A Detroit Pistons blog
I’m headed out of town for a long weekend, so there will be no posts here until Monday evening. But if you’ve stepped by looking for something new, let Need 4 Sheed handle your Pistons fix, check out the fine sporting wit of J.E. Skeets or YAYsports, or head over to The Lonely Island.
Be safe everyone, and have a Happy New Year!
Thursday’s match between the Pistons and Heat was one of those rare hyped-up games that actually lives up to its billing. I’m sure fans in Miami will disagree, but it was a well-played contest from start to finish, and the Pistons had the slight edge all night. They led by one at halftime and by seven after three, and after letting Miami make a run to pull even late in the fourth, they held the Heat scoreless over the final two minutes until Shaquille O’Neal padded his points with a meaningless dunk with two seconds left.
Unfortunately, the game didn’t feature a parade of Pistons big men to bang with Shaq like Flip Saunders suggested would happen — mark down two more DNP’s for Dale Davis and Darko Milicic — but there was no need. Shaq did his damage — he finished with 26 points and six boards — but no one else not named Dwyane Wade or Jason Williams really factored into the game for the Heat.
And besides, Wallace and Wallace were holding their own — Ben’s block on Shaq that led to Tayshaun Prince’s fast break may have been my favorite play of the game, but Rasheed’s crafty “body up then take two steps back” move that led to a traveling call on Shaq was a close second. I loved that move when Rick Mahorn and Bill Laimbeer did it, and I love it just as much now — it just makes the other guy look so . . . dumb.
Not that Shaq needs help looking dumb, especially making post-game comments like this:
“We had the game all the way, we just made a lot of silly mistakes down the stretch,” O’Neal said. “You can’t do that against a team like Detroit.
“They are the same as last year. They can be beat.”
Had the game all the way? How did Shaq manage to play in this game yet watch another? Dude must be a magician. Or some kind of genie.
Wade was a stud with 33 points, nine assists and six rebounds, but he committed two key offensive fouls late and was flustered by stifling Tayshaun Prince defense on the final two possessions. Like Shaq, he seemed bitter, even if his coach had a better big-picture view:
The numbers only added to the frustration that already was high for Wade because of another physical run-in with Richard Hamilton. Wade was called for back-to-back offensive fouls while Hamilton defended him in the fourth quarter — a trend that started last season when Hamilton attempted to defend Wade by draping his body on him as often as possible.
”I think that’s the main thing, he has his body on me all the time,” Wade said. “And that’s fine. But if they let him play that way, let me play the same way. That’s something that doesn’t happen, so that’s the only thing that gets annoying.”
But Riley can’t wait to see his team in more games such as this. He would just like the result to change.
”I want our team to get used to playing in these kinds of games with that kind of competition,” Riley said. “I hate the loss, but I like the competition.”
Big surprise: Gary Payton was useless. I said Thursday The Mitten would be irrelevant, and, well, he was: he had five points in 31 minutes while allowing Rip Hamilton to score 25 with nine assists and MVP candidate Chauncey Billups to score 30 with seven. Was he guarding those two the whole game? Not at all, but it’s only fair to mention him since Riles was all about his defensive “moxie” before the game.
As if watching one washed up veteran wasn’t enough, we were also subjected to 15 minutes from Antoine Walker, who chucks up threes like he’s a poor (and fat) man’s Rasheed Wallace. Unfortunately for Heat fans, he made 1-of-2 three-pointers tonight, which will only encourage him and result in more 0-for-5 nights like Tuesday against the Bucks.
On a more serious note, Rasheed will be able to close a tragic chapter of his life on Friday. From the News:
Rasheed Wallace boarded one of owner Bill Davidson’s charter jets after the game Thursday. He flew to Philadelphia for the funeral of his cousin, Tyree Wallace, who was killed last week. The funeral was scheduled for early today. Wallace will then meet the Pistons in Cleveland tonight and, barring complications, play in the game Saturday.
The Pistons take on the Cavaliers on Saturday. Here’s to hoping Bron Bron will still be hungover after turning 21 on Friday.
Pistons 106, Heat 101 box score [ESPN]
Chauncey, Dirk are league’s leading men so far [ESPN]
Loss leaves Heat with empty feeling [Miami Herald]
Harper likens Pistons to 72-win Bulls team [Detroit News]
Considering the Heat won 59 games last year and came within one game of the NBA Finals, more than a few people thought it was odd they practically blew up their roster and added Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, Gary Payton and James Posey.
