Pistons vs. Kings Gameday
:langlois:
by Keith Langlois


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

Last Meeting: Sacramento won 105-95 (November 18, 2007)

The skinny: Sacramento fielded the team it expected for the first time all season in Toronto on Wednesday when Mike Bibby and Ron Artest joined the lineup – and promptly suffered its worst loss of the season, getting drilled by 25 points by the Raptors, who’d lost to the Pistons the previous night at The Palace. That wasn’t an unexpected result, necessarily, for a team that has overachieved to get to 15-22 despite Bibby missing the season’s first 36 games with a thumb injury, Artest missing 17 games between injury (elbow) and suspension and Kevin Martin only recently returning after sitting out 17 games. It’s going to take a while for everybody to adjust to new roles and for Sacramento’s stars to get back to top shape and find their rhythm. The Pistons, who lost at Sacramento in November when Antonio McDyess and Rodney Stuckey were out of the lineup, have to hope it doesn’t happen too soon. Trade speculation also swirls around the Kings with Bibby and Artest at the head of the list. In Bibby’s absence, ex-Spur Beno Udrih has been a pleasant surprise at point guard. John Salmons and Francisco Garcia also played well while Martin and Artest were missing. Martin has continued his amazing career arc, averaging 25.2 points a game and getting to the free-throw line almost 10 times a game.

What to watch: The matchup between Rip Hamilton and Martin should be fascinating. They’re somewhat similar players in body type and movement without the ball. Martin is more of a deep shooter, taking 91 triples in his 20 games to Hamilton’s 77 in 37, though Hamilton is coming off a career-best night from behind the arc, making 5 in 6 tries in the win over Toronto. Chauncey Billups was just coming back off a bruised knee and a hip pointer after missing the previous two games when the Pistons lost at Sacramento; he has the physical tools to overpower Udrih or Bibby in the post, as the Pistons often choose to use him. The Pistons have an edge in the frontcourt, where Brad Miller and ex-Piston Mikki Moore start for Sacramento, although Miller is having a pretty decent year statistically.

Sacramento (15-22) at Detroit (29-10)

By MIKE VOTTA, STATS Senior Writer

Along with Mike Bibby and Kevin Martin, Ron Artest is finally back from injury -- and just in time to return to the site of the ugly brawl he helped incite over three years ago.

Artest will make his second trip to Detroit since the brawl on Friday as the Sacramento Kings visit the Pistons.

Artest charged into the stands in Detroit on Nov. 19, 2004 while with Indiana, helping spark a brawl between the Pacers and the fans that has gone down as perhaps the most notorious in U.S. sports history. Artest was suspended for the rest of that season - 73 games, plus the playoffs - and was sentenced to one year of probation and 60 hours of community service after pleading no contest to misdemeanor assault charges.

The fan who was accused of throwing a cup at Artest to help start the brawl, John Green, was banned from the Palace of Auburn Hills. Green was convicted of punching Artest and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years' probation.

Artest, traded to Sacramento in Jan. 2006, returned to Detroit for the first time on Jan. 20 last season. He scored 14 points in the Kings' 91-74 loss and was booed and jeered mercilessly by Pistons' fans.

"It was fine coming back," Artest said after that game. "It was just another game."

Artest returned to the floor on Wednesday after missing nine games because of right elbow surgery. Bibby, who had surgery in November to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb, more notably made his season debut, but the Kings (15-22) lost 116-91 to Toronto.

Artest, who came in averaging 19.1 points and 6.1 rebounds in 19 games, played 29 minutes and had four points, while Bibby, who averaged 17.1 points and 4.7 assists last season, had 19 points in 29 minutes. Both came off the bench.

"It is good to get back on the court," Bibby said. "I didn't want the welcome to be like that, but we have to get used to playing with each other again and get everybody on the same page."

Martin, who leads the team with 25.2 points per game, had 22 in his third game back after missing 17 games with a sore groin. He was coming off a 39-point performance in Monday's win over Dallas

The Kings have lost three straight road games and are 4-13 away from home. They have dropped three straight in Detroit, while the Pistons have won eight of their last nine home games.

The Pistons (29-10) beat the Raptors 103-89 on Tuesday, bouncing back from a demoralizing 89-65 defeat against the woeful New York Knicks two days earlier. Richard Hamilton had a season-high 39 points, including a career-best five 3-pointers.

"I didn't really take a lot of shots against New York, so tonight I knew I needed to be aggressive," Hamilton said. "Tonight I just knew they were going to fall."

The Pistons, who own the second-best record in the NBA behind Boston, had dropped three of their previous five games.

