I did my due diligence and watched this one but I’m having a hard time recapping the action. One game against the Heat, ok. But, another one 10 days later on a beautiful Sunday is a bit much. So, here’s what I recall:

I remember Stuckey getting some nice open court steals. I also remember him shattering Daequan Cook’s ankles on a cross over and the Pistons bench going wild. Even the hundreds of Heat fans that attended the game ewwed and ahhed at that. Looking at the box score it looks as if the Rodney Stuckey roundball evolution is still in full effect. He led the Pistons scoring with 19 and had 4 helpers.

The Heat have a center named Joel Anthony that, if kept in the league, can put the versatile big man movement back 20 years. What a stiff.

No Rip. He was still dealing with that hip thing. Dice got the night of so J-Max got some extended rim rocking minutes.

Walter “Big Herm” Herrmann got some PT and he was swooping every which where, cradling the ball in his monster mitts like it was a soft ball. I remember seeing that.

I seen Amir Johnson in there skying for boards. He and Maxiell tied for Pistons rebound leader with 7 a piece. Amir also blocked four shots. No surprises there. I could have perked up a little more for this one if Amir was doing work on the offensive end. That’ll come though he’s still so young. It’s just with all the preseason build up and the contract I think a lot of us in the Pisotns fan Nation were expecting to some Dwight Howard stuff from Amir. That’s not to say Amir has been a disappointment, no I wouldn’t say that. He’s seems like a great kid with a awesome work ethic. He’ll get his and reward us all for being behind him from the start. Bet on that.

Our boy Cheikh got some burn. He didn’t put much in his stat line but it’s just fun and intriguing to see the big fella from the Senegal out there. With that mask he looks like Rip’s lanky younger brother.
photo credits: NBA/Getty Images

Fill in all the stuff I missed in comments, and for more in depth coverage check out:

• Slam Dunk Central: Stuckey Helps Pistons Stick It To Heat 91-75
• Sun Sentine: Pistons 91, Heat 75
• Detroit News: Hamilton sits again; Pistons clinch no. 2

The Pistons (54-21) will in Miami to take on the Heat (13-63) Tip off is 6:00 pm est from the American Airlines Arena and will be televised locally on FSN Detroit

Heat Snapshot
Home record: 7-30
Last game: 4/4 (Fri) L 95-109 @ Wizards
Last 10: 1-9
Last game vs. Detroit: Mar 27th - Heat (69) @ Pistons (85)

Another game for the bench to shine in big minutes and the starters to stay fresh and ready for the playoffs. I’d say against this Heat team let the starters get their sweat in on a pick-up volleyball game on South Beach and let the bench go bell to bell. We can take odds on which member of the “Zoo Crew” will have their break out game next. I’d personally like to see Amir go for 20 & 10.

ALSO SEE:

• Detroit Free Press: Good playoff signs for Pistons: Extended practice for McDyess, Stuckey
• Detroit News: Starters rest and play
• mLive: Pistons take pride in putting teams away

[Box score] Well, I was a tad miffed in the first half that we weren’t up on the Heat so big that the guys were practicing trick shots. But I came to realize that most of the guys that the Heat were suiting up are trying to play their way into the league next season and they were still going to give it a go, especially if we gave them any light at all.

This win clinched an outright Central Division title for the Pistons. It’s the Pistons 6th Central crown in 7 years.

After leading by 5 after the first and 3 at the half the spare-parts team Miami has came down to earth and the Pistons started handling their business holding the Heat to 24 second half points.

Arron Afflalo seized his opportunity starting for the third straight game for Rip Hamilton who’s out with a sore hip. Arron recorded careers highs in points(15, 5/9 shooting), rebounds(7).

“We’ve got four All-Star-caliber players around you, there’s a lot of open opportunities,” Afflalo said. “That’s all that is. Constantly, Tayshaun, ‘Sheed and ‘Dyess and Chauncey are creating open opportunities for me. It makes it very easy for me.” - Free Press

Jason Maxiell replicated Arron’s 15 point, 7 board total. Jason had 11 of those points and 5 of those rebounds in the 3rd quater alone. The two were among 5 Pistons in double figures that included Rasheed’s 13, Dice’s 11, and Chuancey’s 13 point, 11 assist double-double.

