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Andre Iguodala points vs. Pistons (http://wtfdetroit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8068)

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Detroit at Philly (http://wtfdetroit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8066)


The Detroit Pistons are experiencing one of their worst stretches of the season, but their upcoming schedule could spark a turnaround.

The Pistons look to get back on track Tuesday when they visit the Philadelphia 76ers -- the first of four consecutive opponents well below .500.

Detroit (19-12) has dropped four of its last five games, including a 106-89 defeat to Chicago on Saturday when it shot a season-low 34.8 percent (31-for-89). Richard Hamilton, the Pistons leading scorer, had 27 points and is averaging 31.6 over the last five games -- 8.8 more than his season average -- but forwards Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace were held to eight points apiece.

Prince is third in scoring at 14.9 ppg and Wallace is fourth at 12.2 ppg.

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Detroit's offense also has struggled without second-leading scorer Chauncey Billups, who is expected to miss his fourth straight game Tuesday with a strained right calf. Billups is averaging 18.0 points and a team-best 8.1 assists this season.

"We missed Chauncey out there," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "Chauncey is one of the best post feeders in the league. We didn't find ways to get our big guys the ball. We did some things and adjusted and we got some open shots but we didn't knock them down."

The Pistons have had little problem hitting their shots against Philadelphia (9-24) as they have won four consecutive matchups and nine of the last 10. Prince recorded 25 points and six assists while Wallace had 21 points and 11 rebounds in a 97-87 win over the 76ers on Nov. 21.

Following this matchup, Detroit faces Charlotte, Atlanta and Boston with those four teams boasting a combined 40-89 record.

"These next couple are definitely win-able games," Hamilton said. "But we've got to play better than we played (Saturday)."

The Pistons are concluding a three-game road swing against a Philadelphia squad playing at home for the first time since Dec. 23. The 76ers went 2-5 on a season-high seven-game road trip, losing the finale to Minnesota on Friday, 104-102, on Kevin Garnett's buzzer-beater in overtime.

"We got down nine points in the fourth quarter with like 3 or 4 minutes left, and we fought our way back, giving ourselves a chance to win the game," said Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks, whose squad is the only team in the last 50 years to play 22 of its first 33 games of the season on the road. "So, the effort that we put on the floor was tremendous. We just have to learn to finish those games."

Sixers reserve Kyle Korver scored 25 points off the bench while starting guard Andre Iguodala recorded 23 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. Andre Miller notched 18 points and 11 assists, continuing his strong play since being acquired Dec. 19 as part of the trade that sent Allen Iverson to Denver.

Miller is averaging 15.9 points, 8.4 assists and 5.1 rebounds in eight games with Philadelphia. He'll try to help the Sixers (9-24) reach 10 wins after it took just 21 games to reach that mark last season.

They'll have to do it without Chris Webber, who despite returning to practice Monday, said he isn't planning on playing after missing five straight games with a bruised right foot. The veteran forward, who has been sidelined nine of the last 12 contests with foot and ankle injures, has been unhappy with his playing time and said he didn't know if he'd ever play for Philadelphia again.

Link (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview;_ylt=AqRPsq__Gt4h_JhgFu0kz6i8vLYF?gid=2007 010920)

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Andre Iguodala points vs. Pistons (http://wtfdetroit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8068)

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Detroit at Philly (http://wtfdetroit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8066)

Let's roll these asswipes and get things back to normal in Pistons-land.

Even without Billups, we should destroy these punks.

Rip and Sheed usually play well when they are back home in Philly too.

Let's see how these reports of disharmony effect this team.

I see a double digit victory tonight.

But then again, I thought OSU was a lock last night too.

i missed the pregame but i'm watching now. why is j-max starting in place of sheed?

they just said that sheed will be coming off the bench.....why though? was he late for a meeting or something?

i'm glad to see j-max start and get starters minutes. but i'm worried with what is going on with sheed. something's not right as was mentioned in another thread....

Doing this in his hometown? Whoooa boy... this is NOT a good sign.

