<font color="Orange">Phoenix Suns</font> (12-20) @ <font color="Red">Detroit Pistons</font> (19-13) Friday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern The Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, Michigan Previous Games: <font color="Red">Pistons</font> 78 <font color="Black">Blazers</font> 71 <font color="Orange">Suns</font> 113 <font color="Red">Clippers</font> 105 Season Series: The Detroit Pistons lead the season series 1-0. They defeated the Suns 100-91 in their previous game. Probable Starters: <font color="Orange">Suns</font> C- Jake Voskuhl PF- Donnel Harvey SF- Shawn Marion SG- Joe Johnson PG- Stephon Marbury <font color="Red">Pistons</font> C- Mehmet Okur PF- Ben Wallace SF- Tayshaun Prince SG- Richard Hamilton PG- Chauncey Billips Players to Watch: <font color="Orange">Suns:</font> Stephon Marbury. This may be an obvious choice since people are keeping a keen eye on him every game anyway, but this game will be more important. Marbury's game is based on penetration to the basket, will he be as persistent in doing so against Big Ben Wallace? Marbury can't allow Wallace to throw him off of his game. If Marbury does what he usually does then the Suns will have a good chance to win. <font color="Red">Pistons:</font> Corliss Williamson. The big man off of the bench for the Pistons can have an enormus impact on the game. Him coming off the bench will give the Suns' frontcourt players no rest during a game because if one nuisance goes on the bench, then another will just be coming right back in. Williamson was able to score and rebound off of Portland's impressive frontcourt, for the Suns' sake they should hope that he doesn't repeat his twelve points (on 6-7 shooting) and ten rebounds performance against them tonight. Best Matchup: Though it may not be very exciting offensively, Donnel Harvey and Ben Wallace will be the matchup to keep an eye on. We all know that Wallace is great at crashing the boards, but Harvey isn't too shabby a rebounder himself. His sole job will be to force Wallace to work harder for his rebounds and to steal a few rebounds away from Wallace. Their battle under the boards should be interesting to watch. Keys to the Game: <font color="Orange">Suns:</font> Though the Pistons do have Ben Wallace, the team as a whole isn't particularly great at rebounding. They are decent, but not great. What the Suns have to do is keep the Pistons from looking like a great rebounding team. Letting the opponent grab offensive rebounds is a huge problem for the Suns, so there are two choices the Suns have. One, take good shots and make easy baskets. That's easier said than done against this Pistons team. Choice number two is more likely to be what the Suns need to take, which is have everyone crash the boards to try and minimize any chances of the Pistons getting offensive boards. <font color="Red">Pistons:</font> The Suns are great at starting off well and floundering as the game progesses. What the Pistons should so is pick up the defensive intensity from the get-go and make the Suns flouder earlier than usual. Letting the Suns get off to a decent offensive start against the Pistons defense might prove costly to the Pistons, who still have the record streak going of not allowing their opponents to score 100 points in a game. Basically the Pistons need to play the game they have played all year. Big Ben and Billups need to stress not letting Marbury into the paint, and Tayshaun needs to stress not letting Marion go baseline. Usually when Marion goes baseline he skies high for the dunk or finds some other way to get the ball to the basket. Outcome: This game is going to be really tough for the Suns, who are riding a two game winning streak that could've been three had it not been for Ricky Davis. However, the Suns have had some recent success against a great defensive team in the Rockets. They were able to score in big spurts and go on big runs to get over 100 points. The Suns have also played great as of late in the Pistons' arena. Here's hoping the Suns start the new year off with a bang. Suns by 5.
Anyone else have some predictions on how the game will go? I'm really hoping the Suns will be able to pull off 100. Being able to do that against the Pistons should make the Suns confidence sky high as the return of Amare and Zarko gets closer and closer.
