Detroit vs. Golden State

Tonight would be a great night for a Pistons win. Not because of the record or the winning streak, although those are important factors, but for Joe Dumars. The man that took the unwanted, Chauncey, Rip, Ben, and Sheed, all were outcasts who Dumars chose to take to form an NBA dynasty. Joe D. was a Piston for14 years and was a part of the Bad Boys when they won back-to-back championships in 1989 and 1990. He and Isiah Thomas were one of the leagues best backcourt duos in the league a lot like Chauncey and Rip are today. When Dumars was ready to call it quits from the life of the NBA, the Pistons wanted to keep him with the organization because of his basketball knowledge that he had gained in his 14 year career. He was hired to bring back the glory to the Pistons and in his fourth year as President of Basketball Operations, Joe Dumars had formed the NBA Champions of 2004.

At the beginning of the game, Tayshaun had a nice word to give to the fans, in which he wished the public a Merry Christmas. He was greeted with applause and the game was ready to begin. Golden State started out sloppy as they turned the ball over on their very first possession. The Pistons took control of this turn over by giving Rasheed Wallace a Jam on the fast break. Soon after, Big Ben was getting it going with a follow up jam after a Tayshaun miss. On the next possession Sheed dominated in the post and got an easy lay in. A few minutes later Chauncey sold a nice flair cut, and drained the three. At the end of the first, Big Ben had five boards and Hamilton had 10 points to lead the Pistons to a 27-22 first quarter lead.

The bench was in now, as usual, but this time they would not lose the effort that the starters had. Dice scored on a nice post up move for the first points of the second and a few possessions later, the second unit provided great ball movement that found Evans for the score. Baron Davis, of the Warriors, began trying to get his team back in it, and was splitting Detroit’s defense to get to the rack, but he was never able to get his team the lead. Evans was doing well in the game after he did something he doesn’t often do. He shot the ball off the dribble and nailed it to help the Pistons keep their lead. Later on in the quarter, when Tayshaun was back in the game, Arroyo threw a pass to Tayshaun who scored an easy jam. It seemed as though Arroyo was a quarter back of a football team who passed it over the defenders for Tayshaun, the receiver, who brought it in for the score. The Pistons finished off the second with a 10-0 run before Baron Davis scored to stop the Warriors drought and the Pistons led at halftime 50-42.

“Detroit came out with fire in its eyes,” said Bill Lambier, who broadcast the Pistons on TV. Sheed started it with an online three, and a block. Then Rip got it going with six straight points of his own. Soon after, Big Ben made a hustle play to get the ball back for the Pistons, and the Pistons D was proving to be too much for the Warriors. Rip kept up his scoring ways through the third, after every screen he fought through, he shot his famous turn in jumper, which kept going in. Later, Ben had an outstanding step through move for the lay in with only 2 seconds to go on the shot clock. Detroit’s big third quarter, which was powered by D and offense, propelled the Pistons to an 80-63 lead over the Warriors.

The fourth quarter was basically just going through the motions. The bench was to receive most of the minutes in the fourth as the Pistons were already thinking about the next game against San Antonio. Golden State would turn the ball over on their first possession again that gave Moe Evans a free lane to the basket for a circus dunk. Later on when the starters were in just to keep the lead, Ben received an alley oop, and then Tay received an alley oop from Rip to rejuvenate the crowd. The Pistons would then go on to win 97-85.

There will now be a new feature added to each recap, which is the Bench player of the game, and it will be titled, The Bench Power House Player of the Game.

The Bench Power House Player of the Game: For its debut, Moe Evans will win the recognition for tonight’s most outstanding bench player. He had 13 points, and 6 rebounds and a few highflying dunks that could make the highlights on ESPN.

Here are tonight’s leaders of the major stat categories:

Scoring: Tonight was Rip’s night. Anything he wanted was going in. He had an amazing 13 points in the third quarter to lead him to a 28 point performance.

Assists: For the first time in a long while, Chauncey is not the leader in assists. This time it is Carlos Arroyo who had six assists, and one of them came off of a 360 pass to Ben for the dunk.

Rebounds: Same old, same old, Big Ben led all Pistons in rebounds with 14.

Blocks: Tonight Wallace*2 would each share this stat as each of the Wallaces had 2 blocks.

Steals: It’s as simple as this. George Blaha himself said that it’s safe to say Big Ben isn’t hurt no more. He had 2 steals tonight against the Warriors.