We've got some preseason games that many of us won't see.

Here's a thread to talk about where your seats were or how neat the box score looks.

Pistons vs. Heat Gameday

by Keith Langlois

Radio: WDFN 1130 AM - The Fan

Last Meeting: Detroit won 94-88 (April 1, 2007)

The skinny: It was a frustrating off-season for Miami Heat president and coach Pat Riley, who watched three solid role players – Eddie Jones, Jason Kapono and James Posey – leave in free agency while adding very little in return. Ex-Pistons castoff Smush Parker was brought in to compete for minutes at point guard and one-time All-Star Penny Hardaway, whose career was derailed by a series of injuries, is coming out of retirement. The Heat team that comes to The Palace will be further depleted by the absence of the two players that still make them a feared commodity – superstars Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal are still rehabbing from injury. Wade, in fact, is expected to miss the first few weeks of the regular season after undergoing surgeries on his shoulder and knee.

What to watch: Flip Saunders’ rotation figures to be a work in progress for much of the season, but the preseason opener might offer the first hints as to which way he’s leaning. Flip Murray’s strong training camp has put him in the mix to be Rip Hamilton’s backup, freeing Rodney Stuckey to concentrate more on learning the nuances of becoming an NBA point guard. Nazr Mohammed, likewise, has increased his chances of earning significant frontcourt minutes despite the mandate to find opportunities for third-year forwards Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson. Johnson is unlikely to play tonight after twisting his left ankle in Friday’s final session of two-a-days. Jarvis Hayes’ training camp has the Pistons feeling even better about their summer free-agent foray.

___________________


105

87

Boo to Amir probably not playing for a couple weeks. I really wanted to see him Friday vs. Utah. Oh well.

Stuckey hoping to make an impact

by A. Sherrod Blakely
Monday October 08, 2007, 12:20 AM

AUBURN HILLS -- No jobs will be won or lost when the Detroit Pistons host the Miami Heat in their preseason opener tonight.

But a strong showing wouldn't look too shabby on the resume, either.

Detroit's usual starters will play, but most of the attention -- and minutes played -- will belong to reserves such rookie guard Rodney Stuckey.

Stuckey, Detroit's top pick in last June's NBA draft, said he just wants to "get my feet wet, get up and down the court" tonight.

"I'm here to play," Stuckey said. "It's going to be fun to finally come to court (to play an opponent)."

Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups remembers his first preseason game when he was a rookie with the Boston Celtics who were coached by Rick Pitino.

Pitino, who left the University of Kentucky to coach the Celtics, brought his frenetic, full-court pressing style to Boston.

"Our first game, we played against Milwaukee at (Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.)," Billups recalled. "We opened up that game pressing. Sam Cassell (then with the Bucks), those guys were laughing at us. We got beat by 30. They were laughing, dunking on us, passing through our press ... after I left that game, I was like, 'I got a long way to go.'"

Making the transition from college to the NBA is difficult for most rookies. It's especially challenging for point guards.

Pistons assistant coach Terry Porter, a 17-year NBA veteran point guard, discussed some of the keys to a young point guard enjoying some early success.

"The biggest thing is, he has to have a comfort level with the veterans," Porter said. "Sometimes when you come in and you have a lot of veterans, he doesn't want to be that leader on the floor yelling and screaming at them. He has to have a happy medium to give them that respect, but at the same time make sure they're where they need to be on the floor."

Grasping the offense and time management are also important, Porter said.

As far as what the Pistons want from Stuckey, Porter said, "we're just looking for him and the other young guys to go out and play hard. That's the most important thing."

It's too soon to tell how long Stuckey's learning curve will be.

However, one thing is for sure: Stuckey's success with the Pistons won't be determined by how well he plays tonight.

But a good showing wouldn't hurt, either.

Pitino, who left the University of Kentucky to coach the Celtics, brought his frenetic, full-court pressing style to Boston.

"Our first game, we played against Milwaukee at (Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.)," Billups recalled. "We opened up that game pressing. Sam Cassell (then with the Bucks), those guys were laughing at us. We got beat by 30. They were laughing, dunking on us, passing through our press ... after I left that game, I was like, 'I got a long way to go.'"

When Chauncey was in Boston, Cassell was with the Nets, not the Bucks.

Nice. We're off to a good start with the beats.

Langlois doesn't make that mistake.

Unless Chauncey said that, and then, in that case, his memory is shit.