But Chauncey Billups knows why they did it:
“They won 60 games (59) and the only team they struggled with was us. So, I have to figure they made those changes to get past us.”
Heat president and head coach Pat Riley didn’t exactly dispute that notion, though he said a lot more went into the acquisitions of Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, Gary Payton and James Posey.
“If I did it perfectly, I probably would have gotten a couple of other guys,” Riley told reporters. “I’m happy with what we did. You can’t specifically look at a team and go, ‘OK, I’m going to do this, and he’s going to match up with this guy and he’s going to match up with this guy.’ ”
But, as it turned out, Riley thinks the acquisition of Payton could end up being a key against the Pistons.
“I do believe at the end of the summer, we got very fortunate to get Gary, because I think Gary will have the moxie to play against Billups and maybe Rip,” Riley said. “And I think maybe in a big-game situation defensively, he can shut people down.”
Riley has been using Payton as a sort of closer. Williams starts and plays more minutes, but Payton has finished games.
Wait a minute, Riles, Gary Payton is going to be the difference? I’m sorry, but this isn’t 2003. Don’t you remember how The Mitten was embarrassed by the Pistons in the NBA Finals two years ago? How he scored just 3, 2, 6, 8 and 2 points in five games? And how Chauncey and Rip averaged 21 points a game? Sure, he had a good game the other night against Kobe, but there was a time in his career where he did that on a nightly basis. I just don’t see him being a factor out there tonight, despite the Riley’s wishful thinking.
On a sidenote, watch out for an early Darko Milicic sighting tonight — Flip Saunders said he plans on rotating all of his big men on Shaq tonight. What I’m most interested in seeing, though, is if Dale Davis really can fill Elden Campbell’s shoes.
Heat’s housecleaning leaves Pistons puzzled [Detroit News]
Like Krista Latham said in the Free Press yesterday, the Pistons did their NBA duty last night by playing the 6-21 Raptors. Err, make that 6-22 Raptors. It was closer than it should have been, but they didn’t let it slip away.
Raptors forward Chris Bosh played extremely well: 37 points, 11 boards and five assists in 44 minutes. I’ll do the math for you — he averaged 40.3 points per 48 minutes. That’s okay, I guess, but our boy Darkoselected two spots above Bosh in the 2003 draft, remember? outhustled him with 96 points per 48. The Raptors couldn’t help but leave the Palace dejected about what could have been.
Ben Wallace left the game in the third quarter after taking an Antonio McDyess elbow to the eye:
Ben Wallace left the game near the end of the third quarter and received five stitches in the corner of his lip after he was accidentally elbowed by McDyess. Wallace didn’t return, but Saunders said he could have if needed.
“He’s going to get enough punishment, hits and bruises next game,” Saunders said.
He certainly will, as the Pistons host the Diesel and the rest of the Miami Heat on Thursday. If you were annoyed that the NBA didn’t give the Pistons top billing on Christmas, well, this one is in prime time in front of a national audience on TNT.
DETROIT 113, TORONTO 106: No relaxing vs. Raptors [Detroit Free Press]
Raptors get Darko calls [Toronto Sun]
Pistons 113, Raptors 106 box score [ESPN]
A lot of people noticied the NBA’s decision to heavily promote the Shaq-Kob… err, Heat-Lakers game over the Pistons-Spurs, including Gregg Popovich:
“We’re not only thrilled, but we think it’s a huge responsibility to be playing the JV game,” he said. “Because, you know, you’ve got to do well to keep the people around for the varsity game. So we’re taking this very seriously.”
Luckily anybody that bothered to tune in before watching the Black Mamba hoist 30 shots and lose were treated to an entertaining game.
After losing Game 7 of the Finals on June 23, the Pistons waited nearly six months for their rematch with the Spurs on Christmas Day. It was clear from tip-off the Pistons wanted this game a more — they held the Spurs to a franchise-low eight points (all scored by Tony Parker) in the first quarter. And unlike last June, Detroit came through with a strong offensive surge in the fourth quarter, turning a four-point lead after three quarters into a 15-point victory by scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter.