"This was a good win for us -- we feel good about this one," said Chauncey Billups, who added 20 points. "After the way we played against New York, we had to come out and make a statement."

I CAN SEE THAT WE ARE ALL PUMPED ABOUT THIS ONE.

I'm going to see da kangs.

Are we supposed to cheer for Ron now that Ben's gone?

Let me know...

MOTOWN,

PLEASE VOTE, POSTHASTE.

THANKS IN ADVANCE,

GLENN

Done.

SOMEDAY, SOMEBODY (NOT ME) IS GONNA ADD A "MOTOWN SUCKS" OPTION IN THE POLL AND TEST YOUR METTLE.

BACK ON TOPIC, BECAUSE THAT IS HOW I ROLL...

K-MART, BIBBY AND RONNY ALL BACK TONIGHT MEANS THAT THIS IS A DIFFERENT TEAM, I THINK "WE'RE" IN FOR A BATTLE TONIGHT.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080118/SPORTS0102/801180368/1127


Pistons squeeze in a rare practice
Even with a hectic schedule, Saunders takes some time to work on the game's fundamentals.

Joanne C. Gerstner / The Detroit News

AUBURN HILLS -- Even though the Pistons are largely a veteran team, and probably have gone through thousands of practices, going through one more Thursday certainly didn't hurt.

Practice time is scant in January, a grueling month packed with trips and back-to-back games.

So, coach Flip Saunders was eager to work on tightening things up and preparing for tonight's home game against the Kings.

"I thought the guys had a little bit better legs after having a day off," Saunders said, referencing how the team looked after taking Monday and Wednesday off.

Saunders said teams start making mistakes without practice.

"You don't have time to pound the things that are your basic fundamentals," Saunders said. "Sometimes, you have the tendency to let the little things slide, whether it's not shooting as many jumpers or not taking jumpers quick enough to let somebody out defensively. It's the little things, like taking jumpshots, that you always nit-pick on."

Coaches weren't the only ones nitpicking Thursday.

Reserve Jarvis Hayes said the players made some mental to-do lists, hoping to refine their games.

"It gets us back focused on jumpers a little bit," Hayes said. "When you're playing so much, we really don't practice as much as we did earlier. You're extra focused in practice, so we can get back to stuff we were doing earlier in the season, like taking tons of jumpers."

"We kind of got away from that the last few weeks."

SOMEDAY, SOMEBODY (NOT ME) IS GONNA ADD A "MOTOWN SUCKS" OPTION IN THE POLL AND TEST YOUR METTLE.

DON'T THINK I WON'T PICK IT.

Are we supposed to cheer for Ron now that Ben's gone?

Let me know...

I rooted for Ron in that brawl.

Detroit fans are all punks.

Detroit fans are all punks.

:punks:

I see Mikki going for 9 pts and 15 rebounds tonight.

I have the Kings announcers. Grant Napier is the biggest p.o.s that ever walked the face of the earth.

I'm impressed. Brezec actually kept rythym with Sheed when Sheed did his lil dance at the begining of the game.

I'm going to call a Piston W tonight, in a big blowout. Probably by 18.

Artest in rare form tonight. Was getting heated with Maxiell in the post. With that said he's playing fierce on offense. Gotta watch out. One thing about Ron Ron, he'll start up the bravado trash talking with the crowd, but get mad when they give it back to him.

I still don't dislike Artest for some reason. I like Artest better than Kobe or something.

i like the shots were getting.

I don't dislike Ron either. Outside of these boards, Detroit fans are bitches.

HOW THE HELL ARE WE DOWN 8? Fucking CHRIST.

I heard that the Kings announcer Grant Napier licks his dogs ass...and his dog has this anal seepage problem. Can't vouch for the rumor.

Tahoe, you really need to tell us what your beef is.

a b o u t w h a t ?

I l o v e e v e r y o n e c e p t n a p i e r

And why is this?

Can somebody here please explain why we can never have at least 3 or 4 starters play well on the same night?

:emo kid:

-NoQuarter-, you need to post here more often.

The Sacramento Tahoes are toast next season!

Good win for the Tahoes.

inexcusable loss. the kings sweep us this year and look like world beaters whenever they play us.

we're off a couple of days and THIS is the best we can do? the disfunctional baby bulls will embarass us again tomorrow if we look like this again. they already own us lately as it is. *rolleyes*

Wow!! What a bad loss?? Do we even know how the fuck to play defense. Rip and Chauncey seem to play every other play. I am tired of guys blowing by them. Stuckey still has a long way to go on defense. I'm sorry but he can steal the ball but little else. Sheed.......here's a thought: You're a fucking big man....play in the paint every once in a while. What a joke we are becoming. I say we give the guys two weeks to fix up their shit or Joe D drops the hammer on a big trade or two. This team really looks like it needs some sort of boost or shake up!

