The Denver Nuggets pretty much sat their entire rotation but still it was an pretty impressive showing from the Stones. Billups and Hamilton both sat out the game, Rip with the left ankle sprain and Billups just for rest and the remainder of the starters played no more than 12 minutes.

The entire night belonged to the reserves as Maxiell led the group with 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Ronald Murray and Rodney Stuckey both started in place of Billups and Hamilton and neither disappointed as Murray went for 21 points and Stuckey for 17. Arron Afflalo scored in 14 points, Hayes 13 points, Samb 8 points 9 rebounds and 2 blocks, Dupree 6 points, and Mejia 4 points and 7 rebounds.

Looks to me like the Pistons will very a strong bench this season with Murray, Stuckey, Hunter, Hayes, Johnson, Maxiell, Mohammed, and even Afflalo. The last time they had a bench this good was in 2004 and we all know what happened that season. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

President of Basketball Operations announced Monday that the Pistons have waived 6′3 guard Gerald Fitch. Fitch was a long shot to make the roster but still I would have liked to see him a little bit more in the Preseason, from what I’ve heard he was a little impressive during practices and the team’s Open Practice Scrimmage so I was looking forward to seeing him suit up but never got the chance. He did play in one Preseason game though, that was against his former team the Miami Heat in which he scored 1 point in 3 minutes.

The roster now stands at 16 which has to be cut down to 15 by the mandatory cut down date which I believe is October 26th.

Haven’t posted a blog here in a long time, but no worries, because I’ll get back to posting here again at least twice a week.

The 2007/08 Season officially starts in 32 days, but for the curious NBA fan, it starts even sooner than that. The NBA pre-season starts in about a week with Boston hosting the Raptors on the 6th of October. This year the NBA is doing something different; because the international game has gotten competitive, the NBA has made efforts to open up to the world and make basketball an international game. There’s going to be a portion of the pre-season that deals with the European teams, and starting 17th, the NBA moves to China for a few weeks.

Now to the important stuff, the Detroit Pistons.

• The Pistons are commemorating this season for a reason - if you didn’t know, this is year 50 for the Pistons as an organization. They are actually going to be putting in this big logo that says “50 SEASONS” in a big old school red, white and blue Pistons logo.
• The Pistons will also be sporting new jerseys - we don’t know what they’ll be looking like yet…but I would guess it’s going to be some throwback jersey from the past.
• Because of this 50 Seasons thing, the Pistons are starting up a huge marketing campaign that involves a lot of cool things for Piston fans. I thought they already did a lot of things for the fans, but there’s going to be even more.
• Check out the new look www.Pistons.com. It looks good - better than the old design.
• If you’re in the area, the Pistons will have an open practice at the Oakland University Campus in the Athletic Center. (October 4th, 6:30pm - 8:30pm) I’m going to try to go.
• Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiel, Rodney Stuckey, and Afflalo. How can you not be excited to see these guys play? I’m especially excited to see Maxiel play with a substantial amount of minutes.
• Antonio McDyess will be starting this year - most likely, he’ll be splitting starter minutes with Maxiel. Sounds good to me.
• “Scoreliss Williamson” has retired and is going to coaching…hmmm. I can’t really see him as a coach.
• The Pistons have a lot of competition this year - especially with the new look Boston Celtics. I don’t see them being better than the Pistons, but they’re going to challenge us along with the Bulls, the Cavaliers, the Heat, and even the Wizards.
• My outlook on the season is positive - we’re still as good, or better than we were last season, except we now have some pretty talented rookies, and some great 2nd and 3rd year players. I don’t think we’ll be a number 1 seed, but we’ll still be up their for the East.

Well, there isn’t much else to blog about right now - but the season is coming - and there will be plenty to say than. Thanks to chose who checked in.

As the saeason ends, and the playoffs begin the NBA has once again selected its annual awards. These awards really don’t mean much to the players, and other than accolades, they bear no real significance; but they are worth mentioning.

NBA DEFENSIVE TEAMS

1st team
G: Kobe Bryant (L.A. Lakers)
G: Raja Bell (Pheonix Suns)
F: Bruce Bowen (San Antonio Spurs)
F: Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs)
C: Marcus Camby (Denver Nuggets)

2nd team
G: Jason Kidd (New Jersey Nets)
G: Kirk Hinrich (Chicago Bulls)
F: Tayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons)
F: Kevin Garnett (Minnesota Timberwolves)
C: Ben Wallace (Chicago Bulls)
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Marcus Camby (Denver Nuggets)
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER

Monta Ellis (Golden State Warriors)

6TH MAN OF THE YEAR

Leandro Barbosa (Pheonix Suns)

So, as of now; the Pistons have only ONE player winning any kind of award. That’s not great, but like I said before; these awards mean nothing.

