Preview Details: Who: <font color="SeaGreen">Seattle Sonics</font> (9-10) vs <font color="RoyalBlue">Detroit Pistons</font>(14-9) Where: The Palace When: Fri, Dec 12th, 5pm TV: ESPN, KONG Projected Lineups: <font color="SeaGreen">Seattle</font> PG: Antonio Daniels/Brent Barry/Luke Ridnour SG: Brent Barry/Ronald Murray/Richie Frahm SF: Rashard Lewis/Ansu Sesay/Vladimir Radmanovic PF: Vladimir Radmanovic/Reggie Evans/Vitaly Potapenko C: Vitaly Potapenko/Calvin Booth/Jerome James Coached by Nate McMillan <font color="RoyalBlue">Detroit</font> PG: Chauncey Billups/Chucky Atkins SG: Richard Hamilton/Bobby Sura SF: Tayshaun Prince/Corliss Williamson/Tremaine Fowlkes PF: Ben Wallace/Corliss Williamson C: Elden Campbell/Mehmet Okur/Darko Milicic Coached by Larry Brown <font color="SeaGreen">Sonic Injury List:</font> Ray Allen: ankle, expected to miss 1 more week. Nick Collison: shoulder, season. <font color="RoyalBlue">Piston Injury List</font> Lindsay Hunter: on IL. Darvn Ham: on IL. Hubert Davis: on IL. Analysis: Coming in 0-3 on a roadtrip, having just given up 126 points in Boston and at least 100 in the other two, you don't want to visit the reigning East finalists. It doesn't matter that they've just come off a loss to Cleveland, because Detroit have a frontcourt that can mash Seattle's like potatoes, even without Darko "Sam Bowie" Milicic having an impact. The Sonics need someone to get hot and take a game apart right now. They need Lewis to stand up, Barry to lead and Radmanovic to find his shooting touch. Otherwise they're in trouble again. <font size="4">"You can only focus on one thing at a time right now. When we're giving up 33 points (in a quarter) and 126 (in a game), I don't care how much offense you've got, it's going to be hard to win that game." - Seattle coach Nate McMillan after a loss in Boston on Wednesday.</font> Key Factor: Seattle's scorers can't afford to be off tonight. Detroit's frontcourt is too good; Seattle would kill for a guy like Corliss Williamson in their frontcourt, and the Pistons have him off the bench. Seattle need to run, they need to fast break and they need to play the passing lanes and try and avoid the ball going inside. Wallace will gobble up anything at both ends, so the Sonics have to make sure they don't shoot a low percentage or take risky shots. Defense all starts with rebounding the basketball and making it tough for the opposition to get good looks. Detroit are one of the best at this, can Seattle turn their defensive woes around? Key Matchup: Brent Barry vs Chauncey Billups You are a captain of this ballclub and extremely important in the absence of Ray Allen. Brent Barry, it's time to stand up. Offensively, Barry needs to attack the rim and try and draw early fouls on Billups. He is the key to Detroit's offense, so Barry needs to disrupt his concentration and rythm. Posting up Hamilton will be the ideal situation too, as Barry has a strength advantage when Detroit switch. Defensively, Barry will seek help from Antonio Daniels to stop Billups' penetration, which can be deadly. As long as the Sonics are alert and switch to stop Hamilton getting open, double teaming Billups and trying to get the ball out of his hands as soon as possible is the key. X-Factors: <font color="SeaGreen">Seattle</font> Ronald Murray - has been a bit inconsistant since going to bench, but at the same time still has the ability to break a game open with quick scoring bursts. Still Seattle's most clutch player at the moment, Murray will need to penetrate at every opportunity and make sure he doesn't succumb to turning it over frequently. <font color="RoyalBlue">Boston</font> Corliss Williamson - a beast off the bench. Capable of beating up opponents inside and stroking the midrange jumper with consistency, he could potentially be Seattle's worst nightmare. This former 6th Man of the Year winner will give the Sonics no rest when their second unit comes out to play.
2 teams not playing very well of late, I'll go with the home team by a bucket in this one, knowing that anything can happen. Seattle needs defenders (and Ray back)
Im going with the upset, Seattle over Detroit. Remember the Pistons lost to the Sixers(no iverson) and Cavs in their last 2. So Seattle does have a great chance in this one.
I called it, Sonics win 93-72. The Pistons got there butts kicked. That must have have been frustrating for piston ans to watch.
The only good thing from a Pistons point of view was Darko scoring his first points in the NBA.Sad really....
Seattle 93 Detroit 72 Behind the hot hand of Brent Barry and the breaking out of a scoring slump by Rashard Lewis, the Seattle Sonics have broken a 4 game losing streak to thrash the Detroit Pistons at The Palace. Barry scored 18 on 7-9 shooting, including a perfect 4-4 from downtown, whilst adding 8 assists. Lewis connected on 33 points, and added 7 boards to break out of his rut. Barry set the tempo early with 11 first quarter points, as Seattle took an early double digit lead and didn't relinquish it, in an uncharacteristic performance by the Sonics. Seattle had four double digit scorers in the win, underlined by Lewis and Barry. Flip Murray continued his strong play off the bench by pouring in 19, whilst normally trigger-happy Vladimir Radmanovic shot 6-8 to finish with 14, whilst adding 6 rebounds. Antonio Daniels had 6 dimes, while Calvin Booth added 6 boards and 3 blocks off the pine before fouling out. For the Pistons, it was a sorry story. Ben Wallace registered a double-double with 14 and 11 (7 offensive), but Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton were the only other players in double figures, with 12 and 10 respectively. Corliss Williamson let the bench brigade with 8 and 4, much less than one would expect of him against Seattle. Seattle set themselves on the way, on national TV, with a 25-15 first period. The lead didn't drop below double digits after this one, despite being outscored 38-18 in the paint, and outscored the Pistons in every quarter. Detroit only broke 20 in one period, which was the second. The game also attracted controversy for Seattle's tactic of doubling Darko Milicic in the last few minutes of the game, despite being up by over 20. Darko still managed to score his first ever NBA points, but was made to work hard for them. Next Game: vs Bucks, Sunday, Dec 14, 12:30pm
man...I always miss the good games. grrr...haha. >.< Well at least we're 10-10 now....500, sweet........
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting anadagirlballer4strt:</div><div class="quote_post">man...I always miss the good games. grrr...haha. >.< Well at least we're 10-10 now....500, sweet........</div> It wasn't a good game.You didn't miss much.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting allnet:</div><div class="quote_post">It wasn't a good game.You didn't miss much.</div> haha...yeaa? you mean Pistons sucked that bad?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting anadagirlballer4strt:</div><div class="quote_post">haha...yeaa? you mean Pistons sucked that bad?</div>
