
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/10323/will-bynum-and-the-pistons-make-a-statement
I love that picture of Stuckey and Will. I’m gonna silkscreen it.
Comon guys, stop all this Trade Rip stuff. RIP IS OUR BESTTTTTTT PLAYER! He’s the only leader on the team!And if We traded him, BG would have to start. But we need some bench scoring from somoene other than bynum too. Did you guys not see how bad we were without Rip? Rip plays great D also. Comon guys, Rip is our leader now. It’s HIS team! He’s not going anywhere, and I hate to say it, but if Joe D makes another mistake and sends rip out,then its all over, the pistons will be back to the beggining, no championship hopes for a WHILE. Trust me. Rip is our bread and butter. No one knows our system like he does and no one on the team is really a leader like him now that C-bills is gone. You guys gotta realize, Rip does everything for us. We need him back.
i totally agree. i am sick of ppl saying they want Rip gone. Just shut up already… he deserves to be a Piston… PERIOD
Another Game analysis!! by me:
First and foremost, we got to consider we are short handed with argubely two of our best players out, so we cant expect the greatest.
Second topic that I think we need to address is what natalie said, front court help. we cant expect our guards to dribble the whole team as they are doing and drain a shot. I think we saw why chris wilcox hasnt been playing… he was by far the worst player coming off the bench contributing nothing to the game besides easy points for chris bosh.
Although we say they need front court help, the guards are putting to much on their shoulder also. I dont understand why bynum and stuckey find the need to dribble and dribble to find an open shot the whole time or drive in when we move the ball around. did we not see how toronto moved the ball around us making us look like a high school team? I think bynum and stuckey again, need to play more like true point gaurds.
Charlie Villanueva really needs to start stepping it up. Start hitting the threes you are known to make and start playing some defense good defense. all im asking is for effort on on the d. He is still new to the team and it might take a little to get used, but hes got talent.
The ben’s had a really solid game like usuall, which is something we need “constincincey”. Jonas jerebko is a work horse and I love his tenacity. Kwame played decent and maxiell gave us some really good minutes. Austin daye stepped it up big time helping us with the comeback.
All in all, we cant forget the two players that were missing. If we have tay and rip in our lineup, and guys who have plenty of experience closing out games, we woulda won this game for sure. But not a bad effort at all. a little frustrating at times when they passed around us, but i say give it some time detroit fans will see progress. what you guys think?
If I hear anymore trade talk, I’m going to just tune it out. The Pistons haven’t even played 10 games! It’s just absurd! Am I the only one who noticed that without Rip out there running non-stop our offense is stagnant? The guys just stand around until they are forced to move. Without Tay, there isn’t an experienced defender in the forward position. Jerebko does a great job, but he doesn’t know the opponents strengths and weaknesses like Tay. And Tay is incredibly consistent offensively.
Why don’t people wait to see what the whole team looks like when everybody is healthy before making these ridiculous trade assumptions?
The boys almost got the win.
The same plays that got the Magic bigs into foul trouble did not work last night against Bargnani and Bosh. Yet, the ball wasn’t passed inside too often. Coach Kue will probably fix that soon.
Give them some more time. The defense needs to gel a bit; at times they looked liked they were scrambling to cover their guys. Wallace will help them along on defense. (Doesn’t Wallace look younger this year than he did last year.)
i EJOYED THE RUN THEY MADE IN THE END , THEY STARTED STRONG BUT GAVE up on defense alittle then turned it on agian it was exciting to see some of the chemistry when your watching them play.thety are gonna surprise people that arent Pistons fans, this team is gonna be awsome .I alson think they should use Summers more that guy is a built like a tank .Go Pistons
What is rediculous is that the requested frontcourt help is within the grip of Kuester… Play Chris Wilcox and Maxiell! Bulk up Kwames minutes a bit, let the guys play! Wilcox can truly be effecitve in the right situation, and that ain’t about eleven minutes per game!
Something im thrilled to se though is Gordon and Stuckey facing up some bigger guard and see how they hold up!
Willcox can’t play defense. He looked lost out there!!
It’s not about who’s the best player one the team, we won’t have money to add more pieces. And this organization is not very fund of the idea of tanking the season for better draft picks, besides Joe really can’t draft.
So lets trade Rip+Tayshuan for a some expiring salary, and go after those big names next year. What’s wrong with being the last in the east this year and get some top picks + plus free agent money.
“this organization is not very fond of the idea of tanking the season for better draft picks, besides Joe really can’t draft…”
“What’s wrong with being the last in the east this year and get some top picks…”
Think about what you just said, man….
It all has begun when 2nd units first came out, 22points for Raptors’ bench. Then it was a foul every attack on Bosh or Wright or Jack. Everytime.
Daye had a nice start in the 4th, but then he took 2 shots that could turn the game, missed them and fouled on Bosh again. Wilcox – what the hell he is doing on the court?! 5 fouls in 10 mins, 3 desperation ugly horrible unprepared shots…he killed me.
CV…how can you say anything positive about a man who is a giant hole on the defensive end! When Wright took a ball right from his hands under our basket and made 2 points…it was ugly. You gotta be a man if you are PF 6’10 or what???
BG was our hope, well, all of our backcourt players were good, but BG was incredible, made shot after shot after shot to keep us in the game. Stuckey’s 1st Q was great, but his 3 fouls…he was sittin’ on a bench when 2nd unit of Raptors killed us. Bynum made some real needed buckets, but his turnovers, he lost it on the dribble 2 times without opponent’s help…
We, actually, were bad. And 3 quarters it was all Toronto. Maybe some positive flashes, but Detroit Pistons not even close to the level we want them to be yet, let’s be honest with ourselves
I want 5th win in a row against Orlando now. GO DEEEETROOOIT BASKETBAAAALLL!!!!!!!!
Rip and Tay (who had over 400 consecutive games in a row) just happen to be injured too badly to play at all? Maxiel is the last big off of the bench? Come on fans! You can’t see a trade is imminent? It’s at least in the works. It might fall through but Joe is trying to unload these guys. No?
So that means that if a player doesn’t play, then he’s going to be traded? In that case, let’s get Rashard Lewis. C’mon! When is an injury just an injury? Rip got hurt on TV in front of the camera! Didn’t you see it?
Yeah I kind of agree with lori, if anything I would expect guys like Max to be showcased more than benched if he were going to be traded. And if we do happen to make a trade it’s not going to happen til a lot closer to the trade deadline so Joe can see what he has. But to be honest I don’t see a trade a happening. Especially for Tayshaun, we pretty much have him and Austin Daye at the 3 if we trade tay then we have to play smallball and it will be clear Joe Dumars really isn’t concerned about defense anymore. So I really think we should stop with the trade talks. Let’s talk about the team more. We all have players we would love to see in a Pistons uniform but come on this trade talks can get a little distracting people
how are you guys now figuring villanueva was never a good defender or a fantastic rebounder? he’s never been either :/