When defense is the key to the Suns victory and their key player is Jared Dudley, those facts alone can probably tell the story about how the Pistons performed. Dudley, who had 19 points in the second quarter, helped the Suns go on a 22-4 in the second to make the rest of the game an uphill battle for Detroit.
Key Points:
- The Suns made a point of trapping Tracy McGrady, who started as the Pistons point guard, making it difficult for him to run the offense for the Pistons.
- Rip knocked down a 3-pointer that brought the Pistons within 4 points with 9 minutes left before the half, but backup point guard Dragic answered with his own and started the the Suns on a 14-2 run. Rip finished the game with just 5 points and a -30 (+/-) on the night.
- Late in the fourth DaJuan Summers got some court time which resulted in a little scrum with Grant Hill that resulted in a double technical foul.
- Do you realize that the Pistons have the highest scoring bench in the league.
- You would have thought Kuester could have made some adjustments to stop the runs the Suns went on as well as the trouble the Pistons were having with the defense.
- Charlie V with 10 points and 3 boards in 25 minutes.
- Even before this game the question was, how can they beat a team like Boston and struggle with a team on the ropes like the Suns, who were on a four game losing streak and was getting used to their new players acquired by the trade.
- Sad stat, the Pistons are winless in 12 games when trailing after three quarters.
- Detroit was led by Ben Gordon with 19 on 8-19 shooting, with 6 boards, and 3 assists in 41 minutes on the floor.
- The first half was a turnover festival for the Pistons. 14 on the night for Detroit, 5 coming from T-mac thanks to the Suns defense.
- Chris Wilcox left the game with a groin pull and didn’t return.
- Play Daye, 9 points and 8 boards in 20 minutes.
- Surprised Monroe didn’t get more than 13 minutes.
Kuester: “We’ve got to have a different mindset when we go on the road. We’ve got to have that toughness that we talk about continually.”
- Highlights of the game via NBA.com
[flashvideo file=http://nba.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/games/suns/2010/12/31/0021000482_det_phx_recap.nba_nba_576x324.flv /]
- Prince with 12 points on 2-for-10 shooting.
- 12-27 from downtown for Phoenix.
- Stuckey didn’t make the trip to Phoenix, but the Pistons are hoping his stomach virus will be better enough for him to catch up with the team on the rest of their road trip.
- DNP for Jason Maxiell.
- You would think that Detroit would have made this a game when the Suns best player Steve Nash has just 2 assists and 7 points.
- Truly tough to watch, lets hope the New Year doesn’t continue this way for Detroit.
- Don’t forget your January Schedule Wallpaper featuring Tracy McGrady.
Major bummer, was really hoping they could take this one off the heels of the Boston game. If there is one thing we can say with 100% certainty about this team this year, there is never a carry-over effect from one game to the next, good or bad. Beat Atlanta then inexplicably lose to the Clippers. Then just as unexplainable beat New Orleans while severely shorthanded.
Knowing how unpredictable this team is, I wouldn’t be shocked in the least if they follow-up this New Year’s egg they laid with their first win since before Jerry Sloan was born in Utah Monday.
Strange season.
Hi – love coming here to read what is on everyone’s mind. Have to share the frustration somewhere on this one..
The offence in this game was appalling. Am I the only one now tired of watching the pistons half court offence? (Stuck driving, Rip coming off screens and Tay going 1-1) All that talent looking lost or awkward.. I’m sure deciding on a rotation and making this rotation work harder every single play with more movement would do miracles.
..It would at least make me feel better watching.. in fact is would make me a lot happier to see more movement offensively..
Dan – london fan
happy new year
We’re all just waiting for Mr. Dumars to have a 1/2 price sale on Tay and Rip. Until the team is sold, and the new owners want to spend more $$$, the only thing getting better are the chances in the lottery. Until then, I’m enjoying CV31 pick up his game. Dude got some heart.
Glad to have you Dan, I’m always amazed how many fans the Pistons have in London.
