Was Saturday’s win against the Pacers too little too late? Probably, but it doesn’t take away the enjoyment for Pistons fans to watch what this team can do when things are working right. The Pistons, in front of a packed crowd at the Palace of Auburn Hills, came back after a sluggish first half to roll over a team that they have needed to beat all season long.
The Pistons 88-100 win now leaves them technically still alive in the playoff race with nine games remaining. Detroit is now five games behind the Pacers in the loss column, with another game against Indiana on Wednesday to make up more ground.
Key Points:
- After having “technical difficulties” with Kuester and not playing in the last game, Charlie Villnuava looked like he wasn’t going to touch the court either in Saturday night. Kue surprised us all by calling on Charlie late in the game. He responded with 13 points by making all five of his shots, three of them from the 3-point line. The biggest came with three minutes left after a Danny Granger triple put Indiana within seven.
- Chris Wilcox, who started the game, didn’t play after the half with a knee issue. Chris’s only two came in great fashion, with this reverse put back.
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Video courtesy of NBA.com
- One has to think that if Wilcox wasn’t shutdown at half and Ben Wallace could play, does Charlie V get another DNP.
Villanueva: “Fresh legsI was well rested. (Kuester) called my name and I was ready to go and my teammates helped. They gave me the ball in position to score. (Assistant coach) Brian Hill talked to me in the third quarter. He said, ‘We might get you in, so just be ready.’ So I was ready to go.”
- Question – Does Monroe get a Rebound Row at the Palace? Greg with 9 points and 13 points, with 3 steals and a blocked shot. Did I mention he was also a +20?
- The Pistons were again led by that guy Rip Hamilton, who’s looked like “Rip City” lately. Hamilton put up 23 with 6 assists in 37 minutes starting for Detroit.
- One of the better games to watch the action live in person. Trust me, it’s not been very fun this year at the Palace, so when you get an entertaining game you leave smiling, no matter what else is going on in the win-loss column or the front office.
- Video Recap via Pistons.com
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- 21 to 3 run to help close the gap in the third quarter.
- Give it up to Jason Maxiell who plays solid when he finally gets playing time.
- Detroit shot 51.3% for the night an 57.1% from downtown.
- T-mac out with back spasms.
- Every Pistons that played scored the basketball.
- Nice job by Tay holding Danny Granger to just 14 points.
- A solid 42 points in the paint for Detroit.
- With Indiana having to take on Boston Monday, and the Pistons off until their next game in Indiana Wednesday…this could just be the perfect storm for Detroit. The question always is…will they take advantage of it?
i was at the game and it was fun! the best part is when the fat guy took off his shirt on the jumbo tron (or whatever it is called) and the whole crowd erupted into laughter, even the players were looking and laughing during the pacers free throws. it was the first game my sister and my cousin have went to and they loved it! im just glad we won, otherwise it would have been a long two and a half hour drive home. cant wait till the bulls game next week. i know we wont win (even though i really hope we do) but it will be great to see the bad boys and rodmans number get hoisted up in the rafters. plus im practically courtside how can that be bad? right. good game , GO PISTONS.
rip lead the mutiny, he wont play if he has to come off the bench, he’s passive aggressive, but he sure can play some basketball.
contrast that to ben gordon, this guy is the ONLY player in our entire organization that hasnt been sent to the bench for some sort of player mutiny, that’s how awful our season has been in regards to the player-coach interaction, ben gordon is the only player we have that never got a coach’s decision DNP.
He’s got a great attitude, he plays hard off the bench or starting . . . but he just can’t make it work.
Ben Gordon is a lot easier to trade than Rip Hamilton, he’s young and has already shown what he can do in chicago. He’s shown nothing in detroit but other teams will put that down to our lame organization.
I know Joe D’s plan was to trade Rip, but Joe D the moron so completely overvalued Rip that he made him untradable, not to mention Rip’s attitude is poison, remember cleveland made an offer to BUY OUT RIP but then declined when they found out Rip was against it their theory being that if they got stuck with a player who wont play basketball and wont agree to a buy out, it’s just too risky, you can trade rip but what if he decides, “Not playing today dont feel like it” your organization is screwed.
Right now Rip is worth the veteran’s minimum and has a $13 million contract.
He sure can play tho, I like his cuts, I love his quick release, his defense is not the best, but not as awful as our other players, and his 3 point shot while not the best is good enough that he can’t be left unguarded at the 3.
All this talk about how the pistons will make moves in the off season . . . maybe we’ll trade Ben Gordon instead of Rip. The only way we move Rip is to buy out his contract, and trading Ben Gordon might be one of the few moves Joe D is able to make this off season since it wont cost the organization money, and we all know he can’t make any moves that cost money until the team is sold.
