The Pistons beat the New Orleans Hornets 89-87 Saturday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills despite losing Brandon Knight within the first five minutes of the game. Knight, who only the night before put up a career high 26 points, went to the locker room after an elbow under the basket from former Piston DaJuan Summers. Knight suffered a broken nose and didn’t return, but should be ready with his mask for the Pistons Tuesday practice.
Key Points:
- Jason Maxiell all about the hustle again. Maxiell in another start, finished the game with 10 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 blocked shot. No shot was more important on the night than Jason’s putback jam on a Greg Monroe miss late in the game to help the Pistons lock in the victory. As much ups and downs as Jason has had he’s shown a lot these last few games and I have always called him the Putback King.
- This Maxiell dunk brought the house down. Via NBA.com
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Lawrence Frank “Jason Maxiell embodied what the effort was all about, his tenacity, his effort, his toughness – I don’t know what (Monroe) finished with (in) offensive rebounds. I guess he had six. I would bet that three of them were the result of Max keeping balls alive and then to get that big dunk – momentum play. Max brings a toughness, an intensity, a tenacity about him. He played with an edge.”
- The Hornets Trevor Ariza couldn’t miss Saturday night leading all scorers with 26 on 9-for-12 shooting.
- Jonas Jerebko was headbutted by Jason Smith and it looked almost intentional, that may have been the reason why Jonas put his arm out in retaliation after he got hit. Smith went crashing to the floor on his own. And depending on the replay you saw, Jonas’s arm didn’t touch him.
- Hustle all night from Jonas, who was 5-for-10 for 11 points, with 5 boards in just 18 minutes on the floor.
- Austin Day just1-for-5 for 4 points and 3 boards in 19 plus minutes on the floor.
- Add another check mark to Greg Monroe’s double-double tally as Moose poured in 24 points with 16 boards, 2 assists and a steal. Did you envision this much progress in Greg’s game this season?
- Yes this stat is correct…54 points in the paint for Detroit.
- Thirteen turnover on the night for Detroit, five of them came from Monroe.
- This one went back and forth. The Pistons trailed by three at the half took the first double-digit lead either way by going on an 8-0 run early in the fourth.
Greg Monroe: “You know Brandon’s a big part of what we do, but Walker D. (Russell) and Rodney (Stuckey) moving back to the point more, definitely stepped up tonight and everybody else that got into the game. Everybody stepped up tonight. It was a tough night, but everybody had a crazy amount of energy for the schedule that we just went through and I have to applaud my teammates, they did a great job tonight.”
- Solid night for Rodney Stuckey, who really stepped up his game as soon as Brandon went to the locker room. Rodney took it to the hole all night finishing with 17 points on 5-for-13 shooting with 3 assists, as steal and just one turnover.
- Walker Russell showed just how important he can be for this Pistons team. Russell with 4 assists, 9 points and 2 steals in 32 minutes. Have they started selling his jerseys at the Palace yet?
Walker Russell on n Brandon Knight going out and him stepping in: “Usually I’m the guy that was always playing, but I’ve been playing more and more lately, so when coach called my number, he had the confidence in me and I had the confidence to step up and play.”
- What you can see in the last two Pistons performances is that they still have issues holding on to a lead, but they are learning.
- Highlights, including Brandon’s injury via NBA.com
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- The Pistons can sure use their extended vacation, they next play on Wednesday in New Jersey.
Walter R. is going to get his chance to start next game until Bynum is back.
I think he will make the best of it. He may get double digit assists.
Next W against the Nets for the red hot Pistons.
Good luck boys.
Frank has tried JJ, Wallace and Maxiell as starters at PF and I think the current system of Maxiell in the starting lineup with JJ off the bench and Wallace as third string seems to be the best for the team.
Maxiell brings energy, rebounding and defense similar to a young Big Ben and JJ brings outside shooting and hustle off the bench. Ben can mentor from the bench.
Walker D can talk the talk, so lets see if he can walk the walk now that he will be starting in the next game.
I hope Singler does not stay in Spain like I read somewhere that he might do next year. We would get a bunch of playing time and maybe even start if he plays with the Pistons since Austin Powerless will be gone more than likely.
you can see the diff between hard players and soft players. jonas you shouldnt of put ur hand out like that but you didnt even touch him. baby killer ive been waiting nice to see your back in with us.
Singler can stay in spain he’s not that good. We need to trade for a small forward. Jerebko can’t play enough minutes to start at small forward, Prince is a poor fit for this young team, Daye is a turnover machine. It would have been nice if we had not resigned Prince because then we would have a little bit of cap space to play with. We signed Prince I think around December 10 or so, so we can’t trade him until March 10 or so because of the three month rule, and the NBA trade deadline is March 15th. Stuckey also becomes available to trade at the same time.
We all know Joe Dumars, he doesn’t want to trade Prince or Stuckey, so I assume the trade deadline will come and go.
March 15 has never looked so far away. Tayshaun is just one injury away from being a piston for life. Stay healthy Tay so we can trade your complaining butt out of Detroit.
Prince likes to whine but who do you start at SF if you trade him this year unless the player you get is a SF.
Wilkins or Daye. I don’t think so. Damien is a second or third string talent.
Daye will be playing in the D league or Europe next year.
If you trade for a PF then you could try JJ at SF for the rest of the year.
It would give us some rebounding and scoring at SF with JJ.
Absolutely we trade away Prince for another small forward (OR a power forward). then in the draft we pick up a small forward or power forward.
I’m not saying this has to happen in any particular order, just that if Prince suffers an injury we can’t trade him. We need Prince traded yesterday. But I guess we have to wait til mar 15.
No that headbutt wasn’t intentional, if you look at the replay, Greg Monroe pulled Smith back and then he collided with JJ. Jerebko took the hit like Chuck Norris though
I’d just like to say… Aside from some poor decisions from Joe D, he made some awesome ones regarding draft picks.
Monroe & Knight…
Man, every game and even interview show us we’ve got a real winners over here. Workers, talented guys who hate to lose. So give them time, hopefully Joe D. can make some more good decisions a make this a winning team in the future. I have patience.
Great game. We controlled most of the second half. Maxiell seemed like he had a monster game. His stats definitely don’t completely reflect the impact he had last night. I picked him up as a low-risk player on my fantasy team. Hope he can keep this up.
i dont know whats the hate coming from? prince is an awesome player and im sure he will be traded just not this year. people need to understand that you need some vets to lead the way. this year we will be losing a lot and we need someone that can guide these players. i put faith in you tay. remember ppl he came back for cheap so dont start bashing him.
To me it is all about whether the player is worth the contract or not.
You have to take the emotion out of it.
Tayshaun is a decent player but he is on the downswing of his career.
He does bring some veteran leadership to the team and he is productive as a starting player. Eventually we will get a better player at SF but it may take a year or 2 to supplant Prince.
So right now he is earning his keep unlike BG, and CV.
But once his minutes go down and he is relegated to the bench then his contract will be not worth the money.
If you make $6 million/year or more you should be a starter in the NBA to justify that kind of cash.
Here are the highest paid Pistons:
1. BG-$11 m/y
2. Stuck-$8 m/y
3. CV-$7 m/y
4. Prince-$6 m/y
They all should be starters or getting major minutes in order to justify that payroll. This year only Stuck and Tay are doing so.
Fun fact former pistons coach john kuester will be the “head coach” of the lakers tonight since mike brown is suspended for making inappropriate contact with an offical.
it’d be nice to see how kuester coaches a different team to give me some perspective on his coaching
Thanks for sharing. That’ll be interesting to see.