Time for another depressing Chauncey Billups return to Detroit
Essentials
Teams: Denver Nuggets at Detroit Pistons
Date: Jan. 26, 2011
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Television: Fox Sports Detroit Plus
Records
Pistons: 17-28
Nuggets: 26-18
Probable starters
Pistons:
Nuggets:
- Chauncey Billups
- Arron Afflalo
- Carmelo Anthony
- Kenyon Martin
- Nene
Las Vegas projection
Spread: Pistons +3
Over/under: 207
Score: Nuggets win, 105-102
Three things to watch
1. The Billups-Hamilton reunion.
We know Hamilton and Billups are BFFs, so maybe it will be good for Rip to have a sympathetic ear in town. It’s weird though. Billups returning to Detroit seemed like a huge deal last year. Now? The game’s not even on regular FSD, it’s on Fox Sports Detroit Plus.
2. Frontcourt matchups
Active big men have given the Pistons headaches the last two seasons and Denver features one of the league’s most active in Nene. Nene is shooting a ridiculous 65 percent from the field this year, and he’s stronger and more athletic than Monroe up front, so the Pistons will need another strong effort from Ben Wallace if they’re going to have any success in that matchup.
3. Will the defense continue?
The Pistons have played two straight good defensive games against good offensive teams, limiting the Suns to just 74 points and holding Orlando below their season average as well. Denver is another potent offense. In fact, the Nuggets lead the league in scoring at 107.7 points per game. If nothing else, this will be a matchup of two teams who have played pretty well of late in the face of immense off-court distractions.
Pregame Reading
- Kelly Dwyer is no fan of John Kuester’s communication habits
- Jason Maxiell, one of the worst values when comparing dollars and PER
- Basketball Prospectus talks boxscores
- Social Media Night is coming to the Palace
- Jason Richardson had a pretty sick dunk vs. Detroit
- If you didn’t see it, Kwame effing Brown had 13 points and 18 rebounds last night
- Detroit’s offensive and defensive ratings are virtually unchanged from last year (everyone point and laugh at Cleveland in the chart)
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Jan 26, 2011 • 7:05 pm
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Jan 26, 2011 • 8:15 pm
by detroitpcb
Tracy McGrady just bluntly echoed what some of us have been saying for the last two years: “Stuckey to me is not a point guard, he’s a shooting guard”.
Unfortunately Melo just hit Stucky with a cheap shoulder and Stuckey looks badly hurt
Jan 26, 2011 • 10:06 pm
by Fennis
Charlie V + Ben Gordon = sloppy basketball. How many off the ball fouls can two guys accumulate in a single season? The number of poor decisions made on a game by game basis is astounding.
Jan 27, 2011 • 1:15 am
by Laser
loved t-mac’s blurb about stuckey. absolutely loved it.
Jan 27, 2011 • 1:17 am
by Laser
…and coming from a former “scorer,” no less. labeling stuckey as a scoring guard. highlight of the season for me so far. thanks, tracy.