The last time the Pistons played the Suns, the Boys in Blue pulled out a 30-point whooping despite Shaq’s best efforts to maim Amir Johnson. Can they put together a similar effort tonight? It sure would be timely. The Pistons are in the midst of a two-game losing streak, and only once have they lost three in a row this year.
I’ll be at the game filing pre-game, halftime and post-game reports for HOOPSWORLD — feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
don’t look now, but something tells me that maxiel or amir throws down a rimrocker over the The Big Cactus tonight.
you gotta be cognizant out there
Phoenix is currently 3rd in the Western, but Phoenix holds a loose grip on that spot. Any spot between the 9 teams with a record of .600 or better is very much up for grabs, and 2-3 losses could send a team from the top to near the bottom of the pile.
I expect Phoenix to want to pay Detroit back for that shaming on national TV. They’ve been playing better ball since then, but they’re not as strong as they used to be. That Shaq trade still feels like a step backward for the Suns.
I don’t ever expect Detroit to bring it anymore . . . it seems like 55 percent of their games are of the ‘bringing it’ variety. I hope they have the energy to play to their best level of effort, and I do expect a win, regardless of whatever level. Phoenix’s interior defense puts Detroit’s interior problems from last night in perspective.
Detroit BETTER get in that paint tonight, is what I’m saying. No more namby-pamby.
I don’t know what bugs me more– when Detroit doesn’t bring it, or the “sky is falling” camp here on DBB. Probably the latter, seeing as there ain’t a snowballs chance in hell that we’ll lose the second seed. Regardless, tonight should be a fun game. Shaq has had time to assimilate, the Suns should be hungry, Detroit should be defiant tonight.
I’m with you, Sauce. Let’s hope Stuckey takes it to the rack tonight. Also, let’s hope Amir gets sweet justice on Shaq!
also, League Pass friends, let’s pray for Blaha and Kelser!
Amen to that Mike Payne! It seems like it has been a while, although I am happy to listen to Hubie on national broadcasts.
Good call, QD. Gotta love Hubie’s high percentage coverage…
Prayers answered!
Rip is out
what’s wrong with rip?
Rip AND Dixon out… aka Afflalo is going to play like 30 minutes. I’m excited.. If he performs well, hopefully Flip can see how he can help us come playoff time.
ahh, didn’t know about the hip. it looks like lindsey is dressed
Hip. Afflalo will start in Rip’s place. Basically, it’s a chance to get a young guy minutes. Afflalo’s been forgotten for Dixon in the last stretch of games, so good fortune for him tonight . . . let’s go Detroit!
I’d love to see Hunter bulldog Nash tonight! He’s 85 years old and still one of the best on-the-ball defenders in the association.
Nice to see the 3s falling for Rasheed.
HAHAHAHAH YEAAAAHHH, T for Amare.
I don’t like Joe Forte, but it’s invigorating to see the complaint knife cut the other way.
Plus an offensive on Shaq! Early meltdowns are usually the Pistons modus operandi. (like that lawyer-speak Lawyer Boy?)
I just took a lap around my apartment making the goin’ to work whistle, “WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” That’s how excited I am to see the whistles going the other way for once.
Holy s*@!, Lindsay Hunter!
Afflalo just SHUT DOWN NASH. Shot clock violation…
Flip you better keep getting this kid time
Just a terrific first half for Afflalo. When I think about him playing major minutes, I worry about him offensively, but I believe he has 8 so far. And he’s playing really solid defense on Nash. Very encouraging.
Nice Stuckey!
What a collapse. Seriously where was the D in the 4th?
Switch to zone has worked wonders.
Then show zone and drop back into man to man. Nice.
Oh, Rodney! Take that last shot.
Otherwise, great performance by the young man so far.
Stuckey should have taken that shot!
I thought Stuckey made the right play. Tayshaun should have drove baseline though.
Sheed!!!
Wow…listening to the Suns radio announcers…they’re going crazy. Saying over and over how “horrible” the officiating is. Such homers. They won’t shut up about it, just rambling about how bad the refs are.
Great win for the Pistons!
I wish Mike D’Antoni was wearing a microphone!
Nice! Now I can go roll a blunt and celebrate this night instead of letting myself forget it even happened! Take that Shaq!
Great night for basketball in general, with the 76ers beating Boston at home. People overlooking Philly will be sadly mistaken. They’re probably not going to win a playoff series, but they’ll put up a strong fight and should take 1 or 2 games from the Magic or Cavs.
Cameron, that’s usually Detroit’s refrain, re: the refs. It was refreshing to have Joe Forte cut the other way for a change!
Praise the lord. What a game, what a game.
nice game.
though, my 2cents is that it was in large part determined by officiating in the pistons favor at the end. But maybe this shows Phoenix was feeling outmatched and was actually committing more fouls?
I’m never thrilled to watch a game end up turning one way or another due to a foul - but I guess it happens pretty often.
Though, to their credit, the stones hustled strong the entire game, in my opinion.
Ok. Scrap everything I said earlier today. My headache is gone. The Pistons are the greatest team ever
. I didn’t realize that we are 11-5 against West Coast playoffs teams. Throw in #9 Denver and we are 13-5. Damn. I guess the sky isn’t falling. If we only played teams that were at least 10 games over .500, our record may be even better because we wouldn’t blow off games against sub-par teams. We’ve swept Phoenix, New Orleans, Spurs, Denver, Golden State. This was a very impressive win without Rip. But I must say Sheed shooting 10 3’s is a bit much. Lets go Pistons. Our record is not tough the rest of the way. I’d love for us to get a nice groove going into the playoffs. Lets go Pistons!!!
