http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/013007/spo_2007013031.shtml


East's best meet in pivotal game

Web-posted Jan 30, 2007

:dana:
By DANA GAURUDER
Of The Oakland Press

AUBURN HILLS - Flip Saunders didn't want to hear anymore talk about the playoffs a few weeks ago. Saunders got irritated when Rasheed Wallace claimed the regular season was boring and that he was already looking forward to the postseason.

Saunders will make an exception tonight, provided that it channels his players' energy in the right direction.

Though the playoffs are still more than 2 1/2 months away, the Pistons' game at Washington could have long-term implications. With a victory, the Pistons can win the season series and gain a tiebreaker advantage over Washington if the teams have the same record at the end of the season.

Factor in that the teams currently have the best records in the Eastern Conference and this midseason game becomes more meaningful than most.

"It is big," Saunders said. "No question, the potential tiebreaker is huge when you're fighting a team like that, and we've had some close games with them."

The Pistons could have sewn up that tiebreaker - and the homecourt advantage that comes with it - five days ago. Detroit won the first two games of the series, including a victory on the Wizards' home floor, but Washington defeated them at The Palace last week, 99-96.

"It will be a playoff-type matchup," said Wizards forward Caron Butler, who made four crucial free throws in the final 15.5 seconds Friday. "Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun (Prince), and now Chris Webber have all been through big games before, so they know how to prepare for them. Mentally, we have to be ready."

A 95-87 win over Indiana Sunday gave the Pistons some positive momentum heading into back-to-back road games against Washington and New Jersey.

"With the way we lost at home the last game against them, it put a bad taste in our mouths," Antonio McDyess said. "We're looking to go out there and jump on them real fast. We feel like if we play with the intensity and energy we had (against the Pacers), we won't have any problems."

What gives every opponent trouble with the Wizards is their threepronged offensive attack of All-Star starter Gilbert Arenas, Butler and Antawn Jamison. The Pistons made Arenas a volume shooter in last week's game and held Butler to one field goal but Jamison blindsided them with 35 points, including four 3-pointers. Jamison followed that up with 34 points in a 14-point Wizards victory over Boston Sunday night.

"I don't understand why people are playing so far off of him," Butler said. "Looking at the film, I can see people are sagging off him and he is going to make that shot every time. Teams are giving him great looks, and that is what we want."


Detroit (25-17) at Washington (26-17)

By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN, STATS Editor

The Detroit Pistons got the upper hand on the Washington Wizards in November. The Wizards are hoping to return the favor in January.

The two top teams in the Eastern Conference meet for the fourth and final time this season Tuesday night when the Wizards play at the Verizon Center for the first time since their 10-game home winning streak was snapped.

Detroit (25-17) is a half-game behind Washington (26-17) in the East standings. The Pistons beat the Wizards twice in the first month of the season, including a 115-111 road victory Nov. 25.

The Wizards responded with a 99-96 win at The Palace on Friday to take over the top spot in the East. Antawn Jamison scored a season-high 35 points for Washington.

"That was a heavyweight fight," Washington coach Eddie Jordan said. "We took a Joe Frazier left hook, and we got right up.

"I know they are going to be ready for a rematch. Just because we're up in the standings, we are not the champions of the East. They've been the champions and we are always going to be the hunter, not the hunted."

The Wizards didn't suffer a letdown after the big effort against Detroit, pulling away for a 105-91 victory at Boston on Sunday for their sixth win in seven games. Jamison had 34 points for Washington, which outscored Boston 57-41 in the second half.

"We really took this game more serious than we did the Detroit game," said Jamison, who has posted back-to-back 30-point effort for the first time since March 25-27, 2006.

The only loss for Washington in the last seven contests was to Phoenix, 127-105 on Tuesday that ended its home winning streak. The Wizards have won eight straight home games against Eastern Conference opponents since the loss to Detroit.

The Pistons bounced back from Friday's defeat with a 95-87 victory over Indiana on Sunday. Rasheed Wallace scored 20 points and Chris Webber added 17 and 13 rebounds for his second double-double for Detroit.

The Pistons are 4-1 since Webber was moved into the starting lineup last week. He's averaging 13.8 points and 8.6 rebounds in that span.

"Even if I'm not over the rim dunking like I used to be, I think my production can be the same," he said. "I was fortunate to watch Karl Malone and some other guys as they got older, and they got even harder to check, because now they were always thinking two or three steps ahead."