Just felt like giving a little update.

In the East we have the Pistons vs. the Magic - not an intriguing series on paper, but if you take a closer look, there’s much more to it. It’s been a learning experience for the Orlando Magic team as a whole (with the exception of veteran, Grant Hill). What stood out to me the most was Dwight Howard - the man is a beast, but like Rasheed Wallace said, he’s gotta learn to do more than dunk. Howard seemed to be totally shut down in games 1 through 3 - in game 4 he finally relaxed; maybe that was a result of Dwight finally losing his playoff jitters, or the Pistons relaxed on the defensive pressure (which I highly doubt).Another interesting thing to see, especially for Piston fans, was the growth of Darko Milicic. Darko wasn’t a difference maker, but nonetheless, he was there and scoring. Some Piston fans hate the guy, but I see no reason to. Darko was an outcast - he came to the U.S. from Serbia Montenegro at 20 years old - there was really nothing he could do about his situation either. I don’t like the guy, but I also don’t hate him; actually, I am happy to see he is helping another team become successful. The guys seemed to hold no hard feelings - Rasheed and the guys were laughing with Darko all series.

Overall, this was a fun series to watch - we got to see the Pistons show their experience, and power physically and mentally. We also got to see a bench that has been huge for the Pistons - only making it possible for the Pistons to have a chance at the Championship. Even Mr. Charles Barkley himself admitted that the Pistons DO have depth to their bench. I really got into how we were almost “schooling” the Magic, literally. I saw Rasheed talking to Howard many times - probably telling him how to post up or something; one of the many reasons I love Rasheed.

Now the Pistons have to look towards the Chicago Bulls who have been surprisingly good as they swept the “defending champs” - A.K.A. the Miami Heat. I am not going to lie - I am slightly afraid of their depth, but I do know this series will be nothing like the Miami series. The Bulls almost remind me of an unexperienced Pistons team - has many great players who can all step up and score whenever called upon; the differential thing here, between the Pistons and Bulls would be experience. I was hoping the Bulls would beat the Heat in 6 or 7 games, but that didn’t happen, and the Pistons just have to go out there and play their game. It is of course going to be very interesting that the same man that drove the 2004 Pistons to a championship will be the same man that is coming to the Palace of Auburn Hills next week hoping to take his team to the championship. It’s still a strange sight to me seeing Ben in that Bulls uniform - it’s especially going to be weird seeing him playing against the Pistons in the playoffs.

In order for the Pistons to win this next series, they have to do many things:

• Keep Ben Wallace as far away from the glass as possible.
• Rebounding will be huge this series, so keeping rebounding as a priority is key.
• Play 5 versus 4 - get Ben Wallace to the line whenever he gets the ball and let him work hard to get his points.
• Nocioni isn’t as good as he’s been playing - I know for a fact Rasheed will take care of this man - especially since they had some feud earlier this season. (or last season - can’t remember)
• The Bulls score the majority of their points through jump shots (Deng, Gordon, Hinrich) - so keeping a hand in their face is key. Also, keeping the paint Bull free is important - if they think they can survive on jump shots only - fine; but no layups or dunks.
• Richard Hamilton will need to improve on his shooting - we survived without it in the Orlando series - but it won’t work against the Bulls.
• Chris Webber needs to be consistent - he really wasn’t there in the first two games, but the last two he started playing well - if he can grab 10 rebounds, and score about 10 points - that would be solid.
• Tayshaun has been great, his maturity and consistency has been great so far; keep it up.
• The bench has been good, but not great. Antonio McDyess has been struggling to get his shot - but he has been rebounding very well. If he can get his shots to fall again, we’ll be set for the bench.
• Delfino just needs to do what he’s been doing all season: hustle, hustle, and hustle.

Can’t wait for this series to start, it will be very fun to watch. I will be going to either game 1 or game 2 - so that will be even better considering it will be my first game this season!

Later guys.

RTD; Eslam Kersha.

Well, the series against Orlando has been just as expected - boring. Usually in the playoffs, the Pistons are facing someone who us Piston fans can “hate” on. What is there to hate about Orlando?    Nothing.

 Orlando is such a young team, and this series almost seems pointless a lot of the times. In both game 1, and game 2 the Pistons for the most part toyed with the Magic.

Pistons put on a big run in the 1st quarter.

Magic score 10 straight points to cut the Piston lead to 3.

