The Hawks didn’t make the Pistons 86-85 win on the Palace floor easy. The Hawks erased the Pistons fourth quarter lead to take it down to the wire. Atlanta had the bull with 24 seconds left in the game down one, and the best look they got was a missed Josh Smith three pointer.
Key Points:
- The Pistons have now won 8 of their last 11 games at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
- Brandon Knight scored six on 2-for-5 shooting. When I looked up at the score board and noticed he was still at zero I tried to think of the last time he had hit a shot. Remember he didn’t score on Tuesday against the Lakers.
- The Pistons were led by Greg Monroe, who scored 20 with 7 boards and a blocked shot. Nice to see him bounce back after scoring just six points in the first half and having a not so stellar offensive game against the Lakers on Tuesday.
- I thought this one was going to be one of those games after I got to my seat about two minutes after the game started and the Pistons were quickly letting the Hawks take charge. The Hawks made their first nine shots to lead by 10.
- Jason Maxiell made sure Charlie Villanueva wasn’t getting any time in his return to the court. Jason stole the show with his second straight double-double, putting up 19 with 12 boards. Maxiell couldn’t miss, making all five of his shots in the first quarter to help the Pistons stay in the game.
- Jason Maxiell loves a good putback jam.
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- When Jason wasn’t in the game lighting it up, Jonas made sure that there was no drop off. Jerebko scored 10 with 2 boards, a steal, an assist and a whole lot of energy.
Lawrence Frank: “If there was an MVP of this game, it was Jason Maxiell. Both Jason and Jonas combined did a great job. Max was super. The tandem of him and Jonas was great.”
- Doug E Fresh, the Pistons half time show will probably log more minutes on court this season than Austin Daye.
- Ben Gordon…still rubbish.
- Nobody at the Palace seemed to notice or care that T-Mac was on the floor for the Hawks.
- Stuckey with 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting in 37 minutes on the floor.
- Prince was solid putting up 17 with 2 assists and five boards. You can thank Tay for this one after he had a solid fourth quarter, hitting three big baskets right when the Pistons needed it. No basket was more important than his 8 footer with 24 seconds left in the game to put the Pistons up 86-85 to cement the victory.
- Can’t see Charlie V cracking this rotation any time soon. Is anyone upset about that?
- Josh Smith led the Hawks with 21 on 8-for-19 shooting and most of you want to see him in a Pistons uniform. It seems like deja vu. How many times have we as Pistons fans went through the Josh Smith trade scenario?
- This team can play defense.
- No matter what team he plays for I still can’t stand Kirk Hinrich.
- 44 points in the paint for Detroit.
- Highlights of the game via NBA.com
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- Another chance to take on at the Palace tonight (Saturday) against the Raptors.
The next few games… Tonight vs. Toronto and a road series with the “beatable” teams will show us the truth.
Can we get near to the playoff spot or are we down under for a reason.
In February and in beginning of the March, this team showed us some nice things, which we wanted to see for a long time. Can we make one more step, and do it on the road where we’ve been weak… Let’s see.
Stuckey had 7 assists. And we need a Putback King pic somewhere in this write-up. 🙂
I think the Pistons are going to shock the world by getting into the playoffs this year despite starting the season 4-20 at which time they were considered one of the worst teams in the NBA.
Kudos to Frank and his coaching staff for staying the course and turning a bunch of misfits into a respectable TEAM.
Hopefully Gore will allow Dumars to improve the roster as much as possible in order to keep the team moving in the right direction.