PistonsBlog

The Pistons used a strong second half to decimate the Cavs last night and in the process, they held superstar Lebron James to a modest fifteen points.   It was just a five point game at the half but the Pistons held the Cavs under 17 points in both the third and fourth quarters to finish with an impressive 109-74 win.

An impressive ten Pistons scored at least seven points with Richard Hamilton leading the way.  He scored eighteen and he had a team high six assists while Jason Maxiell pulled down a team high ten rebounds.  The Pistons really got it done on the glass with an impressive 43-23 rebounding difference.  The thirty assists also shows you that the Pistons were really moving the ball around well.

It was the Pistons third win in four games and they’ll try to do it again on Saturday at Milwaukee.  The Bucks are only 7-6 but they’re 6-1 at home so expect a good game.

The Pistons defeated the 2-9 New York Knicks 98-86 in a game that featured 2 teams/organizations that are clearly going in different directions. In the past few days the Knicks have been under a cloud of controversey and their play showed it. They have lost 8 games in a row and it looks like Isiah Thomas job might be on the chopping block.

Chauncey Billips led the Pistons in scoring with 25 points and 15 assists. Antonio McDyess scored a season high 15 points after missing 3 straight games. The Pistons closed out the 1st quarter on a 15-4 run. In the second quarter, the Pistons scored the last eight points and led 55-45 going into halftime and they never looked back. Despite playing the second half without Rasheed Wallace, the Pistons dominated the Knicks and finished the game strong.

 On another note it was nice to see the Palace Crowd give Isiah Thomas a warm welcome. While Isiah has had his differences with the organization through the years, there is no doubt that he is one of the best players ever to wear the Pistons Jersey and it’s nice to see the fan’s put the past aside and show their appreciation.

The next game that the Pistons play is against the 3-7 Philadelphia 76ers Friday night at 8:00 PM.

The Pistons sit a pedestrian 6-4 and while that’s good enough to lead the Central Division by just a game, it would be good for just third place in a lot of the other divisions (fourth place in the Southwest).  Do Pistons fans have a reason to fret that, while they’ll probably make the playoffs, it may be an early exit?  A closer look at the standings provides Pistons fans with some optimism.

The first thing is, they’ve played just two of their first ten games at home.  On the road, they’re an admirable 4-4 and that includes a week long plus west coast swing in which they lost their last two games.  The other encouraging thing is, they’re 3-1 in the conference so they’ve gotten it done against the teams they’ll be facing early in the post season.  Regardless, it’s best to hold judgement on the Pistons until the month is over.  If they’re still just a game or two over .500, it might be reason to worry but I expect them to go on a nice run

Whether it was fatigue or the missed games by Chauncey Billips, the Pistons ended their west coast trip with a loss to an inferior opponent.  The Pistons outscored the Kings by nine points in the first quarter but they were outscored in each of the three other quarters as they took the loss.  Billups made his return but he scored just 14 on a five for fourteen night.

Tayshaun Prince led the way with nineteen points and he shot an impressive eight for twelve.  Rasheed Wallace had a nice night with seventeen points and a team high twelve rebounds while Chauncey pitched in with nine assists. Rip Hamilton (16) and Jarvis Hayes (10) also scored in double figures for the Pistons.

Free throw shooting was the difference in the game.  The Pistons shot a pretty poor 19 for 33 while the Kings shot 30 for 38.  That’s an eleven point difference in a ten point game.

In an interesting column by Marc Stein, he examines the top trios in the NBA.  Coming in at number one are the Spurs with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.  The Suns come in second with the Celtics, Mavericks and Nuggets rounding out the top five.

The Pistons just missed the top five but the big question is, which of the four stars do you consider as part of the top five.  Regardless, a team has five guys on the court and the Pistons with their depth still can’t be discounted and the fact that they’d still come in sixth is impressive with their team oriented philosophy.