AJ is a perfect matchup for moore. sure he's just a kid but why not give him a shot in a game like this, against a team like this? he might have given us a spark and some easy buckets in transition or offensive putbacks. lord knows sheed took the night off anyway, so.......why not try something different for a few minutes?

Don't want to hear a single negative thing about flip tonight. He did what you all wanted. The bench played crucial minutes and cost us the game.

If the starters play bigger minutes, we win easily.

In the meantime, untouchable Tayshaun had yet another no-show performance. He's rapidly turning into Michael Curry.

And the other dirty little secret that nobody wants to admit: his defense is sucking this year.

I lost 80 alpacas because of these fucking pricks (both teams).

Don't want to hear a single negative thing about flip tonight. He did what you all wanted. The bench played crucial minutes and cost us the game.

If the starters play bigger minutes, we win easily.

In the meantime, untouchable Tayshaun had yet another no-show performance. He's rapidly turning into Michael Curry.

And the other dirty little secret that nobody wants to admit: his defense is sucking this year.

shut the fuck up. no one gives a shit that this team lost. nothing changes that this team lost.

flip is still a dumbass. he said he is shortening the bench to just 8 guys, but that doesnt mean more minutes for the first 3, it means just more minutes for the starters.

only you and flip think that chauncy and rip didnt play enough when they played a combined 83 minutes.

when stuckey starts going, and tay starts kicking ass in the playoffs, im gonna bring up how wrong you were. your better off just shutting up abou it now so you give me less ammo.

Doubtful Tayshaun will be on this roster in a month at this rate, so go ahead.

Dumars said he won't tolerate disappearing acts, and Tayshaun hasn't been seen or heard from since november. This team badly needs a slasher, and Tayshaun has been %100 garbage in every category, including defensively.

Also, point out where I said I had a problem with stuckey. Looks like you're wrong already...

you cried about stuckey losing the game for us.

tayshaun being on this roster is about as guaranteed as it gets.

ill say it right now: if tayshaun gets traded ill stop posting. he is the safest guy on the roster after chauncy.

no, i was pointing out the hypocrisy of people bitching about saunders not playing the bench more, when the bench is what lost the game.

ill say it right now: if tayshaun gets traded ill stop posting. .

Sweet. Not that you'll own up to it.

the starters played 190 of 240 possible minutes. thats 80 percent of the game.

thats using the bench just about as little as possible. what the fuck are you talking about? yes, the bench was out there at integral parts of the game. but flip was forced to put them out there because he had already ridden the starters all fucking game long.

and yes, if that 1/1000 chance that tay gets traded, ill own up.

OMFG I can't believe this. I go play a lil XBox and come back to a loss? WTF?

I love it when the Pistons lose.

All the arguing that goes on here is priceless. It's usually the same two people too.

Why couldn't they get the score right at the end?

I think they called it 100-93, that was what the graphic and Blaha said, at least.

Actual final was 99-93, which sucks for MoTown who was all in on the over 192.5.

This team is getting less and less fun to watch, IMO.

Why couldn't they get the score right at the end?

I think they called it 100-93, that was what the graphic and Blaha said, at least.

Actual final was 99-93, which sucks for MoTown who was all in on the over 192.5.

ESPNNEWS is still reporting 100-93.

Yahoo box score shows 99-93.

No other choice but for Stern to make them redo the entire 4th quarter now.

I'm getting a bit sick of basketball.

Taking a "vacation".

*waiting for someone to come and remind me the Pistons are 29-11*

I'M JUST BURNED OUT, OK?!

I'm getting a bit sick of basketball.

Taking a "vacation".

*waiting for someone to come and remind me the Pistons are 29-11*

I'M JUST BURNED OUT, OK?!

You recording the Bulls game tonight?

nah, I already know they'll lose by 29.

What color socks do you think Rasheed will wear?

He won't wear any.

I just read that Lloyd Carr was sitting in Bill Davidson's normal seat last night.

Fucker is lucky that he didn't get booted out.

Lloyd who?

Maxiell scored 5 points, and those were the only points scored by "our" bench.

Sickening.

I couldn't watch the game, and I'm grateful given how this went down.

Did Flip substitute the bench early? It seemed abundantly clear that Sacto's roster had a bunch of starter-class dudes off the bench, and my suspicion is that Flip didn't accommodate for that well.

i'd kill for the off-the-ball movement the Kings have. i wish Flip would incorporate more movement without the ball in his 10 billion page playbook...

10 billion jumpshots, one per page.