The 3-12 are back home to host the 7-6 Memphis Grizzles. The Grizzlies will try to take Friday night’s game at the Palace to make it back-to-back road games for the first time in nearly a year. Meanwhile Detroit would like to avoid their first five game home losing streak since 2009-10.
- The good: More time on the floor for Brandon Knight. The Pistons help Michigan Come Together.
- The bad: Stuckey out as well as Bynum, Mad Ants call up and new Piston Walker Russell may just see some time. The Pistons have lost their last three games against Memphis.
- Who to watch: Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol.
- The unknown: Will Greg Monroe look as good on court as his 70’s giveaway poster tonight? Will and can Tayshuan Prince carry Detroit again? Will Charlie V play anytime soon?
Check out tonight’s game against Memphis or Portland for as little as 3 dollars!
Tip off is at 7:30 pm and will be broadcast on Fox Sports. If you can’t catch the game on TV, catch it on the radio over at 97.1 the Ticket.
Here’s the stat rundown before the game for the two teams, courtesy of NBA Stats Tracker.
Grizzlies are better on all fronts, with the exception of 3P% (.297 vs our .360) and 3 point efficiency, as well as FT% (.719 vs our .779). They’re much better on Rebounds, grabbing 5 more per game (1 offensive + 4 defensive), 3 more steals, 1 more block and 2 less turnovers. We’re tied up on Assists (18.5) and Fouls Against (~19.3).
Can’t say this is looking pretty stat-wise.
Points to watch for Memphis, team-wise:
They’re top 10 in the league in FG%, FG efficiency, offensive rebounds and fouls. In steals, they’re 2nd in the league, Denver being in 1st place.
They’re so good at steals, and we’re so bad at turning the ball over most of the games, that I feel it’s going to be an embarrassing game. Let’s hope the Pistons prove me wrong.
Download NBA Stats Tracker here: http://forums.nba-live.com/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=84110
No Stuck, no Bynum. No problem. Walker Russell is here to save the day for the Pistons.
Maybe they can call up the rest of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and actually win a game for a change.
Memphis has won 4 in a row. The Pistons have not won 4 games all season.
Piston should lose by their usual 10 points for this one.
I wonder what the over/under for Piston turnovers is for this game?
memphis can be a great team if they had a bit more of a shooting touch. rudy gay could be a hall of famer if he ever tried on defense. Other than that they are a very very solid ball club.
Have to agree with daddy on this one, don’t think Memphis is a pushover.
From NBA.com
Detroit (3-10)
Pace: 89.9 (30), Off: 93.7 (29), Def: 106.9 (29)
The Pistons’ original starting lineup, with Rodney Stuckey at the point, is a plus-15 in 102 minutes together. Their new starting lineup, with Brandon Knight in place of Stuckey, is a minus-67 in 103 minutes on the floor. Let’s see how long Lawrence Frank, with a pair stat-heads on his staff, sticks with it.
I think even Pacers’ GM made the team, even WAS has more upside (with brainless Wall and McGee, but still).
Memphis is on another planet. Half of NBA are on another planet.
No one can say “the next game is easy W for the Pistons” because we win when other team play terrible.
These Pistons can’t make things happen but only if Monroe has his A+ game so does Jerebko and Brandon.
We are the lottery team for years, unfortunately, so all predictions are just nothing.
Anything can happen with the Pistons. Even 30-point swing in the game.
Even 10-40 4th quarter. Even Ben Gordon can happen to us.
#itsalldarkosfault
im actually kind of giddy to see the dleague guard walker russell, maybe a little bit more than i should be 🙂
kept expecting blaha to say “Don’t look now . . . .but we are only down by twenty.”
I want to congratulate all the pistons who had more assists than turnovers . . .
Bueller? Bueller??
Um, how about all the pistons who had more blocks than turnovers?
Nobody?
Um. More steals than turnovers? Hello?
Ok, how about more personal fouls than turnovers .. . . . Yes, we have someone who did that . . . and the winner is
Jonas Jerebko with 1 assist, 1 steal, 0 blocks 2 turnovers, but 3 personal fouls you go get ’em JJ.
