A Detroit Pistons blog
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.
Yahoo’s Johnny Ludden has the play by play:
Johnson exploded off the court. O’Neal met him in mid-flight, extended his right arm into Johnson’s chest and sent the Detroit Pistons forward back from where he came. As he hit the floor with a thud, Johnson felt the wind suck out of his chest.
“Sorry young fella,” O’Neal said.
“I figure I might as well get it,” Johnson would later say, “while I’m young.”
That’s the highlight everyone seems to be talking about, but obviously the Zoo Crew had plenty of other plays where, you know, the ball actually went through the hoop:
Jarvis Hayes, a 26-year-old free-agent pickup from Washington, scored a season-high 18 points while the 20-year-old Johnson and 25-year-old fellow forward Jason Maxiell combined for 11 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. Rookie guards Rodney Stuckey, 21, and Arron Afflalo, 22, helped hold down the backcourt.
[…]
“We learned some things the last couple of years,” Saunders said. “Two years ago, we played at such a high level and it took an emotional toll to keep it going. Last year, again, I thought we got fatigued.”By expanding their rotation, the Pistons have significantly reduced their starters’ workload. None are averaging even 35 minutes. Prince and Billups have each seen their minutes drop by an average of three a game. Over the course of a season, that’s a savings of at least six games. The decrease has been even more pronounced of late with Stuckey, who missed the first 1½ months with a broken hand, now entrenched as the backup point guard.
We’ve obviously read similar accounts all season long in the Detroit papers, but it’s nice to see the national media catching on with what’s easily been Detroit’s biggest storyline of the year: the stereotype of the Pistons as aging and slow no longer applies, as there’s a group of young and talented reserves making their mark in just about every game.
Young guns power Pistons / Yahoo (via JackDutch)
The Pistons kick off their four-game swing out West with a nationally-televised game against the new-look Suns. Does Shaq have enough left in the tank to take the Suns to the Finals? Right now I’m less concerned about that as I am wondering if the Pistons have enough big men left on the roster to contain both him and Amare Stoudemire.
You know how Amir Johnson’s emergence has been a nice little bonus the last few weeks? This afternoon his play will be critical, as will that of Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell. This might be one of those nights where all four need to show up for the Pistons to have a chance. Same goes for the backcourt, although Chauncey Billups usually does a good job against Steve Nash. The ball tips in a few minutes — leave your thoughts in the comments.
All I have time for in terms of a recap is this: “OMG, WTF just happened?!?” Since you didn’t come here looking for that, I’m going to point you in the direction of some people with more intelligent things to say:
Need 4 Sheed: Pistons stay hot in Phoenix to burn the Suns 105-83
Detroit Free Press: Murray shines as Pistons beat Suns, 105-83
Detroit News: Pistons complete perfect trip
I’ve read them all, but my favorite was from DBB reader Tim from the game thread comments in the preview post below:
They told us there would be three signs:
1. We would beat the phoenix suns and go 5-0 on the road trip
2. We would beat them by 22 points and hold them under 85
3. Flip Murray would score like crazy AND PLAY DEFENSE!The apocalypse is upon us!
I temporarily take back all the horrible things I’ve said over the past couple of months in regards to Flip Murray’s game. He played out of his mind.
I’ve enjoyed these last five games of the season sooo much. It’s not just because we have won, but the way we’ve won that has been so great.
Inside out basketball. Careful execution. We have transformed from a jump shot team to a low post team…. I love it! It allows us to set our defense and really shut people down. Somewhere LB is smiling.
Flip was great tonight but how well has CWebb played? It’s time to give in and label it the Rasheed type acquisition that it is. These playoffs are going to be fun.
Good God was that an awesome game.
I’m more than a little worried about Chauncey Billups with the Mavericks coming to town on Sunday (though don’t forget, Detroit won handedly in Dallas earlier in the year), but let’s just let this Phoenix game soak in a little bit before we get ahead of ourselves.
