Need4Sheed Guest Writer: @_dannyb_
Email: Boney
When you see my name and picture at the beginning of a post, I guess that means it’s been another lopsided loss in a season full of disappointment for the Detroit Pistons. So far this season I’ve covered perhaps 2 of the worst losses of the 2009-2010 season for the Pistons, and this game will make it 3. At the beginning of the season, when I looked at the schedule I knew that this 3 week stretch of games (Washington, Utah, Cleveland (2x), Boston (2x), New York, Atlanta) could make or break this Pistons’ season. Who knew that not only would the Pistons not be in position to make the playoffs, but that their only win will likely come from beating the lowly Washington Wizards? Let’s get to the “highlights” shall we?:
Final Score 93-119
Key Points:
- The game was over after 12 minutes. After scoring only 15 points in the first quarter, and losing their starting SF (Tayshaun Prince), Coach Q might as well have thrown in the towel. Tay went down hard from a blow to that back from Jason Maxiell’s knee. The doctors evaluated him on the spot and said it didn’t look like it had anything to do with his prior back injury but it looked awful nonetheless.
- Rajon Rondo’s stat line (3pts, 6ast, 4stl) doesn’t show how tenacious he was on the defensive end. He was up in Will Bynum’s jersey all night and poking at the ball and creating turnovers for Bynum, Hamilton, Prince, and Gordon.
- I can’t remember the last time I saw Rasheed Wallace attempt only 1 three pointer. He scored 8 points and had 4 rebounds in 17 minutes on the floor. He has lost a few steps this season but, he still has my respect for helping this team the way he did from 04-08 (he didn’t do much in 09).
- Jonas Jerebko was in foul trouble early, but it’s to be expected when he’s guarding veterans like Paul Pierce and KG who are able to get whistles from the referees. Jerebko, although he had 10 points with a couple of nice dunks when the game was out of reach, was virtually a non-factor all game.
- Ben Gordon’s best play as a Piston came on a baseline drive where he took Michael Finley off the dribble, but when he jumped up for the teardrop, Big Baby Davis stepped in front to draw a charge.
- I’ve got a question for the Boston fans: How does a man, wait “man”, who is listed at 289lbs, fall down so easily when a 6’3 200lb guard hits him? Didn’t BBD play football at one point in his life? I don’t want to say the man flops but, the man flops.
- Rodney Stuckey and Ben Wallace were out again, with injuries. Stuckey took part in the afternoon shootaround, but as was reported during the game, the medical staff has a heart rate monitor on him and they are monitoring his every move by keeping his workouts light.
- Charlie Villanueva was nowhere to be found on either end of the court tonight. The past couple of games I’ve watched (or really the entire season) he just looks like he doesn’t care. He’s making $7m per season (average) and is lucky to see 20 minutes a night, and honestly I believe that’s only because Ben Wallace is hurt.
- The first half looked like a layup drill for the Boston Celtics.
- Kwame Brown allowed 2 easy layups by misreading screen and rolls. That’s what Kwame is here for right? Defense?
- Will Bynum was quiet and could not establish a rhythm all night as the paint was locked down and Rondo, as mentioned earlier, was basically wearing his jersey all night.
- Richard Hamilton played with what looked like 0 enthusiasm all night. He was a team worst -22 in +/-.
- You know, I didn’t really want to say anything but… DaJuan Summers was likely the only one who played solid basketball off the bench tonight. He scored 12 points on 4-5 from the field (2-2 from 3), and played solid D against Pierce and Garnett. I’ve been personally calling for DaJuan to get some minutes the entire season.
- Paul Pierce played 17 minutes and had 15 points. With Tayshaun out early, and the game out of reach as well, Boston was able to sit their starters for over half the game (except Rondo).
- Old man Michael Finley bested his career ppg numbers (14.7 ppg in 36 minutes per game) against the Pistons by scoring 15 tonight in 14 minutes of action.
- Kendrick Perkins picked up his 15th technical on the season by getting tangled up with DaJuan Summers in the first half. Nate Robinson picked up a technical for hanging on the rim at the end of the game after a dunk. No techs for Sheed though.
- Coach Q speaks (from AP): “They were good. We were bad. It was one of the few games that our energy wasn’t the way it should be, and I’m disappointed with the way we played.” – I’d say that of the 3 games I’ve guest written for, that all 3 games had the same amount of energy or less.
- No reason for Tony Allen to throw a lob off the glass to Nate Robinson when up 20+, with a minute to go in the game. Nate picked up a tech for hanging on the rim, but they both would’ve picked up a forearm shiver in the throat if the old Bad Boys had any say in it.
- This team is bad. This team needs a few pieces, and to build a new identity. Right now there’s nothing. They’re one of the worst offensive teams, one of the worst teams defensively, they’re a shell of their former selves.
- Game Recap from NBA.com, where you can also she how Tay went down.
