PistonsNationBlog.com - Detroit Pistons News & Views

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 …

The Pistons (23-51, 16-22 home) will be playing host to the Phoenix Suns (49-26) Tip off is 8:00 pm est from the Palace of Auburn Hills and will be televised locally on FS Detroit.  Listen live on 97.1 fm.

Suns’ Snapshot
Road record: 20-17
Vs. East: 18-10
Last game: 3/31 (Thurs) W 116-105 @ Nets
Last 10: 9-1
Streak: Won 9
Vs. Pistons: Nov. 22nd – Pistons (91) @ SUNS (117)
Injuries: Robin Lopez (back: out indefinitely)

The Palace will play host to the NBA’s current longest winning streak and longest losing streak tonight when the Suns take on the Pistons.   The Pistons have lost 9 straight, the Suns have been on the winning end of their last 9 games.

High powered offenses are just murder on the Pistons. Detroit doesn’t have the scoring punch to go up and down the court with Phoenix and they don’t have the defensive chops to slow Phoenix down. Another factor that has me wincing is that Phoenix, having a chance to improve their playoff seeding,  has not been showing their lesser opponents any mercy.

The debacle that is this season has a new wrinkle to it. It seems that Charlie Villanueva’s lack of consistency on both ends of the court -more so defense- has finally landed him in John Kuester’s dog house. Vill got a DNP-CD against the Heat that Charlie says caught him by surprise.  It’s a bitter pill for Pistons’ fans to swallow seeing a $35 million free agent acquisition out of the rotation.  Makes you wonder how far behind Villanueva will Ben Gordon and his $55 million contract be.

The silver lining is that two not as well paid rookies, DaJuan Summers and Austin Daye have seen increases in minutes and have shown some real promise.

Injury updates:

Rip Hamilton (ankle) and Jason Maxiell (back) are questionable tonight. Ben Wallace is still listed as day-to-day after making a surprise appearance against the Heat on Tuesday.

Foul Shots:

Click to enlarge

ALSO OF NOTE: The Suns are an 8 1/2 point favorite … Grant Hill & J-Rich liking the MI weather …  Alvin Gentry was the WC Coach of the Month for March, Suns went 12-2 … Steve Nash is the NBA’s top assister (11.1), plus he scores just under 17 a game … Ben Wallace lost $1 million on the sale of his Chicago area home … Suns are a league best 18-4 since the all-star break … Valley of the Suns preview … Happy bday to former Pistons Larry Drew (1981-82) and Isaiah Morris (1992-93) … The Pistons have lost by an average of 14.1 points during their 9 game skid … The Suns won the last 3 meetings w/ Pistons by an average of 18 pts … Suns are first in the league in scoring at 110.5, and second in FG% .491 …

[Box score] No fourth quarter rally in this one.  The Pistons were not really in this game at any point after the first few buckets.  And so ends the 4 game Western road trip.  The Pistons are now on an overall five game losing skid.

You could say the Pistons were “road weary” after playing four games in six nights but I think it was more about them being as good of a team as the Suns ( or Lakers, or Blazers, or Jazz).  It’s not that they don’t have a good team, it’s that they’re not been through enough battles together to be a good team.

Steve Nash (20 pts, 9 asts) and Amare Stoudemire (21 pts) were working too well together.  Add that to the efforts of Jason Richardson (17 pts) and a team shooting and 57.5% (w/ 25 team assists)  and the Pistons would have to have had their A+ honor roll game to even hang, which they did not.

There can be a lot of positives to take from such a disappointing road trip.  The Pistons gave some very good teams some very good runs, but at the end of 48 they just didn’t have “it“, that thing the recently past era Pistons had that enabled them to gut out the close games.  That’s something that is going to take time.

On another positive note the Pistons do play their next 9 games at the Palace.

When it comes to the funny no one in the L can touch Steve Nash.  He’s en fuego (we’re still saying en fuego right?)

facebook.com/vitaminwater

Nash might have owned the night as far as assisting goes, but this is still one pretty bounce pass from AI to Rip

“I think Grant going for it added more to the play,” Iverson said. “It would not have seemed as spectacular if he hadn’t tried to kick it. But that’s a play I’ve practiced since I was a kid when I saw Magic Johnson do it.” -DetNews

SUNS (107) @ Pistons (97) / {boxscore}

After a overtime peak the night before the Pistons roller coaster took another Sunday plunge last night against the Suns.

