<div align="center"> <span style="font-size:24pt;line-height:100%">@</span> November 10, 2006 - 10:30 pm ET<span style="color:#FF0000">Game aired on ESPN</span></div> <span style="color:#3333FF">Detroit Pistons</span> <span style="color:#FF0000">(2-3)</span><span style="color:#FF0000">PG</span> <span style="color:#3333FF">Chauncey Billups</span> <span style="color:#FF0000">SG</span> <span style="color:#3333FF">Rip Hamilton</span> <span style="color:#FF0000">SF</span> <span style="color:#3333FF">Tayshaun Prince</span> <span style="color:#FF0000">PF</span> <span style="color:#3333FF">Rasheed Wallace</span> <span style="color:#FF0000">C</span> <span style="color:#3333FF">Nazr Mohammed</span> <span style="color:#FF0000">Key Bench Players:</span> <span style="color:#3333FF">Antonio McDyess, Flip Murray, Carlos Delfino, Jason Maxiell, Lindsey Hunter</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Los Angeles Lakers</span> <span style="color:#FFCC00">(4-2)</span><span style="color:#FFCC00">PG</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Smush Parker</span> <span style="color:#FFCC00">SG</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Kobe Bryant</span> <span style="color:#FFCC00">SF</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Luke Walton</span> <span style="color:#FFCC00">PF</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Lamar Odom</span> <span style="color:#FFCC00">C</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Andrew Bynum</span> <span style="color:#FFCC00">Key Bench Players:</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Kwame Brown, Vladimir Radmanovic, Brian Cook, Maurice Evans, Ronny Turiaf, Jordan Farmar</span> Injury Report<span style="color:#FFCC00">LAL:</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Chris Mihm will not play (right ankle)</span> Who To Watch Out For<span style="color:#3333FF">Chauncey Billups</span><span style="color:#FF0000">Season Stats: 17.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 7.4 apg</span><span style="color:#3333FF">Rasheed Wallace</span><span style="color:#FF0000">Season Stats: 11.6 ppg, 10.4 rpg, 1.8 bpg</span><span style="color:#3333FF">Rip Hamilton</span><span style="color:#FF0000">Season Stats: 22.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.2 apg, 1.4 spg</span><span style="color:#3333FF">Tayshaun Prince</span><span style="color:#FF0000">Season Stats: 10.8 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 3.2 apg</span><span style="color:#6600CC">Kobe Bryant</span><span style="color:#FFCC00">Season Stats: 21.8 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 5.5 apg, 1.3 spg</span><span style="color:#6600CC">Lamar Odom</span><span style="color:#FFCC00">Season Stats: 20.2 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 5.3 apg</span><span style="color:#6600CC">Luke Walton</span><span style="color:#FFCC00">Season Stats: 15.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.3 spg</span> Rookie Watch <span style="color:#FFCC00">LAL:</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Jordan Farmar</span><span style="color:#000000">Overall Selection: 26</span><span style="color:#FFCC00">Season Stats:</span> <span style="color:#6600CC"> 5.2 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 1.7 apg</span> <span style="color:#3333FF">Detroit's X-Factor</span><span style="color:#3333FF">Nazr Mohammed</span><span style="color:#FF0000">Season Stats: 9.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 1.8 bpg</span><span style="color:#3333FF">Bynum has been awesome, but he's still young. Kwame is back, but not 100%. Nazr needs to take advantage of this and post a near-double-double performance like he did the first 3-4 games.</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">LA's X-Factor</span><span style="color:#6600CC">Kwame Brown</span><span style="color:#FFCC00">Last Season's Stats: 7.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 0.6 bpg, 53% FG (Has not played yet this year)</span><span style="color:#6600CC">Kwame is back, and I'm already putting pressure on him. Detroit has no real center off the bench, Kwame could have a good game if he is close to normal-strength. He's due for a big season, fellas. Watch out.</span> Key Matchup vs. <span style="color:#3333FF">Rip Hamilton</span> <span style="color:#000000">vs.</span> <span style="color:#6600CC">Kobe Bryant</span><span style="color:#000000">Kobe is the best player in the game and Rip is an All-Star caliber 2-guard himself. It will be a good test to see if Kobe can keep up with chasing Rip all night (I think he will, he's never had problems before defensively), and we'll see how well Rip can handle Kobe.</span> CelticBalla's Extra Thoughts/NotesI love watching both these teams play, and I'm excited Kwame Brown is back. Sheed could have a big night after being pissed about an 0-9 zero points performance on Wednesday. CelticBalla's PredictionI think Detroit will take it. I could see it go either way, and I think Kobe will go for 35, but Detroit is playing terrible lately and they are due for a good game. They need to get their act together soon.
