PistonsNationBlog.com - Detroit Pistons News & Views

When was the last time the Pistons scored like this? I think Reagan was in office.   They snap their 11 game losing skid beating the 76ers 124-103.  That’s in regulation by the way, and without the team’s leading scorer Rip Hamilton who sat due to an ankle injury.  The 124 points was a season high that came on a season high 62.7% shooting.

Charlie Villanueva, whom I didn’t expect to play after the recent Twitter-gate and missing of the team flight, scored a team high 25 points (8-11 shooting) in 23 minutes.  Rodney Stuckey was right behind Charlie with 24 points on 9-17 shooting with 5 assists.

The Pistons had 7 players in double figure, almost 8 — Austin Daye scored 9 points.  Ben Gordon was productive scoring 13 on 6-10 shooting.  Ben Wallace scored 18.  I don’t think I need to type anymore after that last sentence.  Except for maybe check out the highlights.

Phx (109) / Det (94) The Pistons had their moments, but for the most part the Suns got an easy win last night at the Palace.

The Suns are winners of 10 straight while the Pistons loss streak hit double digits.

The Suns shot 56.2% and lit up the Pistons from downtown 51.7% hitting on 15 of 29 attempts.  The Pistons didn’t fare so well from behind the long-line going 2 of 11.  Some guy named Jared Dudley hit on 6 of 7 from deep giving the Suns 20 off the bench.  The 20 by Dudley was yet another guy going for a career high against the Pistons’ defense.

Amare Stoudemire took advantage of the Pistons on the interior scoring 29 on 13-15 shooting.  Only 3 of those makes weren’t at point blank range right in front of the rim.

Ben Gordon led the Pistons scoring with 21 but honestly most of his scoring came at a meaningless juncture of the game.  Charlie Villanueva played 18 minutes scoring 6 points on 3-for-9 shooting.

GAME NOTES: Rip (ankle) & Maxiell (back) were out … Ben Wallace has missed 22 of his last 25 shots from the line, and is shooting 38% for the season – three points better than Kwame Brown … Ben Wallace will wait to decide future … Grant Hill: 17 pts, 8 asts, 6 rbs … Pistons may send rookie trio for summer play … Jerebko: 14 points, 10 boards …

One of the things we’ve been able to say this season is at least we haven’t lost to the Nets. No more. New Jersey went all “we’ve got a brighter future” on the Pistons beating them 118-110 in East Rutherford.

I’m sorry, but ping-pong balls are not worth this.

The Pistons just gave up so many easy buckets to the Nets.  How do you let two bigs go for career highs on the same night? Yi Jianlian (31 on 12/16 shooting) and Brook Lopez (37 on 14/17 shooting with 10 rebs.) for 68 freaking points. The Nets shot a season high 57% for the game! I have to believe a little Ben Wallace would have curbed some of that absurdness.

Someone please tell me what the hell is going on here

Usually it’s Devin Harris doing the scoring damage for the Nets. Last night it was dime time. Harris dished out a game high 11 assists which made him pretty cocky:

“It makes my job fun — just pick apart where the defense is lacking,” Harris said. [Star Ledger]

Before last night the Nets hadn’t won back-to-back games since April of 2009. The second bird that was killed with the single stone was this was Jersey’s 9th win, meaning they can only tie the record for fewest wins in a season.

GAME NOTES: Pistons have now dropped 7 straight … Tayshaun scored 27 (8 rbs, 7 asts), Rip had 18 … Maxiell w/ a 13 pt 11 rbs double-double (5/5 FTs) … With the one loss the Pistons account for 11% of the Nets wins … Stuckey 15 pts, 7 asts … CV31: 14 pts … The was the first time since Dec ‘08 that two Nets scored 30 in the same game … every Piston with a – +/- stat … Summers & Atkins DNP-CD …

Speak up, the suck is deafening in this piece

There has never been a Pistons team that has been swept in a season series by the Pacers, until now that is.  With their 98-83 win over the Pistons the Pacers took all four regular season games (plus the final 2 last season) for the first time since they were part of 1976-77 NBA-ABA league merger.

Danny “The Piston Conqueror” Granger again reached the thirty-point plateau against Detroit scoring 32.  Over the past couple of seasons no other player has had the kind of scoring success Granger has had against the Pistons.

Even though Indy (25-46)  doesn’t have a great record they’re the worst kind of opponent for the Pistons.  We can’t score with them and we don’t have the defense to do anything about it.  So, if they’re hitting it’s a wrap.

This loss mathematically eliminated the Pistons from playoff contention.  Well, that and spending all the free agent bread on Gordon and Villanueva.

GAME NOTES: The Pacers came into the game on a 9 game road losing streak … Will Bynum went down in the first half with a bruised back … John Kuester was ejected for rushing the court after an offensive foul was called on Ben Gordon in the 3rd qtr, it was his first ejection as a head coach … Pacers connected on 43 three-pointers against the Pistons this season …

[Det 79 @ Cle 104] Last night’s game against the Cavs was more indicative of the disparity between these two teams then the previous three contests. The win gave the Cavs their first season sweep of the Pistons since the 1979-80 season.  The Cavs have actually took the last 7 games against the Pistons, 11 if you count the playoff series sweep.