The Pistons can look to both sides of the ball to get an understanding as to why they lost yet another home game.  The ball movement was poor, 19 assists on 85 shots.  Especially the 4th quarter when there was too much one-on-one play by the Pistons often resulting in turnovers.

The defense fared no better.  The Suns shot 49%.  Sixty-six of their points came in the paint and another 31 via fast breaks.  The Suns continually caught the Pistons with their transition pants down.

“Phoenix is a running team,” said Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey, who scored eight points. “Sometimes we run, too, as well. They just got out and just ran, ran us to the ground. I think a couple of our guys are fatigued as well from the other night, playing a lot of minutes. I guess that’s no excuse, though.” -Freep

Steve Nash (15 pts) carved the Pistons up like a surgeon.  Nash’s had 21 assists, yep, more than the whole Pistons team combined.  Twenty-one assists is one off from tying a career high for the Canadian dime dropper.  Steve Nash being an assist off tying a career high is sort of like Christian Bale being one f-bomb short of a personal high in a tirade directed towards you.  It’s pretty significant.

Nash is the first Pistons opponent to record 20 or more assists since Norm Nixon of the then San Diego Clippers got 20 in 1985.  It’s actually the most assists at the Palace by any player.

Thanks to Nash’s handy work all the Suns starters, plus Leandro Barbosa all scored in double figures.  Maybe that’s why, despite Nash recently turning 35, is coveted so highly that the Suns list him as the only untouchable Sun with the trade deadline looming.

Allen Iverson (25 pts on 8/22 shooting) and Rip Hamilton (27 pts on 11/19) combined for 52 in the losing effort.  Rasheed Wallace added a 16 points, 10 board double-double but cooled off from the previous nights hot 3pt shooting going 2/6.

No love lost between the Pistons and Bill Cartwright – Phoenix assistant Alvin Gentry told Bill Cartwright he was the only one on the staff without a connection to Michigan. “I have a connection,” Gentry recalled Cartwright saying. “I’ve hated them since I played for the Bulls.” – espn

ALSO OF NOTE: Stoudemire tells TV WXYZ that playing for the Pistons would be “phenomenal” … The Suns swept the series against Detroit for the first time since the 1999-2000 season, when Porter played for them and Curry and Grant Hill were Piston players … This was Grant Hill’s first win at the Palace since leaving the Pistons …

The Pistons (27-21, 14-11 home) will be playing host to the Phoenix Suns (27-21) Tip off is 8:00 pm est from the Palace of Auburn Hills and will be televised nationally on 

Suns’ Snapshot
Road record: 13-11
Vs. East: 11-8
Last game: 2/06 (Fri) W 105-115 Vs. Warriors
Last 10: 4-6
Streak: Won 1
Vs. Pistons: Nov. 16th – Pistons (86) @ SUNS (104)

In some ways the Pistons will be facing their Western Conference Doppelgänger.  Both teams are coming into this game with identical 27-21 records.  The Suns are 12.5 game back of the Pacific leading Lakers, while the Pistons are 12 games behind the Cavs in the Central. Both teams are being lead by head coaches who were assistants to Flip Saunders last season.  The Pistons made the big move to acquire Iverson, Phoenix landed a big time scorer in Jason Richardson themselves via trade. Like the Pistons the Suns are looking for a little consistency from their ultra talented roster.  They’ve won no more than three consecutive games, but lost no more than four in a row. Coming up on the February 19th trade deadline both teams have been the subject in big-name trade rumors with their paths intersecting.  Both Phoenix and Detroit GM’s have to make the decision on whether to stand pat until 2010 or make moves to chase Boston and L.A. in their respective conferences.

ALSO OF NOTE: The Suns have lost 4 of the last 5 at the Palace … Friday Shaquille O’Neal also became the 7th NBA player to pass the 27,000-point mark … The Nov 16th meeting between the two teams is one of the Pistons 8 Sunday losses in 9 tries … Bright Side of the Sun preview … Grant Hill has never won at the Palace (0-5) after departing in ‘00 …