The Pistons (8-5) will be hosting the New York Knickerbockers (7-7) Tip off is 8:00 pm est from the Palace of Auburn Hills and will be televised locally on Fox Sports Plus (channel listings)

Knicks’ Snapshot
Road record: 2-4
Last game: 11/25 (Tues) L 119-101 Vs. Cavaliers
Last 10: 5-5
Injuries:  Nate Robinson (strained right groin), Danilo Gallinari (lower back), Eddy Curry (bruised right knee), Stephon Marbury (tattooed brain)

On the eve of Turkey Day the Pistons need to feast the Knicks after getting chewed up and spit out by the Timberwolves.

A few changes recently for the New York Twenty-Tens as they made a couple of trades to position themselves near the top of LeBron James suitors in two summers.  New York sent Jamal Crawford to Golden State for Al Harrington and Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins to the Clippers for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley.

As a result of the trades the Knicks are a small team. Mike D’Antonio is starting David Lee at Center.  Michael Curry has said he may be starting Amir Johnson to counter the wee Knicks.

Also, no posts tomorrow so HAPPY THANKSGIVING !

ALSO OF NOTE: The Knicks give up a league worst 107.5 ppg … Busted Coverage: Detroit Pistons Automotion Dancer Megan Looks Like A Good Time In Down Economy …Chris McCosky can see the Knicks landing LeBron, Bosh, and Steve Nash in 2010 … Nice LeBron James Knick p-shop … Chauncey Billups named Western Conference player of the week ..

Newsdays reports that the Pistons (as well as the Cavs) are monitoring the play of the Knicks’ Zach Randolph.  Dave Dial of Mlive suggests that the Pistons might be looking to deal Rasheed for Z-Bo.

I wouldn’t like that deal myself, short or long term.  Randolph just doesn’t fit the Pistons mold.  He’s an impact player but he doesn’t make those around better like a Rasheed Wallace.  He’s often out of shape and is a below average defender.  Plus, he’s owed $48 mill over the next three seasons.

Besides, we’ve reformed one Jailblazer, does Joe really want to press his luck?

Allan Houston’s comeback attempt again falls short being waved today by the New York Knicks.  He never even got into a preseason game due to injury.

Houston was forced to retire in October 2005 because of chronic knee pain, and has attempted a comeback in each of the last two preseasons. However, he was never able to get into a game this time because of a sore right quadriceps.

Still, the fourth-leading scorer in franchise history has begun discussions with the team about a role within the organization and could stick around in some capacity working under team president Donnie Walsh. -NBA.com

Houston was drafted by the Pistons with the 11th pick in the 1993 draft (right behind Lindsey at #10).  Allan played 3 years here in Detroit but then spurned the Pistons for New York when his contract was up in 1996.

Two other former Pistons, Mateen Cleaves and Smush Parker, were waived today.  Both by the Denver Nuggets.

…but he’ll remain with the Knicks in an unnamed role.  Makes sense.  They owe him a lot of money still.

“I can’t really tell you where he failed with the club. I think that we reached a point this season when our team didn’t compete for a long time,” new team president Donnie Walsh said. “The bottom line is that we haven’t won and the team didn’t look like it was motivated to try to win and be competitive.”

Walsh said that isn’t always the coach’s fault, but Thomas is blamed for enough already — sometimes unfairly, Walsh added.

“I feel like some of the bigger events that happened on the way with Isiah have overshadowed some of the good things he’s done for the franchise,” Walsh said.

Walsh said no player brought up Thomas’ name during their exit meetings Thursday, though Walsh said he wasn’t going to be asking for it, anyway.

Thomas, the coach for two seasons, will remain with the organization in an unnamed role, reporting directly to Walsh, who said he informed Thomas of the decision Friday. (Via ESPN)

If I had to guess it’d be in some sort of scouting capacity.  Zeke’s a pretty good judge of talent, just not so much on character.

There was a game played. A game that saw the Knicks (98) jump all over the Pistons (94) and be up by as many as 25 points. In the fourth quarter the Knick reserves nearly game the game away to a better second unit in Detroit. The events would have made for a pretty interesting recap if not for the real story of the night, the celebration of professional basketball in Detroit. The Pistons unveiled their all-time 30 man roster.

