Charlie Villanueva has guaranteed a win tonight in Detroit against the 2010-2011 Toronto Raptors. Funny enough, the only thing a win would guarantee is that Chunky Charlie will have less competition for minutes next year...
Game Tips Off at 7:30 P.M. EST
Toronto Raptors: 38 - 42 (14-26 away)
Detroit Pistons: 26 - Aminu Motiejunas (17-23 home)
Oppo Research
Thanks to a well-timed elbow from Antawn Jamison, Chris Bosh has left the Raptors earlier than expected on his way to an overvalued contract. Bosh has missed the last three games-- and is on track to miss the rest of the season. Meanwhile, the Raptors have lost five in a row and a loss tonight (coupled with a Bulls win tomorrow) would eliminate Toronto from the 8th and final seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Without Bosh, the Pistons will be facing a team with big name starters like Amir Coulda-Been Johnson, Sonny Weems and $24 million worth of boring Euro players who play defense like our own CV31. It's the Pistons' game to win tonight, which will make everyone in Toronto and everyone in Detroit not named BennieBladesFan very, very sad. Oh, and Stuckey will dress tonight, coming off the bench behind MFWB and Ben Gordon.
Keys for Detroit
Lose. Otherwise, with the 10th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons will select Donatas Motiejunas.
Play the Rookies. Daye, Jerebko and Summers would be getting massive burn right now if we were a winning team. If they don't get serious minutes tonight, I'll watch the WNBA instead next season. Okay, not really.
Question of the Game
What'll it be, John Kuester? You gettin' excited about that Villanueva/Motiejunas frontcourt next year? It's gonna be sweet.
Valuable Links
Get your learnin' on: about tanks and draft results.
Last, happy birthday to DBB's own BRGulker.
Signed,
Surly now and Drunk soon-ish,
-Mike Payne-