A possible new owner, Rodman’s jersey retirement and the Miami Heat all in the same day?

Essentials

Teams: Miami Heat at Detroit Pistons

Date: Feb. 11, 2011

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Television: Fox Sports Detroit

Records

Pistons: 20-33

Heat: 38-14

Probable starters

Pistons:

• Tracy McGrady
• Ben Gordon
• Tayshaun Prince
• Ben Wallace
• Greg Monroe

Heat:

• Mario Chalmers
• Dwyane Wade
• LeBron James
• Chris Bosh
• Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Las Vegas projection

Spread: Pistons +8.0

Over/under: 191

Score: Heat win, 99.5-91.5

Three things to watch

1.LeBron James is the MVP. Sorry.

There are nice stories about Derrick Rose and Dirk Nowitzki keeping depleted teams among the elite. Amar’e Stoudemire has made the Knicks kind of relevant again. Dwight Howard is always great and Kevin Durant is so precious. But LeBron James is still the most talented player in the league. In 10 games since returning from a minor injury, he’s averaging 30.5 points, 8.6 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game. He’s scored 40 or more in two of his last four games. And I’ve heard he plays pretty well against Detroit.

2. Blowout or competitive game?

Earlier this season, the Pistons had one of their worst performances of the season in a blowout loss to Miami. Then, a couple months later, the Pistons played very well for three quarters, leading most of the way before blowing a lead against a Heat team playing without Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.  The Heat are at full strength tonight, but they have some weaknesses at the center and point guard spots. The Pistons can force Mario Chalmers into some poor matchus with their bevvy of guards they can put on the court and Greg Monroe should be able to have some success agianst slow-footed Zydrunas Ilgauskas or the league’s resident anti-hustle player Chris Bosh.

3. A Palace sellout

The Palace has been a rather depressing place of late. Tonight’s game, however, is expected to be sold out. I’m not sure how many of those seats will be legit Pistons fans or Heat bandwagoners, but it will be good to see a full building nonetheless.

Pregame Reading

(Note: This is normally where we link to other sites, but since today was such a full day of posts at PistonPowered, here’s all of our posts if you need to catch up)

• Will Tom Gores’ family connections concern the NBA?
• Tom Gores once tried to purchase Delphi
• Tom Gores is from Genesee Township, not Flint
• The Gores brothers are insanely successful
• The Anthony Pellicano trial
• Gores won’t be in the Mark Cuban mold
• Will Gores follow the Davidson model?
• Greg Monroe’s unique take on the layup
• Rodney Stuckey is OK coming off the bench
• Crain’s reports sale of team is finalized
• The Detroit News says the sale is not finalized
• Dennis Rodman’s No. 10 will be retired
• Greg Monroe will keep No. 10 for the time being
• If we’re keeping score, The Detroit News is winning
• Karen Davidson: The sale is not complete

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