A win tonight would go a long way toward making our Sunday matchup against the Bobcats a non-starter. Fortunately, it looks as though the Nets are packing it in for the season, so let's get the visions of 1993 out of our heads. Believe it or not, we are playing some of our best basketball of the season, so persever DBB-heads, or whatever we call ourselves.
7:30 pm ET
New Jersey: 30-44 (15-22 home)
Margin: -2.8 ppg (-3.6 last 25%)
Last 10: 2-8
Pistons: 36-38 (17-19 road)
Margin: -0.7 (+0.7 last 25%)
Last 10: 3-7
Oppo research
The Nets have phoned it in. Ostensibly, their offense revolves aroud their guard play, but Vince Carter and Devin Harris combined for 19 points on 6-22 shooting in 52 minutes. So expect to see plenty of Chris Douglas-Roberts tonight.
In fact, the Nets have quite a few players with something to prove, so it would be an interesting game, if not necessarily a competitive one.
The Drama:
Allen Iverson shot his mouth off, there's that.
Keys for Detroit
Don't phone it in: Just because your opponent is looking to strike lottery gold, doesn't mean you have to do so.
Force jumpers: This is a holdover from last game, but doesn't it make sense to force jumpers? FORCE JUMPERS!
Give Iverson some minutes: This should be a safe game for it. Ugh, how badly can a player acquisition work out?
Question of the Game
Can Bynum and AI co-exist? I suspect that Iverson could live with the bench role, but watching his minutes get eaten by a de facto rookie? You gotta feel for the guy.