The Pistons set a franchise record with 64 wins last year, no thanks to the Utah Jazz. For whatever reason, Jerry Sloan’s merry band of misfits had Detroit’s number last year, defeating them handily in Utah before squeaking by again in overtime during the-rematch at the Palace.
The Pistons beat up the Jazz in the preseason, but the preseason counts for jack. Tonight, as the Pistons travel to Salt Lake City to kick off a three-game road-trip out West, is their first real chance for revenge.
Let’s preview this thing…
Subplots: It’s not just last year’s games the Pistons are trying to avenge — for whatever reason, the Pistons always struggle in Utah. In their last 16 trips to the Delta Center, the Pistons have won exactly two games.
The last time Detroit beat Utah on any floor was March 13, 2005 at the Palace when the Pistons won ugly 64-62. How bad was it? The Pistons and Jazz shot a combined 31.9% from the floor — including just 8% (2-25) from three-point land.
Hey, it’s Memo! Mehmet Okur, everyone’s favorite Turkish unibrow, has blossomed out west — he averaged 18 and nine last year. Man, he’d look good wearing Pistons blue. I can’t blame Joe Dumars for letting him leave — we couldn’t have re-signed Rasheed Wallace had we matched the $50 million, six-year deal Utah gave Memo, and at the time re-signing Rasheed looked like the key to repeating in 2005.
Hindsight being 20/20, and be honest now, what would you rather have right now: a 32-year-old Rasheed Wallace who’s owed $38.22 million over the next three years, or a 27-year-old Memo Okur who’s owed $25.5 million over the next three years? It doesn’t make you a bad Pistons fan if you chose the latter.
Best nickname in the league: Hands down, the honor goes to Andrei Kirilenko and his moniker AK-47. He’s Russian, it’s his initials, it doesn’t get any better.
Jazz owner Larry Miller: Local boy done good or bigoted businessman? Umm… a little bit of both? Not sure I want to touch this one, let’s get back to basketball…
Talk about consistency: In this day and age of disposable NBA coaches, Jerry Sloan is serving his 19th consecutive year as head coach of the Utah Jazz. Think about that for a moment. Ever since Sloan coached his first game for the Jazz, Detroit has used (deep breath) Chuck Daly, Ron Rothstein, Don Chaney, Doug Collins, Alvin Gentry, George Irvine, Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown and Flip Saunders.
Reminder: the game starts at 9pm. Sleep is overrated, drink more coffee tomorrow. And feel free to share your pre-/in-/post-game thoughts in the comments below.
Chris Bosh’s nickname ‘CB4‘ is also a good one for the similar reasons.
Okur or Sheed? I have to go with Sheed. I maybe thinking with my heart not my head but without Sheed we would not have won in 2004, or made it back in 2005. Sheed still has some juice left in the tank and will be a good back up his last year or so. Plus okur plays in the weak wild wild west.Am I the only one hoping that the Magic lose and not make the playoffs. Seeing we are to get their pick this year.
Carey: Without a doubt, Sheed was responsible for getting us the title in 2004 and getting us within one game of another in 2005. But if I had to make a choice from today going forward… it’s not easy. If Sheed is in fact a backup in his last year (not saying it’ll come to that), he’ll be an expensive one at $13+ million.
Sheed or Memo? Are you kidding? Once again people are way too focused on stats - particularly offensive stats. First, he wouldn’t have averaged those numbers in Detroit anyway. But the most important thing is his attitude. He disappears when it gets rough - he always did. He’s like Darko - he lacks the mental toughness that Sheed has. That’s why he got shipped out in the first place. You need that to win in the playoffs and from that standpoint, losing Sheed would be a bigger blow than losing Big Ben. He may be a headcase sometimes, but he’s got the fire in the belly. And when the Pistons hoist the ‘07 O’Brien trophy, nobody will be thinking about Memo.
Wow what a game!!! lost by two but Sheed came to play!! Whats up with Mr.big Shot?
Trade Billups while he worth something. I just wanted to say that, but I don’t really mean it.
Tough loss… tough loss.
I’m not even that mad though. It’s rare to see a game this good from start to finish in the reg. season. Just want to point out we lost by three and gave Utah 3 points in tech. points. A little control and disapline and we can avoid those pesky techs. Everyones intensity was great though. There seemed to be complete focus on the floor on both sides.
Does Utah have more players than other teams in the NBA? It was like the never ending stream of bench players with those guys. They just kept comming in and hitting shots. That’s a good team. They are well coached and will be a team to watch this year is Boozer stays… healthy?
So many great moments in the game though.
Antonio on the putback with authority. Bum knee what?
Carlos for threeeeeeeeeeeee
Sheed on the block… he can’t be stopped by anyone but a ref. (travel my ass!)
Sheed backing it out and dropin a three on Memo
Sheed blowing by Memo for the baseline drive and slam
-T
I agree with Tim: bad outcome but good game. What is it about the freaking Delta Center?
I was watching Yahoo! GameChannel and despite its many quirks this evening, it pointed out to me that we had plenty of offensive fouls tonight. Was it really that bad?
Rocky: yes, it was. Maybe a couple of ticky-tack fouls, but by and large I couldn’t argue with most of what was called. Some say the techs cost the game, but I say bollocks, the offensive fouls did.
Matt Do you ever sleep? Do you think Flip needs to play Nazr more in the 4th. He only played 18 mins last night.
Carey: very rarely. In hindsight, playing Nazr instead of McDyess down the stretch looks like it would have been a good idea. That said, it’s hard to fault Flip for sticking with McDyess, who’s going to be on the floor during crunch time nine times out of 10.
What jackasses you guys are… LOOK at Dan’s comment. Memo is like Darko.. lacks the mental toughness?
There is no one more clutch than Memo right now. That was the dumbest move we made. I would MUCH rather have MEMO. Hell I’m surprised he’s not at the All Star game!