PistonsNationBlog.com » 2007 » November

Nov 22

Game #11: Chauncey leads ‘Stonz past Knicks Posted by pistonsnation at 12:29 pm

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! [box score] The Knicks, losers of 7 straight coming in, badly needed something positive but the Pistons weren’t as charitable on the court as they are off.

The Pistons came out like it seems like the do every game, and that is playing great. It was Chauncey time from the outset. In the first quarter Mr. Big Shot assisted on 10 Pistons’ buckets, that’s one shy of a Pistons record for assists in a quarter held by Isiah Thomas ( Isiah did it twice, ‘85 & ‘89). The Pistons finished the first up by 13.

Flip Saunders played bench dominated lineups in the second quarter. The lineups as a unit weren’t in-sync enough to hold the lead the starters built up and the Knicks were able to make a run. It’s good to see Flip go to the bench but it would seem to make more sense if he hadn’t been so wholesale with it. I’d like to see 2-3 second unit guys guys with starters as opposed to 4-5.

Even though the Knicks made the run that they did in the second you never really got the sense that the game was ever in jeopardy for Detroit. The Knicks just looked like they weren’t a a team on the court, more like 5 guys thrown together for a pick up game.

Antonio McDyess made his return after missing three straight games with a strained shoulder. Antonio was wearing a protective sleeve for his shoulder but you’d think it was a shooting sleeve because he was unstoppable on his patent pick-n-pop shot. Dice finished with 20 points on 9/14 shooting.

It was nice to see the warm welcome Isiah Thomas got. He’s got it pretty rough with all the scrutiny in the Big Apple. We stil love ya here Zeke.

I’m thankful that as bad as it is these days for Michigan and our economy we still can escape for a couple hours on game nights and be treated to an exciting, quality basketball team in our Detroit Pistons.

GAME NOTES:

Chauncey OWNED the night 25 pts(7/13 fgs, 3/6 threes, 8/9 ft), 15 asts, 4 rbs, 3 stls, 1 blk, and ZERO turn overs
Rip continues to struggle, 5/11 shooting, 6 turnovers (the team had 9 total turn overs)
The Pistons held Randolph & Curry in check, they combined for 39 points & 10 boards
Pistons could have shot better from the charity stripe, 69.6%
The Pistons are perfect so far at home (3-0), while the Knicks haven’t yet won a road game
Rasheed sat out the second half with a sore knee

QUOTES:

Rasheed on the knee:

“Normal basketball stuff, banged knees,” said Wallace, who scored eight before sitting. “That’s all it is. Ain’t nothing major.”

Flip Murray’s take on the Knicks efforts:

“They looked like they didn’t want to compete. They were just out there. All you had to do was look at their body language. I don’t know what’s going on over there, but they’ve got a lot of issues.”