The Pistons couldn’t handle the Lakers last night and with the 103-91 loss, the Pistons are now all even at 2-2 on their west coast swing.  Lamar Odem picked up for a poor shooting Kobe Bryant and he pushed the Pistons around for 25 points and fifteen rebounds.  Nine of those fifteen rebounds came on the offensive glass.

The Pistons actually took a lead into the fourth quarter but the Lakers scored 41 points in the fourth to cost the Pistons the win.  Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince led the way with sixteen points a piece while Flip Murray, Rasheed Wallace and Jarvis Hayes all scored in double figures.  Prince led with nine rebounds while Amir Johnson had four steals.

The Pistons wrap up their west coast trip tomorrow against the Kings.  Game time is nine o’clock.

The Pistons west coast swing continued and on Tuesday, they ran into a roadblock in the Trailblazers.  Portland came back from a five point first quarter deficit and turned in a nice fourth quarter to pick up the win against the Pistons.  A .440 field goal percentage usually won’t cut it and that’s what the Pistons shot.  In the meantime, the Blazers shot .548 from the field.

Tayshaun Prince led the way with 20 points and he pitched in with six rebounds.  Rip Hamilton had a particularly tough game and he was five for 20 from the field.  Chauncey Billups picked up nineteen points and he had a team high nine assists while Rip led with seven rebounds.

The downer was the both Billups and Antonio McDyess suffered injuries.  McDyess dinged up his shoulder while Billups hurt his knee.

The Pistons got back on track yesterday with a ten point win over Golden State.  They needed to come back from 22 down though (and without two starters to boot) and three different players pitched in with 22 points.  Rasheed was the team MVP though and he had 22 points and nine rebounds.  Jason Maxiel got the start and he had a team high fourteen rebounds while Flip Murray led with twelve assists.  Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton were the other two starters to score 22. 

The Pistons are now on the back leg of their trip and they’ll play the Lakers tomorrow and then finish up the trip at Sacramento on Sunday.  If they can split those two games and come home 3-2 on the west coast trip, I could live with that.

Chris McCoskey recently penned an interesting blog column on how we shouldn’t be too worried about the amount of playing time the Pistons starters are getting so far this year.  It’s funny because I haven’t even thought about it but I can see how people would be paranoid.  McCoskey brings up some nice points though and even the fact that Rip is averaging over 40 minutes has to be taken into context because he didn’t play in the first two games.

The Pistons beat the Seattle Supersonics 107-103 handing the winless Sonics their 7th loss and worst start in team history.

The game was not as close as the score indicates. For the majority of the game, the Pistons had a sizeable lead. At one point in the game, they lead by as many as 23 points. The Sonics fought back in the 4th quarter and tied the game before the Pistons went on an 8-2 run to seal the victory.

Next up for the Pistons are the 3-3 Portland Trailblazers on Tuesday night at 10:00 PM.

Amir Johnson seems to have had a rough stretch of bad luck.  A. Sherrod Blakely runs down some of the problems he’s had, the latest of which was that he missed the plane out to Seattle for tonight’s game.  The Pistons will play five games in eight days out west but they do get a break with a two day layoff before playing a mediocre New York Knicks team when they get back.

The Pistons came back strong after the loss to Chicago with a 103-79 win over the undefeated Clippers. Chauncey Billips led the team in scoring with 23 points. Billups was 8-14 from the field, and 6 of 8 from the 3 point line. Nazi Mohammad led the team in scoring off the bench with 15 points and 7 boards.

This was a big win for the Pistons because they begin a 5 game road trip out west and this will add some much needed cushion in the W column. For the trip out west the Pistons face Seattle, Portland, Golden State, L.A. Lakers, and Sacramento.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about the Pistons/Bulls matchup and he seemed confident of a Pistons victory because the Bulls hadn’t even won a game yet.  I assured him the Bulls were better then their record and that turned out to be a fact because the winless Bulls handed the Pistons their first loss of the season.  The Bulls outscored the Pistons by six in the first quarter and never really looked back after that. 