Back row: Richard Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, Chris Ford, Dave Bing, Chuck Daly, Bailey Howell, John Long, Kelly Tripucka
Middle row: Bill Laimbeer, Mark Aguirre, Rick Mahorn, Terry Tyler, Ray Scott, Tayshaun Prince, John Salley, James Edwards, Rasheed Wallace, Bob Lanier Front row: Jack McCloskey, Bill Davidson, Isiah Thomas, Gene Shue, Vinnie Johnson, Joe Dumars

Click continue reading for more photos and links

Continue Reading »

The Pistons (55-21) will be hosting the New York Knickerbockers (21-56) Tip off is 8:00 pm est from the Palace of Auburn Hills and will be televised locally on TV20 Detroit

Knicks’ Snapshot
Road record: 7-32
Last game: 4/6 (Sun) W 90-100 Vs. Magic
Last 10: 2-8
Last game vs. Detroit: Mar 7th - Pistons (101) @ Knicks (97)

Tonight is the culmination of a year’s long celebration of 50 seasons of basketball in Detroit. Starting an hour before the game the Pistons will honor their 30 greatest players whom most will be in attendance. The Knicks will be at the Palace tonight to play against the Pistons but the game couldn’t be a more secondary event. The only real significance to this game is that the greatest player is Piston’s history and current New York head coach Isiah Thomas will be in the building. I’m wondering if it’s going to be hard for Zeke to coach NY tonight being that it’ll probably seem like he’s more of a Piston than a Knick, not to mention the fact it might be one of his last games at the helm.

Twenty-six of the 30-member team are expected to take part in the pregame ceremony that begins at roughly 7:30. Not attending will be players involved with other teams — Ben Wallace, Grant Hill, Jerry Stackhouse and Adrian Dantley. Jalen Rose is expected to be there, representing his late father, Jimmy Walker. The entire ceremony will be televised on Channel 20, beginning at 7, with a look at how the team was selected - Detroit News

This is huge for me. I’m going to mark out so hard tonight it’s absurd. Get your DVR, TiVo, or VCR, (if you’re really out of touch) ready. Or you can just wait until it goes to YouTube, ahhh the internet.

ALSO SEE:

• Detroit News - Embattled Thomas will be embraced
• New York Daily News - Isiah Thomas to be cheered - for once
• Detroit Free Press - Pistons honoring all-time greats in ceremony tonight
• Pistons.com - Pistons Vs. Knicks Gameday

From Marc Berman’s NY Post Knicks blog:

Stephon Marbury and Flip Saunders spent several minutes in the back room of the locker room conversing. If Marbury is bought out, Detroit may beckon. Marbury loves Saunders and vice-versa.

I don’t care how many dimes and assists he thinks he’d average, Stephon Marbury is everything a Piston is not. Besides that Joe D. isn’t the type to gamble on big inflated contracts. If you think Flip’s competence is questioned now I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he is suggesting the Pistons are short one Stephon Marbury.

Buuuut, then again, everyone knows that if a coach has a cordial conversation with a player he used to coach while playing against said players new team instead of completely ignoring him that means that said player will be joining that coach’s current roster as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Duh!

Thanks for the chuckle Berman.

[Box score] With Rasheed not available resting a sore ankle and Rip tossed before halftime Flip needed a concerted effort from his bench to beat the Knicks at the Garden.

The Pistons bench seeing more minutes than usual came through and atoned for their 5 point performance in Boston. The bench combined for 46 points with standout performances by Rodney Stuckey (13 pts - 6/9 FG, 4 rbs, 2 asts), Jason Maxiell (12 pts -5/8 FG), and Juan Dixon (9 pts, 4 asts, 3 rbs).

“I thought our bench won this game for us, easy,” - Chauncey Billups

The bench wasn’t the only ones righting wrongs. Tayshaun, who went 0-10 with 0 points the last time the Pistons played the Knicks, played a superbly scoring a game high 28 points and grabbing 7 boards. Tayshuan seems to have a knack for stepping up his offensive game when we’re down a starter. He did it the first game of the season when he scored a career high 34 with Rip out of the line up, and again 5 days ago when he scored 22 against the Sonics with Chancey out of the line up.

We also got to see a preview of what we can expect from Theo Ratliff (V 2.0) who got the start for Rasheed . Theo scored 5 points, grabbed 5 boards, and blocked a couple shots in his 22 minutes. Theo played the 300 lb Curry strong. He probably would have been help on Perkins and the Celtics. It’s even more encouraging considering he hasn’t even practiced with the team yet.

The Pistons will take on the new post Ben Wallace era Chicago Bulls on Sunday.

