I'm almost embarrassed to admit that my poor little Pistons heart is waning with the season. This is supposed to be one of the best times of the year, with the Pistons usually in the playoff picture and March Madness right around the corner, but I find myself more apathetic than ever witnessing the lottery ball jostling Pistons not capable of gluing determination together night in and night out; I was honestly debating to turn off tonight's game in favor of the IsoTayshaun-jump-shot-ugly 69-point Penn State/Wisconsin game. Naturally, I gravitated toward the Pistons game, but it was hard. (Okay, now that I got my obligatory mention of that horrid Big Ten game out of the way, I can continue with a fairly straightforward, cliché riddled recap of the Pistons/Thunder game. I could try to continue with some kind of narrative, but there's no use wasting energy trying to outdo The Great Boourns and his awesome game preview.)
Pistons came out strong in the first, hitting their first four shots (in between two missed free throws, a turnover, and being whistled for illegal defense) and taking a 26-22 lead into the second, but the results of the first quarter would be a pipe dream for the rest of the game. Oklahoma City dropped 64 points in the next two quarters and were never in real danger of losing this game.
The Pistons helped George Blaha fill his DLN quota in the fourth by pulling within six, thanks to a nice, too late 9-0 run, but Russel Westbrook and Serge Ibaka sealed the deal in the final minute. Yeah, yeah, admire the Pistons for not giving up, but where is this late-game effort throughout? Yeah, yeah, at least it's kind of exciting and still good for the growing number of lottery balls. I get it. I'm reading that page.
Richard Hamilton led the Pistons with 20 points on 9-18 shooting; Rodney Stuckey had 16 points on 6-8 shooting, six assists (with three turnovers); and Greg Monroe had his 14th double-double of the season with 12 points on 4-8 shooting, 10 rebounds, and six copasetic dimes.
- Ben Gordon? He started, but only played 13 minutes, was 0-1 shooting, two rebounds, one assist, and three turnovers (although one wasn't really his fault). No sign of injury, no sign of foul trouble, and no sign of insubordination (slowly becoming one of my favorite, most frequently used words). I did like the theory posited in the comments by tads, though.
- Stuckey explains away Pistons' problems: "Defense has been lacking all year. We have to get better at it especially going to play Denver. They are an up and down team so we are going to have to stay with them. They are going to be running.”
- Charlie Villanueva hasn't topped 20 points since 2010 and it's like he's not practicing very well because his minutes are getting slashed. He saw 10 minutes tonight, same as near-forgotten Jason Maxiell, and was 2-5 shooting with two rebounds.
- Kemba Walker would look good in a Pistons uniform ... he can have Rip's.
- Kyrie Irving ran through pre-game warmups today and dressed.
- Former coveted toothless Piston Cole Aldrich made the Pistons pay for overlooking him in last year's draft: one foul in three minutes.
- This happened [via that other Thunder blog]
- Fill in the holes in the comments.
- Box Score
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Shinons, The Boourns, bugman222, brgulker, -PS-, Dogburt, Thom not Tom Gores, Toledo Joe, alaskanpistonsfan, Packfill, garrettelliott, Packey, handsomerob1, heWizard, RoscoeJacksonJr, BandWagonerPaysTheDues, Mike Payne, Laughton, tads, b23, Pentatonic, OK from J, need4detroit, bonerici, dandresden, Kriz, Danny D, tron soloTotal Users: 28
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Total Threads: 1Name # of Posts bugman222 35 RoscoeJacksonJr 18 BandWagonerPaysTheDues 15 tads 11 The Boourns 8 need4detroit 6 Packey 5 handsomerob1 4 OK from J 4 Pentatonic 3 Mike Payne 3 Kriz 3 Shinons 3 -PS- 2 dandresden 2 alaskanpistonsfan 2 brgulker 2 Toledo Joe 2 Dogburt 2 garrettelliott 2 tron solo 1 Danny D 1 bonerici 1 heWizard 1 Thom not Tom Gores 1 Packfill 1 Laughton 1 b23 1