OGT: Latham-Jahnke edition

:lathamjahnke:


Pistons' foe languishes in East; Billups: Ben Wallace doesn't handle losing well
Old Pistons' foe languishes in East

December 7, 2007
BY KRISTA JAHNKE
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

ESPN will air a segment on the long rivalry between the Pistons and Bulls before tonight's game. The rivalry returned to relevancy last season, when Detroit beat Chicago in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

This season, the teams are headed in different directions.

The Pistons are 13-5 and on a five-game win streak. They feel they are poised for another trip to the NBA Finals.

The Bulls are searching for an identity, for a win streak, for a leader. They're last in the Central Division with a 5-11 record. Only two Eastern Conference teams -- Miami and Philadelphia -- are worse.

"That's definitely surprisingly," Pistons guard Chauncey Billups said. "Last year, I thought they were an up-and-coming team in the league with their young talent and the way they play extremely hard."

This season, while the Pistons have found a groove while playing 10 players, the Bulls have searched for a handful who can be productive together. It shows in their ever-revolving rotation.

Former Pistons center Ben Wallace didn't play in the final 17 minutes Wednesday, when the Bulls pulled away and beat the Charlotte Bobcats. The previous game, he played 48 minutes.

Coach Scott Skiles also has tinkered with the lineup, moving in former Pistons forward Joe Smith and moving out Tyrus Thomas. Smith didn't play in the previous game.

Billups said he has talked with Wallace a few times and, not surprisingly, Wallace isn't enjoying himself.

"You know Ben," Billups said.

"He's a sore loser. He's not happy about it at all. But I don't blame him."

The Bulls might be happy to see the Pistons today. They always play Detroit with an extra dose of emotion, as they did in an early-November matchup when they eked out their first win.

"They're going to be up for that challenge," Billups said.

If the Pistons defense shows up, we might hold them under 70 tonight.

Since I'll be the only one watching the game it seems, I'll let you guys know how it turns out tomorrow.


Pistons vs. Bulls Gameday

:langlois:
by Keith Langlois

TV: WDIV (HDTV) | Radio: WDFN 1130 AM - The Fan

Last Meeting: Chicago won 97-93 (November 8, 2007)

The skinny: Things are getting marginally better in Chicago after the 1-6 start, but 5-11 isn’t where the Bulls expected to be at this point of their season. They’re dealing with many issues in the Windy City. First came the fractured contract negotiations with Luol Deng and Ben Gordon that saw both reject extensions and has them headed for restricted free agency. Then the Kobe Bryant trade rumors involving half a dozen Bulls. All of Chicago’s key players – its perimeter core players, especially – began the season in woeful shooting slumps that still has Kirk Hinrich in its grasp. Joe Smith moved into the starting lineup at power forward in Wednesday’s win over Charlotte and rookie Joakim Noah has leapt ahead of Tyrus Thomas in the rotation. Ben Wallace played all 48 minutes two games ago, then sat out the entire fourth quarter-plus in the Charlotte win, as did Hinrich. There are rumblings the funk might cost Scott Skiles his job. Further speculation has the Bulls more aggressively seeking a trade for the low-post scorer the team glaringly lacks. Chicago appears too talented to not bull its way back into the playoff race, but it’s been such a turbulent opening to the season that all bets are off.

What to watch: The Pistons saw no evidence of Chicago’s tailspin in their Nov. 8 visit to the United Center, when the Bulls played their most complete game of the season in beating them. But the Pistons have come a long way in those four weeks and carry a five-game winning streak in which they’ve won every game by double digits and are averaging a 22-point margin of victory into this Central Division rivalry game. In only the last of those five games – Wednesday’s win at New Orleans, the Pistons’ fourth game in five nights – did the starters need to play anything more than token minutes in the fourth quarter. That’s partly because the Pistons’ bench – most notably, Jason Maxiell and Jarvis Hayes – has helped build first-half leads in every game. The Pistons are 6-1 in home games, losing only to Utah when they were without Rasheed Wallace.


http://www.nba.com/media/pistons/CHIDET_345_071206.jpg

Since I'll be the only one watching the game it seems, I'll let you guys know how it turns out tomorrow.

Hint: Flip Murray GOES OFF in the 4th (aka Fourth Quarter Slaughter)

Are you kidding me? I've been practically liveblogging all these games. You KNOW the Big Swami is gonna be holding it down.

Present bitches.

As in, present gift bitches, or present now bitches, or present the presentation bitches?

As in Merry Christmas mother fucker.

Also I heard this rumor that the coaches are going to be wired up. Thoughts?

Flip Saunders doesn't want to expose his strategy.

How can you expose what you don't have?

I'll be watching. Woohoo.

Maxiell shaved his head!?

anyone see hunter run that break? he looked like god damn steve nash, slowing down, directing traffic, and getting the ball to the right spot. probably the best fast break the pistons have run since zeke.

I'm nonplussed by this game so far

we're getting smoked on the offensive glass. we brought in Maxiell too late in the first. maxiell's been strong on the glass lately. we sure could have used him. 23-17 bulls after one.

we're getting smoked on the offensive glass. we brought in Maxiell too late in the first. maxiell's been strong on the glass lately. we sure could have used him. 23-17 bulls after one.

whoops, realized i'm DVRing it right now, so i'm behind :P

when does stuckey play?

lol, just saw Ben get stuffed by the rim.

when does stuckey play?

should be within a week or so, no?

lol at hunter, if he did this ten years ago his career would have been a lot more noteworthy.

lol no one went up with Lindsey to stop that layup. Scared of Hunter?

should be within a week or so, no?

i thought they said he would be here weeks ago. hmmm....

