Need4Sheed Guest Writer – Lefteris Aslanoglou – Pistons fan from Greece following his team and getting very little sleep watching games in the middle of the night: @Leftosa
In usual Pistons fashion as of lately, the Pistons manage to give up a 16 point lead and lose after a 4th quarter run by the Wolves. 85-93 was the final score.
Key Points:
- Minessota came back from hitting less than 30% in the first half. Even so, Pistons were just 6 ahead in the half after having been up front by 16.
- 4th quarter collapse. -sigh-
- Pistons actually played quite well in the first half, showing hustle and getting some nice plays going, especially after all the turnovers they forced on the Wolves. Yet, just 38% from the floor.
- Tables turned in the second half, and the Pistons started playing worse as time went by, making the same silly mistakes and turnovers they had forced in the first half. 19 turnovers to close the game.
- There’s a difference between being more accurate, and making the most out of your accuracy. Pistons shot 46% from the arc against the Wolves’ 35%. Still, the Wolves made 8, and we made 5. In the end, they got more points out of their 3 pointers, even though they had to shoot 23 of them.
- And that wouldn’t hurt so much, if the team that had the 3rd best FT% in the league before the game didn’t finish with just 10-21 from the stripe! That’s 48% in case you’re wondering. 48! I made the case that the Pistons needed to get to the line more since they’re so deadly from it. They just need anyone but Maxiell to get there. 2-6 from there with one of them going wide of the basket, getting him ridicule from the crowd. Stuckey wasn’t any better in that front. Only got to shoot 4 free throws, and made one of them.
- Tayshaun Prince on a big, big night. Played over 40 minutes, finished the game with a game high 29 points on 13-23 and 3-5 from beyond the arc, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and a block. Big bright spot for the Pistons.
- Prince recorded his 400th career regular season block.
- Outrebounded 44 to 41, but it’s nice to see we’re grabbing more offensive rebounds. 14 in total, most of them from Monroe and Maxiell who had 4 each.
- Greg Monroe, who was 5th in PER (Player Efficiency Rating) in the whole league just a few nights ago, fouled out with 13 points, 12 rebounds, an assist and 2 steals in 28 minutes.
- Jason Maxiell seems to take from the team as much as he offers. 4 turnovers, 7 rebounds, a steal and a block in 22 minutes. Just 2 points.
- Ben Gordon on a good scoring night, but didn’t seem to get the team going with him. Finished bottom of the team in +/- with -14, even though he had 18 points on 7-15, 3 rebounds, an assist and 2 steals while playing for most of the game.
- Jonas had another bad night. He was nowhere to be seen. played 24 minutes, only got 1-4 to fall, finished with 2 points and 7 rebounds as well as an assist and 2 blocks. He showed good hustle in the first half, but that was just about it.
- Brandon Knight played well, even with an unimpressive stat line. 7 points, 6 assists against 4 turnovers, 5 rebounds and a steal. Had 5 fouls though, as did Jerebko, but did play 35 minutes.
- Stuckey didn’t show much, Â finishing the night with 10 points and a nearly empty stat-line otherwise. 3 assists was the only thing in there, 4-12 from the floor.
- Wilkins played nearly 7 minutes. And got a rebound. That’s it.
- Daye! He played! …31 seconds. And no, he didn’t actually do anything.
- On the Wolves front, Ricky Rubio was slow to start but filled up his stat line. The rookie sensation shows that he knows his game, with excellent court vision and great basketball IQ. Finished the night with 9 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists and 6 steals. Unfortunately, you have to admit he beat Knight one every front, except for FG% (1-8 against 3-11). Also got to the line much more and made the most of it; 7 of his points came from there.
- Kevin Love with 20 points and 17 rebounds, finishing with a game high +16. I wish it was Greg’s name on the start of that sentence, alas, no.
- Pekovic seemed to do everything wrong. Silly fouls, moving screens. Still managed to get a +15 on 11 points, a rebound and a block, along with 2 steals.
- Pistons need to stop giving games away when they start so well. I was smiling through the first half, but that premonition of impending doom was right.
- I don’t want to say we’re losing for a better place in the draft. But if Joe Dumars doesn’t get fired this season, this falls right into his plan to rebuild the team around young talent, as he said in today’s interview on Pistons.com.
First Half Highlights Via NBA.com
[flashvideo file=http://nba.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/games/timberwolves/2012/01/18/0021100210_det_min_1h.nba_nba_576x324.flv /]
- Next up for the Pistons, the 7-6 Memphis Grizzlies come to town on Friday Night for Greg Monroe 70’s night.
Joe, what have you done…
Lottery is coming fo’ sho’…
It’s all part of Joe’s master plan, he screwed up the cap space by overpaying rip, prince, stuckey, charlie v and ben gordon so he can’t make moves to improve the team.
Now we have two future all stars, greg monroe and brandon knight and are about to add a third.
The only problem is Greg Monroe is improving so fast and turning into such a beast that we might actually make the playoffs if Brandon Knight improves too quickly, but if Charlie V gets healthy he can get some minutes and along with Ben Gordon they can help us with the lottery balls.
Of course, Joe might have to sign another stretch 4 to eat up cap space and make sure we are lottery bound maybe we can sign james posey.
Pistons were ahead of MN almost the whole game until the end of the fourth quarter. They shot themselves in the foot.
Next loss will be against Memphis, although they are a .500 team at the moment. I think they have better talent than we do.
hmmmph
why couldn’t tayshaun make change for a dollar?
cause he has no fourth quarter 🙂
monroe is a beast he still got a double double even with no one passing him the ball. THAT’s earning a paycheck. if your shot isn’t falling you fill up the other stats. I’m looking at pretty much all of the starters
We got out reboounded down the stretch and Tay has no decent back up and he ran outta gas! That’s what happen! We need a decent big next to Moose because Max & Ben don’t cut it! Jerebko checks into the game with 2 fouls! Be patient Joe’s hands are tied right now because no one in their right mind right now want any of the players we’d like to part with. We’ll have to rebuild thru the draft and maybe some small free agant moves this summer. Oh yeah Wilkins blows might as well play Daye he can’t possibly do any worse, well maybe he can……..
Come on, Joe’s hands arent tied. Nets managed to get Deron why can’t we work out a trade of our own. I miss the times when Joe surprises me with unexpected trades, excluding AI trade.
The Nets gave up a Good point guard and a future All Star power forward to get Deron, So who on our team not named Monroe, Stuckey and Knight can we afford to ship for a Deron Williams caliber player? And more importantly wants to play in Detroit? Don’t worry I’ll wait…………
If CV was there, we could have won. Kidding! Who knows, he can sometimes be a spark, better than Daye.
We started out prepared and hungry for a win, played well for 3 qtrs. But when Minny stepped it up in the 4th, we couldnt raise the level of competition. This is where a leader steps up, something we don’t have. We need a star like most teams have. Monroe and Knight are few years away.
Prince is playing well, he could be tradable to contenders. We need a center.
Anyone notice that Chauncey looks like Sam Cassell on a Clips uniform or is it just me?
Cv is really hurting this team from the scoring aspect of it. Daye shoot not falling and Jason doing his best, how can you win game like this with these issues? Stuckey should start over Knight because, stuckey can his teammate invovle better than Knight. Coaches knows how aggressive he’s going to the hoop, which can open easy shoot for the other players and big’s.
Wizards have 2 wins now.
Pistons, NO and Charlotte have 3 wins.
The rest of the NBA have at least 4 W.