The Pistons lost a game in Utah. In other news, the sun rose in the east, politicians will solicit votes on TV today and Oliver Miller likes to eat.
What is it about Utah? The Pistons are now 2-15 in their last 17 games out there. Are the hotel mattresses lumpy? Is the Delta Center haunted? Do our players get lulled into a false sense of security by playing against a bunch of white guys? I don’t have a clue.
What I do know is that Detroit lost a heartbreaker to the tune of 103-101, with Rip Hamilton missing a potentially game-tying layup as time expired. In Rip’s defense, “missing a layup” is understating the situation — he was driving against roughly 14 feet of Grade A shot-blocking ability in Andrei Kirilenko and Memo Okur, and his shot was definitely altered by one or both. But here’s the thing: had Rip tied the game and Detroit gone on to win the game in overtime, it would have been an upset, at least considering how Detroit played for much of the game.
Yet again, Detroit spent much of the evening playing from behind, and the few times they did have the lead they never led by more than two points. Utah, on the other hand, led for three consecutive quarters by as many as 10 points before being outscored 30-22 in the fourth. That’s a nice comeback bid by Detroit, but it wasn’t quite enough. There were opportunities down the stretch, but time and again the Pistons didn’t take advantage: in the final five minutes and change, Detroit had three turnovers, eight missed field goals and three missed free throws (two by Wallace and one by Billups). Despite some ticky-tack technical fouls earlier in the game (including one by assistant coach Dave Cowens that resulted in a four-point play earlier in the quarter), the Pistons had ample opportunity to overcome the officials and take the lead, but mistakes did them in.
Considering the Pistons lost by two, a lot of people are going to talk about Detroit’s three technical fouls, so let me get those out of the way. Was Rasheed’s tech in the second quarter B.S.? Yes, it was, but I disagree with Flip Saunders, who implied after the game that the techs were the difference in the game. That sounds like sour grapes to me: even without the three free throws, Detroit still gave up triple-digits on defense, still registered just 13 assists on 77 field-goal attempts and still threw away multiple opportunities down the stretch.
In case you missed it, here’s what happened: in the second quarter, Rasheed hit a shot down low despite apparent contact. He immediately turned up court to play defense, but while doing so he stuck his hand in the air and yelled “And one,” as a ref would normally do had a whistle been blown.
There’s not a chance in hell that would have resulted in a tech last year, but Steve Javie felt empowered to make the call this year, even though Wallace’s actions weren’t disruptive and certainly didn’t call attention to any particular official. Yes, it did reveal Sheed’s displeasure with a non-call, but it did so in the most benign way. Saunders argued the call but only made things worse by getting a technical of his own.
Now, if David Stern was telling the truth when he said the new emphasis wasn’t designed to remove emotion from the game, I have to believe he’ll consider rescinding this one so that it doesn’t count against Rasheed’s season total, just like Chris McCosky suggests. But even so, that’d be a poor consolation prize considering it doesn’t change the outcome of the game. Eh, whatever. Like I said, Detroit had multiple chances to make these questionable calls a moot point, and they botched it.
As for individual performances, Chauncey Billups was off all night: 10 points on 3-10 shooting from the field and four assists. Tayshaun Prince was damn near invisible with eight points in 36 minutes. And Rip Hamilton shot just 4-15 from the field to finish with 14.
The good news? On a night in which only one starter topped 14 points Detroit was still able to put 101 points on the board. Rasheed played a complete game, making his first real contribution of the season in the first half (14 points) to finish with 25 points, 12 boards and four blocks. He did his best to put the team on his back, playing inspired basketball even though he was clearly frustrated by the officials.
Nazr Mohammed continues to make the most of his playing time with 11 points, eight boards and two blocks in just 19 minutes. The bench played extremely well with Flip Murray (15 points, 20 minutes) and Carlos Delfino (eight points, four boards, 17 minutes) in particular seeing a good deal of action. Antonio McDyess shot just 2-8 from the field but turned in a yeoman’s effort on the offensive glass, hauling in six offensive boards to go with a steal and a block. And just to cover all the bases, I should also mention Jason Maxiell, who missed his only official field goal attempt but scored four out of six free throw attempts. He’s a beast when he gets down low, and he’s doing an outstanding job drawing contact.
