reflections
October 9th, 2008 Afflalo Shines in Preseason Home Opener
 Second year guard Arron Afflalo led the Pistons in scoring led night with 15 points as the Pistons defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 85-71. The Bucks got off to a hot start at one point going on a 21-4 run in the first quarter last night and finished the 1st with a 25-12 lead. Pistons would turn it on though in the second quarter and never looked back, outscoring the Bucks in each of the last three quarters by at least 8 points.
Key Notes of the Night
  • Once again, Arron Afflalo had a great game off the bench in 24 minutes finishing with 15 points going 6-7 from the field and 3-3 from behind the arc. Afflalo also finished second in rebounding last night with 5.
  • Tayshaun Prince was very impressive last night…not a lot in the stat column but was huge defensively in the second half. 0 rebounds on the night though, he has to do better than that Preseason or not.
  • Amir Johnson didn’t look all that impressive although he had a nice transition dunk in the first quarter from Rip. He didn’t play much either, only 13 minutes last night for some reason.
  • Sheed once again hung out on the perimeter too much. Not sure if this is by design or if this is just Sheed but somehow, someway they need to get him in the paint. I sort of blame the coaching staff for this for allowing him to launch up so many threes. He took 6 shots last night, 3 were from behind the arc. He did go 2/3 from behind the line though which is much better than 1-7 but still, need and want to see him in the paint more.
  • For Milwaukee, Richard Jefferson, Luke Ridnour, Charlie Bell, and first round draft pick  Joe Alexander did not play. Kind of disappointed, would have loved to see all four of them play.

  As for Michael Curry, I was not impressed with him a ton last night in my first time seeing him in the head chair but maybe its just something I’m not understanding. I don’t see why early in the Preseason the starters are playing as many minutes as they’re playing. Last night Rip logged 30 minutes as Prince and Billups logged 26 apiece. Also, the young guys didn’t get a lot of time…Samb and Acker did not play at all and Bynum and Sharpe played very little. Samb has some type of problem with his jaw so maybe that’s the reason he didn’t play but Acker I would have loved to see on the court. He’s supposed to be so much improved and everything and I’ve yet to see anything so far, he can’t even get on the court in the preseason. And Amir only 13 minutes as well, you would think in the preseason he would log more minutes.

 

Next game is tomorrow night against the wounded Washington Wizards in Washington. The Wizards will be without Arenas, Jamison, and Haywood all facing injuries at the moment. If I was Eddie Jordan I’d sit Caron Butler too…they have no room for another injury right now. Tip off is at 7:00pm, not on television.

 

 

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