Pistons at Magic Gameday

:langlois:
by Keith Langlois

TV: TV20 Detroit (HDTV) | Radio: WDFN 1130 AM - The Fan

Last Meeting: Detroit won 116-92 (November 2, 2007)

The skinny: The Pistons swept Orlando 8-0 a season ago – 4-0 in the regular season followed by a four-game sweep in the postseason’s first round – and crushed the Magic again in the season’s second game. Now they’ll get them twice over four days – at Orlando on the NBA’s busy Martin Luther King Jr. Day schedule and again at The Palace on Friday night. Orlando’s changed a little since their November meeting, having traded backup forward Trevor Ariza to the Lakers in exchange for ex-Piston Maurice Evans and Brian Cook. Evans and another ex-Piston, Carlos Arroyo, comprised Orlando’s starting backcourt in Saturday’s win over red-hot Portland, which speaks to Orlando’s problem. While the starting frontcourt of Dwight Howard (22.1 points, a league-best 15.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots), Hedo Turkoglu (18.7, 6.1) and free-agent signee Rashard Lewis (18.6, 5.1) gives Orlando massive firepower, the backcourt has been an ongoing problem. Jameer Nelson missed Saturday’s game with a foot injury and is listed as day to day, but even before his injury Arroyo – who also seems to wind up in the coach’s doghouse – had supplanted him as the starter. Keith Bogans basically job shares shooting guard with Evans. The Magic have lost six of nine and are tied in the loss column with Washington atop the Southeast Division.

What to watch: The Pistons had their worst weekend of the season, losing at home on Friday night to Sacramento and at Chicago on Saturday, both losses marked by flat performances that prompted Flip Saunders to scold them for their lack of passion. Except for the backcourt of Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton, the two-week tailspin that has seen the Pistons go 3-5 had been pretty much an across-the-board malaise. Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince have been in deep shooting slumps and the bench’s production – Rodney Stuckey and Jarvis Hayes, most notably – has been markedly off. A week after Saunders said he and Joe Dumars decided a shortening of the rotation was in order to better accommodate Stuckey’s integration, Saunders went groping on Saturday to find someone off the bench who could provide a lift, reinserting Arron Afflalo and Walter Herrmann to the playing group. It will be telling to see how the rotations get handled against Orlando.

We own the Magic like the Bulls own us.

Don't they normally play at home and during the day on MLK day?

David Stern is racist.

Yes they do - but usually it's an afternoon game.

Detroit (29-12) at Orlando (25-17)

By JUSTIN EINHORN, STATS Senior Editor

The Detroit Pistons and the Orlando Magic are still on top of their respective divisions, but they have not played much like first-place teams lately.

Coming off yet another lopsided loss, the Pistons look to avoid a season-high third straight defeat on Monday and try to blow out the Magic for the second time in as many meetings this season.

Detroit (29-12) lost just seven of its first 33 games, racing to a 10-game lead in the Central Division. That stretch concluded with an 11-game winning streak, which ended with a 92-85 home loss to Eastern Conference-leading Boston on Jan. 5 - a defeat which seems to have sent the Pistons into a funk.

It was the first of five losses in the last eight games for Detroit, which has seen its division lead dip to seven games over second-place Cleveland, whose star player, LeBron James, is only 23 years old.

"We're playing with no type of energy and no kind of chemistry," Pistons forward Antonio McDyess said. "It's like everyone is out of whack. I don't know what it is but we have to come together."

Detroit handed the Magic (25-17) what remains their biggest loss of the season, 116-92 in Orlando on Nov. 2. That was one of just four defeats in November for the Magic as they took control of the Southeast Division.
They ended 2007 on a four-game winning streak, but have gone 3-6 this month to see their division lead shrink to two games over Washington.

It had been a month since the Magic beat a team with a winning record before they posted a 101-94 home victory over Portland on Saturday.

"This one is out of the way and we have an even better team coming in Monday, the Detroit Pistons, so we have our work cut out for us," Orlando's Rashard Lewis said. "I think we are a great scoring team but we just have to continue to play defense."

The way the Pistons have lost some games lately has coach Flip Saunders concerned.

Last Sunday, Detroit managed only one more point than the lowest total in franchise history in an 89-65 road loss to a New York team which owns the second-worst record in the East. The Pistons bounced back to beat Toronto on Tuesday, but have since suffered back-to-back losses to sub-.500 teams.