GORTAT!
hey natale, and everyone else who thinks tmac should be the starting pg. . . . you still think that? 5 tos thats not very pg like. if stuckey was in there he could have dribbled out of those double teams, thats what pgs do not a sg of sf like tmac does. tmac is a great player with great vision and i have always liked tmac, but he is no pg. also if q would let stuckey bring the ball up and RUN the offense like he is letting tmac do (instead of bringing the ball up and handing off to a wing player) then maybe stuckey would win your guys trust in running this team. he can run the point and be a scoring pg at the same time. not to long ago you guys were all high on stuck fo r his 20+ points and 10+ reb games he was having. maybe his toe is still iinjured, and im sure he does have the flu, ive had it and im sure some of you have had it too. when you still doubt stuckey just compare those numbers this year to the o so great chauncey and his numbers our championship year. in case you forgot or dont wanna look, they are IDENTICLE. EVERYONE (except drew and edt) should take a step back and be glad we have stuckey, cuase if you all get your wish and hes traded, we will be losing our best player.
I stand by the fact that I don’t think Stuckey is a PG. Nobody is discounting his talent, but he would be more productive and comfortable at the 2.
I would like to add that there is no structural reason T-Mac can’t play the point. The mistake in this case is to expect him to be a starter when there is very little evidence that he can as yet take starter minutes. The double teaming hurt him, the bad spacing hurt because of the double teaming, but the fact of the matter is that he didn’t have his legs. The same thing happened in Charlotte. There was a hope that with extra days off he might recover enough to do back to back starts. False hope as it turned out.
yep, not a pg but combo guard. part-pg part-sg. smartphone salesman by day, nba player by night.
dont get me wrong i think tmac can play the pg spot but not as a starter, he needs to play it at the backup spot so he is going against other teams backup then it will work. but not as a starter.
this team is incredibly soft.
ben wallace is not the man he is one year ago. and jerebko is still one month away from returning.
that’s our problem in a nutshell. If anyone watched the heat game last night, they saw a heat team struggling to get any offense going, so they did what all teams not finding their shot do, they played great defense and defense created offense.
We cant do that. Rip hamilton has always been an average defender but this year he has been plain lazy, ben gordon cant defend at all, charlie v’s defense has improved this year from horrible to average, daye cant defend period, he’s a spectator on defense.
stuckey is our best player on both ends of the floor, even when his shot is not falling on the offense end he is an above average defender on the other end.
greg monroe is very smart, high basketball iq, but he’s weak (has he ever dunked the basket for the pistons?) and this makes it hard for him to guard the 4.
Tayshaun of course has been great this year both offensively and defensively like always.
Last year everyone was injured but we had ben wallace at a high level of play, and jonas jerebko. This year, everyone except jerebko is healthy. Without Jerebko and with Ben Wallace fading we are like tissue paper.
If you do decide to give up on defense entirely and become a mike d’antoni team you just run the floor, make buckets in transition. But we are one of the slowest teams in the NBA. I know stuckey wants a faster pace, but rip, t-mac, prince, monroe, they dont like running, so . . . we are left with a slow half court no defense team. It’s ok for prince to play this way, but basketball isn’t 1 guy, it’s 5 guys, he is a half court guy with great defense but his pace no longer fits the identity of this team.
from http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats
team pace is 91.7 2nd last. team defensive efficiency is 107.2 6 from the bottom.
by the way phoenix is the worst in terms of team defensive efficiency 110.2, but their pace is 96.9 top 10. new jersey has a defensive efficiency of 92.2 bottom 5, and their pace is 106.1 still slow, so you can see the suns have the run & gun, that’s how you work a bad defensive team, D’antoni is still trying to increase the pace of his nicks it’s apparently difficult even for a coach the stature of d’antoni to actually get the players to run the court.
Call me the annoying guy who wants to make trades, but honestly this team is actually fairly talented, just the wrong people. Trade Stuckey and Wilcox to San Antonio for George Hill and Mcdyess. Then trade Prince to LA for Kaman, allowing both players to go home. Then trade Hamilton to Cleveland for Jamison. Starting 5 of Hill, Gordon, Villanueva, Jamison, and Kaman. At least everyone will know their roles, and then we can install a productive offense. Thoughts?
are u serious? lmfao!!!
that team has 3-4 NBA bench players. you trade legit NBA starters for a bunch of bench players
this team doesnt need more bench players we already got the best scoring bench in the entire NBA
I think this team will get better with subtraction before we work on addition. Delete rip hamilton, prince from our team and suddenly we will be able to make more points in transition. wait for jerebko to heal for better defense and look to 2011 to draft a new big.
coach q is going to get fired, even though (to me) it is clearly not his fault. At least he had 2 years here which is good for our young players. A yearly rotating coaching staff make it impossible for the young players to develop.