The boo birds didn’t fly south for winter – Pistons lose in embarrassing fashion

by | Feb 15, 2011 | 19 comments

To me, booing your favorite team is something you should never do.  Especially when that team has given you more good reasons than bad to cheer for them.  Let’s face it folks, the Atlanta Hawks are one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference who give the Pistons matchup problems at 4 out of 5 positions on the floor.  Losing a lead is unacceptable but even worse is sapping all of the home court advantage out of the arena by booing is even worse.

Will Bynum was the player of the night for the Pistons with his 7 assists and 8 points in 21 minutes off the bench.  Bynum put together a complete “point guard” effort by also contributing 3 steals.  Let’s look at the lowlights, shan’t we?:

  • The play of Josh Smith, Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson were the reason the Hawks were able to come back and win the game.  All 3 players had a +/- of +25 or better.  All 3 were able to take advantage of mismatches on the floor.
  • I thought Ben Wallace was an offensive black hole in the paint for the Pistons, until I saw Jason Collins.  Ben Wallace was 1 of 2 players on the Pistons to turn out a positive +/-
  • 2 Pistons players played 30 minutes or more – out of 11 players.  I’m happy the team has such depth available use, I’m not happy that Coach Kuester doesn’t know how to utilize them properly.
  • 11,844 people attended the game – I feel sorry for those that spent their hard earned money to watch that game.
  • 27, 24, 17, 11.  Those were the point totals for each of the quarters last night.  28 total 2nd half points for the Pistons, after scoring 27 in the 1st quarter.
  • 1 reason for the failure?  14 assists at halftime, and only 6 in the 2nd half.  The ball has to move.
  • Pistons outrebounded 39-26.
  • This win was Atlanta’s 8th out of their last 10 games – and this loss gave the Pistons losses in back to back home games.
  • Richard Hamilton sat out the game due to a sore groin.

The Pistons have 1 more home game this week, and it comes Wednesday against one of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference, the Indiana Pacers.  The Pacers have been on a tear ever since they fired Jim O’Brien, so it will not be an easy game the Pistons.

19 Comments

  1. Detroit89

    I am worried about how monroe’s stats have been dropping in the past few games. The team needs him to be a factor. Ben Wallace does not make any points but he grabs a decent amount rebounds, that is great, but he cannot match up with other starters as well as he could when he was younger. He should come off the bench. I mean we have Gordon and Charlie V, our young athletes who we are just coming off the bench. I think Ben Wallace should be coming off the bench and maybe just start the second quarter, but he is no longer a factor to rely on in the 4th quarter or to stop other younger and bigger men. Let Monroe who gets more steals play his part.

    Also, Prince needs to start playing D, he is putting up good numbers but why is it that in every game he makes at least 2 bad passes and the forwards of the other teams have GREAT games. He needs to relearn to play physical on the defense. He was 5-13 in shooting. That is pathetic, seriously, just sad.

    All in all is that we need to do something about the rotation. this is not working.

    Starters should be:

    PG: T-Mac (only guy who plays the part well)
    SG: Stuckey
    SF: Charlie V
    PF: Wilcox
    C: Monroe

    Second rotation: Bring in Big Ben and Ben Gordon

    PG: T-Mac
    SG: Ben Gordon
    SF: Prince
    PF Monroe
    C: Wallace

    Third rotation: Bynumite time

    PG: Bynum
    SG; Gordon
    SF: Daye
    PF: Prince
    C: Monroe

    4th Rotation: 3 combo guards

    PG: McGrady
    SG: Gordon
    SF: Stuckey
    PF: Wilcox
    C: Monroe

    5th Rotation:
    PG: Bynum
    SG: Stuckey
    SF: Daye
    PF: Charlie V
    C: Monroe

    Reply
    • junior

      monroes stats are falling the last three games becuase hes going up against his weakness on offense and defense, an athletic opponet. you cant ask monroe to guard josh smith too athletic, lamarcus aldridge forget about hardly anyone can guard him, chris bosh, enough said. monroe can have good nights vs the medium to good players but not the great or the really athletic, at least not yet. that is why we need to pair monroe with what we dont have right now, an athletic big (see chris wilcox, they play very good together) not an aging athletic big (see ben wallace).

      Reply
    • junior

      also why do you say tmac is the only one that plays the part well? stuckey avg numbers are well above t macs at that position and i would like to see stuckey back at the point and tmac playing sg as the starting backcourt. not so long ago stuckey was posting close to 20 and 10 ( 3 or 4 games of it) i beleive with a set rotation that we know have he can hit close to those numbers every night ( well like 18 and 8 or 9).

      Reply
    • edt

      the detroit pistons are one of the softest teams in the league your first rotation would put a soft tmac on defense with a soft charlie v on defense with a (sorry monroe) unathletic big, unable to guard other bigs.

      other team starters would run help unbeatable leads with a lineup like this sorry.

      It’s better when we put our softer lineup as the second unit because the other team’s second unit won’t punish you as much if you dont defend.

      our best first rotation is with prince in there for charlie v. we are still a soft team but this gives us our best chance at defending well in our first unit.

