Pistons stall in home opener
Posted by pistonsnation
Did you hear? They cannot serve beer at the Palace anymore! Yeah, because they lost the opener. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
(Thunder 91 / Pistons 83) It wasn’t a great showing by the Pistons last night, but don’t jump off the bandwagon just yet. As I’m sure you’ll hear quite a few times during this season; this Pistons team is a work in progress. That’s why you’ll have games like the season opener against the Memphis, and then you’ll have games like last night.
The Pistons played decent in the first half but just failed to execute after halftime. There may not be a team in the league that can overcome shooting 27% while only having 3 assists and that’s just what the Pistons did in the second half last night. The offensive movement broke down and the Pistons reverted to one-on-one play.
Ben Gordon (25 pts) can create for himself, and he can make some impossible looking shots but he didn’t come here to carry the team.
Last night’s game should also serve some warning for those who want to ship Rip Hamilton out of town. Rip is an option we need. You seen how good he and Gordon can be together, and now we’ve seen what can happen when that consistent scoring option is taken away.
Credit to Kevin Durantula and his Oklahomies. They worked better as a unit. They moved the ball better, they took better control of the ball, and did a better job of getting to where they wanted to go on the court. Although, I do feel some of their good play was in overcompensation of their Eastbay jerseys.
I can’t recap this game without devoting a paragraph to Big Ben Wallace. Ben has just been a badass. It seems as if that the Big Ben clock chime is marking the reversal of time. Ben led the team in rebounds (12), blocked shots (2), and steals (3). He also kicked in 3 dimes which was one off from leading the team on a night when the guards were trying to do it all themselves.
GAME NOTES: Charlie Vill has yet to show why we spent big bucks on him during free agency … players wore pink headbands for breast cancer awareness … Not really feeling Mason’s Ben “Again” Gordon call … Would have liked to see some Chris Wilcox against his former team … Durant (25 & 12) did a great job defensively on Tayshaun … Someone, PLEASE, throw Maxiell some newborns … only 12 total assists … Happy Halloween!
Tags: Ben Wallace, Detroit Pistons, Oklahoma City Thunder
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 10:15 am and is filed under Game recap, 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.
Charlie Vill has yet to show why we spent big bucks on him during free agency
I’m hoping he’s just adjusting, getting his legs back after injury, and maybe pressing a bit too much — cause he has looked flat-out bad.
And how about Ben Wallace? It reminds me of last season in that I’m asking the “Where would we be without _________?” question.
Last season: Where would we be without Dice?
This season: Where would we be without Ben?
And I’ve been skeptical of Ben Gordon, but he’s been very solid over 2 games.
October 31st, 2009 at 10:27 amI too hope Charlie is just rusty for the hamstring injury and is still trying to get acclimated.
He’s getting into foul trouble because he’s not moving his feet quick enough and then gets to ‘handsy’ on D.
This is a great site for Pistons fans to interact. I will tell everyone about it.
Ben Wallace and Kwame Brown was great again last night but, everyone else was pathetic.
Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum are some damn ball-hogs. Going to the rim throwing up those stupid @zz shot’s when we are down by 9 with 2 minutes to go. At least when Ben Gordon ball-hog’s he make’s it. Charlie Villanueva still has’nt found his shot but im shore he will.
We only had one scoring option in Ben Gordon last night. This game would have been way different if Richard Hamilton was not injured.
The Thunder is a young team on the rise and if they had a legit post threat they would be contender’s.I think they will push hard for Chris Bosh or Amre Studemire next summer.
October 31st, 2009 at 12:09 pm“The Thunder is a young team on the rise and if they had a legit post threat they would be contender’s.I think they will push hard for Chris Bosh or Amre Studemire next summer.”
They’ll certainly have some bucks to spend, and if they have a decent 09/10 campaign they might just pick up a stud to play alongside Durant.