Coach Flip Saunders is aware that Webber has adjusted his game because of age and injuries, and thinks the veteran has clearly given Detroit a spark.

"Great players, they all have the ability to adapt their game," Saunders said. "A certain skill maybe changes. He's not the athlete that he maybe was but now he's got so much to his game down there."

Detroit has won four of six since Chauncey Billups returned to the lineup in Webber's debut Jan. 17. The Pistons dropped five of eight while Billups was out with a calf injury.

Billups is a major reason why Detroit has been able to limit Washington star guard Gilbert Arenas to a low shooting percentage this season. Arenas is averaging 24.3 points, but shooting under 39 percent in the first three meetings with the Pistons.

Helllooooooooooooooooooooooo?

I have a bad feeling about this game.

It's the front half of a B2B, if that is any solace.

If the Wiz don't drain fadeaway 20 footers all night, we could have a good chance, I suppose.

Its at their house and we might not get the win, but I still get the feeling we are about to get on a fairly impressive roll. Will it start tonight? I say yes.

Apart from Tay, we're sucking thus far.

Well, off to orchestra rehearsal and its 44-25. I'm expecting better when I get back. Quit sucking, D.

put flip murray in. whats the worst that can happen?


........ouch nevermind.[smilie=peepwall.gi:

I'm sorry but we need a legit back up PG. When Cbill goes out its impossible to run set offense consistently. We need a true pg to maximize our bench guys.

I hate channel 20 broadcasts. They are THE WORST. Not showing free throws. Graphic overlays that take up half the screen. Having the wrong camera live. Showing a closeup of someone involved in the last play while something is already happening on a different part of the court.

Cut to 8 by the MAN who is the Pistons

Cut to 8 by the MAN who is the Pistons


Dupree?

^^lol

Pistons shooting fast and trying to be a scoring team<<<<<<<Pistons out the half court depending on smart shots and defense.

Cut to 8 by the MAN who is the Pistons and will no doubt get blamed if we lose.

wow, arenas just been pushing hunter off all game. then just pushed him out the way so he could shoot a 3 as the ref just stares into the darkness. fuck the nba matrix.

Stevenson was NOT the person I was worried about. He ended up hurting us qab.

Fuck-a-buckeycable! I don't get MYTV20.

Good call Glennnn.

We are 2-2 with Wiz...I think.

February is where we richter.

we are still one player away from contending.

Which is why the CW signing has the potential to be a HUGE signing for us. In JoeD I trust.

we needed more minutes for j-max tonight. not that he would've been THE answer. but i keep on saying it- he brings energy and intensity that the team needs. not to mention the athleticism.

he did not touch the ball ONCE on offense in the few minutes he was in the game. he is a perfect matchup against etan thomas yet we glued him to the bench most of the time.

anyway, billups had a deceiving 24 points. about 8 of those were garbage buckets. he made some HORRIBLE decisions with the ball and i don't believe the stat line that he only had 5 turnovers.

we should have gone to prince more when he was hot.

dice blew 2 wide open layups in a row, then an easy dunk when he was all alone. hunter threw the ball to him on a break and nobody was within 30 feet of dice. he tried to turn and dunk it before he even caught the ball and it went out of bounds.

we were VERY sloppy in this game, as if we had just started the season.

we need to get our head out of our asses. or joe needs to make a move before february 22nd to give us a shot. because this team is just playing totally uninspired ball right now.

we need to do SOMETHING to shake things up.

we needed more minutes for j-max tonight..
i respectfully disagree times ten. It woulda been nice, but it wasnt a deciding factor, the deciding factor was that stretch we were slumping w/o billups and webber out. It exposed our biggest problem, no set up guy guy to get the ball to people. Either give delfino a try at it or get a legit PG. but it has to be addressed.

when did i say it was a deciding factor? i said just the opposite. we lost for a host of other reasons. but he does need more minutes and would help especially in a matchup with thomas. he puts other teams in the penalty quickly.

but this is a game we lost because of a lack of focus, careless ball handling, porous defense, and lack of overall execution.

and BTW- while he did SOME nice things, billups was a big part of why we lost tonight too. he was very careless with the ball and just did not seem focussed. when he's directing the team as he can and should, we are twice the team we were tonight.

