Walker Russell Jr.'s NBA debut was ruined, both teams played hard: Grizzlies 98, Pistons 81
by Packey on Jan 21, 2012 6:58 AM EST
in Detroit Pistons Recaps
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PrintIt was Super 70s night at The Palace, and our Juno Pistons lost by 17 in front of about 70 people. They scored 81. The loss was Detroit's 10th in their last 11 games (or we could really just say 13th in their 16 games this season), fifth straight at home, and fourth in a row overall. Really Super.
The Pistons trailed 49-30 at the half, but scored half of 70 in an inspired third quarter wherein Lawrence Frank picked up his first technical of the season and Brandon Knight scored 12 of his 22 points. The deficit was down to as little as seven with just under nine minutes left in the game, but one last 17-3 Grizzlies run put Memphis back up 21 and the Pistons layin' a gasser.
Detroit didn't shoot all that bad as a team (44-percent) and actually outrebounded the Griz 38-27 (13-3 on the offensive glass), but 25 turnovers helped Memphis shoot 57-percent, collect assists on 23 of their 39 baskets, and score 19 fast break points. I didn't see the final stat, but when the Pistons were at 19 turnovers, the Grizzlies had translated those into 26 points (the Pistons had just six points off turnovers at that point).
Brandon Knight was the leading scorer for the Pistons with the aforementioned 22 on 6-for-18 shooting. Greg Monroe had a quiet double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. While the Pistons shot 44-percent, Knight, Monroe, and Tayshaun Prince were the three volume shooters and they combined to be just 15-for-43 (35-percent); the rest of the Pistons were 14-for-23 (61-percent).
Rudy Gay led all scorers with 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting. Far out. Get down with me after the jump.
- The Pistons were 5-for-14 on spot up shots, 2-for-9 on pick-and-rolls, and 10-for-14 in transition and on cuts. More transition, movement basketball.
- Ben Gordon had 10 points on 3-for-6 shooting. He scored 4 points in the 1st quarter and then the other 6 in the first 4 minutes of the 3rd quarter.
- No. 22 took 13 shots. He made 5.
- Ben Wallace had 2 rebounds in 16 minutes. Langlois twonders if he'll be back tonight.
- Jerebko will likely start tonight while the ol' man rests. He had 9 points on 4-for-5 shooting and grabbed 7 rebounds.
- Austin Daye:
Finally made a couple shot to many TO's gotta get back in the flow of the game!!
- Jason Maxiell had the play of the night.
- Walker Russell Jr., who the Pistons just called up from the Mad Ants, was the first guard off the bench with Stuckey and Bynum out. He looked okay, for a guy who has spent five seasons in the D-League. He finished with 2 assists and 3 turnovers, a steal, and 3 points in 20-plus minutes.
- Vernon Macklin saw 3:55 of burn and grabbed 2 rebounds. That's roughly 18 rebounds per 36!
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Saw a little bit of the game and the highlights
Brandon Knight, he does look awful good at times and I love his pick and roll potential – him and Jonas could be a frightening combo. But as a point guard, he still seems painfully like Jason Terry with the Hawks.
With Knight and Stuckey both having their virtues, but neither being legit point guards and undersized against the 2 I was thinking about a name: Shaun Livingston. He could provide a bona fide point guard who could size up against a 2, he’s healthy, and still only 26…
i'm with you on livingston
the time to get him would’ve been the offseason though
and i’m with you on the terry comparison, like he was compared to out of college. it’s seeming more fitting as time goes on.
yeah and I think he'll continue to prove his worth as a potential Terry-like player and less as a point guard with every game he plays on this team
if only because he has essentially 2 passing options in Monroe and Jerebko.
Jonas Jerebko once killed a charging female rhinoceros in heat protecting its young with nothing more than a hook shot.
Love Beer? Me too! http://jimbobsbeerblog.wordpress.com/
Follow me on twitter: #JimBobsBeerBlog
Yeah we're the 2nd worst team in the league right now and only a 1/2 game out of worst.
