Favorited! Detroit Pistons host New York Knicks

Essentials

Teams: Detroit Pistons vs. New York Knicks

Date: Nov. 28, 2010

Time: 1:30 p.m.

Television: Fox Sports Detroit

Records

Pistons: 6-10

Knicks: 8-9

Probable starters

Pistons:

• Rodney Stuckey
• Richard Hamilton
• Tayshaun Prince
• Jason Maxiell
• Ben Wallace

Knicks:

• Raymond Felton
• Landry Fields
• Danilo Gallinari
• Amar’e Stoudemire
• Ronny Turiaf

Las Vegas projection

Spread: Pistons –1.5

Over/under: 205.5

Score: Pistons win, 103.5-102

Three things to watch

1. The Pistons are favored!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe the Pistons have been favored yet this season. They’re coming off an impressive – at least by their standards – win over the Bucks. The Knicks aren’t a strong team. It makes sense Detroit is favored.

This will be a good chance to learn something about this team, how it handles being the front runner. I don’t expect the Pistons to be favored much more often this year, but this won’t be the last time. I’m curious how they’ll handle it.

2. Amar’e Stoudemire’s free throws

Amar’e is shooting worse and turning the ball the ball over more often than usual. But he’s hanging around his career scoring average because he’s getting to the charity stripe and making his free throws about as often as usual.

Can the Pistons keep Amar’e off the line and watch the rest of his offense game self destruct? Probably not, but they have someone with a chance to do it – Ben Wallace.

Wallace averages 1.8 fouls per 36 minutes, third lowest on the team behind Tayshaun Prince and Chris Wilcox (no fouls in seven minutes, so irrelevant). The Pistons haven’t relied on Wallace much this season, but against a team also competing for one of the East’s final playoff spots, now’s the time.

I’ll be disappointed if Wallace guards Turiaf rather than Amar’e.

3. Pace

No surprises here. A Mike D’Antoni team plays fast, and the Pistons play slow.

Honestly, this game could have a fast pace, and Detroit could still win. But the Pistons have a couple players – looking at you Rodney Stuckey and Charlie Villanueva – who can get carried away and sloppy in an up-and-down game. They can’t win if that happens.

Pregame Reading

• The Detroit News’ Vincent Goodwill calls Charlie Villanueva the Pistons’ most valuable player.
• The Pistons’ starting lineup won’t change today, according to Mike Brudenell of the Detroit Free Press.
• KnickerBlogger.net’s Mike Kurylo writes the Knicks gave up against the Hawks yesterday.

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