Detroit Pistons(3-2) @ Utah Jazz(4-1) Previous Game Pistons 109 @ Nuggets 117 Raptors 104 @ Jazz 95 Streaks Pistons: Lost 1 (3-2 in last ten) Jazz: Lost 1 (4-1 in last ten) Head Coaches vs. Probable Starters PG: vs. Billups vs. Mcleod SG: vs. Hamilton vs. Gericek SF: vs. Prince vs. Kirilenko PF: vs. Wallace vs. Boozer C: vs. McDyess vs. Collins 6th Men vs. Delfino vs. Bell Players to Watch vs. Wallace: 14.8 Points (.443 FG %), 1.6 Assists, 6.4 Rebounds, 1.4 Blocks Boozer: 19.2 Points (.529 FG %), 2.6 Assists, 9.8 Rebounds Injury Lists Detroit Pistons Smush Parker Horace Jenkins Ronald Dupree Ben Wallace - Personal Reasons (Death in family) Utah Jazz Raul Lopez Carlos Arroyo Aleksandar Radojevic Keys to the Game <u>Detroit Pistons:</u> <ul> [*]I REPEAT: Don't allow one or two players to beat you! (Make the whole damn team beat you, don't let 2 players go for 30+ each.) [*]Don't turn the ball over (We lost the game against the Nuggets because of 23 turnovers. Real simple: Hold on to the damn ball.) [*]Dominate the boards (On offense, we need to prevent Boozer from getting easy put backs. Also need to prevent AK47 from having a great line against us.) [*]Get good bench production (Carlos Delfino. Elden Campbell. Derrick Coleman. All three need to step it up in the absense of Ben Wallace. Carlos showed that he is the man the other game, will he do it again?) [*]Spread the ball around (Pistons are definately doing this quite well, as can be seen with each of the starters averaging 10+ points. Continue to do this through the whole game and Pistons should come out on top, just like they should have against the Nuggets.) [/list] <u>Utah Jazz:</u> <ul> [*]GO INSIDE (Look at the Nuggets, they won because they went inside. With no Ben Wallace to block the shot, Jazz need to almost force the ball inside on every possesion.) [*]Guard Hamilton (He led the Pistons in scoring during the last game. He still has his awesome away from ball movement and he needs to be guarded. He can make things very tough on the defense.) [*]Take good shots (Jazz have been pretty good so far at getting a good shot selection. Any team coached by Jerry Sloan does thath though. Continue to take good shots, and go in the paint.) [*]Try to keep Rasheed's production to a minimum (Sheed had a bad game against the Nuggets. His worst game as a Piston. He needs to rebound and score some points, block some shots, get some steals, etc.) [/list] PyroManiac's Prediction Sorry about the late preview. Notice how the keys to the game are the same as the Nuggets game. They were absolutely right, every single one last game. (Either something the team did or didn't do) and since nothing has really changed, the keys should stay the same. I included Billups in the lineup, because of hope, more or less. We can win without him, but I'm not currently aware of his status. Pistons need to win this. Falling to .500% is unacceptable. Our team needs to play some damn defense. We won the championship playing defense and we need to start again. Gar Heard needs to work out some better substitutions because the other game was horrible. Also, our bench does need to step it up. Other than Carlos Delfino, nobody had a particularly good night from the bench. Jazz need to go to their weapons of Boozer and AK47. I like AK47 and if he is going up against Prince, it will be an interesting matchup. Of course, it will be interesting to see Memo Okur suck it up another night. Glad he's gone and putting a dent in the Jazz's pockets. Pistons rebound and win by 7.
Nice preview :thumbsup: . It sounds like Matt Harpring will be out for the Jazz, and possibly Gordan Giricek. Harpring has swelling in his knee, the same knee that was surgically repaired. Giricek just has a hurt calf from the latest game. This was reported on a radio station in Utah, no link yet.
Utah is a much better defensive team than Denver. if Detroit makes careless turnovers like they did against Denver, Utah will capitalize and it won't be pretty. i hope Sheed can contribute and Delfino can continue to find his scoring niche. without Ben and LB, the Pistons really need to bear down and play like a championship team.
Chauncey is a game time decision, Larry still recovering, Ben with his family. Going to be really tough tonight. Saying that Jazz are without Harping,Giricek and maybe Arroyo? don't know if he's back yet.
Matt Harpring, Gordan Giricek and Carlos Arroyo are all listed as day to day but Harpring has declared himself unfit to play vs. the Pistons. Giricek and Arroyo are gametime decisions. Edit: Harpring is playing, can't of been as bad as he thought it was . Giricek is also playing, but not Arroyo.
i told ya, it's not going to be pretty. Utah scored 60 points in the half. there were times a team wouldn't score that many points in the entire game! ben, chauncey and LB......get well SOON!
Well, dissapointing loss. We didn't deserve to win that one, which is why we lost. Although, I made fun of Okur and he went and had a damn good game. I'm not going to make fun of any players again. We definately need Billups, Ben, and LB back or we won't be winning any more games this year.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting PyroManiac:</div><div class="quote_post">Well, dissapointing loss. We didn't deserve to win that one, which is why we lost. Although, I made fun of Okur and he went and had a damn good game. I'm not going to make fun of any players again. We definately need Billups, Ben, and LB back or we won't be winning any more games this year. </div> you need to make fun of the Piston's defense next game preview, ok? shouldn't be too hard
Considering how bad the Pistons played and who were missing, oh and how terrible the defense was. One bright spot... Antonio Mcdyess-18 points and 12 rebounds
Utah was playing like a perfect team and Mehmet came off the bench early to show the Pistons that they shouldn't have let him go with 19 pts and 7 rbds. And yeah the Pistons were not at their full strength they need Ben Wallace and Larry Brown back because without them the Pistons are just a team can't play good basketball consistently.