E-Double: Sheed was 50% from 3 point land and only 36% from 2. I’ll take the 3s. I agree with the characterization that we don’t get up for some teams, but how does that explain the loss to the Boobie-less Cavs last week?
I think the Cavs situation is Lebron, Wallace, Z and the gang despite Boobie are simply a tough matchup for the slow pace, pistons.
I would have to apply the same theory to why we its also tough for us against teams like Boston, San Antonio, and Houston. Even lesser defensive teams like Phili can give us trouble… when we are off offensively we can loose our cool altogether and slip out,.
Now the Jazz on the other hand - Dwilliams just kills us plain and simple.
After the game, Shaq said, “I would have liked to see some consistency in the calls. They (the Pistons) had help, there’s no two ways about it.”
And that makes me laugh, given that Shaq has his last ring in large part because a set of refs completely handed one game of that series to Miami.
b23, don’t forget the ring handed to him when they beat Sacramento in seven. Everyone remembers Robert Horry’s shot. They don’t remember that the Kings were up big in that game when the calls ALL started going the Lakers way. Bibby would get hacked. Foul on Bibby. It was ridiculous.
If you don’t remember the game, just picture Game 3 of the Mavs/Heat series and switch the jerseys.
The refs were bad last night but they were even. There were bad calls both ways. How about Shaq pushing Tayshaun into Amare for a charge on Tayshaun?
No call in the Piston/Suns game was as bad as the call at the end of the Laker/Warrior game. Derek Fisher basically pulled Monte Ellis down on top of him with a few seconds left in OT and Ellis was called for the foul. GS was down two at this point with a side out coming in at their end of the court. Horrible call and a bad end to a very good game.
That’s right — I forgot about the Sac-LA series. That one hurt worse, really, as I was actually rooting for Sacramento, as opposed to just preferring to see Dallas win. I think that one gets forgotten because it was on the road to the Finals rather than in the Finals.
It sure didn’t help that Webber decided to experiment with invisibility during that game, though.
Q Dog: I’m a big fan of ditching the abbreviation MO and just going for the whole thing, so kudos to you sir. On to basketball, as much as homer announcing bothers me (I live in LA so I watched it local), I thought they were right last night about the foul. Looked to me like Monta bulldozed Fisher. I’m willing to concede that I might be wrong though (although I saw it twice, live and replay). Looked like a young mistake to me. Regardless of the accuracy of the call, sad to see a two-point game in OT cut the other way because of a foul before the ball is even in play. It certainly was a very good game otherwise. And on a side note, Kobe is a punk for bitching about the lane violation (homer announcers were going ape about it being a terrible call). He stuck his foot in the lane during a shot; that’s a lane violation. He should know better.
“Kobe is a punk for bitching about the lane violation (homer announcers were going ape about it being a terrible call). He stuck his foot in the lane during a shot; that’s a lane violation. He should know better.”
You’ve got your facts wrong, it was Odom that committed the lane violation by walking in on thw first free throw. Kobe was behind the shooter. As for the Monte foul, that was the worst call I’ve seen at the end of a game this season. That was too good of a game to end on a BS call like that. Fisher clearly pulled Monte down by his jersey. You shouldn’t mention that you watched it live as well as the replay multiple times if you really think that was a foul on Ellis, it shows a rare level of stupidity.
Just now watched this one thanks to a friendly LP temp link. Wow.
Wow.
QD, those were probably the worst officiated games in league history. Forget Donaghy, you can’t officiate legitimately that badly.
I’m waiting for Donaghy to open his mouth and spill the beans. He can’t be the only one.
FB45: I saw what I saw, and what I saw was Fisher grabbing his jersey instinctively after Monta had already run over him. I never said I was right. I just said it’s what I saw. Apparently from all the accounts I’ve read since, I saw it wrong. I’ll admit it. I didn’t slow the tape down or anything, I saw it twice in real time. But since you’re so big on facts, jackass, the fact is the lane violation was on Kobe and not Lamar. Here it is from the LA Times’ live blog on the game:
2:02- Ellis on the line, misses the first, but Kobe is called for a lane violation. I saw it from here, too. He stepped in then pulled back as Ellis was shooting. He makes the second try, and the Warriors are up by one. 114-113.
Here’s the link if you can’t believe your eyes, son:
http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2008/03/live-from-oakla.html
I’ve said it time and time again on this board, if you’re gonna be an ass around here, you have your facts 100% correct. It doesn’t work any other way. Otherwise you may as well go root for the Celtics or commit some other act that shows your “rare level of stupidity”.
For whatever it’s worth: WLM1 = NO CHANCE!! = Full House = freddyblaze45
I don’t make people register before commenting, but for the sake of continuity, it’s easier if people just stick with the same name so the rest of the community knows who they’re dealing with. Just saying.
That just makes a ton of sense. Lame. Dude should really just go away. He’s starting to remind me of the Crack Staff. And Matt, PLEASE let the Crack Staff back in WHEN (gotta be confident) Detroit gets a lead on them in playoffs. PLEASE.