The Pistons (50-21) will be playing host to the Miami Heat (13-58) Tip off is 8:00 pm est from the Palace of Auburn Hills and will be televised locally on TV20 Detroit

Heat Snapshot
Road record: 6-29
Last game: 3/26 (Weds) L 96-103 OT @ Knicks
Last 10: 2-8
Last game vs. Detroit: Feb 6th - Heat (95) @ Pistons (100)

Seriously, I’m not trying to come off as an arrogant Pistons fan, but there’s no way in hell the Pistons should not win going away tonight (*fingers crossed to avoid jinx) when Pat Riley has his team? take the Palace court tonight. Rip or no Rip, four games in five nights or not. No excuse not to lock up the Central outright with a win tonight.

Let the young guys out to play. I’d say start Walter Herrmann to keep the Palace crowd into the game. I’d almost rather watch old people do sudoku puzzles for two and a half hours.

The Heat used to be so easy to dislike with guys like Shaq, Dwayne Dwyane Wade, Fatoine Walker, Alonzo Mouring, well let’s just say their whole damn roster. Now, take a look at their starting lineup: Earl Barron, Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Daequann Cook, and Chris Quinn. Anyone you’ve ever heard of on their team is either injured or traded away. They’ve got 7 D-leaguers! How could you be anything short of empathetic to their team? I think they’d have a better chance suiting up the Flint Tropics to play the remainder of the season.

Check out the Heat’s official website. They’ve got more features on their dance team than they do the basketball team. It’s with good reason too. For one they’re smoking hot. Stipper hot (the ones in Miami, not like the ones on 8 mile), and they’re winners. They’re going for back-to-back wins on NBA.com’s dance team bracket tournament.

[Box Score] Definitely not the same intensity as we seen against the Suns, more reminiscent of the game before the Phoenix game against the Wizards. The Pistons just could never seem to maintain a run. The 15 turnovers and 40.8% shooting had a lot to do with that.

Detroit was again without Rip Hamilton who’s dealing with a sore left hip.

The Raptors, who were 2-8 in their last 10, now have a little something to draw back on if they hold at #7 and meet us in the first round of the playoffs. The Pistons beat Toronto by an average of 15 points in the two previous meetings this season and had lost 10 of the last 13 against the ‘Stonz.

On the glass half full tip we got to see extended minutes for Amir Johnson who played 19 minutes which included the entire 4th quarter. Amir didn’t stuff up his stat line, but he did a good job defending Chris Bosh (21 pts, 6 rbs) in the 4th. Rodney Stuckey found his offense in the 4th when the Pistons were trying to make a last push. Rodney scored 14 of his career high tying 16 in the quarter.

With Cleveland losing to New Orleans the Pistons backed into at least a share of the Central Division crown. One more win would clinch it out right. Chauncey (24 pts, 9 ast) said he and the Pistons aren’t too excited about Central crowns, they’ve got bigger plans:

“Our thing is not the division or the East, but the whole thing.” (Detroit Free Press)