I imagine Sheed was the player who showed up late for practice. His attitude has flat out been horrible lately, so maybe Flip is going to make him earn his starter's role back. Frankly, Max has played just as well as Sheed lately, if not better, so I'm glad to see Max get the nod.

Whatever it takes, baby. That should be the team's motto.

someone was late for practice? i didn't hear that. that must be it then.

i did notice sheed mouthing the words "this is some bullshit" early in the 1st quarter. he could have been talking about a call he saw or something else. but you have to wonder.

things are definitely not good right now and i hope it doesn't get worse. i love sheed but i honestly would not hesitate to move him if a team came calling.

unfortunately we would never get his true value in a deal....

oh my WORD- what a behind the back pass by blalock to sheed for a dunk on the fastbreak! he did it so quickly and with his left hand. this kid has nice game and i hope he can improve his jumper enough to the point where he can be a good backup PG like he's capable of being.

delfino is playing very well again; hustle plays, rebounds, steals, nice passes. said it before, i'll say it again- he's a more athletic jon barry, without as agood a jump shot.

the more he plays, the better he gets though. he's still fairly young and i expect more and more from him....

flip murray!!!!!!!!!! he's got maxiell in the post with frickin andre miller on him and flip throws the ball out of bounds. >:

sounds about right.

Yeah, another absolutely crappy game without Chauncey. I've realized more and more that if he bolts, I don't know if I can stand to watch this team next season.

Going into the 3rd, I'm looking for someone besides Rip or Tay to step up a little bit... that's you, Flip.

6 offensive rebounds for Smith. That's ridiculous.

Sure enough, Flip Murray resembled a good point guard in the 3rd. We're looking like a team starting to gel again.

Tay figured out it was free pussy night in Philly.

i know tayshaun is on fire and rip is too. but what the hell is flip doing putting rip back i nthe game when we're up 15 under 4 minutes to go? and he has kept prince in forever, playing him almost 40 minutes.

we play tomorrow night FCOL! use your brain saunders!

why has j-max been glued to the bench? he wasn't great earlier but he was good. put him back in FCOL!

so now sheed and prince are playing tired out there and we let them cut the deficit to 10.

stupid substitution patterns again.

murray was OK tonight. he still had some horrible passes that pissed me off. but i'll give him SOME credit.

however his numbers are somewhat misleading. he got about 6 or 7 of those assists on catch and shoots. he really did nothing to earn them, it's just our shooters were on fire and helped pad his stats.

i'm not going to say this performance showed he can be our PG because on the whole i still think he's horrible. tonight he was OK though...

take rip out FCOL! are you trying to get him injured?

watching him dribble in the open court, trying to beat the press is an UGLY thing. he has to be the worst ball handler at the SG position in the league! i love rip, but that's just such a huge weakness in his game!

philly is a pathetic team with a couple of nice young players. but on the whole they're terrible. and while we're still going to win, we needed really hot shooting to do it; we let them KILL us on the boards and we drained prince and rip by needlessly playing them big minutes.

we had better not come out sluggish tomorrow night. we've got 4 games in the next 5 nights, and we're playing these guys meaningless minutes, WHY?

Because Flip feels he hasn't done a good enough job at proving he's horrid at substitutions. It's really simple.

This team really is horrible. They have no depth at any position.

We only needed to put it Tay and Rip for 30 minutes and just keep in Delfino Blalock/Flip Murray, Dice, Nazr, etc but we didnt.

and j-max! why the hell did he not play late!? dont' tell me he didn't play well because you can't take a player out for one or 2 mistakes. j-max has proven himself enough that he should've been able to play through and be out there.

LOL@Sheed saying bullshit on FSN and catching them off guard and lying about not being mad about the benching. In fact i think he was fronting when he said ( maybe i should come off the bench more).

The sixers are garbage, so i feel ok that we did what we were supposed to. But not impressed.

I wondered why Flip had RIP and Tay in there late as well. Also, why did he bring Flip back in for Blaylock so he could turn the ball over and let Philly sneak back in it a little? Unfortunately I didn't get home until the game was over, but I listened to some of it on the radio and was yelling at Flip to rest RIP and Tay.