Well, I think the Suns won't get 100. Sure, you have been great at the Palace lately, but so were the Blazers. The Suns need Amare to be able to compete with the Pistons as the Suns have nobody that can match up to our rebounding giants. Harvey might take a few from Ben, but if Ben wanted he could get 20. Then Okur could get another 15. Too bad Wallace doesn't have anybody to take out of the game, scoring wise. The only chance the Suns have is if the Pistons have one of their famous starts, where we shoot 0-25 the first 10 minutes of the quarter. Pistons by 6, conservative. Pistons by 12, realistic.
Pistons point of view here If Suns score 100 points tonight I will be shocked...and thats an understatement
Another fact: The Suns are 3-0 when I have made a game preview. Keep the streak alive! I know it's a longshot that the Suns win the game, but more surprising things have happened. The Suns are on a bit of a hot streak and don't want to let it up. The game is about to start in a few minutes, hopefully the Suns can pull through.
Basketball is a game of opportunities and taking advantage of the opportunities at hand. If you want to keep the game summary as of right now short, you can just say that the Pistons are taking advantage of their opportunities and the Suns are not. The Suns have five turnovers as of right now. I don't have the numbers at hand right now, but I'd be willing to get that the Pistons have scored on each and every one of these. The Suns have not gotten back on defense to stop the Pistons on their fast break and as a result the game has been like a layup line for the Pistons. Every loose ball also seems to be getting into the Pistons' hands, especially when they are battling for the offensive boards. The Suns haven't done a bad job of grabbing rebounds against hte Pistons, which is great. They just need to keep it up. Marion has done an amazing job on the glass and Joe Johnson has been solid as usual. Hardaway is proving his worth off of the bench with 11 points. The Suns have allowed the Pistons to make some big runs, but luckily for the Suns the Pistons have allowed the Suns to make some runs in return. The shooting has been horrible for the Suns, but that's because they are not penetrating like they have to in order to make Ben Wallace work. When the Suns have had opportunities to score down low they have taken advantage of it for the most part. Jahidi White and Voskuhl have done great jobs in making the Pistons frontcourt work man-to-man. Another thing killing the Suns in the ability of the Pistons' big men to hit the outside shot. Elden Campbell hit a couple of jumpers to keep the Pistons ahead and Mehmet has a shot or two from midrange. Marbury has scored when needed to, whether it be from the free throw line or just taking whatever shot he can create. Speaking of free throws, the Suns lead the Pistons in that department thirteen to five. Hopefully they can keep it up in the second half. Marion has gotten some easy looks on the inside for a couple dunks. One thing I've noticed lately though is that he has a tendency to miss easy fast break layups. Other than that his game has been flawless through the first half. Pistons up 51-48.
Man, the Suns need to play some serious D in the second half. EJ pointed out that they are undefeated when they score 100+. Marbury hasn't been shooting to well, I expect him to pick up the scoring as well as Marion. If the Suns can get a few stops and jump up to a 6-8 point lead then they will take this one. Hopefully, they won't melt down in the 4th. GO SUNS!!!
Suns lose this one. They just let things fall apart in the second half. Too many second chance points, too many quick shots, not enough penetration. They had a big advantage from the free throw line going into the second half but they blew that by settling for the outside jumpers. The Suns just gave up on rebounds in the second half. It really was a pathetic effort. Marion only had a couple reboudns in the second half after getting nine in the first half. Actually, Marion disappeared completely in the second half. Harvey was battling an injury so he didn't play much. Penny was a boost of of the bench, and JJ didn't really make much of a splash. Barbosa did well in the minutes given, but it was too little too late. That about sums it up. The Suns took too many quick shots, didn't a horrible job on the boards, and just plain out didn't give an effort in the second half. Pistons sweep the season series 2-0.
Well, we win by 12. My realistic prediction was right. Good game, the Pistons were able to keep it out of reach and play well through the stretch. I was also right about Ben Wallace getting 20, he got 22 to be exact. In my preview, I said that Darko would get some playing time. I was right about that too! (15 seconds still counts, even if nothing happens in that time) Good game, and good win for the Pistons! Now we should be able to go on that long winning streak. At four games and counting now!
