Game #30: Pistons roll into new year
Posted by pistonsnation
The Pistons will be bringing a season high five game winning streak into the new year {box score}
After a string of bad losses and sub par victories the Pistons are starting to string together some real qualtiy wins. They beat a hot Bucks team in Milwaukee that was riding a five game home win streak. Then cooled off the Orlando Magic that were on a league high seven game win streak, and yesterday afternoon sent 2008 in style by beating one of the leagues best road teams at the Palace.
The win was made even more impressive because the Pistons were down two starters and their 6th man. The Pistons came in knowing they would not have the services of Rip Hamilton who’s been out with a strained groin. Antonio McDyess, who was on a as needed basis with sore ribs, did not play and Rasheed Wallace went out very early with a sore right foot.
Vince Carter must have felt bad for us and that’s why he got himself double T’d and tossed in the second quarter. I couldn’t understand why Carter got so upset as to having to be restrained from going after Derrick Stafford when an out-of-bounds call didn’t go his way? Was it just plain Vincanity?? MLive is reporting that while be led off the court Carter told Stafford ‘Don’t call me boy!’ several times.
With the 3 aforementioned key cogs down, guys stepped up to the plate. Amir Johnson (8pts, 5rbs), Arron Afflalo (10pts), Kwame Brown (7pts, 6rbs), and Jason Maxiell (9 rbs) all gave significant contributions.
Watching Amir Johnson last night reminded me a lot of how fun it was to watch Dennis Rodman as a Piston. Two high energy guys. Both a bit offensively challenged, but I do believe Amir has more potential in that department. In the early going Amir was contesting shots, grabbing boards, and getting run out dunks. All that was missing fist pumping to the crowd and kamikaze diving for loose balls. Who knows, maybe we’d have gotten some of that if he didn’t get into early foul trouble.
Two things stood out for me in this game. One was the excellent defense, that’s right…I said excellent defense. The other was the Pistons never giving back the lead like they’ve done so many times after building large cushions this season.
For the Nets the rookie big, Lopez, was solid with a 23 point (8/13 FG, 7/7 FT), 12 rebound double-double to go along with a pair of blocks. For those keeping score at home Brooke Lopez is the Lopez twin with the girl first name, no wait, that’s both of them. Oh, I remember, Brooke is the scoring Lopez. The one in Phoenix plays defense and has Varejao hair.
GAME NOTES: Iverson led the Pistons scoring with 19 … Tay scored 16 & grabbed 7 boards … New Year’s resolution for AI … Poor FT shooting (63.6%) and 3PT shooting (25%) … Hooplah Nation recap … Jan ‘09 Pistons schedule wallpaper …
Tags: Vince Carter
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 11:43 am and is filed under Game recap, Nets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Glad they only allowed D.Harris to score I think 19. He’s a beast. I can’t believe that Vince told Derrick Stafford that he was going to f**k him up. Amir was killing in the first half of the game and had quite an impact until fouls started to hold him up.
January 1st, 2009 at 4:02 pmIs that what he said? I hit rewind a couple times to try and make out what he was saying.