at Toronto Raptors Monday Apr 1 2013 - 7:00 PM EST Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON TV: FS Detroit RADIO: 97.1FM GO PISTONS!
Combo of Calderon, Stuckey, Middleton, Jerebko, and Monroe are playing great down the stretch. Looks like a Piston W.
I was really hoping that Lowry could have hit an 11-pointer at the end and handed us another loss. Somewhere in Secaucus, New Jersey there's a little man sanding the Pistons logo off of about 6 ping pong balls.
Can't say I was pulling for a loss here....I mean we got to squeeze in some W's even if Lawrence Tank's agenda is to lose for positioning. We still hold the 5th position...It just delays us another game of trying to move up to 4th Also wanted Calderon to at least get a win in Toronto as an official going away parting gift. A 17-2 run between the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth got the Pistons going and help them get only their 4th victory of the season when trailing after three (They are now 4-40). The Pistons built a nice 90-81 lead with about 7.5 mins left in the game, but a silly attempted pass from Stuckey to Charlie didn't make it through the lane, and it turned into an 12-2 run by the Raptors and just like that they had a 93-92 lead. Just as it appeared that the Lawrence Tank was in play, the Pistons responded with a 10-0 run of their own and then held on to win by 10 after the Raptors once again trimmed it to five with less than 90 seconds to go. A put back stuff by JJ after a long clanging three sealed it and then Stuckey threw a late minute three to pad his stats and stretch Las Vegas point spread. The Pistons shot over 55% from the floor and their bench outscore the Raptor bench 51-17. 55%, yet they missed their first 10 shots of the third quarter. Big game from Monroe, Jose, JJ, Stuckey and Middleton. Rudy Gay got his and I recall Blaha saying at one point he was 10-11 from the field midway through the third quarter. If the Red Wings can hold on to their lead, maybe one of those rare occassions where 3 Detroit teams all win on the same day since the Tigers won their season opening game earlier today in Twincity
Another tight 4th Q and Drummond never sniffs the court. That's why this was a good win. Do they roofie Frank before the games so he thinks Singler is a good defender? I feel like every time I look up he's covering Rudy Gay or D Wade 1 on 1.
Great writeup. I'll add to it a bit. One, we won because we went away from the nonsense of playing Calderon as a point guard, with no shooting guard along side him. Instead, we extensively used Stuckey at the point, with Calderon as the spot - up shooter. We also used Middleton extensively, a guy who both scored readily for us, and held the guys who tried to score against him to a tiny percentage of success. We simply don't have any scorer on the team near as good as Middleton. Of note, again, some kind of joke coach is playing on us fans, this time it was English who was sat for no reason. Once again, if we had started Calderon, English, Middleton, Drummond, Monroe, this game would have been a slaughter in our favor from the gitgo. You have Stuckey come in as the first sub, sitting Calderon, who later comes in to spell English at shooting guard (while Stuckey continues to run the point - so there is always just one point guard in the game, and one shooting guard. Knight just becomes a spare guard.) Monroe made some outside shots, since he took them unhurried and in his range. JJ is looking better these days. Still not consistent on the long outside shot - and it still leaves us vulnerable underneath when he plays power forward for us. Got to like his hustle though. Singler, about useless in this particular game. (although he occasionally played D well enough on Rudy Gay. But too occasionally.) CV did not hit a three tonight, but he did play near the basket some. Its kind of amazing, having watched his career for so long now, how he had regressed so much on his inside game before making this recent gain there. Still not what he once was though around the basket.
I'm going to ride home from work tonight on my unicycle with a two-way radio strapped to it because my cell phone reception isn't very good right now. Makes sense to me.
Some good, mostly bad. The good is that JJ is showing some signs of effectiveness although his skill set around the basket is still questionable. Middleton looks like he can hit shots and make moves. Not bad for a second rounder. Monroe took it upon himself to be a force. Must look for more of that next year from Monroe. Drummond looked like a 19 year old rookie. That's ok. He will get there. The maybe bad. Stuckey played a nice game. Hit a key outside shot. Why maybe bad? So now, once again, the organization will expect him to play that way more often. History says not likely to occur. The very bad. The Pistons simply cannot afford too many more wins. They could still easily fall from the 5th pick to the 9th pick. They have to win sometimes but let's hope the short and long term interests of the organization prevail. By the end of this month, when the playoffs start, no one will care about this win but Piston fans will be focused on the team's lottery pick. That is what really counts right now. Next year, the winning will come...
They need to look at the tapes with Drummond's in the 2nd unit and try to figure out how to use him the same way. Might take starting Bynum since he's the only player on the team that can feed the beast. As much as we needed this L, I can't really root against us when I'm watching a game. Good win.
Think of Middleton as a lottery pick. He only fell because of injury. He seems quite healthy now, and from what I can see, would have been a legitimate top 5 pick - if he had remained healthy instead of getting injured.