Rip and Q are getting along fine now, it’s weird, but I sense most of the drama is over.
It’s hard to get excited about the games, unless we go on a ridiculous streak and win the last 9 games in a row that would be great, screw this getting higher in the draft. We got the best player in the NBA draft at #7 last year, and I was a cousins fan until the moose made me a believer.
I think if we win 9 in a row we make the playoffs too.
And if we make the playoffs that means one thing. Jonas Jerebko time. I think he’s ready, and we have only been saving him for next year, but if we make the playoffs as 8th seed, we’ll get to see Jerebko and Monroe together.
You’re putting words into Rip’s mouth again. Fact is, Rip has played well in the minutes that this idiot coach gives him – just as he has for the past decade in Detroit. You only see what you want to see.
And when Rip moves to a contender (which i am in favor of, by the way), you will see that he will contribute and perform well again under a COMPETENT COACH and with a SHARING POINT GUARD. This team has neither of the two.
Rip is one of our better players. No question. And not just Rip but everyone on the team will get better with better players around him. I’m not anti-Rip, I like his play. I take it that you think his beef with the coach is justified.
The fact is that his beef with Q is right now causing him problems, because it is making teams that would have preferred to sit him on the bench and play him limited minutes not want to hire him because they saw what happened in detroit when Q sat him.
Do you think when he gets moved to a contender he’s gonna get starter minutes? Teams will want him to come off the bench.
At some point in a player’s career he has to adjust to coming off the bench. Some players cant make that adjustment.
JUSTIFIED? I think the beef with the coach is NON-EXISTENT. Maybe some misunderstandings here and there but, I think Prince’s beef with Kuester was much worse. Rip’s benching was overplayed in the media, and fans are quick to speculate and gobble it up like gospel truth.
Fact is, Rip did not choose to sit on the bench… he was put there by Kuester and his IDIOTIC, INCOMPREHENSIBLE ROTATION. Yet Rip took it like a man. He has come out with statements to that effect. I guess you didn’t read them.
And now that Kuester has reinstated him in the starting line-up, Rip is performing well again. Like i said, he has done so FOR A DECADE. I wasn’t the least bit surprised.
Rip is a professional, he will start or come off the bench, whatever is asked of him. But when the leader is a complete IDIOT, even the subordinates start looking bad.
Mite be just me but i dont want us to make the playoffs we’d be an embarrasment and get swept by either chicago boston or miami, maybes next year when the team should be a younger core of players it would be a good experience to make the playoffs, the higher the better in the draft this year and go and get that point guard
you want kyrie irving from duke projected #3 pick? we could lose all the rest of our games and wont get him, besides if we do get the #1 pick we’ll get the best player not irving but derrick williams yet another small forward. the next point guard in the draft is projected pick #10 a point guard with absolutely zero defense, Jimmer Fredette of BYU.
if we get picks #4 through #7 we could get a power foward, enes kanter from kentucky, jared sullinger from ohio state, or jan vesely from europe or donatas motiejunas also from europe.
this is not the year to waste a high draft pick on a point guard, we should be trading for a guard.
we need to draft a big with good defense and make moves for a point guard.
Kemba Walker, Jimmer Fredette, Brandon Knight. all point guards that will be available to the pistons in the draft. unless they return to school.
Jimmer has the ability to play defense, as we’ve him seen him make steals etc. None of these young guys play defense unless you have a coach that makes the team play defense.
I think Jimmer could actually be a very good point guard in the NBA.
i’ll make sure to watch the kentucky uconn game this sat get a chance to see walker & knight at the same game
Pick the best person in the draft regardless of anything teams are willing to put all their hopes in these players. of course have a trade scernio worked out and not with denver, we all know how that went.
bleh who cares? im done giving stupid scenarios that i cant control. im just gonaa root for our team whoever that may be and hopwe that the people who get paid to make the trades/draft picks will actually know what they are doing. and the last few years have been pretty good draft years. we will get it done. i believe.
nothing wrong with that.
the band kept playing on the Titanic as well.
Haha!
haha? are you an idiot too? im simply saying im done giving stupid scenarios that i cant make happen. . . . im a FAN. just like all of you. now if i was say. . . joe d and i said that then yes you could make the comment that im going down with the ship. but i have no control over it i just can root for the team that i have loved for the past 24 years, good or bad. do you do that?
Hey Nat, I just noticed that you don’t have Jason Maxiell’s Cartoon up on the top of the page with everybody else.
Joe D has made some good picks after the Darko mistake. We had Stuckey, JJ, Daye and now Monroe. I guess he’s paying more attention lately and doesn’t want another embarassment so I’m expecting the good trend continues.
Stuckey: “Our defense has been lacking all year; it’s nothing new”
http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=19060#ixzz1I6NHhvQj