Although, I’ll admit It was kind of intriguing to see, in effect, an invitee tryout for a professional basketball team in season.

Take a guy like Blake Ahearn for example. He’s an undrafted guy out of the D-League on a 10-day. Nice shooter’s touch and works hard and may be earning a roster spot in Miami or perhaps another team. But, if he doesn’t he’ll be able to say he scored 15 points (13 in the 2nd alone) on one of the league’s best defensive teams. Even though I would never pull for another team against the ‘Stonz I didn’t mind seeing Ahearn, an average Joe type-of-guy, giving it his all out there. He was fearless going to the hoop and took a few shots as a result. He had to earn every point he got out there. Can’t help but feel good for “the little guy”.

We’ve got guys like that on our roster, but they’re also guys you’ve heard of before.

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.

It looks as if all the Suns are waiting for is medical clearance sometime today to complete the Shaq for Shawn Marion/Marcus Banks deal. Who seen this coming? Talk of this deal is sure to dominate most of the on air jibber jabber tonight when our Pistons take on the Miami Heat tonight at the Palace.

This will totally change the complexion of the Suns, and I’m not sure for the better either. There success comes from them being able to get up and down the court in a blur with Steve Nash orchestrating the run-n-gun. Sure Shaq is arguably the most dominant big man eve, but The Diesel has a lot of miles and some bad wheels.

We’ll get to see first hand how this shakes out Feb 24th at Phoenix, and then a month later, March 24th at the Palace. That’s assuming Shaq’s even in the lineup.

[box score] The Pistons were down a starter with the Rip Hamilton celebrating the birth of a baby girl, but Tayshaun picked up the production for his teammate. Tayshaun was in attack mode all night. He flashed the assertiveness that Pistons’ fans know he’s capable of.

The game plan was just to be aggressive,” Prince said. “With Rip out, I knew I had to be more assertive and look for my shot.

Tayshaun scored a career high 34 points. He shot 13/23 (55%), the 23 shots were one shy of tying his career high. The Palace Prince also matched a career high with 12 boards.

Chauncey Billups controlled tempo for the Pistons notching a 19 point, 11 assist double-double.

Arron Afflalo held his own starting in the place of Rip Hamilton. The UCLA rookie gave the Pistons 14 solid minutes. Charles Barkley commented that he really liked Dumars’ selection of Afflalo saying that reminded him a lot of Dumars and that A2 was a good fit for the Pistons.

The Pistons center by commitee was a success in this first game. Shaq was double teamed early and often to the tune of zero first half points. O’Neal ended up with 9 points for the game, add that to Alonzo’s point total and you get 12 total points from the Heat centers.

The Pistons also played good on ball defense forcing 17 turnovers, 11 of them off steals.

GAME NOTES:

• Reggie Miller cracks me up! When “the block” was brought up he contested that Tayshuan fouled him and it was goal tending. I didn’t like Reggie the Pacer, but Reggie the broadcaster is pretty good.
• The Pistons only shot 38.8% from the field
• Rasheed scored 11 (2/4 3ptrs), grabbed 8 boards along with a pair of blocks and steals
• Jarvis Hayes gave the Pistons 10 points off the bench to go with 5 boards and 4 steals in 26 minutes
• Dice had an off night, 4 pts & 4 rbs. He may still have to adjust to starting
• Pretty Ricky was the primary only scoring option for the Heat. He ended up with 23
• American Airlines Arena looked pretty empty going into the 4th quarter


GAME QUOTES:

Billups on Tay’s performance:

“I told Tayshaun, ‘You’ve got to step it up today.’ He was awesome. Tayshaun has been doing that a lot. I know I talked to him a lot in the preseason about him being more aggressive. He is just a tough matchup. He does so many things out there.”

Shaq on what went wrong for the Heat:

“We took a lot of jump shots, way too many jump shots,” O’Neal said. “I’d like more than six shots if we’re going to win, especially until Dwyane comes back.”


More recaps:

• Pistons.com
• Detroit News: Prince leads Pistons to opening win
• SporTech.info: The Heat is off
• Miami Herald: Even the Heat let us down