Only because he neglects to include any non-piston in the story. You know, contractually obligated.

of all the preseasons, the NBA has the one I'm really not interested in.

Unless Chauncey said that, and then, in that case, his memory is shit.
I betcha Chauncey got confused:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906EED7153FF935A25753C1A9619582 60

In case anyone is interested, I just discovered that NBA Audio League Pass is FREE for the entire season and is playing the game right now.

http://www.nba.com/games/20071008/MIADET/boxscore.html

audio for free.

Pistons blowing them out apparently.

Pistons blowing them out apparently.

Naturally.

Afflalo tearing it up!

59-33 with 1:49 until halftime. I know it's only pre-season, but that puts a smile on my face. It sounds like our guys are excited and working hard, and that's encouraging.

Agree Atti, but more important is to get some significant contribution from our youngsters. Our starting 5 can't win the title anymore.

According to NBA.com, the Heat are playing without:

Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O'Neal, Udonis Haslem, Alonzo Mourning, Antoine Walker, Smush Parker, Penny Hardaway.

Geez. That's 7 of their top 9, probably (Williams, Wright). Wow.

Minor detail shags. :)

DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOITTTTTTTTTT TTTT

BASKET--

Indians up 4-1.

http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/sp/getty/66/fullj.getty-76973668ae005pistons_heat.jpg

Stuckey with 0 points at the half???? not many anyway, and ends up with 15. This guy can dish or create his own shot, imo.

3 points from 105-87...

A sign of things to come?

I got cheap seats in the lower level, and I'm glad I went. It was a treat.

The Palace actually drew a pretty large crowd tonight. I was kind f shocked at how many people were there.

Miami started Jason Williams and their B team, which is kinda sad because that would be most team's "C" team.

Riley looks like he hasn't aged a day in 15 years.

The starters looked really fluid, especially Tayshaun.

Sheed looked in shape and played better than his stats, but he clearly wasn't looking to play very long.

The Two stars of the game were without a doubt Afflalo and Stuckey.

There was a period in the first half where Daequan Cook was hurting Flip Murray, and Afflalo came in and took him behind the woodshed. He clamped him down on defense, and posted him up several times on offense for and-1s. He doesn't have an outstanding dribble, but he showed an ability to score on the low block, which was surprising. He has a low post spin move that clears space very easily.

Stuckey has that "it" quality that the elite slashers have. He can go full speed down the lane and never pick up an offensive foul. It's maddening. Time and time again he broke off Jason Williams or one of his backups, a big man would step in and Stuckey would suddenly change angles and either get a layup, a foul, or both.

So many times tonight I saw Stuckey drive into traffic tonight and either score or find a wide open man. This kid is a special talent. Miami tried trapping him twice and he split it like it was nothing.

Jarvis Hayes is a really big wing. He's every bit 6'8" 225+. His form is so good that you wonder why he doesn't make more (he had a nice and-1 three from the wing but clanked every other jumper he took). Jarvis is really strong and really athletic. He was getting easy baskets in the post every time because of his size.

Jason Maxiell looked like typical Max. Tons of energy and hustle rebounds/points on offense, and gave up a half dozen offensive rebounds to below average big men on defense. he's still a lot of fun to watch, as long as he's not trying to defensive rebound.

Flip Murray got a lot of steals but was still the same flip murray. Very quick with the ball but no sense on how to finish.

Nazr believe it or not didn't look bad at all. he has a reduced role out there and doesn't touch the ball as much, but he was still bothering shots and boxing out. he did have one of his trademark 40-foot outlet passes that went 90 feet into row 10.

Dupree looked terrible. Not much else to say. He couldn't even finish plays tonight.

BTW, I got a pretty good look at the entire team lined up for the national anthem.

The three tallest players on our team are Samb, Sheed and Amir in that order. Samb is freaking huge. I lost count of how many times a heat player drove the lane, saw Samb there, and dribbled right back out into a turnover. Nobody even attempted shooting over him in the 8 minutes he was in.

BTW, Amir was in warmups and did dress but did not play. Still a good sign to see him out there.

oh, one more observation: we have an insane number of post up guards now.

Jarvis and Afflalo and both strong wings and both have the ability to get points in the post, in addition to Rip and Chauncey. A lot of teams don't even have one guard that can post. We have four.

Mike Tirico (or was it Stuart Scott?): "Who is Rodney Stuckey?"
Stuckey: "That's me."

