Detroit Pistons vs Houston Rockets Tuesday February 22 7:30 pm Local TV: FS Detroit Plus Nat'l TV: Radio: WWJ 950 AM
Can the Pistons serve up a win on their first night back after the all-star break? Gametime. 20 minutes. Be there! Go Pistons!
Halftime 51 all Pistons led by as many as 11 and had a 43-33 lead with just under seven minutes left in the half, but then settled for jumpers on their next seven shots that were misses and led to scoring ops on the other end. The Rockets went ahead by 2 with less than 10 seconds in the half and the Pistons tied it on a couple of Stuckey FT The coach has be upset as I was to let another lead get away when the team stops doing what got them the lead and settles for jumpers. Prince was 0-6 from the floor (probably after reading that Joe wanted re sign him). Once again the Pistons are being out rebounded and gave up to many points in the second qtr.
Pistons down 78-75 at the end of three. Bench comes in and rescues the Pistons as they fall behind by nine as the only starters getting it done are Stuckey and Monroe who is trying his best Rodman imitation cleaning up the garbage. tay continues to fend off any trade scenarios as his stat line at the end of three is 0-9 shooting, 1 pt, 1 board, and 3 assists Most of the Rockets points are in the paint.
umm what the heck was that lineup at the end of the game? basically a tie score and we go reaaaally small and leave monroe on the bench? and what do you know, the rockets score on every possession and easily close out the game against a non-existent defense. sad.
12 points, 12 rebounds in 27 minutes. Yeah, Monroe deserved to ride the pine. I'm pretty done with "Coach" K. --- There just can't be a rational explanation for that manure rotation.
Rockets 108- Pistons 100 The game or momentum changed when the coach subbed out CV for Stuckey with about 4:50 left in the game. The Pistons led then 94-93. The Pistons went a full three minutes without scoring and the game was pretty much over despite the Pistons getting 3 consolation buckets in the final 90 seconds as the Rockets finished the game on a 15-6 run. I am not blaming this one on Stuckey....blaming it on Kuester as another coaching loss. can't say that leaving CV in would have done anything better, but I would have maybe taken out Wilcox instead and put in Monroe to get that clean up garbage, some boards on both ends and maybe some defense. Stuckey basically did nothing in those last 4 mins that CV could have done....Daye missed at least two open threes during the crunch. The bench was scoring, but they could not stop the Rockets in the end, who got 6 of their crunch time pts at the FT line. In fact no home cooking for the Pistons at all as the Rockets went to the line 28 times compared to our 15. Once again, the Pistons allow a rookie to have an all star game as Patrick Patterson who averages 4 pts a game leads the Rockets in scoring with 20 pts. Disappointing loss for a team hoping to make a move to the final playoff spot and trying to showcase Tay.
Only comment. You have starters for a reason.They should have been in for the end of the game. As it was, it was a totally pathetic show at both ends of the floor for the last several minutes. It actually would be comical to me if I were a Houston fan watching this game. Unfortunately, I root for the Pistons and just have to suffer. Coaching loss? But absolutely a coaching mess up. Absolutely nothing happened that could even conceivably get us points, ever, at the end of this game. 3 pointer missed by Daye - a critical shot indeed - but the last I checked, if you are one point down - you don't need a 3 pointer. Bad, bad, utterly bad coaching. I won't fault the execution of a unit that had no business at all being in the game, but I will fault the coach for putting them out there in that situation.
Worst offensive game ever from Tay. He must have been exhausted from watching the all-star game. Strange happening: 16 personal fouls by the Pistons resulted in 28 free throws for the Rockets. Only 2 non-shooting fouls committed? Yikes. Meanwhile, Houston fouls us 14 times and we get 15 free throws out of it. Another strange thing: Houston only had 1 starter score in double digits, yet they won. That really does not happen very often. This might actually be what intentional tanking looks like.
That was some epic 4th quarter coaching. No one knows how to push all the wrong buttons at all the wrong times like Kuester. Monroe has 12/12 through three, and Kuester thinks it's better to play a bunch of guards instead during the 4th, while we're getting killed on the glass.
Subbing Stuckey for the oft invisible CV wasn't the problem. Never putting Monroe back in was the real issue here as well as staying with Bynum/Gordon way too long, as their guards eventually started to attack them at will.
Bynum and Gordon were hot in the 4th. Had Kuester yanked them and the Pistons lost people would complain about that. Kuester also has to play Stuckey so that is why they went with 3 guards there. Wilcox was also scoring so I guess that is why he was playing. If you want Monroe to play then it is Daye who should have sat to me. Pat Patterson's J looks a lot better then Monroe's does. Why does every team’s offense look better then the Pistons? Guys like Buddinger and Patterson would never get those shots here. Shane Battier and CCG are very similar players although Battier is not known for his hard work in the summer and isn't the bargain that Chaz G is.
Being invisible would be a drastic improvement for CCG. That would mean he wasn't fouling someone every 15 seconds.
Sometimes you got to credit the other team. Tay gets zero success with his one on one moves against Battier. If we had any kind of coach at all, he would have told Tay not even to go there. But then again, what we have for a coach is a guy perfectly comfortable with losing.