I’d like to think that this piston’s team is better than the Mad Ants but I’m not sure. Mad Ants by the way, best name for a team ever.
Hilarious! I could imagine Blaha saying that too. Or “Pistons go into the half only trailing by 9.”
Why is big Ben still starting?
Sure JJ had a bad game or 2 but he still is better than an ancient big Ben.
The Grizzlies play some mean DEFENSE.
25 turnovers for the pistons Not good
Just 1 simple point:
a good team always have a star or above average player to build around, an all-star game candidate. We have none. Sorry, we have Prince, but he doesn’t play like he is an all-star. He’s average.
a good team better have a prolific scorer like, say, Ray Ray, Monta, Harden, Granger or someone like them. Maybe not an all-star player, but a scorer. And we have BG and Stuckey
a good team better have a stopper. Like Affalo we gave away
a good team better have a solid leader like Chauncey we gave away
a good team better have a big man and pg and we have Monroe + Knight, that’s a bright spot
But other than that we have nothing. But we have a plan, that I don’t get.
I never been a crybaby but I can’t stand this team for 3 seasons, I watch the Pistons and it rings me only pain and suffering.
The guys are trying hard as they can, but Pistons’ office build the team wrong way. It’s like if you are alone against 5 tanks with a gun loaded with no bullets. You will fight. but you will lose. I’m sorry for guys like JJ with big heart, but they will lose until we have this plan and this office
Give me T-pain, cartoons, pop-corn, beer, beautiful woman – anything not to watch the Pistons. I will turn my TV on and I will only listen. No recaps, no videos, nothing. Or I will cry loud. I can’t stand this thing called the Pistons.
DOn’t get me wrong, I love the culture we once had, I love the guys, but I’m pissed off.
Because everyone knew it from the start – this team will mess up. Not because of players, each of them could be valuable in many teams if used properly.
Everyone knew something Joe D didn’t.
Now he’s saying we need some young talent. Go re-sign Prince, Joe D, that’s your young talent. 12ppg, 3rpg less than 1 stl and blk – that’s our best guy for 7.000.000 and make no trades Joe D. We have a complete squad that won 3 games already. Maybe we’ll get to the playoffs. In another 3 years.
They stink.
Why do the Pistons stink so bad?
It starts with wasted draft picks. Darko and Daye to mention a few 1st round busts.
Bad free agent signings. CV and BG. That is alot of money for little or no production ($11 + $7 million this year).
Our starting lineup has either inexperienced young players (Knight and Monroe) or players that are way past their prime (Wallace) and the few players that are in their prime playing age are having an off year (Gordon and Prince). A case could be made that the Palace Prince is past his prime too.
Ownership issues. The team was stagnant until they finally found new ownership to buy the team from the Daivdson family.
The stigma of D town. We do not get quality free agents knocking down the door to place in frozen rustbelt of Detroit Michigan, so we have to over pay to get anybody to sign with the Pistons.
I would like to see Joe develop a team like Memphis has. A young, fast, defensive minded team that contest every shot and can get stops until they get some buckets to win the game.
There is no quick fix for a team this BAD.
We are going to have to take our lumps until we get at least 2 quality lottery picks and then try fill in the roster with some quality FA after getting rid of some roster dead weight over the next 2 years.
The good news is that it will be easy to get a good seat at the Palace for next few years until they turn it around.
“off year Gordon Prince”
I hope you realize Gordon has been in decline since 2006. Prince also has been on the decline since 2006 though his best year was 2004.
These are not “off” years, these are two players past their peak getting worse every year.
Look at the Grizzlies roster.
They have one rookie age 20 making league minimum and a 31 y.o, bench player making less than $1 mill.
The rest of the team is 23-30 years old. Prime playing age.
They pay big bucks to the star starters Rudy Gaye, Zach Randolph and Gasol. $15 million each. The rest of their roster gets one or two million a year. Sure we have injuries but so did they. They still kicked our butts.
Agreed that Gordon and Prince are overpaid veterans on the decline, although they should still be in their prime since neither are not that old.
Thank god for the amnesty rule.
I would start looking at getting rid of the CV, BG and Tayshaun contracts. But not necessarily in that order.