The Pacers (3-0) visit the Pistons (0-3) at 6pm ET. The Pistons have yet to lose on a Saturday this year and I don't see that changing tonight. Look for Detroit to win its first game of the season today and watch the 3,194 fans rejoice in the victory. Am I wrong? Vote now.
I voted on this before I read the thread so I didn't know Tweets was back! Not that it really changes anything, just sayin...
BillLaimbeer..........I'm surprised you're trusted with our football picks after this choice that you made. Pistons cannot win against Indiana, as they see us as nothing more than bird droppings in the park.... Indiana by 9............
Unfortunately, I may miss this game. I'm having dinner at a friend's house and helping them fix their dishwasher. However, I would like to welcome back, in the Piston 31, the big man who can run and gun, Charlie Villanueva - a much needed offensive asset for the Detroit Pistons.
Apparently Indiana leads the league in rebounding. Kelsey's silver lining is: "yeah, that frontcourt outrebounded the Pistons badly, but they also did it to Cleveland and other teams." Sheesh.
Pierce returns, to the line-up last night> Celtics win. Bynum returns to the line up today> Lakers win. Villanueva returns to the line up tonight, Pistons ???
First win of the year. A start of something? Decent assists and low turnovers? Players fairly efficient. Big games from Monroe and Jerebko.
Good to celebrate some for a change. Indiana looked tired. But two of the future big three (JJ, Monroe and Knight) produced. And "role" players Gordon, Stuckey and Tay were positive. Even Maxiel got a little ups in this game. JJ and Monroe present problems for opposing teams due to their speed/quickness as I mentioned in previous posts. And that was on display today. If JJ still doesn't have post moves, he has that jumper and can cut to the hoop with quickness that opposing big men have trouble with. This is why they couldn't shut him down in his rookie year after they scouted him out--he is quick for a big and is hard to stay with. Monroe showed he can also score going right and that he is developing some complexity to his post game. With these two guys and with Knight, the Pistons actually have something for the future. Right now you have a rookie and two second year guys...I would rather see this than TMAC and Rip and Wilcox and no future. The Piston offense is showing promise as they move the ball. They have some shooting at the perimeter, Stuckey can drive some and they have those two active bigs. It's a start.
Jonas wins the game with a key steal down the stretch. Great game. We almost blew away an 18 pt lead, but we held on to win the game. Outrebounded Indiana 49-36 which was key. CV gets a DNPCD for his first game back from suspension. This Frank dude may be smart after all.
Great to see a win. But don't get too excited by our very productive front line today of Monroe and JJ. (both very impressive 20/10's or close enough). Despite all they did, this game was actually even within a bucket while one or the other or both were on the floor. We actually started taking control of the game with both of them off the floor at the end of the 1st quarter and the beginning of the 2nd quarter. Very often, we would indeed see offensive success from these two, while on the defensive end they just give it back. Still, it is indeed good news to see Monroe get so many points from posting around the basket. And its great to see JJ scoring in a variety of ways including whats looking to be dependable outside shot from long long range in. Coach just has to find a way for them to be successful on the defensive end - which I believe is real simple - just use JJ as a small forward. For whatever odd reason, Damien Wilkins got to play extensive minutes in the 4th quarter. It did not quite lose us the game after we were up by 20, but it was too close. We had been plus 8 with Daye in instead in the first half. Why the change? This was the 3rd game in 4 nights, something I guess we will be getting use to. I have not looked at the schedule but I know the games come fast. JJ got the play of the game by simply intercepting a pass that could have cut our lead to 4 with still a couple minutes to play. Instead, we score, go up 8 and hang on. (Tap in by Monroe on 2nd try.) Back to why Wilkens was playing? Tay was moved to power forward. Dreaded, so much dreaded small ball. Coach seemed to be doing his best to lose the game. But he put JJ back in before we lost all our lead. But of course, that is still playing too small having JJ at power forward. Lucky we won this one. At least we are not seeing silly stuff like Rip Hamilton playing at small forward in attempt to get minutes for all our guards. And Bynum so far has not been part of the rotation so we are at least not totally miniature out there. Better yet, CV did not play tonight. Still something to dread for next game. Gordon had a decent game, helping his team mates score several times while still shooting well himself. We can always still hope our new coach can get thru to him and get him to play like this consistently. Tay's efforts sure look a lot better in a win or when we are ahead. In contrast to last game, coach called an immediate time out when an Indiana player waltzed down the lane for an easy unopposed bucket. Good, at least he is paying attention. I still say that is just going to continue to happen as long as you keep playing a too soft set of bigs for the starters. Ben nor JMAX played a lot, but together it was a big enough chunk of minutes to put at least some toughness in our front line. The two guys who did not play, Macklin, a center, Bynum, a point guard.