even when he was in, he was not his usual self and we were struggling as a result. a true backup PG would help for sure, but it would've helped more if billups and a couple others had been on their game tonight.

when did i say it was a deciding factor? i said just the opposite. we lost for a host of other reasons. but he does need more minutes and would help especially in a matchup with thomas. he puts other teams in the penalty quickly.

but this is a game we lost because of a lack of focus, careless ball handling, porous defense, and lack of overall execution.

and BTW- while he did SOME nice things, billups was a big part of why we lost tonight too. he was very careless with the ball and just did not seem focussed. when he's directing the team as he can and should, we are twice the team we were tonight.

even when he was in, he was not his usual self and we were struggling as a result. a true backup PG would help for sure, but it would've helped more if billups and a couple others had been on their game tonight.
for every bad play he made two-three big plays. I never said he was perfect, but he was far from the reason we loss and we were way better with him in than out.

i guess we saw a different game. IMO billups only started making big plays or big shots once we were down a bunch. and we never got back closer than 7 points because of the hole we dug early on.

so if you want to credit him for keeping it from staying a huge blowout, go ahead then. but the way i saw it, his early turnovers and lack of direction of the offense was a big part (but obviously not the only reason) why we got behind so much early and never got back in it.

he had no 'command' of the game IMO. look, i'm not killing the guys cause i love him and 9 times out of 10, or more, he's on his game and an incredible floor presence. but this was just not one of those nights.

the team very often follows his lead, as we saw when he was out. we never had any direction or composure tonight and billups is usually the guy who sets the tone in that department.

we definitely saw a different game then. I'm very sure I saw us ready to lose big until he came in and took the pg duty away from flip ISO Murray. Again for every bad play he makes 2-3 good ones. has always been his montage since we've had him. I'm not saying he had his best game, but he wasn't a big part of us losing. In fact if anything was it was our horrible transition defense us as a team settling for longer shots than we did last game against them.

Either way agree to disagree.[smilie=peepwall.gi:

We sucked in general. We didn't pass the ball very well and had way too many turnovers. Our bench didn't play enough (again) and C. Webb didn't have a very good game. You know that I don't like Sheed and he was pretty bad too. He was out at the three point line for most of the game and didn't try for many rebounds. That wouldn't be awful except for the fact that he didn't get back enough and got beaten for half a dozen fast breaks. I think theWiz showed that this team still has a lot of work to do.

I hope Joe D hears about Eddie Jordan talking smack after beating us (again).

Time to shake shit up a bit

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/012007/01312007/255301


Aside from Jamison's injury, the win was one of the Wizards' most impressive of this season. It was their second win over the Pistons in the last five days-they took a 99-96 victory in Detroit last Friday-and it ended the season series in a 2-all tie.

After the game, Jordan was initially tentative in his critique of the Pistons. "Are we done with them?" he asked, referring to the season series.

The crowd in the media room affirmed that was the case.

"Then we kicked their butts," Jordan said, smiling.

i guess we saw a different game. IMO billups only started making big plays or big shots once we were down a bunch. and we never got back closer than 7 points because of the hole we dug early on.

so if you want to credit him for keeping it from staying a huge blowout, go ahead then. but the way i saw it, his early turnovers and lack of direction of the offense was a big part (but obviously not the only reason) why we got behind so much early and never got back in it.
Chauncey in the 1st quarter sucked HARD, then was ok (if not super-great) afterwards. That was some of the worst basketball I'd seen in awhile -- we were just blown the fuck away, except for Tayshaun who nutted up.

Lindsey in the 2nd quarter sucked just as hard as Chauncey did in the 1st. Of course, Lindsey was subbed in along with an entire 2nd unit (FlipM played). The Wizards slowly oozed their starters in, by contrast. The most damage was done when Arenas came back in against Lindsey in the 2nd quarter.

DeShawn Stevenson killed us, and that's what bugs me. Normally, he's good for at least a few bonehead plays to undo whatever good he did, but no so this time. <sigh>

Somebody want to post an OGT for tonight's game?

Either way agree to disagree.[smilie=peepwall.gi:

hell no! i am not agreeing to that! wait, i think i just did.....by disagreeing with your agreement to agree to disagree, i in fact agreed to disagree about agreeing. got it?

Somebody want to post an OGT for tonight's game?
i got it. A shot of bourbon and two whores will get me ion the right mind for it.:yingyang: