Sunday evening’s game against the Warriors was one the Pistons were hoping to put away. Well it didn’t matter that Golden State on the second game of back to back or that their star point guard Stephen Curry hasn’t played in quite some time. Golden State took it to Detroit 99-91 despite another big night from Greg Monroe.
Key Points:
- The Pistons hand Golden State their first road win. That’s just the second time in 17 meetings.
- 22 Points for Monta Ellis and 24 points for the Warriors David Lee. Despite the 24 points, Lee had his streak of double-double’s snapped.
- Austin Daye He went 1 of 5 from the floor and passed up some other open shots while scoring just 3. Daye has missed all 13 of his 3-point attempts this season after shooting 40.1 percent from long range last season. During a critical stretch early in the fourth quarter when Golden State , leading by five after three periods, stretched its lead to nine points Daye missed three shots, including two from the 3-point arc. At this point I don’t thing the Pistons coaches know what to do with him to get him out of this funk. Maybe they should think about lowering the net like we used to do in our driveways. Can you image an almost 7 foot tall Daye shooting on a adjustable basketball goal like it was a nerf setup?
- I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but with Villanueva, Wilkins and Bynum out and he’s still only getting minutes out of desperation for a body on the floor and he can’t even show a glimpse of a game…what’s next for Austin?
- Nice to see Tayshaun put up numbers for the first time this season. Detroit really needed him to step up his game, especially with Wilkins out and Daye doing less than nothing. Prince with 20 points on 8-for-15 shooting with 7 boards, a blocked shot and an assist.
- Might as well just start fitting Greg Monroe for his All Star jersey right now. Another big game from Monroe who led the Pistons with 25 points, 8 boards, one assist and a steal. The stat I like most is 13-for-14 from the line. Finally a big man who makes his free throws (sorry Big Ben.)
- VOTE MONROE
- A nice game for Stuckey, who added 14 points and 6 assists in 26 minutes off the Pistons bench.
- Ben Gordon played a decent game for him with 15 points on 6-for-12 shooting with 6 assists, a steal and just one turnover. If he gives the Pistons similar numbers every game, maybe we can claim he’s out of his funk. If not, I would be much happier with Stuckey and Knight starting and Gordon off the bench.
- Brandon Knight with 8 points, 5 assists and a board in 39 minutes. Again, he’s still learning and you can see the progress, especially against the Bobcats when turned the ball over a whopping ZERO times.
Highlights via Pistons.com
[flashvideo file=http://nba.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/teams/pistons/2012/01/15/JAN15GSWRECAPm4v-1967206.flv /]
- This one was tied 8 times with 8 lead changes.
- Proof the Pistons need a big man, 48 points in the paint for the Warriors.
Lawrence Frank: “At times, it’s going to be disjointed, That’s why, defensively, we have to tighten up the bootstraps. At home, you can’t allow a team to shoot 52 percent. At times, we’re going to run out of points. That’s when we have to dig that much deeper on the defensive end and know we have to make teams play against a set defense.”
Greg Monroe: “I think we’re getting a little bit better at accomplishing our goals. Eventually, hopefully we don’t have those (bad moments), but I think right now, these past couple games, we’ve been better at not letting those moments last for a long time without playing with a lot of effort.”
- A day off for Detroit and then Tuesday night in Houston.
Pistons were outplaying Warriors in second quarter but that changed quickly in third quarter and continued till the end. Warriors started to play great defense in the second half but Detroit played almost zero defense and did terrible mistakes in the offense. With David Lee out Pistons had a chance but Ellis got hot a didn’t miss. Maxiell should have got more minutes instead of Daye. It is useless to play him, he can’t get his shots sink. Monroe, great game. Brandon Knight had a solid game, looks really good but he should take more shots. Finally very good game from Tayshaun. It paints quite a picture where this team is when two second year players, rookie and veteran center who does not even score are its best players. But still, I am confident that things will turn around soon.
For single seasons; played in the NBA/BAA; in the regular season; in 2011-12; is active; requiring Minutes Per Game >= 30
Bottom 10
John Wall
Beasley
Maggette
Tay Prince
Blatche
Ben Gordon
Brandon Knight
Stephen Jackson
Iman Shumpert
Boris Diaw
Top 10
Lebron
Kobe
Rose
Love
Chandler
Durant
Gasol
THE MOOOOSE
Aldridge
Howard
I’m on the train with Brandon Knight, he’s gonna be alright.
Prince you gotta go, you are really screwing this team up.
Daye you are not an NBA player get out of here.
Ben Gordon, I’m giving you a second, third and fourth chance for nat’s sake, get yourself together and play like every game is the playoffs thank you very much.
I like this
also john wall is a bust LOLOL, sucks to be a wizard.
I have to laugh at the wizards who else can we make fun of am I right?
Did Wall just scored 38 right after you wrote this? 🙂 anyway goodluck on the next game vs rockets and again we’re catching them on a back-to-back but I hope the result is different this time.
yes
wall, 13-22, pretty good 60%, went to the foul line 16 times, frickin 8 assists, 2 turnovers, 1 block , 4 steals, 6 rebounds.
Not sure if he just had a “Tebow” moment when it seems like god is leaning on the steering wheel, or if he really quit sucking for real.
Wizards still lost, so maybe he was doing a Kobe, having a great game and your team loses anyway.
Nice article about Monroe – http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2012/01/13/big-man-greg-monroe-has-quietly-become-a-force-in-detroit/
I think we are only a few decent players away from a respectable team.
Amnesty he $7 million cheer leader also known as CV and add a quality free agent to the roster.
Draft the best big man available first round. Maybe a SG in the second.
Singler can start at SF and Tay can come off the bench next year.
We could have the best young team in the league by 2013-14.
Yeah, that is if Singler decides to come back from Real Madrid.
Are you saying Singler may be having too much fun in Spain to come back to Detroit? I believe it too.
Hopefully paying him a few more bucks than his Madrid team is paying him will entice him back to the NBA
we can amnesty or we can trade and get a ACTUAL good player. im tired of getting rid of players for cap space. We have traded away too much talent just to sign scrubs. lets get the players we want not just the free agents cause we havent had great luck with free agents lately. Free agents usually come off a season of playing for a contract. So they get overpaid for one season. (like both BG and CV)
i just want to watch games and be happy again. That’s all. I want to be able to have conversations with other pistons fans about something other than trades and free agents cause i feel thats where every conversation ends up. I want joe dumars to bring back that family “ohana” feeling. That we had such success with.
So…big mouth Daye shows up with 0-13 from beyond the arc? What a joke.
Also, Natalie! ATTN: NATALIE
The forums are up, but registration is closed.
However, if no one uses the forums…then I guess why bother…
Nothing is going right. The guys had an emergency landing : http://www.nba.com/2012/news/01/16/pistons-plane.ap/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt2
I’m giving the moose the keys to the city. im sure big ben is teaching him the ways and the tips needed on the defense side.
“You always have to look at the big picture – where you’re going as a team, where you want to go as a team and how you’re going to get there. Even through the ups and downs of a tough season, you can’t lose focus, can’t panic, you can’t make a short-term move to try to win a few more games. You stick with your plan and you keep going. Ownership, is totally on board with rebuilding this the right way. You just have to have the discipline to do it, but make no mistake about it: Everybody is so competitive because you want to win every single game. It’s hard to maintain it sometimes, because you just want to win.we’ve grown and we continue to head in the right direction. That’s what this year is about – growing and heading in the right direction. That’s exactly what we want from this team. We want these young guys to get better. By the middle of March, you want to look back and say this team keeps getting better – we’ve got a bright future with these young guys ”
Joe D
http://www.nba.com/pistons/features/truebluepistons_120117a.html
This interview leaves me dumbfounded. The trade away of Chauncey, acquiring AI, holding on to Rip, building a team made completely of identical stretch 4’s who can’t play down low, signing Charlie V . . .
This was all part of his damn master plan to grab the single best power forward in the last two years with the Moose and a capable smart point guard in Brandon Knight.
We tanked those seasons on purpose in order to build this team from “The Right Way” which is code for “Building a team from the Draft”
If Joe D actually doing this, he is playing a game of chess that is about 10 levels deeper than I could have ever imagined.
Mind blown.
ps based on this interview, I have changed my mind about Joe D. He’s got to stay. If he actually tanked the last two seasons on purpose, that was pure genius.