As a team, Detroit also outrebounded Utah 43-41, which is a feat in itself considering Utah’s front line is one of the league’s best with Kirilenko (11 points, eight boards), Okur (23 points, 10 boards) and Carlos Boozer (20 points, 11 boards). But while those three did basically what you’d expect from theme, Utah got a bit of a push from their bench, with Gordon Giricek shooting lights out (6-6 from the field) with 13 points in 17 minutes and Derek Fisher pitching in 12 points and seven assists in 25 minutes.
Nice summary, I only got to see the fourth quarter last night. I do have a question though….should the Pistons record in Salt Lake be listed at the beginning of the article as 2-15 instead of 15-2? I don’t know myself, but the tone of the second paragraph gave me the impression it should be 2-15.
Good catch, tbsgc. Fixed.
Sheed was dominant in this game, especially after that tech. He and Memo were going toe-to-toe all night and it was fun to watch.
Also, in two games last season, the Pistons were outrebounded by an average of 21.5 by the Jazz. 21.5 boards — with Ben Wallace. Last night, Detroit won the battle of the boards 43-41. A loss is a loss, but this game was an improvement over last season’s performances against the Jazz.
That was one wacky final 10 seconds, that’s for sure. I didn’t catch much else. I was just hoping for Rip to get fouled because you could tell bad things were going to happen when he took air with those guys in front of him and no time to dish it off. Disciplined defense there.
Good article! Last nights game was a good one (especially those last 10 seconds)even if we did lose ‘again’ in Utah, we have GOT to get over that bad mojo we have there! As hard as it is for me to say, (because he is not is Piston Blue) Memo looks Great! I am really glad he found a place where he can shine. The chemistry he & Boozer have is dynamic. Enough of that, I can NOT say enough about Sheed’s well rounded play last night! He dunked, rebounded, shot, whew! He looked fantastic despite the horrible new rules that have the officals playin tunes with their whistles!
the pistons seem like a different team . they are not the same ’scary’ team other NBA teams are afraid of . Too bad .
I’m actually encouraged by our performance to start the season. In my opinion, we shored up our biggest weakness in bench production. Maxiell reminds me of a more athletic Big Nasty, whose effect on the 2004 Pistons was wildly underrated. Flip Murray was a nice pickup, especially if he continues to distribute the ball as well as he has been, Delfino has been pretty good, and I think we can expect Dice to be the Dice we’ve come to know and love. I think the drop off to the second unit is much much less than it was a year ago, and similar to that of the 2004 Pistons.
Nazr has been a picture of efficiency so far, I really like what he’s been bringing to the table. I read somewhere that the fact that Ben isn’t here anymore is forcing Rasheed to stay inside the arc, and if the results of that are going to be more performances like we saw last night then I’m all for Ben wearing a Bulls uniform.
I think as the season goes on, this team is going to come together and be a major problem for the expected favorites in the East. I really like our chances. I’d definitely take this team over Cleveland, Chicago, or Miami. Am I crazy to be so optimistic? Does anybody else see what I’m seeing?
Other Matt: I agree. Losing always sucks, but we learned last year that there’s no point in wearing out the starters for early season success. It was really nice to see Maxiell and Delfino get so much playing time early in the game against the Jazz — and for Maxiell and Delfino to help keep the Pistons so close despite the fact Chauncey and Tay had such bad games.
I’m less sold on Murray, though there’s no complaints here about the way he scored last night. During one stretch with Chauncey on the bench, I watched him bring the ball up four straight possessions and take four straight shots (he did pass the ball on one of those possessions, a touch pass to Tay who sent it right back to him). Now, he hit two of those shots and was fouled the other two times (making three of four free throws). If he keeps hitting all his shots, obviously there’s no problem, but most of the time I’d like to see the backup point guard try a little harder to spread the ball around.
Obviously, he is what he is, and that’s a scorer. I just hope we figure something out for when he’s in a cold stretch.
We lose in Utah because of the nightlife. Strip clubs where the women just take off their makeup. Hookers that are actually crocheting. How can anyone expect to play after a night like that?