Of course we’re only half a game to a full game up on 4 or 5 other teams so its a pretty tight race right now. It will be the 3rd quarter of the season that will really enable us to drive a disparity in our record vs. everyone else’s.
Jonas Jerebko once killed a charging female rhinoceros in heat protecting its young with nothing more than a hook shot.
Love Beer? Me too! http://jimbobsbeerblog.wordpress.com/
Follow me on twitter: #JimBobsBeerBlog
The offensive rebounding dispartiy is at least partially explained by the fact
That Memphis shot over 57%. Not as many missed shots for them to grab.
You may be right about this game, but for the year. . . .
I noticed we hadn’t been outrebounded, as much, on average, as I thought we would be. We’re losing the board wars, on average, 39.1 – 37.7, or 1.4 rebounds per game. But then I noticed that we actually average one more offensive rebound a game, and thus 2.4 fewer defensive rebounds a game. Then I checked our shooting stats overall, compared to our opponents.
I think overall, our rebounding stats look a bit better than they otherwise would solely because we’re such a lousy shooting team. See below.
Fun with stats
(1) Detroit is now AVERAGING a double-digit loss each game (94.9-84.8).
(2) Shooting percentages. Overall, Detroit is shooting .426; opponents .477. That’s in part because of our awesome guards: Knight is leading the pack at .426; Gordon is at .422; Stuckey, .343; and Bynum, .370. Austin Daye, who has taken more shots than Bynum, is shooting .250. Daye has taken almost as many shots as Maxiell, who is shooting .383.
On the bright side, Moose is shooting .532, which is impressive, and he’s taken the second-most shots on the team. But the guy who has taken the most shots, everyone’s favorite Piston, Tayshaun, is shooting .414.
(3) Assists and turnovers. Us: 18.4 assists – 17.3 TOs per game; opponents, 22.5 assists – 14.4 TOs.
I mean, you didn’t need me to type this out to know we suck but still. . . .
"twondering"
I am an anti-twitter Luddite, and i have never heard this word before. It made me heartily lol.
These stats are no surprise
Addressing Toledo Joe above. The Pistons are a young team and what ails them could be addressed by coaching. However, the compressed schedule has been the team’s worst enemy (or best friend if you happen to be a ping pong balls advocate). I thought the compressed schedule might be helpful. However, any advantage this might have been has been more than offset by the team’s poor health (CV unable to play at all, Stuckey’s injury, Prince’s bad knee). But the bottom line is the Pistons look poor more because of unforced errors (and inability to finish on the break) than any other reason. Again, fixable under ordinary circumstances but not in this crazy year.
The seem to be playing hard
You have to start with this when rebuilding and I’m sure that pretty soon this team will figure out how to win some games.But if we do make it to that “ping pong” stage I won’t be mad at all.We have a few solid players to build around,and I think Walker Russell should stick around to backup Knight even when MFWB heals from his injury.Move Suckey to the 2 for now before we trade him.
Honestly, the biggest difference maker in this game
was Brandon Knight. While he may not have shot particularly well, and he definitely had some terrible turnovers, we don’t score 35 points in the 3rd without Knight pushing the tempo the entire time.
He did exactly what PG needs to do in a situation like that (playing 20 down) which is push the tempo as much as possible, speed up the game, and try to increase the number of offensive touches the team gets.
And while the box score doesn’t reflect it, a huge reason why the team was able to push the tempo in the 3rd was the defensive intensity that Knight established.
If we somehow end up with Davis next year, I see us in the 7/8 seed of the playoffs in 2012-13 regardless of what we do with the rest of our roster.
Jonas Jerebko once killed a charging female rhinoceros in heat protecting its young with nothing more than a hook shot.
Love Beer? Me too! http://jimbobsbeerblog.wordpress.com/
Follow me on twitter: #JimBobsBeerBlog
I didn't want to be right about taking the over on 13.5 turnovers.
But I was right. Almost doubly right.
All the time relaxed.
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