Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Pistons Preview

UP-UPDATE: It looks like Sheed and Rip are actually a no go for tonight's game. Anything helps.

UPDATE:
Nate will not change the starting lineup for tonight's game against the Pistons. Rudy will start just as he has the last 3 games.

Tonight’s game vs the Pistons, looks to be a difficult one. The Pistons are on a 7 game win streak, and are definitely not the same team we saw a couple months ago when we pulled out a win at Detroit. Rodney Stuckey has began to emerge a real player, and him and Iverson are playing very well together in the backcourt right now. It also sounds like Detroit will get Richard Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace back from injury tonight. So the Blazers will definitely have their hands full.

With Brandon Roy still out McMillen has toyed with the idea of starting Bayless at the 2. With the second unit struggling without Rudy, Nate says he might opt to start Bayless and hopefully bolster our second group. Another rotation idea that Nate has toyed with is moving Outlaw back to the 4. This would effectively all but end the playing time for Frye and Diogu, but Batum would likely see an increase in minutes, and after the way he played vs the Lakers on Sunday, I say he deserves it. It will be interesting to see what Nate goes with.

Keys to the Game

  1. Keep Their Guards Out of the Paint.
    1. Neither Stuckey or A.I. are considered great shooters, so most of their points and assists are generated off dribble penetration. Stuckey will be a tough matchup for Blake, but we need to really step up tonight. Bayless should have a great matchup with the undersized Iverson at the 2. I am interested to see how Bayless responds.
  2. Score Consistently
    1. Hopefully moving Rudy back to the 2nd team will bring us some more offense. We will lose this game if we have another drought like we did against New Orleans and L.A.
  3. Blake Must Hit His Open Shots
    1. With Roy out, if Blake doesn’t hit his open shots, then you can pretty much seal the deal.


Gambler’s Corner

The spread for tonight’s game is Blazers by 3.5 with an O/U of 177. I think the Blazers will bounce back after a loss to L.A. with an inspired effort after 2 days off, so I will take them and over. Although Detroit plays at the 5th slowest pace in the NBA, I think the Blazers (especially Outlaw) will find their stroke tonight to get us up over the top.

Goose is also taking the Blazers and the Over.

The winner of last games (Hornets) score prediction was Hendrix! We now have 3 contestants on the board. We will announce the winner at the end of the month after the Blazers vs. the Jazz on the 31st.


1 comment:

  1. 84 - 76 Blazers...The Pistons % suffer because of great D by the Blazers.

    ReplyDelete