One night after a 100-93 home loss to Sacramento, Detroit was held to 14 points in the fourth quarter en route to a 97-81 defeat at Chicago.

"I told our players they have an obligation to go out and shoot a ton of jumpers every night," Saunders said. "And the last two nights I don't think we played with the passion for jump shots that we need to play with, so we addressed it and we need to get back on track."

The Pistons have given up more than 95 points in back-to-back games for the first time since mid-November.

Detroit is also shooting 40.9 percent from the field over the last eight games while getting held to an average of 88.3 points, nearly 10 below their season average.

"This is definitely fixable," Pistons guard Richard Hamilton said. "We have to be ready to play. We can't wait until the fourth quarter, we can't wait for the playoffs. We have to come out and shoot jumpers for 48 minutes."

Rasheed Wallace has become a non-factor offensively, failing to score in double figures in four straight games. He's averaged 6.5 points in that span while shooting 27.5 percent from the field and 1-for-14 from 3-point range.

Orlando's Hedo Turkoglu had been in a similar slump, averaging 8.7 points on 9-of-36 shooting during a three-game stretch, before scoring 36 points over the last two games. He led the Magic with 20 points in Saturday's victory.

Even Dwight Howard has been less effective offensively in recent weeks, scoring 17 points or less in seven of the last 11 games. He averaged 23.7 points through the first 25 games of the season.

Howard was limited to 16 points in the first meeting with Detroit, which has won five straight and nine of 10 versus the Magic.

Glenn, you little devil. . .

Finally.

I did that last in the Kings OGT too and nobody noticed.

Cool, glad to be of service.

I wanted to do the OGT and poll.

I wanted to do the OGT and poll.

Do the next game, you can do it right now if you want to.

Or I can swat this and we can start over with your thread.

EDIT...

I wanted to do the OGT and poll

Go Magic.

Flip Saunders with a win here could become #2 all time in wins as Pistons coach. Right now he is also tied for #0 in championships.

ZING!

A man walks down the street
He says why am I ...

If you'll be my bodyguard

I really really REALLY want to finish watching this game, but I need to rearrange my sock drawer or something.

Once again...

If you'll be my bodyguard

Hedo fucking Turgalu just went through Tay, Dice and Sheed.

I really really REALLY want to finish watching this game, but I need to rearrange my sock drawer or something.
Got a short little span of attention...

Stuckey looks horrible running the offense, even worse than Lindsey...and when Hayes shot is off, he's absolutly useless.

I'm about to watch Bill OReilly over this game. I hate it when we play like shit and it looks like our players are thinking about whats on TV tonight.

I agree on Hayes...JA. He's king of like a Flip M(only Hayes doesn't turn it over and hog the ball and etc, etc etc).

The whole team is soft as fuck.

I'm not even mad about the game, I'm barely watching it...but it's true.

I'm sorry, but Stuckey is just not very good.

Hopefully he gets it at some point, but I don't see what the Kool Aid drinkers are tasting.

Glenn, in the NBA forum of WTF you either hate a Piston or you're all over their nuts. (not you, everyone here in general)

Prepare to get pwnzored.

tayshaun should have been working on stuckey's confidence before the game.

Tayshaun should have used his time machine so he could have told Dumars the night of the draft to not pick Suckey. ;)

Tayshaun's on fire!!

Nothing from Kstat tonight?

Tayshaun doing well. Where are the haters?

^ like I said. lol

chauncy is 0-5. ill start looking at trade possibilities.

Baron Davis.

Yeah, you tap that, Primoz!

Ummm where's duke's amazing JJ Redick?

Sucking dick.

Thatta boy, Stuckey!

add "mad handles" to the list of pro's for stuckey. if flip gives him some room, stuckey will be a weaon in the playoffs.

Stuckey does something good again and Maxy blows it. Lame. I'm drinking the Kool Aid, only just a little bit at this point.

We're making the extra pass tonight, and that is really making a huge difference.

i thought the league banned tights on grounds of "faggyness".

Holy crap, what a shot.

If we win, thank Rip for that amazing triple from the corner.

I wish that Stan Van Jeremy coached the Pistons
Joe Asberry, micknugget, MoTown, Zekyl

bastards [smilie=heatsmiley2:

Of course Zekyl voted that.

Turkoglu has been so clutch this year. I expect him to close this one out.

Tayshaun got pizowned.

Good to see Chauncey going right at the rim right away.

Rasheed misses another big hoop.

Can't blame him for that one though, that one should've went in.

