Summary
The Pistons continued to assert their dominance on the road against Western Conference weaklings with another squeaker. The win was the 4th in the last five games for Detroit.
Coach Q kept Austin Daye out of the starting lineup, hoping Jason Maxiell could provide more oomph on the front-line. Nonetheless, the Pistons were beaten on the boards, 41-37, in spite of outshooting the Kings 54% to 45%.
The Pistons attack was balanced, to say the least. Other than Rodney Stuckey, who led the team with 17 points, no player saw more than 28 minutes of action.
Part of this may have been a reaction to the Kings, who used a similar distribution of minutes. Nonetheless, it was a curious night of lineups.
Notable performancesBen Gordon: 16 points on just six shots, including the de facto game winner. Not sure why the Pistons aren't getting him more touches, but he certainly has been making the best of the ones he has.
Greg Monroe: Showed some signs of life today with six point and eight rebounds, and did it without being destructive on offense.
Tayshaun Prince: Hopefully, hitting seven of ten shots breaks him out of his funk. He's in a funk, right? Like, a funk that you can shoot your way out of? That's just something sportswriters say, isn't it?
The deciding factor
Balanced efficiency. The Pistons offense has tended to gravitate toward riding the hot hand. This is a dumb idea in any circumstance, since there really isn't such a thing, but especially so once the opposing team has adjusted it's defense to accommodate.
Around the NBA
Not that Kevin Love needs any more fawning than he has gotten, but it's worth noting that the dude is AVERAGING a 20-20 over his last four games.
Tim Duncan, on the other hand, is averaging eight points and six rebounds over the last four, even as his team keeps winning. The Spurs are 8-1 now, largely because Richard Jefferson remembered how to play basketball.
So Allen Iverson postponed his Turkey debut because he didn't feel ready? Allen Iverson. Too flaky for Turkey.
Roll Call: DetroitSports, Kriz, Trout Jefferson, mcflies, Roll The Dyess, -PS-, bugman222, Packey, madpoopz, The Boourns, Wheaties, heWizard, Bryan_, Boney, Gabe F-B, Taiwanese Tora, alaskanpistonsfan, 13194013, Laughton, freywagg, Danny D, Biz Markie Moon, mannie32, handsomerob1, Toledo Joe, Grant E., Thom_not_Tom, MFCasey, gordbrown, Fadel, OK from J, tads, real Rob G, Trysdor, Sean W, Not a Gunslinger, victor_e, Mike Payne, FunkyDonut, JohnAbruzzi
Total Users: 40
Total Posts: 493
Total Threads: 1
| Name | # of Posts |
|---|---|
| -PS- | 56 |
| bugman222 | 37 |
| Thom_not_Tom | 32 |
| madpoopz | 31 |
| Kriz | 27 |
| Biz Markie Moon | 23 |
| freywagg | 23 |
| mcflies | 22 |
| Danny D | 21 |
| Laughton | 20 |
| Wheaties | 19 |
| The Boourns | 18 |
| Toledo Joe | 17 |
| heWizard | 16 |
| 13194013 | 15 |
| Trout Jefferson | 13 |
| Gabe F-B | 13 |
| Fadel | 11 |
| real Rob G | 10 |
| Packey | 8 |
| Grant E. | 8 |
| Taiwanese Tora | 7 |
| alaskanpistonsfan | 7 |
| MFCasey | 6 |
| handsomerob1 | 6 |
| mannie32 | 6 |
| DetroitSports | 4 |
| tads | 2 |
| OK from J | 2 |
| Roll The Dyess | 2 |
| gordbrown | 2 |
| Mike Payne | 1 |
| FunkyDonut | 1 |
| JohnAbruzzi | 1 |
| victor_e | 1 |
| Sean W | 1 |
| Boney | 1 |
| Trysdor | 1 |
| Bryan_ | 1 |
| Not a Gunslinger | 1 |