Maxiell's FT stroke looks mighty nice.

hunter is literally playing out of his mind right now. if he embraces this role all year, he'll be one of the premier subs in the leauge.

prince just posterized joe smith.

this is probably the best broadcasting crew out there, btw. all respects to blaha.

Now Ben Wallace learns how to shoot a FT. Bassturd.

seeing bill walton's face on a big screen hdtv makes me want to go back to my 19 incher with bunny ears.

"eddy curry and sam dalembert going head to head! shades of bill russell and wilt chamberlain", thats why you have to love bill walton.

are these throwbacks tonight? they look sharp.

that dive should be suspendable. only way to really fight it.

are these throwbacks tonight? they look sharp.

yup. i like 'em too.

Dang! tied up.

Joakim Noah must mean "annoying" in some language somewhere.

that was some late call bullshit.

that was some late call bullshit.

correction, that was just plain 'ole bullshit. no foul.

this is approaching lindsey's best game ever, i'd bet.

Lindseeeeey!

Either these beers I'm drinking are working tonight or when the announcer said..."Deng, its tied" after he made a bucket is really really funny.

I prolly LOL a little too much. For Pistons fans its "Dang, its tied" (bummer) but for most folks its "Deng, its tied"

Can someone help me out here and tell me if thats funny or put the beer down?

Either these beers I'm drinking are working tonight or when the announcer said..."Deng, its tied" after he made a bucket is really really funny.

I prolly LOL a little too much. For Pistons fans its "Dang, its tied" (bummer) but for most folks its "Deng, its tied"

Can someone help me out here and tell me if thats funny or put the beer down?

that's flippin' awesome. drink on, man, it's the weekend :D

DEEENG!!!

we're forcing shots right now.

Awesome but prolly won't make Connan tonight.

Ben's 8-9 from the line.

maxiell fouled out?

max bailed out. thanks, jarvis.

joakim noah needs his ponytail to get stuck in a paper shredder.

Games like these make me start threads like "Same ol Pistons????"

Ch-ch-ch-chauncey-time

even though were not doing all that well, i love how were playing.

count me on board as... being on board with these pistons. if we stay the course were on, we could do anything this year. not that we will, but we could. which definitly beats my expecations for last year.

dyess cant play with nocioni. who do we go to? amir?

we're choking right now....

Its getting frustrating to watch RIP right now.... He's forcing the issue trying to take it to Hinrich and he's not doing a very good job. He needs to find his teammates for some easier shots.

damn, the team looks like it's tightening up and squeezing shots. everything's rushed and forced.

yea, our offense looks like its playing on its heels right now. billups 3 helps.

damn, we needed that CHauncey three

This loss is ALL on the defense. Chicago getting jumpers with no hand in their face... and driving right into our zone and getting to the basket.

Yeah, the D was pretty shoddy all night.

loss didnt really bother me. i thought our bench played really well, especially lindsey. as long as that stays true this team will compete. most nights our starters arent going to to get outplayed.

This loss is ALL on the defense. Chicago getting jumpers with no hand in their face... and driving right into our zone and getting to the basket.

And this is the problem when we get to the playoffs too. Thats why we've been coming up short in the ECF if we get there. If a team wants to go far in the playoffs, they need interior defense.

Deng, we lost.

How do you lose to the fucking Bulls twice in a row?

What a shit game/performance.


Maxiell shaved his head!?
Yes. It is commonly known that a shorn human head attracts the attacking Golden Eagle, which in Max's case, is exactly the goal.

The biggest thing that bugs me about the loss is that we regressed with the bad habits that we all saw during last year's playoffs: one on one play. Rip was hell bent on scoring in the end and so was Chauncey. Luckily, Chauncey was scoring or it would have been ugly. After all of our success in the last few weeks with ball movement and distributed scoring, in crunch time last night we were playing too much one on one. that scares me.

:lathamjahnke:


Point guard Chauncey Billups said he turned down ESPN's offer to wear a mike during the game. He had a bad experience once when he wore the bulky mike and fell back to take a charge, landing on the box taped to his lower back.

Friday also was the first time the Pistons saw the camera mounted in their locker room. Reactions were, not surprisingly, mostly negative, although forward Jarvis Hayes said he didn't mind.

"We live a public life," he said.

So THAT'S who Jahnke is.

last night was a ridiculous loss IMO- national TV on our homecourt to a bulls team that has mostly struggled all year, except against us!

granted, you can't win them all and it's a long season. but IMO the problem is we still don't respect the bulls. they get fired up to play us and they completely outhustle us in every aspect. they're a younger team with more hunger than we have unfortunately.

until we learn to play with a high level of intensity and a sense of urgency we will continue to be embarassed by them.

there are 2 things they do that are the only reasons they beat us: they hustle and go all out ALL game, beating us to every loose ball etc. AND they box out on D and hit the offensive boards hard.

if we could rebound and hustle- 2 things that we have not cared about enough to do very well for the last 3 years, we could beat on the baby bulls.

i hope it doesn't take them embarassing us in the playoffs for us to take them seriously and play like we should. we are MORE than capable of beating this team as we're simply better all around. but not if we play like last night.

It's a shit game where we get 20 from our guards, solid contribution by Rasheed, and we're killed at home.

Joakim fucking Noah scored 11?!?!?

The rebounding sucked so bad that I actually couldn't bring myself to post here. What an embarrassment. This Bulls team isn't that good at all, and I think the Pistons were nervous.