Pistons score, once again to cut of any chance the Magic had.

 …etc…etc…etc…(over and over again)

That summed up both games right there.

About Dwight Howard. What happened? Is he just nervous, or are the Pistons really taking this monster totally out of the game? I think it’s a little bit of both, but I am extremely impressed by Flip Saunders for making Dwight Howard a non-factor. Before this series started, I thought Howard was just going to tear us up for 20 and 20 nights. I thought wrong because over these first two games, he has not given his team a chance to win.

8 Points, 11 Rebounds - far from the 20/20 Dwight Howard we know and love.

If the Magic have any chance of reclaiming themselves, Dwight Howard has to step up and take over the game. Other than Dwight, Hedo Turkoglu has been a huge key for the Magic - giving them consistent shooting. Another huge factor to the Magic’s game is Grant Hill. The man has traveled back in time and is playing phenomenal for his age.

Overall - I just can’t wait to move on - I hate when the Pistons begin to feel bored becuase its only then when the Pistons slip up and lose. Hopefully, the Magic can give the Pistons more of a challenge at their home - that way the Pistons will actually play to full potential - but as of now, I’m bored.

PISTONS GET READY TO FACE ORLANDO MAGIC IN THE 1st ROUND

The Detroit Pistons have once again closed out the season only hoping to play 16 more games for a Championship. We will be starting off the playoffs by playing the Orlando Magic who the Pistons have successfully swept through this season.

DEC8-@ ORL-Pistons 87 Magic 83
FEB21-@ DET-Pistons 110 Magic 88
FEB 23-@ ORL-Pistons 94 Magic 89
APR 11- @ DET-Pistons 104 Magic 99

The Pistons have consistently beat the Magic with ease - only having difficulty containing Dwight Howard from dominating the boards. Despite the season sweep, Magic guard, Jameer Nelson thinks otherwise.

“I know we can beat them. I know we can. I think we can beat them in a series. We just got to figure them out.”

–Jameer Nelson.

That’s great he has confidence in his team - but realistically, it’s a Piston win - by far.

Here is a position-position break down of this series:

POINT GAURD

vs
Chauncey Billups vs Jameer Nelson

This match-up is one-sided. A 2005/06 MVP candidate verse a fairly new addition to the NBA. I’m not taking anything away from Jameer, but Chauncey is the clear winner here. Chauncey is much taller, bigger, and stronger - every time Billups is playing a PG that is shorter he always takes advantage by either just shooting over them, or posting them up in the key. Billups is also the more experienced player here.

Advantage: Chauncey Billups; Detroit Pistons
SHOOTING GAURD

vs
Richard Hamilton vs Hedo Turkoglu

It will most likely be Hedo who plays against Richard; but regardless, it won’t matter. Richard Hamilton is a much more versatile scorer than Hedo; Rip can shoot the long shot, the mid range, whatever - he can do it. Richard is also MUCH quicker than Hedo - good luck to Hedo while running through all the screens Richard is going to get. I want the Pistons to either take advantage of this matchup, or Chauncey’s matchup.

Advantage: Richard Hamilton; Detroit Pistons
SMALL FORWARD

vs

Tayshaun Prince vs Grant Hill

This matchup might be the closest - it really could go both sides because in the games we’ve played against Mr. Hill, he’s done fairly well. If Tayshaun can take over with his youth - it’ll be Tayshaun’s matchup to win; but it could just as easily go the other way. Both have some good experience under their belts, but Grant Hill has the most; being a veteran in this league. I’ll give the advantage to Grant Hill since the Magic have not much else.

Advantage: Grant Hill; Orlando Magic

POWER FORWARD

vs
Rasheed Wallace vs Dwight Howard

This one is an interesting matchup. I was contemplating whether to take Rasheed’s killer instinct, plus his huge experience - or take Dwight Howard’s athleticism, youth, and tenacity. I believe Dwight Howard will take this matchup - but it won’t be anything profound. Rasheed is the best guy to defense him - he’ll give him a challenge physically, and mentally. This matchup was really close - but I have to give it to Dwight.

Advantage: Dwight Howard; Orlando Magic

CENTER

vs
Chris Webber vs Darko Milicic

Hometown player verses the disgruntled 2nd pick of the draft. Webber wins this matchup by a mile. To add more salt to the injury - Darko is coming off a sprained ankle - so good luck with that, Darko.

