It was somewhat of a surreal night at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Friday. Just before tip off we learned that Andre Drummond would be out 4-6 weeks with a stress fracture in his back. Then #Pistons fans had to realize that their three game losing streak was going to be very difficult to overcome with the NBA leading Spurs in town. Well Detroit didn’t seem to care about any of those things when they took the floor, in fact it was somewhat of a Freaky Friday at the Palace a the Pistons dominated the Spurs pretty much from start to finish leading by as much as 21 points. The Spurs go back into the game late, but Detroit held them off and took down the Spurs 119-109.
Key Points:
- Greg Monroe was fantastic, putting up 26 points and 16 boards for Detroit and making sure the void of not having Andre Drummond wasn’t noticed. Greg played a whopping 40 minutes and added five assist, two steals and a blocked shot. He’s still however turning the ball over way too much (5) for a big man, but maybe that’s because he tries to do it all.
Greg Monroe: “Andre is out for a while now, so I expect I’ll play a lot more minutes, but tonight was a good team win. We had four or five guys in double-digits. We beat a very good team tonight and we need to keep it rolling.” Via Pistons.com
- Surprisingly, we didn’t see a minute for Kravtsov, but honestly that didn’t surprise too much since all the players on the floor for Detroit were paying well. Why mess with that?
- Say hello to Charlie Villanueva who seemed like he couldn’t miss a shot, helping the Pistons pull away from the Spurs on multiple occasions by knocking down some critical three-pointers. Charlie played on of the best games as a Piston finishing with 21 points, 5-of-9 from downtown, with 8 boards and two blocked shots. Well rounded for Charlie.
- We have us a point guard!
- Calderon a +13 on the night with eight assists, seven points, a steal and ZERO turnovers. ME LIKE!
- Singler played with great hustle and determination. He finished with 14 points, two assists, seven boards in 35 minutes. Check out this bucket thanks to an awesome assist by Jose.
[flashvideo file=http://nba.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/games/pistons/2013/02/08/0021200739-sas-det-play2.nba_nba_576x324.flv /]
- The Spurs were without Duncan and Ginobili. Tony Parker did his best to win the ball game for the Spurs putting up a game high 31 points.
- Detroit put up a 21 points lead in the second quarter, but the Spurs cut it back to 13 by the half. The Spurs however got as close as seven in the fourth, but the Pistons did something that come difficult most nights and that was making shots.
- If you’re like me you had a sinking feeling that Brandon Knight would thrive once he was moved to the two spot. Knight put up 24 points on 10-of-21 shooting with five boards, two assists and one turnover in 36 minutes. Add his clutch three-pointers in the final minutes of the game and the move to the two looks better and better every game.
Photo/Getty Images Editing Need4Sheed.com
- Stuckey 4-of-7 shooting for 11 points, six boards adding 4 turnovers in 24 minutes.
- Detroit with another Saturday night in Milwaukee against the Bucks.
Playing like this, there’s no reason they shouldn’t win at least the next four out of five games. With Drummond down Frank should make an effort to get Slava in there earlier rather than later.
I always say that…we should win the games but it always seems like they win the ones you never think they will and lose the easy ones.
Yeah Greg seems to get striped to much. When he’s good in the post, They start doubling. That’s when he has trouble. Greg needs to realizes once hes made a few consecutive shots in the post the doubles are going to come quickly. He needs to start messing with them by demanding the ball in those situations, drawing the double and kicking it out, to an open shooter. instead of always trying to battle through the double.
I know it sounds like im harping on him. Though the way i see it, he could easily be an All star if he just cleans up a few areas of his game.
Yeah would also like to see what we have in Slava. Personally i think he could make a fine back up center.
I feel bad talking about it all the time too but you’re right he gets stripped a lot in the post and he seems to fumble the ball too much. Too bad we couldn’t pout some stick-um on his hands.
The way Moose plays he’s gonna have turnovers. One of his best moves is to start from the free throw line dribble it once and then get a first step on his defender to get past and lay it in.
I don’t care who you are, this is a high percentage turnover. However it is also such a high percentage play for field goals it makes up for it.
If Moose only makes back to the basket plays, with low turnover rates, he will also have to be satisfied with giving up on the post if the defender is able to push him back a bit. Now if you are Shaq or Howard, your move when you are too far from block to post up properly is that you post, pass it to the guard, and then repost with better position.
I’m ok with the turnovers. It helps break down the defense forces the defender to be worried about Moose no matter where he is on the court.
What I am not ok on is if our point guard has turnovers, those are caused by a poor handle, something Knight and to a lesser degree Stuckey have problems with.
Greg has great hands, he’s just doing so much for the team that he will get a lot of turnovers. It’s fine.