Nets @ Pistons PREVIEW New Jersey Nets (14-13) @ Detroit Pistons (16-12) Previous Game Pistons 78 @ Bucks 83 Bulls 78 @ Nets 95 Streaks Pistons-Lost 1 Nets-won 1 Head Coaches Bryon Scott/Larry Brown Probable Starters Jason Kidd /Chauncey Billups Kerry Kittles/Richard Hamilton Richard Jefferson/Tayshaun Prince Kenyon Martin/Ben Wallace Jason Collins/Mehmet Okur 6th Men lucious_harris/Corliss Williamson Players To Watch Kenyon Martin/Ben Wallace Martin: 17.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.36 Steals, 1.41 Blocks Wallace: 9.4 points, 12.80 rebounds, 1.89 steals, 3.30 Blocks Injury Lists New Jersey Nets Brandon Armstrong Zoran Planinic Detroit Pistons Hubert Davis Lindsey Hunter Darvin Ham Keys To The Game Nets -Need Jason Kidd to get his team-mates involved early.Take Billups to the basket.Make sure they don't try and play at Pistons pace.Get their fast break going from the world go.Martin and Jefferson need to get going early if Nets are to pull off what seems lately to be a rare road win.Role players such as Harris,Rogers,Kittles need to hit their open shots.If they are hitting them it could be a long night for the Pistons.On defense a must for them is to make sure Chauncey Billups doesn't get hot from outside.He has struggled lately as have all the Pistons so letting him build his confidence could mean trouble.As when on form he can be one of the most dangerous shooters in the NBA.Controlling the boards is also a key for NJ..Martin and Collins need to do a good job inside making sure Ben Wallace and Memo Okur don't dominate on the glass.As It is quite possible those two guys alone can get 30 between them. Pistons -Pistons need badly to get some offense going early as lately the offense has been hard to come by.Feed the ball to Okur inside so he can get some easy shots and hopfully get Martin in foul trouble which will help the cause with Martin bein such a good defender.I keep saying this game after game but Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton need to score in the range of 20 each at least.The play of Chucky Atkins off the bench will be key.He has had some pretty decent games lately including some big threes that got Pistons close against the Bucks the other night.Corliss Williamson needs to come to play and go to work inside.He has the body to continue to do that.At times it seems he isn't always willing to do what he can do.Any extra offense from Ben Wallace could also go along way to getting the victory on which the Pistons so badly need at this stage of the season. Allnet's Prediction-It's a home game so I expect Pistons to come out strong and try to prove a point to the defending east champions.The crowd will need to get into it early..They always give the team a boost no matter what stage of the game it is.Pistons need this one badly...they are at home.Nets have struggled all season but mainly on the road so my prediction Pistons by 6
I'm still new here, but damn I love the previews we get for the games. Great stuff. I think the Pistons have to win this one. They eventually have to get out of this slump, and waiting till the all-star break will not be good enough. I expect Billups and Hamilton to set the pace early on. Ben and Okur should be able to protect the boards so that the Nets don't have too many second chance points. Another key for us is to limit wasting minutes by playing ineffective players. If somebody isn't performing up to expectations, take them out. The Pistons are not the type of team that can keep shooting to end a shooting slump. If Billups, Hamilton, and Atkins combine for 40 or more, then we should win comfortably. This is not too hard because Atkins has played very well recently, and should be able to throw in 10 to 15. Billups and Hamilton need to get their confidence back and make some shots. We should be able to get an early lead going because it is a home game. The only problem is keeping onto the lead, which we have had trouble doing for a while. All in all, I predict a win for the Pistons by 7.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting PyroManiac:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm still new here, but damn I love the previews we get for the games. Great stuff.</div> Glad you like them I will try my best to do a preview for every game.All depends on how much time I have.Tell your friends :mrgreen: need as many Pistons fans in here as possible so making these Previews are worth while.
Yeah, I've noticed that the Pistons board doesn't really have too many active posters. Don't think I can tell any of my friends though, they wouldn't fit into the community. They wouldn't really stick around, and they argue too much. Looks like I'll be the only Pistons fan on the boards for a while.
Yes I expect that to be the case as well for a while.Although I hope the more previews that I do.. the more Pistons fans come here and post.
Atleast, after we get some more Piston fans I could be known as "THE" Piston fan, as I was the first. It could even be in my sig. Then they would all ask how I survived all alone and I would go . In reality I have no problem being the only fan. This way I don't have to argue with people that think that our team is not playing poorly right now. All right, I think that I need some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow.
Let's hope so. Maybe when the Pistons get out of their slump and start to dominate some teams it will happen or when Darko finally scores 10 total points in his career. (half way there)
This should be a great game. The Billups Vs. Kidd matchup could be key. It's basicly a tossup in my view, but I will take the hometeam. Detroit by 3
Let's make the preview interesting by a Nets fan. hehehe Jason Kidd is inspired these days. Richard Jefferson is coming off a hot game and K-Mart is starting to get those double doubles. Kittles is an above average defender who can limit Rip's production. Nets by 5.