Pistons 105, Suns 83 box score [NBA.com]
The Pistons are in Phoenix tonight, though I have no idea if the Suns personally welcomed them when they arrived to the airport. Winning the first four games of the road trip was nice, but a win tonight will get noticed around the entire league.
As you may remember, the Suns burnt the Chauncey-less Pistons in January, but last year the Pistons swept the season series by winning in Phoenix and at the Palace, so the Suns are hardly invincible.
Ball tips at 10 pm (ET) on TV 20, and as usual feel free to leave your thoughts on the game (or your bracket, or more discussion about what current college players you want to see wearing blue next year) in the comments.
Without Chauncey Billups, I never gave the Pistons much of a chance on Sunday against the Suns, one of the league’s truly elite teams. Detroit managed to take the lead in the fourth quarter, but once Rip Hamilton lost his touch the game fell out of reach. Tayshaun Prince underwhelmed and Rasheed Wallace was a complete liability on both ends of the court for the second game in a row.
Flip Murray took advantage of Billups’ absence to play 38 minutes, but his actual game performance was far less impressive than his box score (18 points, 9-14 shooting, seven assists, two turnovers) might suggest. On offense, he dominated the ball and passed as an afterthought, and on defense he’s an absolutely sieve, and a big reason why Steve Nash racked up 35 points.
I have to give Nash sole credit for his 12 assists, though — he sees the court like no other and routinely makes at least 5-6 outstanding passes that even an elite point guard like Chauncey does maybe once a game. That’s not a slam on Chauncey, who I feel is the second-best point guard in the entire league, but Nash is quite clearly head and shoulders above the competition.
I wish the Pistons did more to slow the game down. That’s easier said than done against a team like the Suns, but playing some of the bigs for longer minutes might have helped out. Case in point: Antonio McDyess rebounded well (six in 17 minutes), as did Nazr Mohammad (six in 17 minutes). Jason Maxiell grabbed only three boards in 18 minutes but also blocked a pair of shots.
Why not at least play those guys their season average minutes? And why give Dale Davis his first DNP in nearly a month? All of those guys did (or could have done) a good job exposing Phoenix’s soft middle. But sadly, Flip Saunders fell into his early-season habit of letting the opposition dictate the match ups.
Carlos Delfino once again played very well: 11 points (5-9 shooting) with a team-high seven boards. He pitched in a steal and an assist. I hate to say, “I told you so” about The Dolphin, but … wait, I don’t mind saying that at all. The guy has skills, and better yet, a knack for showing up at the right place at the right time. The ending of the Pacers game will haunt him a bit longer and he still needs to work on his consistency from quarter to quarter, but it looks like he’s playing with real confidence for quite possibly the first time in his entire tenure with the Pistons.
In any event, it seems like the general reaction to this loss is “have patience” — and I completely agree. The Pistons aren’t in a good spot right now, but this may turn out for the best in the long run. It sounds cheesy, but a little adversity now will help the team figure out where they stand in achieving their long-term goals in the playoffs.
Phoenix 108, Pistons 101 box score [NBA.com]
Chauncey Billups is out, Flip Murray is in. And as if replacing the team’s captain wasn’t hard enough, Murray will be going up against reigning two-time MVP Steve Nash.
The Suns lead the NBA with 111.3 points per game, but they also give up 104. The last thing the Pistons will want to do is turn this into a track meet, but there should be at least a few opportunities for some easy scores. Amare Stoudemire is pictured above, but the guy I’ll be paying extra attention to is Shawn Marion. Watch this guy tonight, then ask yourself, why can’t Tayshaun Prince put up numbers like that? I know the points are a function of the team’s pace, but how about the blocks and rebounds?
Ugh. They just showed Chauncey Billups wearing street clothes. I’m feeling ill. In any case, the ball just tipped — the game is also being shown on NBA TV, for anyone not in Detroit. As usual, leave any game thoughts in the comments.
And Happy New Year!
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