The Pistons (44-17) will be in New York to take on the Knicks (18-43) Tip off is 7:30 pm est from the Madison Square Garden and will be televised locally on TV20 Detroit

UPDATE! -Theo Ratliff will start in place of Rasheed Wallace who’s nursing a sore ankle [source]

Knicks’ Snapshot
Home record: 12-19
Last game: 3/05 (Weds) L 119-105 Vs. Cavs
Last 10: 3-7
Last meeting: Jan 13th - Pistons (65) @ Knicks (89)

After the disappointing play Wednesday in Boston, a game against the bumbling Knicks should be just the invigorator the Pistons need. That is of course assuming the Pistons handle their business and don’t get blown out by 24 and come close to setting single game scoring futility marks in the process like they nearly did back in January.

According to Chris McCosky’s blog we’re probably going to see what Theo Ratilff has to offer tonight:

Speaking of Sheed, his left ankle was pretty sore after the game. The Pistons are listing him as probable, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he sat out Friday in New York. Theo Ratliff is expected to be activated. If Sheed plays, then probably Walter Herrmann would sit.

Also from McCosky; the Pistons are tinkering with their bench to gear up for the playoffs.

the bench rotation is under reconstruction. The Pistons have 21 games to work in three veterans — Lindsey Hunter, Juan Dixon and Theo Ratliff. To do that, three other players have to be phased out of the rotation, at least somewhat.

When the season started the Pistons we’re going to win it all because the bench was young and energetic. Well, as we’ve seen the youth and athleticism is not picking up the slack for inexperience in some of these big games. The rookies have struggled and the non-rookies (Maxy and Jarvis) are slumping at a very inconvenient time. It’s a little late for experimentation so hopefully guys just go for what they know and play within themselves to help once again solidify the group.

I’m starting to notice those out there second guessing their Detroit picks from the preseason in favor of Boston or Cleveland who are playing really well going into the home stretch. This gives the Stonz a chance to get back into that lab that’s located under the radar and like McCosky said get the chip back onto their shoulders.

ALSO SEE:

• Ambushing Afflalo (great for some levity)
• TrueHoop interviews Terry Porter

[box score] The Pistons came into New York’s Madison Square Garden on the last leg of a four games in five nights road trip and it showed as the New York Knickerbockers Kickourbutters handed the Pistons the worst loss of the season.

Sure it’s an 82 game season and there’s bound to be let downs, but like this? It was ugly, Patrick Ewing ugly to be exact. The game had a sort of role reversal aspect to it but it wasn’t fun or kinky for the Pistons. Remember the last meetings of these two teams when Flip Murray was said it looked as if the Knicks didn’t want to compete…?

Even with all the schedule adversity the mighty Pistons have been handed this month we’re still talking about the 9 wins Knicks. The team that is more often described as a circus than a professional basketball team.

Maybe it was just New Yorks night with the Giants upsetting the Cowboys and all. Walter “Big Hands” Herrmann isn’t secretly seeing Jessica Simpson is he?

I love Isiah Thomas, he’s my boyhood idol. I want him to succeed and be able to cast away his unemployment harbingers. But not at the expense of my beloved Pistons. Can you imagine the crap we’re gonna take from the Celtics’ fans over this? Especially after they beat these Knicks like, well, the Knicks beat us. Expect the obnoxiousness to be bumped up exponentially.

As a side note I hope the Knicks faithful didn’t fail to realize that this feel good team win came without the distraction of Stephon Marbury in the lineup. Just thought I’d add that.

The writing was on the wall from the start. The Pistons were not hitting shots and the Knicks were doing work down low going of the top of the Pistons D to Zack Randolph (25 pts, 8 rbs) and Eddy Curry exposing Detroit’s lack of big bodies.

The second quarter saw the Knicks playing a zone defense that bothered the Pistons offense that just kept on jacking up jumpers. Detroit shot 4/16 for the quarter while New York made 10 of the 19 field goals they attempted. When the game was at the half way point Detroit was shooting a dismal 32% from the floor, where New York was 48%. We were getting worked in the paint to the tune of 28 points (they finished with 40) to our mere 8. New York had 8 fast break points, we had 0. Their bench led by Nate Robinson (13 pts) and Renaldo Balkman (7 pts) was energized outscoring ours 18-2. Noticing a theme here?

Then came the third quarter. Possibly the worst Pistons’ quarter I’ve ever witnessed. The Pistons shot 4 for freaking 23! I’ve never seen so many missed jumpers. Doesn’t Flip Saunders have any pick and rolls in his famed complex playbook? This while Jamal Crawford scored all 15 of his points for the Knicks. The Knicks ended up outscoring the Pistons by 28-10 (lowest scoring Pistons 3rd quarter in history) in the quarter and their lead got up to 29 points.