Liked him ever since then.

can we pick up the option on stuckey's rookie contract, NOW.....?

lol. we finally hit gold fellas. otis thorpe for stuckey sounds pretty damn good to me. just wait and see what this kid becomes.

Thanks for the review, KStat.

Sounds good.

I got cheap seats in the lower level, and I'm glad I went. It was a treat.

The Palace actually drew a pretty large crowd tonight. I was kind f shocked at how many people were there.

Miami started Jason Williams and their B team, which is kinda sad because that would be most team's "C" team.

Riley looks like he hasn't aged a day in 15 years.

The starters looked really fluid, especially Tayshaun.

Sheed looked in shape and played better than his stats, but he clearly wasn't looking to play very long.

The Two stars of the game were without a doubt Afflalo and Stuckey.

There was a period in the first half where Daequan Cook was hurting Flip Murray, and Afflalo came in and took him behind the woodshed. He clamped him down on defense, and posted him up several times on offense for and-1s. He doesn't have an outstanding dribble, but he showed an ability to score on the low block, which was surprising. He has a low post spin move that clears space very easily.

Stuckey has that "it" quality that the elite slashers have. He can go full speed down the lane and never pick up an offensive foul. It's maddening. Time and time again he broke off Jason Williams or one of his backups, a big man would step in and Stuckey would suddenly change angles and either get a layup, a foul, or both.

So many times tonight I saw Stuckey drive into traffic tonight and either score or find a wide open man. This kid is a special talent. Miami tried trapping him twice and he split it like it was nothing.

Jarvis Hayes is a really big wing. He's every bit 6'8" 225+. His form is so good that you wonder why he doesn't make more (he had a nice and-1 three from the wing but clanked every other jumper he took). Jarvis is really strong and really athletic. He was getting easy baskets in the post every time because of his size.

Jason Maxiell looked like typical Max. Tons of energy and hustle rebounds/points on offense, and gave up a half dozen offensive rebounds to below average big men on defense. he's still a lot of fun to watch, as long as he's not trying to defensive rebound.

Flip Murray got a lot of steals but was still the same flip murray. Very quick with the ball but no sense on how to finish.

Nazr believe it or not didn't look bad at all. he has a reduced role out there and doesn't touch the ball as much, but he was still bothering shots and boxing out. he did have one of his trademark 40-foot outlet passes that went 90 feet into row 10.

Dupree looked terrible. Not much else to say. He couldn't even finish plays tonight.

BTW, I got a pretty good look at the entire team lined up for the national anthem.

The three tallest players on our team are Samb, Sheed and Amir in that order. Samb is freaking huge. I lost count of how many times a heat player drove the lane, saw Samb there, and dribbled right back out into a turnover. Nobody even attempted shooting over him in the 8 minutes he was in.

BTW, Amir was in warmups and did dress but did not play. Still a good sign to see him out there.

oh, one more observation: we have an insane number of post up guards now.

Jarvis and Afflalo and both strong wings and both have the ability to get points in the post, in addition to Rip and Chauncey. A lot of teams don't even have one guard that can post. We have four.

Any muscle?


Im excited to see a Max,Stuckey,Amir,Hayes bench

Samb has the skinniest legs I have ever seen on a basketball player, and his jersey flapped around so much it was obvious he was rail thin.

That sais, Samb is at least 7'2". Sheed is almost 7 feet, and his head only came up to Samb's shoulders.

Awesome report, Kstat. That pretty much lines up with what I'm reading from :lathamjahnke: this morning.

Awesome report, Kstat. That pretty much lines up with what I'm reading from :lathamjahnke: this morning.

There might be an implication there, not sure.

KristaStat?

Good job Stat.

Question: Did Sheed put the devil horns behind Flips head or anything? Nothing fun to report?

Nah, Sheed was playing facilitator/cheerleader all night. 3 points and 5 fouls, most of them well-earned.

He was definitely in great shape though. He just went through the motions.

Tayshaun looked really good, though you'd expect that coming from a guy that played all summer.

Dorrell Wright is supposed to be a key player for Miami this year, and tay pretty much owned him on both ends.

Its definately possible that Prince could take it up a notch. I mean he's only 26 or 27. A player could still improve(and prolly should still improve) in his 5th year in the league.

I could see players like Sheed or CBill to having a good year, but Prince could still improve.

actually, this would be tay's 6th year. The jumbotron got that wrong too.