Richard Hamilton begins new life as bench player tonight against Raptors
Essentials
Teams: Detroit Pistons at Toronto Raptors
Date: Dec. 22, 2010
Time: 7 p.m.
Television: Fox Sports Detroit
Records
Pistons: 9-19
Raptors: 10-18
Probable starters
Pistons:
Raptors:
- Jerryd Bayless
- DeMar DeRozan
- Sonny Weems
- Amir Johnson
- Andrea Bargnani
Las Vegas projection
Spread: Pistons +5.5
Over/under: 207.5
Score: Raptors win, 106.5-101
Three things to watch
1. Richard Hamilton coming off the bench
Richard Hamilton is entering a new stage of his career – being a bench player. All eyes will be on him tonight to see how he handles it.
2. New starting lineup
Starting Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva worked against the Hornets after some early kinks. Will the new starters gel better than the previous ones? We’ll get a better, although I’m sure still incomplete, look tonight.
3. Tracy McGrady’s return to Toronto
It seems like half these game previews mention Tracy McGrady returning to a city, but no city hates him more than Toronto.
He hasn’t fared well there, either. In 12 games at Toronto as a member of the visiting team, McGrady hasn’t shot .500 once.
Pregame Reading
- Raptor Republic’s latest podcast includes a preview of tonight’s game.
- Larry Brown is out in Charlotte. Would the Pistons have any interest in hiring him this summer?
- Sean of Life On Dumars notes Brown’s departure makes the Bobcats less likely to trade for Richard Hamilton or Tayshaun Prince.
- Kevin Sawyer of Detroit Bad Boys previews tonight’s game.
- Jamie Samuelson thinks it will be extremely difficult to trade Richard Hamilton.
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Dec 22, 2010 • 7:16 pm
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Dec 22, 2010 • 8:05 pm
by gmehl1977
Interesting fact of the day: Of the 62 games Hamilton and Gordon have played together both have scored 15 or more points in the same game on only 7 occasions. Maybe i should of written it as obvious fact!
Dec 22, 2010 • 8:34 pm
by Patrick Hayes
Hope Toronto enjoyed that first half from T-Mac.
Dec 22, 2010 • 8:44 pm
by detroitpcb
well, now we know what Ben Gordon will do in the starting lineup. But i really like Rip & T-Mac paired together and i’m sure Gordon will improve – but when he is missing wide open shots and then takes those one on one high degree of difficulty shots he is not a pretty sight
Dec 22, 2010 • 10:39 pm
by ds
I loved Rip and T-Mac as well – but I’d rather BG and CV weren’t both moved to starters at the same time. To me they are both guys who usually catch on the perimeter and can make something happen, and you don’t need two guys that can do that. I think both would be more effective being THAT guy on different squads – at least most of the time.
But wow did T-Mac and Rip look good together, and Will feeds Rip better than stuckey as well.
Stuckey didn’t have many assists, but he tried in the first quarter and everyone else shot like crap. So it was hit the rim for a layout or let someone else miss.
That was a FUN game to watch. :-)