What Happened:
The Bulls put this game on "Rookie" level and made the Pistons their little... brother in a game of NBA 2K10 on Xbox. If only the Pistons could have kicked the machine dead, thrown the remote controller at Joakim Noah, and stormed out of the United Center without having to finish the game. Instead, they were forced to suffer through a 33-point (!!) loss and drop their 13th game in a row. It marks their longest losing streak since the '93-94 season when they lost the final 13 games of the season. Unfortunately, there are still 46 left in this one.
The Pistons were stagnant on both ends of the floor tonight, allowing the Bulls to rest while on defense and pick apart the Pistons on offense. The Bulls shot above 60% for the majority of the game (finishing at 57%) and had 29 team assists.
The Good:
Aside from the game finally ending, probably Austin Daye. He was one of just two Pistons not in the negatives for plus/minus (0) and scored 10 points on 3-6 shooting. He also had six rebounds in his 18 minutes.
Oh, if any other teams are reading this, Richard Hamilton was awesome! He was 6-11 (55%) shooting and had a team-high 17 points. Let's hear those trade offers!
The Bad:
It's tough to sift through all that dung and pinpoint a single thing. Charlie Villanueva was 1-10 shooting, thus making him a bigger offensive threat for the other team. Stuckey started the game hot, scoring nine points in the first quarter, but finished with just 11 points on 4-11 shooting. He was also a team-worst -33 in plus/minus.
Tayshaun Prince sat out tonight with an injury (even if he hasn't helped the team's cause much on the court, he's not helping his trade value in street clothes). And Ben Gordon only played six minutes before aggravating the groin thigh muscle he tweaked last game.
And serving as tonight's extra kick to the shins, the Pistons totally embarrassed themselves in front of a fat Luc Longley, (looking somewhat like a fat Chandler Bing) who was at the game sitting courtside.
The Bill Curley Unsung Hero:
I'm going to be a little unorthodox here (since nobody on the Pistons deserve it) and give it to the DBB community. I'm relatively new to it, but I know this community has never experienced a worse team. With the great amount of suck the Pistons have been displaying lately, it'd be easy to make game threads & discussions just as unpleasant . Collectively, though, you've kept your head on a swivel and haven't let it affect how you treat each other and the overall value of the discussion. In fact, the quality has been enhanced. Pat yourselves on the back.
The Takeaway:
Lots and lots of question marks.
DBB Diablo made an interesting presumption in the Game Thread about a possible locker room rift. There's not a whole lot other than the losses to base that on, but at this point, I'm not counting anything out. There was definitely something peculiar about Stuckey's public comments before tonight's game. You might also want to try and make something of Detroit's 1-13 record since Rip returned from his injury -- the one win being on the tail end of a five game winning streak that started without him (and remember Rip was unhappy last year with his situation).
Now, it could all be coincidental -- and there's nothing civil about a 13-game losing streak -- but this team has shown flashes indicating they are a much better team than this. It might be hard to look back before the 13 straight losses, but they have beaten Orlando, Atlanta, and Denver this year. Flukes or not, they shouldn't be losing to Chicago by 30+ points.
The floor is yours...