Advantage: Chris Webber; Detroit Pistons

BENCH

The Pistons will take this one easily - the Pistons bench has been terrible for the last few years, and finally I am proud to say we have a good, deep bench. We’ve seen the bench at work against some of the starters of some other teams and I’ve been impressed. Carlos has proven himself this season, Flip Murray has proved all of us doubting Piston fans wrong by stepping up his game the 2nd half of the season; and of course Antonio McDyess has been as solid as a starter.

Advantage: Pistons Bench.

I predict this series will go to 5 games.

Good luck Pistons!

- ReppinTheD

Chauncey Billups will be sitting out for the Dallas game after sustaining a minor groin strain in the 2nd half of the Phoenix game. Considering the Pistons have already been in this situation, it doesn’t look good. The last time Detroit played without Chauncey the Pistons had a pretty bad record for the stretch of time he was out. They looked totally lost without his leadership, and every play just seemed like a mess. The only bright spot of this is when Chauncey left the game on Friday, Flip Murray came in the game and just dominated. They key for Flip is to just stay aggressive all game - we’ve all seen what he can do - and he knows he can be just as effective as anyone. Hopefully we see the Flip we saw against Phoenix.

vs

Detroit Pistons / Phoenix Suns

RECAP

The Pistons had a 5-0 sweep of the west for the first time in 15 years. So much for the West dominates the East; well it still does, but the Pistons are an exception to that whole story. This whole trip was a great trip because of the way we played all trip. Flip felt the same way “I don’t think it’s just 5-0. I think it’s how we played,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. “More importantly, we played the way we thought we’ve got to play in the playoffs.” First, we came back from a lose at home to win the next game on the road. Next we show the starters worth with the new addition of Chris Webber, and especially with this Phoenix win; we really were able to see the development of our bench.

This game in general was a great game for the Pistons - the whole thing is like a Piston fan’s dream to watch - no huge flaws, and just fan to watch; especially against a run-n-gun type team like the Suns. By the way, Steve Nash is getting that 3rd MVP - he just deserves it, he really is the definition of Most Valuable Player, the Suns without Nash are just a group of talent with no leader - you need a leader like Nash to harness all the talent the Suns have.

Rarely used guard, Flip Murray, had an opportunity to play some meaningful minutes last night and took advantage of every one of them. This was by far Flip’s best game in a Pistons uniform; maybe it was a bad idea to trade him after this game - he showed his value last night when he filled in for suspended Lindsey Hunter (10 game suspension), and injured Chauncey Billups (Strained Groin). Flip was able to score 25 pts on 12-16 shots. He was also able to grab four rebounds, 2 assists, and SIX steals for the game. That is an impressive stat line. Hopefully Flip can show us that consistency more often - he was doing everything he could to win that game which all started from just being aggressive all game.

• Rasheed Wallace once again was “Sheedtastic“, not because of his scoring; which is obviously good (20 pts) - but his defense once again has been top notch. He’s been picking up his blocking numbers - tonight he had three blocks. Animated Sheed is the best Sheed. On a side note - there were tons of Piston fans who you could hear saying “SHEEEEEEEED” - that was cool to see - it seems like the Pistons have fans every city they go to.
• Chauncey Billups did something to his groin and strained it or something - he sat out the whole 2nd half - a huge reason why Flip had his huge night. He should be ok - hopefully he’s ready for our big Dallas game coming up at home.
• Chris Webber was huge once again and had a really nice reverse dunk early in the game. He scored 17 pts, grabbed 9 rebounds and stole two balls. (Pistons had a huge number of steals - 12 steals compared to the Suns’ 2 steals). CWebb showing to everyone that he can be just as effective as old CWebb. I love it.
• Richard Hamilton didn’t have his best game - but that doesn’t get him down because when he can’t score he makes sure to play great defense.
• Carlos Delfino once again has showed how good he is by just putting up. I love how I see him on every loose ball, and every important rebound. Flip had a really encouraging comment on Delfino when he said something to the effect that Delfino now is trusted and actually adds on to a lead and helps instead of just coming in and doing only his job. He has really stepped it up as of late. Last night he had 13 pts, and 7 rebounds in 24 minutes. Solid.
• McDyess also played a nice game but got into foul trouble - but still managed to get a good 9 points. Our bench was just huge tonight.
• Sheed was very emotional - screaming “AND ONE” as loud as I’ve ever heard him. He got a B.S. call from Mike Callahan for showing too much emotion - give me a break - he was just excited over his three that he just made in dramatic fashion - let the guy have his fun. This one should get rescinded.
• Coach D’Antoni gave praise to the Pistons and called this an “old fashioned butt whipping” - I guess you can call it that. I call it solid Pistons basketball - I can’t wait for playoff time in Detroit.

- Eslam (ReppinTheD)

Later.