Rasheed Wallace had a career night with 36 points, the most he’s scored since joining the Pistons.  Wallace was 12 for 24 from the field and 9 for 11 from the line and he also had a team high nine boards.  Richard Hamilton had 18 points and six assists while Chauncey Billups was the only other Piston in double figures with fourteen points.

The Pistons play the undefeated Clippers at home tonight before they head on their first big West Coast swing.  Game time is 8 pm.

With the Pacers losing last night, the Pistons are now the lone remaining undefeated team in the Central Division.  The only other team in the conference that hasn’t lost are the Celtics and in the Western Confernce, the L.A. Clippers stand as the lone undefeated team.

The undefeated record is on the line tonight when the Pistons take on the Bulls at Chicago.   The Bulls are 0-4 so they’re hungry and I expect a good game tonight.

The Pistons edged the Hawks last night 92-91 with a big fourth quarter and while Richard Hamilton didn’t lead the team in scoring, he was right behind Chauncey Billups in his season debut.  After missing the first two games to be with his family due to the birth of his son, Hamilton returned and shot an impressive 10 for 15 with 21 points, five assists and four rebounds.  Billups had a team high 22 points to go along with his five assists and four steals.

Probably the most impressive performance though came from Jason Maxiell.  The youngster scored 15 points on seven for eleven shooting including a very nice dunk early in the game.  He also pitched in with eight rebounds (Rasheed Wallace led the team with nine) and he had a team high four blocked shots.

Next up is a tough game against the Bulls in Chicago on Thursday.  Hopefully the Pistons put the three days off to good use and they’re fresh for this one after playing three games in four days.

Thanks to Chris McCosky (yes Chris, I’m giving credit where credit is due), Rip Hamilton’s abscence has been explained.  He’s now a proud father and he missed the Pistons’ first two games to be with his newborn baby boy.  Congratulations to Rip.

Six different Pistons scored in double figures as the team improved to 2-0 on the season.  The final was 116-92 with the big Pistons’ quarters being the second and fourth where they outscored the Magic by eleven points in each.  Flip Murray led the way with nineteen points off the bench with Chauncey Billips (18) and Tayshaun Prince (17) right behind them.  Jarvis Hayes was impressive off the bench as well with eleven points.  He finished three for five from behind the arch.

Antonio McDyess and Rasheed Wallace had a team high seven rebounds while Chauncey led with seven assists.  Rip Hamilton once again sat this one out.

Next up are the Hawks on Sunday and it’s the Pistons home opener.  The Hawks won their first game but hopefully the Pistons can make it three straight to open up the season.

Well, the Pistons went to work and they came away with a win in their season opener on the road against the Heat.  Tayshaun Prince was the star of the game and he picked up a career high 34 points to go along with his twelve rebounds.  Prince was a perfect seven for seven from the line and 4 of those 12 rebounds came on the offensive glass.

Rip Hamilton didn’t play because of his ankle injury but his backcourt partner, Chauncey Billips, scored nineteen and had eleven assists.  Jarvis Hayes was the top man off the bench with ten points and five rebounds and while he was just three of nine from the field, he was two of five from behind the arch. 

The Pistons play the Magic later tonight and it sure would be nice if they could make it 2-0.

Injury guru Will Carroll and Brad Wochomurka recently penned a column on the health of the Eastern Conference teams.  You’ve got a couple of ankle injuries in Rip Hamilton and Amir Johnson and then the foot and ankle problems that Rasheed Wallace has been playing through. 

Keith Langlois, as always in an excellent column, summaries the Pistons three biggest stories of the preseason.  Topping the list of course was the Rodney Stuckey injury but also of importance was how some of the players came to camp in much better shape and the final item was the potential emergence of Jarvis Hayes as a deep shooting threat.

Game time is tonight.  I’m getting excited.