The Pistons (10-5) will be hosting the Portland Trail Blazers (11-6) tip off from the Palace will be at 3:00 pm est and can be viewed locally on Fox Sports Detroit.

Trail Blazers’ Snapshot
Road record: 4-6
Vs. East: 4-0
Last game: 11/28 (Fri) W 86-101 Vs. Hornets
Last 10: 7-3
Streak: 3 wins

This afternoon will mark the first meeting of the season between our Pistons and the Portland Trail Blazers.  We’ll get our first look at center Greg Oden (7.8 ppg, 7.2 rbs), plus rookie and YouTube sensation Rudy Fernandez.  Not to be forgotten are young studs like Brandon Roy (21.1 ppg) and LaMarcus Aldridge.

At 11-6 the Blazers are off to their best start since 2000-01 when a certain someone who’s jersey number has been retired there just not for him led them.

Portland is coming off a big game with the New Orleans Hornets in which they had to show their poise and toughness in order to remain unbeaten at home.

This game will be the first game of a 5 games Eastern Conference trip for Portland.

The Pistons will be looking to pick up their first Sunday win in November going 0-3 in their previous attempts.

ALSO OF NOTE: Portland is tied with Denver for the Northwest Division lead … Blazers Edge preview … Blazers discussing trade for Conley sort of … The Trail Blazers are the leagues second youngest team behind the Warriors … The Pistons swept the season series last year … Bust A Bucket preview …

Rasheed hasn’t played for the Portland Trail Blazers since 2004 when they dealt him to Atlanta, but by the way he goes at their ball club each time the Pistons visit the Rose City you’d think they threw him out of town the week before.

He played great for them on great teams but had some very public missteps while a member of the Blazers, and has seemed to had a chip on his shoulder towards his time in Portland ever since.  If the Blazers had any notions of letting bygones be bygones with Sheezy, well, this won’t help:

The Blazers are retiring jersey No. 30, in honor of Terry Porter and Bobby Gross . Rasheed Wallace , who ranks in the top 10 in Blazers history in 14 categories, also wore No. 30.- Det News

[box score] After the first quarter Chauncey Billups was on pace for a 68 point performance after scoring a Piston’s season high 17.  Fortunately for Mr. Big Shot the 17 points were plenty enough production from their all-star point guard, the “Zoo Crew” took care of the rest combining for 40 points.

The final score read the Pistons winning by 9 but that was merely a push by Portland at the end to make the final score more cosmetic for them.  The Pistons led by 20 + points for most of the night with the lead getting up to as many as 27 at one point in the second half.

No Pistons starter played over 28 minutes, while five guys off the Piston’s bench playing at least 20 minutes.   Most games the Pistons look to see how the bench plays when subbing for the starting unit, but in this game the coaching staff got to see how well the bench can mesh with each other.  The chemistry was very exciting to the Pistons and their fans alike with plays like the Stuckey to Amir ally-oop .

Amir Johnson scored a season high 10 points to go along with 3 blocks and 6 rebounds.  Rodney Stuckey  recorded a new career high 13 points along with 3 rebounds and 4 assists.

GAME NOTES:  The Pistons have now won 7 straight, the longest current streak in the NBA…The Pistons had 26 team assists, they’re now 18-0 when having 25 or more assists…The Pistons take on the Bobcats at the Palace on Sunday.

The Pistons (35-13) will be hosting the Portland Trail Blazers (28-20) tip off from the Palace will be at 8:00 pm est and can be viewed locally on FSN Detroit.

Trail Blazers’ Snapshot
Road record: 8-14
Vs. East: 12-10
Last game: 02/06 (Weds) W 97-100 Vs. Bulls
Last 10: 5-5
Last meeting: Nov 13th Pistons (94) @ Blazers (102)

It was pretty disheartening when the Pistons lost to the young Blazers back in November. After all, they were without their future franchise big man Greg Oden who was sidelined for the season after knee surgery in the preseason. What we came to find out as the season progressed is that losing to the Trail Blazers wasn’t as contemptible upon further review. Portland won 13/15 in December including a league high 13 straight games. That’s because the Blazers are chuck full of good young players. Second year man Brandon Roy was rewarded for his efforts this season by being named as a reserve to the Western All-Star teams by the coaches. You’ve also got a Rasheed Wallace in the makings with the versatile big LeMarcus Aldridge who’s averaging 17 and 7.5 this season. Add that to the talents of Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster, Steve Blake, and Jarrett Jack. Still, Rasheed is not impressed:

“they haven’t done anything. They went on a little win streak, but when they have a better record than when I was there, that’s when they’ll have done something.” (Via: Detroit Free Press)

GAME NOTES:

• Brandon Roy is questionable tonight dealing with a family emergency in his hometown Seattle
• See Blazers Edge for a Portland P-O-V

[box score] It was a back and forth game through three quarters but the Blazers pulled away in the fourth with the kind of play you’d have expected from the more veteran Pistons.

You had two streaks going into the game. The Pistons hadn’t lost in Portalnd since aquiring long time Blazer Rasheed Wallace and the Blazers were riding a three game home winning streak. Something had to give, and apparently it had to be the less modern of the two streaks.

The Pistons came out and played pretty well early in the game. Rasheed scored hit three first quarter threes, Chauncey was setting guys up with precision passing and even Arron Afflalo got into the act with some superb defense in the first quarter.

The game remained close through the third quarter. A Flip Murray 3 point prayer kept the game knotted at 74 at the end of three. But, the crunch time quarter was the Pistons undoing. Much like the Seattle game, it seemed like the Pistons tried to stay in the game by firing up threes. Needless to say the majority of those didn’t find the bottom of the bucket and the Blazers capitalized.

A lot of credit should go the Trailblazers way. Despite Greg Oden not in the line up this season they still look as if the have a big 3 to contend with. LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy combined for 42 and Jarret Jack poured in another 20 off the bench.

GAME NOTES:

• INJURY REPORT: Chauncey Billups got a hip pointer on a 3rd quarter drive, he also said he banged up his knee a few plays later. Antonio McDyess reaggravated his shoulder fighting for a rebound in the 4th quarter. He went straight to the bench and was really grimacing as Arnie Kander checked him out. It’s reported that the x-rays taken after the game were negative and he’s questionable for tonight’s game in Golden State.
• For those of us watchingin Detroit the FSN signal was lost early on in the first
• Chauncey surpassed 10K career points in the 2nd quarter
• Flip Murray seems to be determined to counter every good play he makes with and equally bad one
• Jason Maxiell played with a lot of energy in the second quater
• Rasheed Wallace had a huge dunk on Portland’s Joel Przybilla off a nice Chauncey feed
• Chauncey was a assist shy of a double-double with his 19 points
• Rip Hamilton missed 15 of his last 20 shots
• The Blazers honored their 1990 team (that lost to the Pistons in the Finals), which included former Piston Clifford Robinson and current assistant coach Terry Porter. It also included a ginormous Kevin Duckworth

GAME QUOTES:

Flip Saunders thoughts on the game:

“I would like to something we did well,” coach Flip Saunders said. “But there wasn’t anything. Their bench outplayed us, their bigs outplayed us, (Brandon) Roy was great, their guards broke us down off penetration. I mean, they totally outplayed us.”

MORE RECAPS:

• Detroit News: Pistons off the mark