Detroit Pistons’ hot 3-point shooting should match up well against Phoenix Suns’ porous defense
Essentials
Teams: Detroit Pistons at Phoenix Suns
Date: Dec. 31, 2010
Time: 9 p.m.
Television: Fox Sports Detroit Plus
Records
Pistons: 11-21
Suns: 13-17
Probable starters
Pistons:
Suns:
- Steve Nash
- Vince Carter
- Grant Hill
- Channing Frye
- Robin Lopez
Las Vegas projection
Spread: Pistons +6.0
Over/under: 209.5
Score: Suns win, 106.25-103.25
Three things to watch
1. The Phoenix defense is worse than ever
Yahoo!’s Kelly Dwyer took on the Suns’ defense yesterday, and this was his take:
In the eyes of way too many people, Gentry is the guy who finally got the Suns playing defense last season, which couldn’t be further from the truth. All he did was slow the team down a little offensively, in literal terms. The Suns didn’t run as much, though they scored with great efficiency, and that limited the amount of points their opponents could put up. So on the surface, sure, the points allowed went down. But when you factored pace into the equation, the Suns were far, far worse under Gentry defensively than they were under Mike D’Antoni, who was roundly criticized for paying little attention to the defensive side of things when he coached the Suns from 2003-08.
The Pistons have shot better than 55 percent from three in two straight games, so if their shooters are on again, they should get their share of open looks against the Suns.
2. Will the Tracy McGrady rebirth continue?
McGrady will get another start as Stuckey’s stomach virus is reportedly still bothering him and kept him out of practice yesterday. The next step for McGrady is putting together two good games in a row. He should get another crack at significant minutes tonight, and if he performs well again, the Pistons will once again have a difficult decision for John Kuester to ponder.
3. Is that a favorable rebounding matchup for the Pistons?
Well, maybe not quite. The Pistons are last in the league in rebounding at 38.1 per game. But the team directly above them? Phoenix at 39.0 per game, and the Suns play at a faster pace with more possessions, so it’s conceivable the Pistons could actually not get destroyed on the boards for a change. They do, however, have to force the Suns to miss a few shots.
Pregame Reading
- Blashionista says Ben Wallace is one of the ‘Sexiest, Smartest and Most Charitable’ NBA ballers.
- Jared Wade lists some ‘remnants of the 1990s,’ including former Piston Grant Hill
- Maybe Prince isn’t as hard on Daye as some people (coach * DetroitPCB * cough) think he is
- SLAM’s Adam Figman catches up with John Salley
- Michael Schwartz previews the game for Valley of the Suns
Leave a Reply
Dec 31, 2010 • 7:54 pm
by detroitpcb
Prince just wanted Daye out of the lineup at the power forward position because of the added stress it put on the team defensively to have that extra rotation and double team. Prince has always had the luxury of having three good one on one defenders at that position.
don’t see why he should get so much credit for telling his coach to leave a hot player on the floor. isn’t that what a veteren is supposed to do? cough,
cough
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Dec 31, 2010 • 8:07 pm
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Dec 31, 2010 • 9:59 pm
by detroitpcb
@Hayes & Laser
that was some great on-ball defense by yr boy Will Bynum during the second quarter, huh? cough
Dec 31, 2010 • 11:23 pm
by Patrick Hayes
Gimme a break with the Bynum crap. He’s a backup point guard who is like 5-9 and makes $3.5 million a year. No one has ever said he doesn’t have flaws in his game.
But while we’re talking about defense, has your boy Daye ever met a pump fake he didn’t bite hard on?