John Kuester opens door for Richard Hamilton’s return against Bucks

Essentials

Teams: Detroit Pistons at Milwaukee Bucks

Date: March 1,  2011

Time: 8 p.m.

Television: Fox Sports Detroit

Records

Pistons: 22-39

Bucks: 22-36

Probable starters

Pistons:

• Rodney Stuckey
• Ben Gordon
• Austin Daye
• Chris Wilcox
• Greg Monroe

Bucks:

• Brandon Jennings
• John Salmons
• Carlos Delfino
• Luc Mbah a Moute
• Jon Brockman

Las Vegas projection

Spread: Pistons +5

Over/under: 187

Score: Bucks win, 96-91

Three things to watch

1.  New rotation

Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News:

Coach John Kuester’s team is starting over — 61 games into the season.

"That’s what I said to the team yesterday," the Pistons’ coach said Tuesday before the morning shootaround at the Bradley Center. "All starting positions, all substitution positions (are open). We have to get after it."

If that doesn’t open the door for Richard Hamilton’s return to the rotation, I don’t know what it means. The Pistons have shuffled players in and out of the rotation all season. This doesn’t sound like a change in philosophy, just a way to smooth the road for Hamilton’s reclamation.

2. Bucks’ bigs injured

Andrew Bogut, Drew Gooden and Ersan Ilyasova will miss the game, according to Keith Langlois.

We already know the Pistons need to improve their interior defense in the off-season. If Luc Mbah a Moute, Jon Brockman and Larry Sanders carve up the Pistons, we’ll know just how dire that situation is.

3. Holy crap, the Bucks are bad.

The Pistons and Bucks have won the same number of games this season (even if the Pistons have more losses). That is all.

Pregame Reading

• Packey rebuts my John Kuester post.
• CarlCR or 3 Shades of Blue has a cool chart showing how each NBA team ranks in various power rankings.
• Mark Travis of But the Game is On looks at the Pistons’ salvageable pieces.
• Greg Monroe is a Hot Rated Rookie for The Basketball Jones. Again.
• Austin Daye had a meaningful talk with his mom and dad, according to Perry A. Farrell of the Detroit Free Press.
• Bob Wojnowski of The Detroit News discusses the Pistons’ damage control.
• Does anyone have a problem with the Pistons promoting John Wall and Kevin Love to sell tickets? (For the record, I don’t.)
• Charles F. Gardner previews the game for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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