vs Atlanta Hawks Friday Jan 4 2013 - 7:30 PM EST Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI TV: FS Detroit Plus RADIO: 97.1FM GO PISTONS!
Really looking forward to this game, we've feasted on some scrubs, now let's see if this bench brigade can hold up against these hawks twice.
A rotation, based on our most effective unit from the Tuesday's game: Start: Knight, Daye, Tay, Monroe, Drummond second unit. Stuckey (Bynum if Stuckey still has the ankle injury), English, Middleton, JMAX, Kravtsov As needed, if needed, play CV as an extra outside shooter. But never in any prolonged stretch so the opponent can't easily key on his lack of defense. Also, unlike the last game, CV has to continue to go inside a good percetage of the time like he has been doing up until last game. (His stint was shortened to 11 minutes due to the bogus flagrent call, so maybe CV would have shown us some inside play in the 2nd half.) Other guy dressed: Singler. Can't hurt for him to miss a game now and then. Lets see what Middleton can do. I kind of believe in having a competition for minutes. Not dressed: Maggette, JJ
I like that starting lineup Lee, but the second unit was very capable with 4 scorers+Dre (Bynum, Daye, CV, Singler). So, assuming Slava can do the defend the paint thing, it might make more sense to put in CV instead of Maxiell. Pulls one of the bigs out of the paint when he loiters around the perimeter, creating room for Bynum to drive and score/dish.
I like your lineups better than Larry Tidbits but let the bench start this one. Let's see if they can repeat last game.
This just in, the Pistons were outscored 18-2 in the last seven minutes and still held on to win 85-84. The Pistons tried their best to give the game to Atlanta, the only team to beat them since Christmas, but thanks to last second block by Drummond and the force, Pistons hold on to win. Austin Daye was tonight's hero hitting 9/11 shots for 20 points. Jason Maxiel turned in 2-3 good defensive stops and a timely board to slow down the Hawks 16-0 run that almost sent the Pistons fans out into the galaxy with sad faces. 5 straight wins now and looking for # 6 vs the Bobcats on Sunday...
11 point 4th and we still win. Pachulia played well for Atlanta. He was the only Atlanta player on the plus side of the plus/minus. Austin Daye is getting closer to demanding a max contract next year.
Well, the Pistons sure make things interesting... Andre Drummond is awesome, second unit, first unit, doesn't matter. He's making an impact and his second block of the game is what sealed the win. Greg had a quietly nice game. It's going to go mostly unremarked because of Andre's game-winning block, but he played pretty well. Not the most efficient game, but he was solid. Brandon had a solid game. His stat line isn't going to blow anyone away, but he defended Teague really well, helping disrupt Atlanta's flow offensively. Kyle was mostly invisible and couldn't keep up with Lou Williams - though to expect him to is foolish. Max - solid game. Still think he should be coming off the bench though. Bynum - solid first half, same old Bynum second half. 8 shots in 16 minutes. 3 of his 5 assists were off feeding a hot Daye, and 4 of 5 were in the first half. That tells you where his focus was in the second, and it wasn't pretty. Again, nice little spark plug, but he's like a blown tyre when he's off and playing hero ball. Daye has played really well lately, his confidence is clearly sky high. Tay - nice first Q, then fell off the face of the earth the rest of the way. Stuck and Bynum don't fit together. Team needs to pick one and trade the other. Hope you guys had a fun holiday season.
Fantastic!!! 4 wins in a row. It was ugly but it still counts all the same. I am starting to get excited about the Pistons again.
Well that was a lot harder than it had to be. Stuckey just doesn't fit in. He screwed up the whole dynamic of the 2nd unit. Bynum operates the screen/roll at the top of the circle and has the entire floor spread and sucked in. Rodney hogged the ball in the mid-post on the wing and missed EVERY DAMN SHOT that was ran on his isolations. Huh? OK, I'll give you/him that one. I blame Rodney Stuckey I'll take the guy with the $3.5M expiring contract, please and thank you.