ARGH! In and out! NO!!!

Hedo was a huge fan fav here in Sac.

9.5 seconds to get a good look at a three. What do you do? I say pick and roll Chauncey and Sheed, and let Sheed have another try at that trey. Guaranteed he knocks that down. Hide Rip in the corner as option 3 just in case.

HOLY SHIT

Ok, so Chauncey's shot was sick, but he traveled HORRIBLY. I'll take it though.

bOMB DIGGITY

BANG

HOLY CRAP!

CBill should've asked for the and 1

Ok, so Chauncey's shot was sick, but he traveled HORRIBLY. I'll take it though.

Yeah and LeBron travels all the time. Fuck you, Clevelander.
jk

I don't think they realize that they're back from commercial.

from the suburbs.

Leaving billups open at 30 feet? Horrible Defense. Its like leaving sheed open at 60 feet.

VG blaming Dooling

Yeah and LeBron travels all the time. Fuck you, Clevelander.
jk

Zek is from Cleveland. WTF?

Oh, I bitch at my friends about that every time we play Cleveland. Rip does it a lot too though, does his little hop-step after he gets the ball before he starts dribbling, and they always shove that in my face.

That was Chauncey's first made 3 of the game. Better late than never right?

And yes, I voted that I'd rather have SVG than Flip, because he actually has an inside game in his playbook.

come on D

Zek is from Cleveland. WTF?
Yeah, no. Never even been there.

FUCK!

Fuck...how long was that 3 secs? Seemed long

Pistons lost to the Magic.

Fuck, there's always the Raptors though.

why was rip guarding rashard lewis?

the time looked right. Real time it seemed long

Fucking Tay

That's depressing.

tay obviously hasnt been working hard enough on rip's defense.

OMag scores over 100 for the first time in 13 games vs Detroit.

That's depressing.

Along with the last couple, 3 or whatever.

6'10", 230 Lb's vs 6'7", 193 Lb's. good thinking flip.

if tay was 8-15 rather than 7-15 maybe we win this game. something to think about.

Ok, are we finally going to get the fucking dizzle vs. Kstat showdown?

Pshhh...I come home from classes, I turn on the TV, and Chauncey drains the 3, then that butt-faggott Rashard Lewis (easily the most overpaid player in the NBA), drains a floater...

FUCK

They should've kept Rip on Hedo during the inbound...if they wouldve done that, then there's no way Hedo would've been able to perfectly hit Shard

Pshhh...I come home from classes, I turn on the TV, and Chauncey drains the 3, then that butt-faggott Rashard Lewis (easily the most overpaid player in the NBA), drains a floater...

FUCK

Most overpaid player in the NBA nailing shots off glass to win the game.

pwnt

Most overpaid player in the NBA nailing shots off glass to win the game.

pwnt


When you pay him that much, he was bound to earn at least 1/64th of it...

I bet he called glass before he hit it.

That's how bad ass he is.

I bet he called glass before he hit it.

That's how bad ass he is.


Rashard Lewis is overdue for that annual back injury he has every year...

He's ugly as sin too, he look's like Montel Williams if you were to light his face on fire and then put it out w/ a rake...

Rashard Lewis' game winning shot to beat the Pistons was beautiful.

They should've kept Rip on Hedo during the inbound...if they wouldve done that, then there's no way Hedo would've been able to perfectly hit Shard
Did Hedo have any intention of passing that first time, or was he planning to burn a timeout to see how we'd defend?

I wouldn't be surprised if he was planning to burn a timeout. Smart coaches do things like that.

I wouldn't be surprised if he was planning to burn a timeout. Smart coaches do things like that.


since when was Ron Jeremy considered "smart"...?

news to me...

Well, maybe he watched a smart coach do it and thought he'd try it himself.

Well, maybe he watched a smart coach do it and thought he'd try it himself.

Touche.


^^^did I spell that right, pronounced "Two-Shay"???

Dear Keith...


Touche.


^^^did I spell that right, pronounced "Two-Shay"???

Dear Keith


Isn't Ike Turner the owner of TBS & the Atlanta Braves?

Sincerely, Wil

My career is on the line here!

My career is on the line here!


Wrong thread (again).

Putz.

If the Pistons lose I'm out of here.

Pretty relevant to the thread, Glenn.

Well they lost the game that this thread is for, so does that mean...

DON'T GO!!

: emo kid :

LOL! Wow.

Now's the time to use my powers.