[First things first — the game starts at 7pm, it was changed to accommodate ESPN. If you’re going, get there early to get your Rasheed bobblehead.]
Gilbert Arenas is a funny dude, and he’s making a lot of new fans this year. The guy has emerged as both one of the league’s most dangerous players in the clutch and one of the most entertaining interviews in the locker room.
He throws million dollar birthday parties and sponsors professional X-Box Halo teams. He has cool nicknames like The Black President and Agent Zero. He’s admitted to bribing Foot Locker employees with free gear in the past just to get his hands on a box of All-Star ballots — so he could vote for himself.
Seriously, I could go on for a while …
But as much fun as I have watching the guy, what worries me the most is how he carries a grudge. After being cut from Team USA during the summer, he’s gone on a revenge tour against Suns coach Mike D’Antoni and Blazers coach Nate McMillan, who were assistants to Mike Krzyzewski. He already lit up the Suns once for 54 points, predicted another 50-point outburst against the Blazers and is on the record saying he’d give up a year of his NBA career just for the chance to go back to college and take it to Coach K at Duke.
How does this tie into tonight’s game? Well, Gil was apparently upset at Flip Saunders last year when Flip played him only nine minutes in the All-Star game, and he took it out on the Pistons by winning in March to complete a three-game sweep for the Pistons. Granted, Gil was voted into the All-Star Game as a starter this year, so I’m hoping he’s already forgotten about whatever chip he put on his shoulder.
Not to be lost in the individual battle, of course, is the fact the Pistons and Wizards are currently No. 1 and No. 2 in the East. Detroit beat Washington earlier this year in November — their first regular-season win against them since 2004-2005 — but that was back when Arenas (and the rest of his teammates) were still rounding into form. Now, they’re as much of a contender in this watered-down Eastern Conference as anyone.
Blogging with the enemy: Wizznutzz | Bullets Forever | Gilbertology
Game starts at 7 pm, an hour earlier than usual — set your Tivo’s (or get going to the Palace) accordingly. As usual, leave your game thoughts in the comments.
antwan jamison came up big
Out here in LA, I don’t get many Pistons games so this is all based on numbers…
From G. Wallace and A. Jamison’s numbers from the last couple games, it’s pretty clear that a backup wing player and a backup pg are not the most pressing need.
We need a starting interior defender. For all the talk about the glut of big men, we don’t seem to have any that can replace the things that Ben Wallace brought (defense and rebounding) at the center position, except Dale Davis who I can’t see playing 36 minutes a game.
We can survive with Lindsay at backup PG and Delfino at backup SG/SF, but we will not make the Finals without another physical center.
I don’t think Bonzi Wells will help this team that much.
Again you guys… Gerald Wallace played 40+ minutes the other night. Someone has to score Charlotte’s points, noone else was scoring.
Antawn Jamison’s points came from the perimeter. Both of these guys play the PF position for their teams and Sheed cannot guard these guys on the perimeter. When G. Wallace slashes to the basket, Sheed cannot keep up with him as G. Wallace is a SF on most all teams. Antawn was hitting all the junk he threw up last night, you can’t stop that. When he’s living on the three point line all night and hitting everything, you can take Sheed and put him out there on Jamison. They should have put Tay on Jamison. Jamison will never post anyone up, he’s too soft.
You guys are overreacting about interior defense. Detroit dominated last night in the paint for the most part.
can we just let saunders go to the golden gophers at this point? even with the addition of c-webb, this team is so stale and their play so uninspiring i can’t stand to watch anymore. We need Lamb’s Lowdown, now.
ENOUGH about Flip! For gosh’s sakes, people! Give the man a chance. Anyone would have a hard time coaching this team right now.
Actually…no, not enough about Flip. In the beginning, I was more than willing to see the man through; sympathizing and understanding of how difficult his situation was. Flip, having never won a championship and perennial under achiever with KG’s squad in minnesota, is now asked to coach a core group of veteran players that have already won a championship. It killed me to see Flip struggle to find a solid rotation (although to his credit, prior to the cwebb trade, Flip seemed to be getting a grip on the sub. patterns) But his constant lack of trust in Delfino (suddenly becoming an aggressive, almost lock-down perimeter defender), the pure inability to understand that bench players provide energy, when your team needs energy, look to the bench (delfino, maxiel, davis, now hunter too) But if the old adage is true, the best players on a team will embody the attitude, toughness, and tenacity of their head coach…one only has to look at our lack of defensive intensity or ridiculous mental lapses on offense. That, Rocky Cliffs, is why even though I hated the Daytime soap opera drama mamma of Larry Brown, he consisently found ways to motivate his team. Lamb’s Lowdown needs an opportunity.
Re: Flip in Minnesota — I don’t think it’s fair to say he was an underachiever. In all of his playoff loses, he never actually had the better team. The one time he had a decent shot was the year KG had Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell next to him, but they ran into Kobe and Shaq in the playoffs (and I distinctly remember watching them get eliminated that year and thinking, wow, KG is really slipping into a shell right when the T’Wolves need him most…).
Also, just so we realize the grass isn’t always greener — doesn’t anyone remember Detroit’s complete inability to score for very, very long stretches under Carlisle and Brown? It wasn’t just the soap opera which drove us nuts, it was the fact watching games was often downright painful to watch. The Pistons needed to be lockdown defenders because it was often a huge accomplishment when they managed to crack 95 points. (The Pistons’ O is still inconsistent now, but nothing near what they were like back then.) I wish we could have retained some of that defensive intensity, but it really is a trade off…
That said, I’m just as eager to see Laimbeer get a crack at this as anyone…