K-Mart won't be getting that double-double tonight going up against Ben. Kittles is an average defender, but if Hamilton can run off screens all night, nobody will stop him. He is just too quick, especially for Kittles. As I said before, Pistons by 7.
Well, I have only one question about the game: What has happened to Billups? They should have let Ben take the 3 at the end, in the past 2 games he was 1-1 in cluth situations! But what is there to say about Billups, 5-15, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 turnovers. That's not going to get it done. What happened to the Pistons' Mr. Clutch?
It was a good down to the wire. I thought when Martin got faked out Billups was going hit that shot. Nice win for the Nets, they blew a lead, then came back and took the lead. Thats the way the Nets need to play execpt not blow the lead.
Pistons really do need a trade and quick.The offense is a joke...Larry Brown's coaching style is really bad right now.His system is not working the way it did last season with Carisle.Difference is Rick used his players to play to their strengths...Brown is not doing that.He is making the Pistons players play different kind of ball than to what he should...He seems to set up more plays for Ben Wallace than Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton Speaking of Billups He was playing like an all-star early in the season then suddenly he doesn't want to shoot and is throwing up alot of bricks when he does.What happened to the Chauncey Billups who hit over 5-8 game winners last season? or the guy who was known for big shots late in games? He so far is missing..and so are the Pistons. Preview for tomorrow's game against the Hawks will follow <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Detroit Pistons 78 New Jersey Nets 82 Kidd had 24 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds for his league-leading fifth triple-double, and the New Jersey Nets held on for a 82-79 win over the Detroit Pistons on Friday night. Kidd made all six of his free throws in the final 1:13, and Chauncey Billups missed two 3-pointers in the final seconds. Kidd shot 7-of-18, including 4-of-5 on 3-pointers, and Richard Jefferson scored 27 for the Atlantic Division-leading Nets, who have won eight of 10. The reeling Pistons have lost seven of nine. Detroit's Richard Hamilton scored 20 and Billups had 15, but the backcourt duo made just 13 of 34 shots. Ben Wallace grabbed 18 rebounds and scored 12 points for his 11th double-double with a season-high five assists</div> Recap Box Score
I think this game defined the meaning of inconsistency. The Pistons scored more in the 3rd quarter, than in the first half. We showed that we have an offense, but it is in a deep sleep for most of the game. We showed that we have a defense, but that it is also sleeping. Larry Brown has to make some changes. While the Pistons have to be able to hit open shots, we should not be running our offense through Ben Wallace. Last year, when he got the ball, he usually passed it. Now I respect that he wants to score, but he is not TMac and he cannot drive past 3 defenders and dunk the ball. This year he is scoring only a few points more, but is taking a lot more shots. He is shooting 40%, no PF/C should shoot under 45%. A lot of our bench is useless. At the beginning of the year, we were told that we had one of the deepest benches in the league. Well, that has obviously was a false statement. Bob Sura, the man supposed to replace Jon Barry, our enery giving, three-pointer dropping bench player. Well, I'm pretty sure playing 5 minutes and having an empty stat line does not do very much. Fowlkes only played 7 minutes, also no points and had an assist cancelled out by a turnover. Zelly played 9 minutes, had 5 boards, but did not produce on the offensive end. Elden didn't play. I'm glad that these players played less tonight, but it did not change the outcome. In reality, our "deep" bench is Corliss and Atkins, and of course some injured players like Hunter and Darvin Ham. In an interview, Joe Dumars said that Darko isn't supposed to be the savior of the team this year. Well, we need a savior. I think it is time to play Darko.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting PyroManiac:</div><div class="quote_post">K-Mart won't be getting that double-double tonight going up against Ben.</div> Oh yes he will...and he did! He did a great job against Big Ben. K-Mart showed a lot of power. Did you see when he got the ball from the FT line and he banged Big Ben and pivoted and got a foul? Only a few guys on the league can do that. Great game by my Nets. I predicted a 5 point win but 3 is good. Once again Kidd showed maturity down the clutch and he did some pretty good defense against Rip. K-Mart also did a great job defensively against Billups when he took those three. Eventhough he was faked, he jumped again to contest the 2nd shot.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting InNETSweTrust:</div><div class="quote_post">Oh yes he will...and he did! He did a great job against Big Ben. K-Mart showed a lot of power. Did you see when he got the ball from the FT line and he banged Big Ben and pivoted and got a foul? Only a few guys on the league can do that. Great game by my Nets. I predicted a 5 point win but 3 is good. Once again Kidd showed maturity down the clutch and he did some pretty good defense against Rip. K-Mart also did a great job defensively against Billups when he took those three. Eventhough he was faked, he jumped again to contest the 2nd shot.</div> Yeah, all right he did. Good win, glad that you can rub it in? We played poorly and didn't deserve a win, it would have been robbery if we had gotten it. However, Billups would have knocked the first one down last year, not to mention the second one. As for K-Mart, I didn't realize he was that strong, I don't remember him banging against Ben last year like that. However, you can't say he did a great job against Ben, K-Mart had 11 points and 11 boards. 7 points less than his average. Then Ben exploded on him for 18 boards. Still, good game, and a good win. Don't worry, we'll beat you next time. :mrgreen:
