The Pistons and Rockets meet up for the second time in 12 days — here’s to hoping this one has a better ending. Check out my thoughts on the game at HOOPSWORLD, and as usual, leave your thoughts in the comments.
Archive for the 'Rockets' Category
By Kevin Sawyer
The Pistons play the Rockets on national TV. Here’s a play-by-play.
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1st Quarter
Has Yao’s moustache always been that thick? Somebody needs to make fun of that.
11:40 – Weird drive to the lane by ‘Sheed. Against Yao, he’s like a point guard.
10:01 – Nice thing about having Billups on your team… You don’t have to worry about jinxing him by making a comment about him at the FT line.
9:36 – Isolation play for Chuck Hayes? Bad idea.
9:21 – Is Yao guarding anyone? Is there a three second rule in this game?
7:45 – I think ‘Sheed just traveled to get behind the three point arc.
Comm – Line from an ad “Give him the gift he’ll use everyday,” followed by a shot of a pretty wife in a towel, about to head to the shower. The ad is for a shaver, by the way.
6:00 – Apparently Yao called his team soft the other night. Is that what the ‘stache is for? Cause someone should tell him… Cut to: Footage of Yao practicing jumpers.
5:30 – 2-11 shooting start. Ugh…
4:20 – Problem with the clock.
4:16 – Problem with the clock.
4:20 – Problem with the clock.
4:19 – Seriously…
4:20 – I think announcers should play the Benny Hill theme song during technical difficulties.
4:19 – Here we go!
4:02 – The announcer just jinxed Billups.
3:35 – Yao looked awfully, you know, soft, falling down like that.
2:19 – There’s the three second call.
2:09 – Luis Scola looks like the high school softball player that every boy liked, but only as a friend.
0:00 – The NBA… Where 18-16 happens.
John C. Reilly has a movie coming out. A John C. Reilly vehicle! Maybe we should call him Mr. Cell-o-FAME. Yeah, a musical theater joke on a sports blog. I went there. Love it.
Ugly interview with Flip Saunders. He sounds like Stallone at the end of First Blood: Part II.
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Second Quarter
10:00 – My mother just called. “Honey, that Luis Scola is a pretty girl. And she’s wealthy. Ask her to the dance.” Mom, I’m married, and that’s a Houston Rocket…
9:26 – Hell of a pass by Murray. His improvement has been a big part of the Piston’s bench revolution.
9:06 – Then Yao swats him without having to raise his hands.
8:52 – So, Maxiell makes a nasty offensive play, and the announcers are busy commenting on Shane Battier’s congeniality? This IS a soft team.
7:05 – Afflalo just fell for a rookie fake. Ouch.
6:47 – Murray airballs a dunk and forces a bad 18 footer. Note to self: Never compliment Flip Murray again.
4:17 – Jason Maxiell to Yao: One child rule! I eat baby now!
2:17 – Houston is getting bailed out on their clunky threes with long rebounds.
0:41 – The Rockets are also winning the battle of the randomly batted balls.
0:17 – Summary comment from the announcer: “Is this an ugly game or what?”
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Third Quarter
10:16 – Pistons look out of it.
9:42 – VERY out of it.
7:29 – Well, I can’t think of clever things to say while McGrady is burying us.
4:08 – I really wish we would find McDyess more frequently when we are slumping. Ride the Buddha train, 2007 style.
3:17 – Problem with the clock
31.6 – Bigger problem with the clock
3:16 – The NBA, where problems with the clock happen.
1:16 – Chuck Hayes airballs a layup.
0:50 – This thing with the free throws is utterly bananas. It’s become a storyline. Now it’s all the announcers will talk about the rest of the game.
0:00 – LT reminds me of Brian Fellows in his Vizio ads.
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Fourth Quarter
11:42 – Stupid foul on Jarvis Hayes disrupts our momentum. This isn’t his game.
11:10 – Pistons recover a batted ball! Is there a stat for this?
8:59 – ‘Sheed gets a tech. I love the official “prevent your teammate from getting ejected” demeanor. Nudge with the shoulder, pretend you aren’t paying attention. Just be cool. Hope your calmness transfers via shoulder.
8:51 – Yeah, you think ‘Sheed wants it on the next play?
7:30 – This is a terrible game. I’ll say this. The Rockets have gift-wrapped this one for us.
5:40 – The NBA, where ankle sprains at the end of ugly games happen.
