Pistons in OKC
Posted by pistonsnationThe Pistons (22-15, 10-9 road) will be in Oklahoma City to take on the Thunder (7-33) Tip off is 8:00 pm est from the Ford Center and will be televised locally on Fox Sports Detroit
Thunder Snapshot
Home record: 5-16
Vs. East: 3-15
Last game: 01/14 (Weds) W 93-114 Vs. Jazz
Last 10: 4-6
Streak: Won 1
Injuries: Joe Smith (knee – questionable), Robert Swift (virus – questionable)
When the Pistons played the Thunder back on December 26th it took an Allen Iverson runner with 0.2 seconds on the clock to secure the Palace win. That Thunder team came into the Palace winners in 3 games in 29 tries. They’ve since more than doubled their win total going 4-7 over their last 11.
The Thunder are coming off their biggest win of the season. On Wednesday Oklahoma City did something the Pistons haven’t been able to do in the last four seasons, and that’s win a game against the Utah Jazz.
Part of the Thunder’s recent successful is by way of two 7 footers that didn’t play against the Pistons in late December. Nick Collison (7 pts, 6 rbs) was out with a broken thumb. Nenad Krstic exercised the NBA opt out option with the Triumph of Russian League to sign with OKC. Since joining the team on January 7th the Serbian center is averaging 10 points and 5 boards off the Thunder bench.
Keith Langlois points out on Pistons.com (via Thunder’s Chris Silva): “To date, the Thunder ranks ninth in team rebounding at 42.4 per game. The Thunder also has pulled down the third most rebounds (43.4) in the league over the last 10 games”. If that isn’t a good enough excuse for aborting small ball tonight than I don’t know what is.
ALSO OF NOTE: Rasheed questionable to start tonight … The Pistons have an eight-game winning streak over the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise … The Pistons haven’t lost 4 straight since Jan. of 2005 … The Thunder will try for back-to-back victories for the first time this season … You Should Have Seen This Coming: The Thunder Aren’t So Bad …
This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Game preview, Thunder. 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.
