The 19-27 #Pistons are in Miami to take on the 33-13 Heat Monday night. Detroit, who won the last time these two teams met in Miami, would like to add another win to their streak but it will take everything they have to take down the defending champions.
The good: In the grand scheme of things with the record the Pistons have, going into this game on a two game winning streak will help. Another confidence booster is the fact that this team beat the Heat the last time they visited. It also doesn’t hurt that Andre is playing possessed and he is averaging 14.5 points and 16.0 rebounds against the Heat this season.
Is Andre speaking to Josh Smith?
Andre Drummond: “This is the game we like to play, not take as many jump shots and pound the ball inside,” Via NBA.com
The bad: The Heat had their way with Detroit the last time they played each other in Detroit, beating them up pretty easily in a game what wasn’t close as the 110-95 score would lead you to believe. The Pistons will have to get complete games from all their starters and Rodney Stuckey, who played just six minutes against the 76ers leaving the game complaining of dizziness.
The unknown: Can Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe keep up the pace they did against the 76ers? Will Brandon Jennings assists start growing, or will we just have to deal with him being a shoot first point guard? Can Detroit even compete against the Heat after their poor play the last two months?
Injuries:
Pistons: None
Heat: None
Stat: Andre Drummond recorded his first career 20-point, 20-rebound game with 21 points and a career-high 20 rebound vs.New Orleans (1/24). Drummond became the first piston with a 20-20 game since Antonio McDyess vs. New York (3/11/09).
Stat: Detroit has lost seven of the last nine games in Miami, but is only one of four teams to beat the HEAT at home this season.
Stat: LeBron James is averaging 23.5 points against the Pistons this season.
Tip off is at 7:30 pm and will be broadcast on Fox Sports Detroit . If you can’t catch the game on TV, catch it on the radio over at 97.1 The Ticket.
this team is playing good hard basketball i’d like to see them play like this every night. looks like they will win but if we could just shoot the ball we would win this.
heat are shooting 46%. We are shooting 40% 3 point shooting is the same at 38%.
The worst shooter on our team is Josh Smith. If you take him out, we are 42% from the floor. If we could have benched Josh Smith give every shot to other players we would be winning right now. We didn’t really use Josh Smith to stop Lebron as Cheeks decided to throw a lot of different looks at him all game. smith, stuckey, singler, jerebko, moose all guarded lebron at times.
Josh Smith did provide an excellent moment when he dribbled the ball down the court straight out of bounds. That did make me laugh. So there is that. It wasn’t a $50 million dollar laugh however.
by “they will win” I mean the heat of course
this short chart by josh smith will explain why we lost (thanks couper moorhead on twitter)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BfmVN6xCAAAkPk0.jpg
https://twitter.com/CoupNBA/status/430539305862180864/photo/1
Cheeks: Hey it wasn’t me, talk to Josh…..