This game seemed was never “really” close, or in question.  This was only a watchable game if you’re A) a Cavs fan, or 2) a Ping-Pong Pistons fan.

The Cavs spread the love around having 7 players in double figures.  LeBron James didn’t play in the fourth quarter and ended up with 15.

The Pistons were led by Jason Maxiell’s 16 points and 9 boards.  Charlie V had 11 all coming in fourth quarter garbage time. DaJaun Summers saw 19 minutes, scoring 8 and grabbing a couple of rebounds.

Who watched Family Guy last night?  That cheered me up.

[Det 102 @ Ind 106]  Last night Detroit gave all the Ping-Pong Piston fans quite a scare as they almost pulled off a big comeback win over the Pacers.

The Pistons seemed to be behind from the start of this game.  Going into the half the Pacers had the Pistons down by 21, the Pacers were shooting the ball straight (60%), and the Pistons were not (37%).  The Pistons didn’t offer too much in the way of defensive resistance either.

The Pacers’ lead got up to 24 very early in the third.  The Pistons whittled that lead down to 17 going into the 4th quarter.  Tayshaun Prince was big in the third as was Jonas Jerebko.

Behind Rondey Stuckey, DaJaun Summers, and Ben Gordon (yes, those last two names are correct) the Pistons mounted a nice rally.  Detroit scored fifteen unanswered points to take a one point lead -their only lead of the game- with about 3 minutes to play.  But, unfortunately this Pistons’ team cannot seem to close out close games.  Danny Granger (29 pts, 6 asts) and the Pacers got right back on top and never looked back.

Rodney Stuckey came off the bench in his first game back since collapsing in a game against the Cavs back on March 5th.  He didn’t look a bit tentative out there scoring a team high 25 points in 26 minutes on a variety of drives and jumpers.

Hint: he misses

We had a Richard Hamilton anomaly last night.  The Ripster played 19 minutes -about 15 less than his season average- and went 0/3 from the field.  That marks the first time in a Pistons’ uniform that Richard Hamilton did not score a point.  You have to go back to November of 2000 as a member of the Washington Wizards to find the last time Rip went scoreless.

Coach Kuester rode his hot hands.  Rip spent the latter part of the 3rd quarter, and all of the fourth on the Pistons’ bench.

DaJuan Summers made his biggest impact since turning heads in the summer league.  DaJuan scored 12 with 4 rebounds in 16 minutes of play. 

Coming into the season it was said that Summers was the rookie most ready to contribute right away but that’s awful difficult to do from the bench.  The season is a wash.  Get this guy minutes and let’s see what we have to look forward to.

Ben Wallace made his return after missing the last 8 Pistons’ game with a right patella tendon injury.  Ben’s 24 minutes came off the bench in favor of Jason Maxiell who has been superb in Ben’s absence.  Jason (10 pts, 5 rbs) fell well short of his 6th straight points/rebounds double-double.  But, to put Mad Max’s 5 consecutive streak in perspective it hadn’t been done by a Pistons since Big Ben did it in 2004 and in was the “JYD” Jerome Williams in 1999 before Wallace.  Three time in the last 11 years of Pistons’ basketball.

GAME NOTES: Ben Wallace tweaked his knees in the 4th … Ben Gordon scored 14 of his 17 in the 4th … Pistons are 0-3 on the season vs. Pacers … Stuckey made 3 triples … Tay with 11 & Jonas scored 10 … Troy Murphy had 20 with 8 boards … Pistons have dropped 11 of their last 13 …

[Cle 113 Det 101] At this point your guess is as good as mine.  The Pistons got embarrassed by a struggling Celtics team in Boston, then turn around, fly home, and nearly pull one out against the team with the league’s number one seed.

The final score sees the Cavs winning by a dozen points, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.  The Pistons played Clelveland tight the whole game.  The game was tied 21 times and there were 10 lead changes.

The Pistons had LeBron James managed through the first half of basketball only giving up 5 points to soon-to-be #6, but he got loose in the second.  He ended the night with a 29/12/12 triple-double.  A couple of those points he didn’t earn though.  LeBron got a continuation call on a layup after being fouled by Tayshuan Prince just inside the 3-point line.  I don’t even think he was expecting to get that call by the cute little layup he flipped up.

LeBron also “officially” recorded a block, but I’m nullifying that myself.  It was a goaltend.  So Will Bynum actually had 14 points to go with his 4 assists and 3 rebounds.  Check out the video.  I think the refs were just to caught up in the King’s glory.

Mad respect to Tayshaun Prince last night.  After taking a Jason Maxiell running knee to the back in Boston Tay played 44 big minutes giving the Pistons a much needed 15 points, 8 assists, and 7 boards.

Including Tayshaun and Bynum, the Pistons had six players in double figures.  Rip led the way with 24.  Jonas and Max scored 10 a piece with Jason grabbing a game high 15 rebounds.  Charlie Villanueva gave the Pistons 16 off the bench making all three of his triple attempts.

GAME NOTES: Refs = all the King’s men … Wilcox / Atkins / Summers -DNP CD … The 3-point shooting of Mo Williams (20 pts) and Daniel Gibson really hurt the Pistons late in the game … Ben Gordon 1-6 shooting … Stuckey practicing hard, closing in on return date …

Happy St. Patty’s Day!