Ben Wallace exploded for nine boards in the first quarter and finished with 21 for the game. He also scored 10 points to post his fourth double-double in his last five games, averaging 12 points and 15.2 rebounds per game in that span. He made some waves in the papers after complaining about his production earlier this month, but he’s been a rock ever since.
A bit lost in the excitement of Ben’s big game was Antonio McDyess’ work on the boards — he chipped in a season-high 13 boards to go with 10 points, drawing high praise from Chauncey Billups after the game:
“He’s better than anybody in this league off the bench,” Pistons guard Chauncey Billups said. “He’s better than 80% of the starters in this league. He’s something we’ve got to go to when he comes in the game because he’s a mismatch almost every night.”
Billups was actually on the receiving end of some high praise himself, coming from Spurs coach Gregg Popovich:
“Chauncey’s having an MVP season, in my opinion,” Popovich said before the game. “I don’t think enough people mention this, maybe they do, I don’t read that much. I haven’t heard his name ever. It’s huge when you have a guy that’s having an MVP season because everybody kind of plays around him. He’s made everybody so much better, and I think that’s a huge difference.”
Eva Longoria made the trip to cheer on Parker, and to the best of my knowledge, the couple managed to avoid verbally abusing any Palace security guards. They weren’t as nice to the San Antonio police on Saturday.
Rasheed Wallace scored 14 with six rebounds and two blocks, playing the role of Tim Duncan’s nemesis for 29 minutes before heading home to play the role of Daddy for the rest of the day:
Rasheed Wallace said he got up around 9, although his kids wanted him up much earlier.
“They had to wait,” he said. “That was killing them.”
After the game, he planned on going home to assess the gift-opening damage and help get all the toys up and running.
“You gotta do it,” he said. “Put the toys together, put the batteries in there, make sure this works right, and transform this, and make sure this game works.
“You gotta be knowledgeable about electronics if you’ve got a lot of kids. You’ve gotta have patience with it because of all these little parts and knick-knacks. It’s crazy.”
Good times, good times. If you didn’t get enough, be sure to tune in on January 12 as the Pistons face their demons by traveling to San Antonio.
Pistons 85, Spurs 70 boxscore [ESPN]
McDyess gets some back against Spurs [Detroit Free Press]
Longoria denies racial slurs in cop confrontation [San Antonio Express-News]
I was hoping to post a festive “Happy Holidays” message and be done with it today, but instead I bring some sad news: Tyree Wallace, Rasheed Wallace’s cousin, was killed today.
Regardless of whatever mistakes Tyree may have made in his life, this is a devestating loss for all of his loved ones, and a particularly cruel one coming at this time of the year. We extend our condolences to the entire Wallace family.
Have a safe holiday weekend, everyone.
Tyree Wallace dies [AP]
True Hoop pointed me in the direction of this article on RealGM:
However, as well as the Pistons have played thus far, many critics question whether or not this team will be able to continue this rapid pace of winning up over the course of an 82 game season. NBA fans around the nation may very well discover the answer to this question after the Pistons play Golden State, San Antonio, Toronto, Miami, and Cleveland over the course of the next ten days.
Should the Billups and company find a way to defeat these five foes, the wildly burning question will become not whether the 25 - 3 Pistons will be able to break the all time franchise record of 63 regular season victories set by the 1998 - 1989 NBA Champion Pistons; but whether the Pistons will be able to break the NBA record of 72 regular season victories set by Michael Jordan and the 1995-1996 World Champion Chicago Bulls.
I have thought about the all-time record a little bit, but I’ve tried to avoid it for the most part since it would be so easy to fall off that pace. I mean, it cannot be overstated how insane 10 losses for an entire season really is. Take the Phoenix Suns, for example. They opened last year 31-4 but then lost six games in a row. Boom, they’re 31-10 at the halfway point. They posted an identical 31-10 in the second half to finish a league-best 62-20.
If this team at least ties franchise record for wins, I’ll be content, because I’m willing to wager that 63 wins would be enough to lead the league and secure homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. But unless the Pistons enter the All-Star break with four wins or less, I’m going to do my best to avoid thinking about the all-time record, because it’ll make every loss the rest of the way (no matter how few and far between) all the more excruciating.
