Game 28: Detroit Pistons @ Charlotte Bobcats [Game Thread] ***Announcement***

NBA Regular Season Game 28
	@
11-16 (3-11 away)		10-16 (9-4 home)
Time Warner Cable Arena Bobcats Blog: Rufus on Fire
December 22, 2009  7:00 PM ET
TV: Fox Sports Detroit Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Probable starters:
Chucky Atkins	PG	Raymond Felton
Rodney Stuckey	SG	Stephen Jackson
Jonas Jerebko	SF	Gerald Wallace
Jason Maxiell	PF	Boris Diaw
Ben Wallace	C	Tyson Chandler

Pistons are riding a four game losing streak into Charlotte where they have won six of their last nine.  Unfortunately, I was at one of the losing efforts back in 2006 when I attended college in Charlotte.  Let's hope Detroit does not make this season's road record any worse than it already is.

Detroit played Charlotte earlier this year in Detroit and whooped on their former coach, Larry Brown's team.  Charlotte's a different team now than it was then, though.  For one, they acquired Stephen Jackson from Golden State who has scored at least 22 points in six of his last nine games.  He recently was injured (back spasms), but is expected to play tonight.  Gerald Wallace (severe headache), who is playing much improved over the past seven games, is also supposed to play.

If only Detroit was so lucky with their injured gunners tonight.  Ben Gordon and Richard Hamilton both participated lightly in drills on Monday, but Gordon is still considered questionable for tonight's game, while Hamilton is doubtful.  Tayshaun Prince is also listed as doubtful.  

Expect this game to be a slow paced, low scoring affair again.  Charlotte and Detroit both rank amongst the best in opponents points per game and near the bottom in number of possessions per game.  I think a key for Detroit here on out is to see at least a 20-spot in the assists column, as it seems it directly translates to their success (5-3 when they put up 20+ assists, and they should have won the Hornets game).  

***Announcement***

And now for the big news I mentioned on Twitter earlier today.  I won't draw out the suspense: Motown String Music is merging with Matt Watson and Detroit Bad Boys, which should be effective first thing tomorrow morning.  

It was a difficult decision for me because I know I was just getting started at running my own community here, but ultimately, the goal was to have the best Pistons community on the 'net.  Matt is a Pistons blogging legend, and I've long been a huge fan of his work, so when the opportunity arose to merge, I couldn't pass it up.  Nothing will change on your part, other than the fact there will be more content for you to read, more commenters sharing their intelligent perspectives, and the name of the blog (with a killer new logo).  Of course, I'll still be around giving you my take on things as the co-manager with Matt.  

I'm going to keep Motown String Music's twitter account (with a slight alteration), so that my followers don't need to make any adjustments (you can also follow me @bpackey).  You don't even have to change your bookmarks until you feel completely comfortable with the new look because we're having it automatically forward to Detroit Bad Boys.  All prior content will still be here with the original content.  

It's an exciting change that I've been looking forward to for a couple months.  Don't get scared when you see the change, embrace it, and get ready to be a part of the best Pistons community on the interwebz.  

UPDATE:  Ben Gordon is on the active list.  [H/T Pistons Nation]