Game 13 11-21-09 Detroit @ Utah

( 5 -7 ) VS ( 6 - 6 )

Saturday 21st of November 2009
Time: 9pm
EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah
Radio: 950 WWJ
TV: FS Detroit Plus & NBA LP
Game Notes

At
EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

Probable Starters

Stuckey/Gordon/Jerebko/Villanueva/Wallace





Williams/Matthews/Kirilenko/Boozer/Okur

Injury Report

Richard Hamilton Out - Ankle.
Tayshaun Prince Out - Ruptured disk in his lower back


Ronnie Price Ques - Toe.
Kyle Kover Out indefinitely - Knee.
C.J. Miles Out indefinitely - Thumb.
Matt Harpring Out indefinitely - Ankle.

TEAM LEADERS

Richard Hamilton
Ben Wallace
Will Bynum


Carlos Boozer
Deron Williams
Ronnie Brewer
Andrei Kirilenko

Utah 100
Detroit 97
Overtime

Pistons.com Recap
Box score

The Pistons came into Utah tonight, a tough building for the league in general and the Pistons in particular. They lost a heartbreaker in OT, making it 9 straight regular season losses to the Jazz. The last Piston victory in Utah was in November 2002.

In a lot of ways, this was the Pistons' best game of the season. They were refreshed by two days of rest and played with a lot of energy. They didn't spot the other team a 20 point cushion. The game went back and forth between both teams several times with the Jazz leading by 6 at one point and the Pistons leading by 8 at another point.

The Pistons outrebounded the Jazz 40-34, converted on 21-25 free throws, and shot 45% from the field. They had only 15 assists compared to the Jazz' 26 assists and had 15 turnovers, which led to a ton of points for the Jazz. The Jazz also had 15 turnovers, though the Pistons scored fewer points off Utah's miscues.

Rodney Stuckey led the Pistons with 6 assists and also got 18 points. Ben Gordon led all scorers with 25 points, but missed a game tying triple attempt on which he had a bad look. Will Bynum had earlier drove to the basket and lost control of the ball before getting contact to earn a foul call.

This is a new Piston team that doesn't care about the continuing series losing streak to the Jazz so much as the ongoing season losing streak of 4 games now. The losses to the Jazz will not lost forever, though.

But Detroit has a final West Coast game tonight against the high flying Suns, who thanks to the schedule makers, haven't played since last Thursday.

I'd like to see the schedule makers play the schedules they set up.

Hopefully, the Pistons will have the stamina to play all 48 minutes tonight against Phoenix and get some breaks. More ball movement on offense will help.