Detroit Pistons Chase NBA History [RealGM via True Hoop]
Carlos Arroyo chatted today on ESPN’s Sportsnation. Nothing earth-shattering, just a dozen or so softballs lobbed in his direction, but it’s still too bad that it’s behind the ESPN Insider curtain and that most of you won’t be able to see it.
Here are the highlights:
Joel Dielman, Toledo, OH: Carlos, it seems like you are noticeably a lot more comfortable this year than last. Does that have to do with the new coach, new system, or what?
Carlos Arroyo: It’s has to do a lot with the new coach. Larry is a little more controlling with his players. All coaches are different. But I fell great this year with Flip.
Geoff: Detroit, MI: Carlos, we love you in Detroit. Best backup PG in the league. Here’s a question: Would you rather be starting for a bottom team or be in your situation now with the Pistons?
Carlos Arroyo: I think that God has put me in this position right now and be on a winning team. It doesn’t get better than this. Every player would like to be in a position like this. I don’t know my future and living my present. Definitely in the future, I would like to be a starter. That motivates me. I’m young and I just want to play and take advantage of my youth.
Jerry Troy, MI: Hey Carlos, Which player on the pistons take on the leadership role on the team?
Carlos Arroyo: That would be Chauncey. He’s the leader of our team. He’s the point guard. He gets everybody going. He gets everybody on the court. When we need a bucket, we go to him. He’s shown the type of leadership we need. Everybody’s a leader on this team, too. We’re one of the best teams in the NBA and we’ve shown that.
Chat with Carlos Arroyo [ESPN Insider]
There’s been some concern among fans as to whether the starters are playing too many minutes, in particular on Tuesday following a double-overtime game on Monday, but Flip Saunders isn’t concerned:
“The bench overall has done fairly well,” [Saunders] said. “Portland used different lineups and forced us to use Tayshaun Prince more because of his length.”
That partly explains why Carlos Delfino played only six minutes. Another reason for that was Delfino was feeling a little under the weather from the cold temperatures and all the travel.
“Chauncey Billups is going to play 35 minutes a night, that’s just the way it is,” Saunders said, explaining Carlos Arroyo’s 12-minute effort.
Maurice Evans struggled, which is why he played only 12 minutes. He missed both his shots and picked up two quick fouls.
Rasheed Wallace played 40 minutes, and Ben Wallace, who played 56 minutes Monday, played 41, largely because Antonio McDyess was in early foul trouble and played only 12 minutes.
Before playing 97 minutes in the last two games, Ben Wallace was averaging fewer minutes this year than last year. As for the rest of the starters, they’re all averaging fewer minutes this year. (On a sidenote, how cool is it that Hamilton, Billups and Prince have all upped their scoring averages in fewer minutes?) Take a look:
I think what causes some confusion is the fact that Antonio McDyess has had his minutes reduced, but that’s because Mo Evans and Carlos Arroyo have seen consistent time all year, Darko was seeing more time earlier in the year and Carlos Delfino has seen time lately. Considering our 7-man rotation last year, I’m pretty happy about the fact that at least nine players are seeing semi-regular time now, especially since Lindsey Hunter hasn’t played a single minute yet.
EDIT: Here’s a blatantly obvious angle that I didn’t think to check before: Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton, who are leading the team in minutes, rank 37th and 38th in the league in minutes per game. Ben Wallace ranks 43rd, Chauncey 65th, and Rasheed 72nd. It’s rare for a team to have all five starters ranked in the top 75, but clearly not one of them is being overworked.
Saunders pleased with bench [Detroit News]
Pistons season stats [ESPN]
I don’t why it took me so long to stumble upon this site, but here’s a collection of all of those Interplanetary Pistons cartoon shorts that you may have seen on Pistons Weekly. Definitely check out Episode 7 for some retro Bad Boys action, and don’t miss Episode 9, which somehow finds a way to fit the Pistons, Shaun Rogers (yeah, the Lions defensive tackle) and LeBron James into the same script. In all the episodes, be prepared for some off-the-wall “Rasheed Wallace channeling Jimmie Walker” one-liners.
“Delightfully campy… two thumbs up!”
– Matt Watson, DetroitBadBoys.com
Interplanetary Pistons [via Sports Gamer]
EDIT: OK, it’s official: Episode 5 is by far the best, even if only for the Rasheed Wallace/Bill Laimbeer scene at the end.
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