Detroit needs this win right now. We are coming out of the gates slow, getting used to being without Ben Wallace and it shows. Our interior defense isn't that good right now, and if we can shut down the Lakers bigs along with Odom in the post I think the rest will take care of itself, and the Pistons will get a muich needed win.
I think this game will go to the Pistons - we haven't played piston basketball all season, and I think it's due that we start playing a little better. Hopefully we can Chauncey to do really well against a much weaker PG. Tayshaun definetly needs to step his game up, also - he usually has decent games against the Lakers.
Pistons will take this one. We may be off to a slow start, possibly because of Ben's departure. But we need to start playing as a team and meshing well. Chauncey needs to bring out the MVP type game that we know he's capable of and lead this team because right now we look very sloppy and we need a wily veteran that can pull the reigns together. As for the game goes, we need to keep Kobe under 35 and I see us taking it because I don't believe the Lakers have enough contributing factors to hang with us.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pistonz4life @ Nov 10 2006, 10:06 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't believe the Lakers have enough contributing factors to hang with us.</div>I do. Kobe is Kobe, Odom is a boarderline All-Star, Luke Walton has been excellent, Andrew Bynum is playing great, Kwame is back, they are a good defensive team, and they have a better overall bench than Detroit. And a much better coach, AND the game is in LA.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticBalla32 @ Nov 10 2006, 11:31 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I do. Kobe is Kobe, Odom is a boarderline All-Star, Luke Walton has been excellent, Andrew Bynum is playing great, Kwame is back, they are a good defensive team, and they have a better overall bench than Detroit. And a much better coach, AND the game is in LA.</div>Yeah, that pretty much sums up the game. :beerchug: Look for this game to be a good one though.
Wow....we played horrible. Odom was ejected for throwing his wrist band (reminiscant of Carmelo) and was just not agressive the whole game. :no1: Smush played HORRIBLE. He missed almost every shot he took and made some very bad passes. Kobe's knee is still very much bothering him..he was able to play through it, especially in the 4th quarter but just isn't the same Kobe. I am just very dissapointed in the Lakers tonight. All they did was stand around and pass the ball, it was like they had never seen a Zone defense before.
Kobe bryant is stopping himself. Period. The knee is fine to dominate on. He had 17 points in 8 minutes.
Big win. Tayshuan played lights out in the second half, Chauncey had a good night, Rasheed played well, and Flip filled in nicely for Rip. We were great on defense as well. But the most important aspect of last night, though, was that we played like a team. And lets continue it and see if we can get another Central Division title back in Detroit. And looking way ahead if we play like last night I see no one beating us and smooth sailing to the championship.
The only Laker that really played well, for each players' standards, was Jordan Farmar (I really like this kid, you guys got somewhat of a steal late in the 1st round). Kobe sucked all night until the 4th, Odom was ehh, Walton was ok, Bynum didn't do anything great (not what he has been doing anyway), like LakersFan said Smush sucked, the bench wasn't too impressive except maybe Brian Cook did ok. Not a good game by LA, but a real good win for Detroit, especially without Rip.Three more things/observations to point out:1. Tayshaun Prince was on fiiiiiyaaaa2. I thought this was supposed to be Kwame's comeback night?3. Sucks about Mihm (I heard the news about him being out 5-8 months), but hey at least Bynum will develope faster. Nobody expected him to be where he's at this year.
<span style="font-family:Tahoma">Well, Kobe showed signs of "return". He dropped 17 points in the 4th quarter. However, he had 19 points in total.</span>
Our Zone Defense was killing the Lakers last night. That's the thing I was most proud of, plus Tayshaun Prince finally stepped up and played really well.
Tayshaun Prince was amazing. Who said he couldn't score? I agree with Melo though. I think Kobe's got to stop caring what people think about him and just play. His knee isn't 100% but from what he did in the 4th it's obvious he can still ball on it. It seems like he's caught up in the media, "Should I shoot? Should I pass? What should I do?". He's got to just take the game if they start going down big. It doesn't matter what people say, just take control of the offense.
