The first 10,000 fans at the Palace tonight will win a free Star Wars movie poster. Oh the irony. Additionally, there will be 30 Star Wars characters around the Palace, in costume, to greet fans. Sadly, Char Char Binks will not be in attendance, he's still out with a sore ankle.
Game Tips at 7:30 P.M. EST
New Jersey Nets: 8 - 19 (5 - 10 road)
Detroit Pistons: 7 - 20 (5 - 8 home)
The Situation:
The pride of the hopeful Russian emperor attempts to strike back tonight, having been defeated by the forceful play of Greg Monroe on Wednesday (get it? forceful?. It was the last the Pistons would ever see of the Nets in New Jersey, but they are taking the fight to our own, wintry turf tonight (spoiler alert: the Nets will ultimately reveal an armed and fully operational battle station in Brooklyn next season). Yeah, I could keep the Star Wars references up throughout this whole preview, I'm just that nerdy. But I won't put you all through that.
We've played the Nets twice already this month, and I'm giving up so much material though. Old Ben? Jodda the Hut? The aforementioned Char Char Binks, who single-handedly ruined Episode 1? So much material. I could write a paragraph about how Tayshaun Prince reminds me of C-3PO, a whiny, a stiff robot. I could write another paragraph about whether Jonas Jerebko is Luke Skywalker, a bright and annoyingly pure jedi, or Han Solo, a dashing rogue who totally just Greedo'd Jason Smith the other night. I'm gonna go with the latter. JoHan JerebSolo.
Okay fine, I'll give it a rest.
Keys to the Game:
Feed the Wookie: Let him have it. It's not wise to upset a wookie. Sure, you could let C-3PO attempt another isolation play, but droids don't pull people's arms out of their socket when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that.
Jump to Light Speed - We're not going to outrun imperial cruisers at this pace, so get R2 (Larry Frank. Larry Frank is clearly R2D2) to fix the hyperspeed thingy and push the pace a bit.
Defend Echo Base - They have the firepower to penetrate the seat of the rebel alliance, so prevent them even getting there in the first place.
Question of the Game:
Is Anthony Davis the prophesied one who will bring balance to the force? Does Mike Payne live in his mom's basement?