      Reply
  2. JC

    Wait, you think Tayshaun should be riding the bench? No way. I agree with you as to Big Ben should be coming off the bench and not starting, he is no where in shape as to where he was 3 years ago. It should be:

    Starters:
    PG: TMac
    SG: Stuckey
    SF: Prince
    PF: Wilcox
    C: Monroe

    2nd Rotation
    PG: Bynum
    SG: Gordon (keep him there until he is consistent enough to start over Stuckey. As Stuckey proved earlier in the month he can be great off the bench, and if he is willing to put his ego aside and come off the bench, we will be great.)
    SF: Daye
    PF: Monroe
    C: Wallace (We need a young center and PF to back monroe and wilcox up, big ben is not the answer)

    Thats as far as I’m going for rotations, but work CV and Summers into the 3rd rotation when say daye or gordon are ice cold, but say if like the other night against the blazers where Q pulled bynum when he was HOT keep them out. we got depth, run the other teams tired and then BAM, hit them with our quick guards with the likes of bynum, stuckey, daye, and etc.

    Reply
  3. blamus

    guys you really think its the starting lineup thing? Its time to admit this team is crap and will be for a long time. Just look at the players that we have, in no way they are the Detroit Pistons material. If I told you couple years ago that are highest earning players will be Charlie V and Ben Gordon you would laugh your ass off but sadly that is what happened. There is no coming back from this anytime soon. You thought players like that will put effort into the game like the old guys did? Its Charlie V and Ben Gordon! The only guy that is worth something in this team is Stuckey and maybe the swede, everybody else should just go, the sooner the better.

    Reply
    • junior

      what about daye? monroe? bynum? (as a solid backup) i agree with stuckey and JJ. that could work as our young starting lineup.
      pg-bynum
      sg-stuckey
      sf-daye
      pf-JJ
      c-monroe

      Reply
    • edt

      greg monroe is worth keeping too, he’ll be a decent player in a year. I also agree this team gets better with subtraction. just start dumping players, we have a dozen players that are good enough to play in the nba but not good enough to start.

      Reply
  4. Marcell

    Would it be safe to say that now that Greg Monroe was picked to play in the rookie game that he now seems to be slacking off? He was really hustling on every play until they announced he was picked.

    Reply
    • junior

      see above comment on athletic opponets.

      Reply
      • Marcell

        Somewhat true but Monroe gave his best effort against teams like Boston a couple weeks ago. Now he can’t even hold onto the ball

        Reply
    • JHigh

      No, its like Junior said earlier “monroes stats are falling the last three games becuase he’s going up against his weakness on offense and defense, an athletic opponet.”

      Reply
  5. Leftos

    Maybe it’s a temporary thing. Let’s not be too quick to judge on a rookie. Keith Langlois did find an excuse for him, saying that around this time of the season the season grind seems like forever to a rookie, and that he needs the All-Star break to rest.

    Who knows? Time will tell.

    Reply
    • Danny Bohnlein

      exactly right – Monroe is also like a solid wide receiver or tight end in football, he needs to be fed the ball to effective and be a part of the game.

      If he is not getting the ball, it’s easy to space out. He’s 20 years old. He’ll come around.

      Reply
  6. Armand

    Too many shooting guards, not one true point guard and that is our big problem, it doesnt help the fact that we benched our best guard just cause we dont have a point guard to feed him. We are also pretty weak up front and thats another big problem. If i was the coach for the next 10 games or so i would give one last push to make the playoffs with veterans starting
    pg; tmac
    sg; rip
    sf; tay
    pf; charlie
    c; max
    and then bring the youngsters of the bench
    pg; stuckey
    sg; gordon
    sf; daye
    pf; wilcox ( swede when he comes back )
    c; monroe
    and hope we make the playoffs and see what happens if we do and if we dont make the playoffs then bench every veteran for rest of the season and see who we keep and who we trade from our youngsters
    After all we are trying to rebuild or are we?

    Reply
  7. mike

    I’m not worried about Monroe at all. His numbers are down since Ben returned to the starting lineup. On offense the other team really only has to worry about 4 players, and with no true shooters in the starting lineup, its pretty easy to defend the post. On defense he’s guarding athletic 4’s instead of centers (as mentioned above). Ben also probably grabs some of the rebounds that Monroe would be getting. I think Monroe has played better at the 5 this year anyways. Take away an athletic guy like Wilcox for Monroe to work with, factor in too that lately Tmac has been looking for his own shot more often, and of course his numbers are gonna be down. His efficiency has remained consistent. He was 2-4 that game, 50% is pretty darn good, but we need to get him more touches obviously.

    Also about the topic of boo birds, I have absolutely no problem with booing your own team, but only if its for lack of effort. I’d never boo my team because the shots arent falling, or we lose to a superior opponent. But I think when guys are lazy, especially when they are getting payed millions of dollars to be out there, then its ok to boo their effort; as a wake up call, saying “hey we know you can do better than that, try harder”. I was streaming the game, so the sound quality wasnt too great, and i didnt notice the boos, but if it was during all those fast breaks where we didnt get back on D after making a basket… then maybe its ok

    Reply
    • junior

      we need to bench wallace and start wilcox with monroe, or we will have to start cv31 with big ben.

      Reply
  8. terry

    This team could use another lottery anyways.

    Reply
  9. Joe

    Yall are being nubs, who cares who starts, its who gets more mins amd who finishes. Just cause you start doesnt mean you play 35mins. Anyways, clearly there is no leadership on this team and it starts with the owner, we dont have one till someome steps up, we have to ride the wave.

    Reply

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