I’ve always made the analogy with football whereas you set up the pass with the run the same way you sent up the perimeter game with your inside game. Once you establish the paint you can spread the oppositions defense for the long ball. That’s exactly what happened when Jamal Crawford was nailing those threes in the third after the Knicks had worked the Pistons over in the paint for a half. The Pistons never went inside, and when your shots just aren’t falling there’s nothing to fall back onto.

At this point the only thing that would have saved the Pistons would have been a couple circa 1984 Isiah Thomas Vs. the Knicks 16 points in 94 seconds performances.

The fourth was garbage time. If you’re one of the Pistons fans yearning to see more Amir Johnson you got your wish in the fourth quarter. Amir (8 pts) ended up being the hero of the game. He kept the Pistons from lowest point total futility when he converted the free throw on an and-1 dunk with 13.4 seconds to play. Now at 65 points (to a team that allows 102 ppg no less) this game is only the second lowest scoring output by a Pistons team. YESSS! The low of 64 was done twice if you were wondering. Once in 2005 (that actually came in a win), and in 1999.

The Pistons shot a season low 30.7% for the game, Which included 2/15 from beyond the arc. Only 9 assists in this one which makes sense because the shots have to fall for the assists to count. Tayshaun Prince and Jarvis Hayes were especially odious with a couple of 0′fer performances, 0/10 and 0/5 respectably. Rip Hamilton went 1/7 scoring a season low 3 points.

“We got our ass kicked - Flip Saunders”

[box score] The Knicks, losers of 7 straight coming in, badly needed something positive but the Pistons weren’t as charitable on the court as they are off.

The Pistons came out like it seems like the do every game, and that is playing great. It was Chauncey time from the outset. In the first quarter Mr. Big Shot assisted on 10 Pistons’ buckets, that’s one shy of a Pistons record for assists in a quarter held by Isiah Thomas ( Isiah did it twice, ‘85 & ‘89). The Pistons finished the first up by 13.

Flip Saunders played bench dominated lineups in the second quarter. The lineups as a unit weren’t in-sync enough to hold the lead the starters built up and the Knicks were able to make a run. It’s good to see Flip go to the bench but it would seem to make more sense if he hadn’t been so wholesale with it. I’d like to see 2-3 second unit guys guys with starters as opposed to 4-5.

Even though the Knicks made the run that they did in the second you never really got the sense that the game was ever in jeopardy for Detroit. The Knicks just looked like they weren’t a a team on the court, more like 5 guys thrown together for a pick up game.

Antonio McDyess made his return after missing three straight games with a strained shoulder. Antonio was wearing a protective sleeve for his shoulder but you’d think it was a shooting sleeve because he was unstoppable on his patent pick-n-pop shot. Dice finished with 20 points on 9/14 shooting.

It was nice to see the warm welcome Isiah Thomas got. He’s got it pretty rough with all the scrutiny in the Big Apple. We stil love ya here Zeke.

I’m thankful that as bad as it is these days for Michigan and our economy we still can escape for a couple hours on game nights and be treated to an exciting, quality basketball team in our Detroit Pistons.

GAME NOTES:

• Chauncey OWNED the night 25 pts(7/13 fgs, 3/6 threes, 8/9 ft), 15 asts, 4 rbs, 3 stls, 1 blk, and ZERO turn overs
• Rip continues to struggle, 5/11 shooting, 6 turnovers (the team had 9 total turn overs)
• The Pistons held Randolph & Curry in check, they combined for 39 points & 10 boards
• Pistons could have shot better from the charity stripe, 69.6%
• The Pistons are perfect so far at home (3-0), while the Knicks haven’t yet won a road game
• Rasheed sat out the second half with a sore knee

QUOTES:

Rasheed on the knee:

“Normal basketball stuff, banged knees,” said Wallace, who scored eight before sitting. “That’s all it is. Ain’t nothing major.”

Flip Murray’s take on the Knicks efforts:

“They looked like they didn’t want to compete. They were just out there. All you had to do was look at their body language. I don’t know what’s going on over there, but they’ve got a lot of issues.”

MORE RECAPS:

• Detroit Free Press: THE GIVER: Billups, in addition to his 25 points, dished out 15 assists in the win
• NY Daily News: Knicks suffer eighth straight loss
  

From mLive:

McDyess said he plans to play on Wednesday when the Pistons host the New York Knicks.

“I could have probably played (tonight),” McDyess said. ‘But it’s a long season; don’t want to come back too soon, especially this early in the season.”


Of course this is good news. We’ll need all the big bodies we can get to do battle with NY’s front tandem of Randolph and Curry, not to mention David Lee, the Knicks’ version of Jason Maxiell. Let’s just hopes Flip plans to still ration minutes to Amir Johnson and possibly Cheikh Samb.