[flashvideo file=http://nba.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/games/celtics/2010/03/15/0020900992_det_bos_recap.nba_nba_576x324.flv /]
I’m sorry if I’m like the Grim Reaper of the game recaps, I don’t mean to pick games that Detroit will get blown out in. I figure by picking an Indiana, New York and struggling Boston team that they would’ve won at least 1 of the games. Tonight’s game reminded me of those old Harlem Globetrotter highlights against the Washington Generals. Aside from Jonas Jerebko’s 2 sorta highlight worthy fast break dunks, none of the Pistons did anything that will jump off the highlight reel or stat sheet. It’s hard to even really say the talent is there at this point, because without the backcourt having a big game night in and night out, guys like Jerebko and Maxiell can’t produce in the paint. Unless the effort is there on the defensive end, they simply can’t outrun and outgun teams for some reason. The names on the score sheet have put up solid ppg stats their entire careers, but for some reason this season it just hasn’t clicked even when they’ve all been healthy.
Thanks again to Natalie for letting me give this game a writeup. I hope I get to do 1 more before the end of the season because, win or lose, this is fun and it’s fun to read all your feedback good or bad. You can follow me on twitter (@iamboney) or email me at boneyinbox@gmail.com.
A Boney sighting! But seriously, if you writing that Kwame Brown didn’t perform up to snuff, I think you should take up water polo.
I didn’t realize he was still in the league.
And is that yet another Boney email address?
hopefully we can trade those awful picks from the free agency last year. hopefully someone will take their contracts they just dont fit with our system. Maybe the warriors will take on cv and new york would love bg. who else’s contract is up this year? Will bynum and big ben i hope we keep them around. i think chucky and kwame are done after this season. so basically we are hoping for a lottery pick mmmmm doesnt look good next year. joe pull the trigger and look for those trades son.
The only thing we will get in the offseason for BG and CV are equally as bad, equally as long contracts. Almost the entire league thought it was dumb to sign those two to those deals, this season only validated that opinion.
I don’t think the Nate Robinson dunk was out of line at all, and I doubt you would feel the same way if it were the other way around. From Tony Allen’s perspective, he’s got a wide open break and one of the best dunkers in the league trailing him, Nate is new teammate so anything you can do help him adjust and get his confidence up is a plus, and you’ve got thousands of fans you want to put a show on for. If the Pistons don’t want teams doing that do them, then stop turning the ball over and play some D, don’t just throw a classless forearm to your opponents throat after the fact… thats thuggishness not toughness.
jesse your right im just trying to be a bit more positive. there are some teams that make some dumb trades lets hope we can fish them out. if not lets hope bg and cv put in effort every game i see them just standing around.
I know this year is disappointing, but I’m not changing teams!!! I was surprised when the announcers Hubie and whats his name critized the Celtics for that bounce off the backboard and the dunk by (forgot his name). Usually they back the other team, but they thought it was trashy. And really Boston you are clearly not that good anymore. Maybe if you were beating Orlando or Cleveland, but really…
I don’t believe in pulling any punches. Too bad if you get made a mockery of in the world of professional sports. Maybe tonight they will play with some damn heart.
Well since im a celtics fan I guess I’ll answer the question, the reason Big Baby falls down so easily is because hes exactly what his name suggests, hes a f*ckin giant baby. I like what he does on the offensive end with his nice mid-range game but I wish he could play defense.
While I’m on the subject of the celtics, the alley-oop wasn’t out of line at all, it was just to entertain the fans, much like what they did in the ’08 finals against the Lakers, game 6, when eddie house threw the alley-oop to (you gussed it) Tony Allen during the 4th quarter when they game was basically finished a quarter and a half ago. Its in TA’s blood to show off, hes been doing it his entire career, its even how he injured himself, attempting a dunk after there was a foul called to show off, except he landed awkwardly on his leg and he was never the same player after that, which is too bad because he would’ve turned into a fine player if he didnt screw up his leg (it was his 3rd year in the NBA averaging 11.5 ppg, now its his 6th year in the league averaging 6 ppg).
I didn’t mean to write a script, just to clear some stuff up since its the team I follow most closely (side-note: I didn’t mean to sound like a homer, I’ve always enjoyed watching the Pistons for years and other teams this year like the Grizzlies, OKC and the Hawks)
that nate robinson dunk was pretty spectacular. This whole game was torture to watch, our guys were just laying down on defense. It was like they didnt want to be there. Except for Summers and Jerebko. If you’re not gonna even try, why are you even playing in the NBA? Are you just picking up a paycheck?
At least someone was having fun that’s how I saw the dunk.
you know nate is the slam dunk champion but he typically only gets 3 or 4 dunks an entire season, because of the position he plays he doesn’t get a chance to dunk much. Tayshaun can get more dunks in a game but of course they dont look that spectacular because tay doesnt have to jump that much to dunk.
I dont get why anyone gets mad at things like bynum’s 20 assists or this nate robinson dunk or “excessive celebration”. I like it when it seems like the players are having fun, I mean that’s why we watch. We got our boring real life jobs, watching the NBA is an escape from that.
Funny article – http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Antonio-McDyess-tried-to-break-Jason-Maxiell?urn=nba,228308
Boney has now written about as many articles as I have this year, haha. Good work!
There’s a difference between dunking on someone and showboating on a breakaway with a minute to go in the game..
Tony Allen should be embarrassed that he’s relegated to mop up duty now with Michael Finley on the team and as far as Nate Robinson is concerned? I don’t care how many dunks he does or does not get in an NBA game. It’s not about the position he plays, it’s about his lack of height and his inability to take his man off the dribble and finish over top of 7 footers at the rim. If Will Bynum can dunk on people’s heads, then Nate should be able to.
Interesting article, I am now a subscriber!