1:30 – Back to back threes! 10% of our scoring for the whole game in one minute!
11.4 – Here we are. Nice cut to Dick Bavetta teaching the other referees how to officiate. Could you imagine cutting to Flip Saunders, and hearing him say “okay, you want to put rotation on the ball to give it a better chance of going in. Guys, expect long rebounds.”
0.8 – The NBA, where bricking open looks happens.
0.8 – And Antonio McDyess for the game-winning attempt to make it look like he was fouled.
Well, insert WNBA joke here. That was mind-numbing. How many of these Western Conference road trip dealios do we have anyway?
The Pistons are in Houston. The game has already started. Sooner or later I’ll get back to a regular schedule — in the meantime, leave your belated thoughts about the game in the comments.
I wasn’t able to watch last night’s game, but in hindsight I’m not altogether unhappy about it. I solicited a recap from the DBB readers in the game preview comments and JackDutch summed it up thusly:
jerkoff basketball team waits 3 quarters to decide that now might be a good time to play like a good basketball team. then yao swats another shot. the end.
and it wasn’t even that good.
Alright, then, it was one of those nights. Guess I won’t get too torn up about forgetting to set the DVR. If you’re looking for something longer, check out Need4Sheed, or the local papers. With Cleveland dropping two earlier this week, losing didn’t really hurt Detroit in the standings — let’s just hope they can get back on track against San Antonio tonight with another one of those “statement” games everyone likes to see.
It’s not retro (it’s from earlier this year), but it’s still hilarious. Fortunately for the Pistons, Chauncey and Rip are expected to be in the lineup.
Ball tips at 8:30 on TNT whoops, no TNT tonight — as usual, leave any thoughts in the comments.
Ian and I may have been AWOL this weekend, but there were plenty of fans and writers who weren’t. Since they actually had a chance to watch the games, let me borrow some of their observations.
First, Friday’s game, in which the Pistons defeated the Wizards for the first time since 2004-05 to the tune of 100-91:
Lindsey Hunter was the first guard off the bench when Chauncey Billups got into early foul trouble. Lindsey’s defense was just what the Pistons needed with three steals, a blocked shot and 12 timely points.
Wallace and Prince each scored 20 points Friday night, and on most possessions there seemed to be a concerted effort to get Wallace the ball early on, something point guard Chauncey Billups said the team must continue to do if teams go small.
“So once they start going really small, even if they try to front, it still doesn’t help them because he is just so long and we just go to him,” Billups said. “And if they don’t double, then they got trouble. And if they do and he kicks it out, they got trouble either way, so pick your poison.”
More from Silva:
Another way to beat opponents’ small-ball tactics has been the Pistons’ zone defense, which they played most of the second half.
“Zone was very, very good for us,” Saunders said. “I guess through nine games the one constant factor has been that when we played the zone for extended periods of time that is probably when we’ve played our best basketball.”
Saunders said that when the Pistons play zone, they tend to communicate better.
On Saturday, the Pistons evened their record at 5-5 with a win over Yao Ming and the Rockets. It took a 28-14 effort in the fourth quarter, but the Pistons won 104-92
Yao Ming put up 33 points and 16 rebounds against Detroit, but not enough to beat our boys in D-town. Yao is averaging 26.4 ppg and 10.4 rpg. This man is having one hell of a season. Its a shame he’s going to hurt is toe at some point…
Although Rip led the team with 30, Rasheed was the most valuable player of the game. His defense down the stretch helped the Pistons pull away in the fourth quarter holding Yao to just two points.
Rip Hamilton had one hell of a performance in that same game against Houston: 30 points, 7 boards, and 8 assists. Keep it up, Rip. While our defense stabilizes and continues to learn, we’ll need big offense out of you. Kudos, brother.
The Pistons’ energy picked up with 5:11 left in the second half. That’s when the officials called a technical foul on the Detroit bench. When asked to clarify who it was on, official Leon Wood said “all of them.”
But at halftime, the referees had the scorers credit the technical to Wallace, giving him his fifth this season.
“We’re talking to the league as we speak,” Saunders said after the game. “If anything, it should have gone to (assistant coach) Ron (Harper).”
The foe: Part II of a back-to-back for the Pistons. After last night’s matchup against the perimeter-dominant Wizards, can Nazr, Sheed, and Co. stop Yao from scoring 70?
Let us know what we’re missing in the comments section.
Oh, and GO BLUE!
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