About Last Night: It only took two-and-a-half quarters to make the Memphis Grizzlies quit
By Patrick Hayes
October 29, 2009, 7:00AM
Hasheem Thabeet's play last night was familiar to people who watched him against Michigan State.About halfway through the third quarter, Pistons announcer Greg Kelser made a curious statement, suggesting it looked as if the Memphis Grizzlies had packed it in, odd, since, you know, it was the season-opener and they were playing a team not exactly expected to be in the thick of the Eastern Conference race.
But whatever ... not the Pistons problem. I'm sure everything will work itself out for Memphis and their incredibly mismatched roster when Allen Iverson is healthy.
Anyway, onto some notes from the game. Feel free to leave your own observations in the comments.
The guard play:
Obviously Rip Hamilton and Ben Gordon combining for 47 points on 17-of-31 shooting was the major stat that stood out, but the lack of turnovers was huge.
Commenter cak313 pointed out on this post that the Pistons' offense is not predicated on having a single point guard, but instead several multi-talented guards who can sometimes to point-guard-like things. That theory was on display last night: the guards (Stuckey/Gordon/Hamilton/Bynum) combined for 15 assists and just four turnovers. This kind of production definitely takes the pressure off of Stuckey to be the primary ball-handler/distributor.
Speaking of Stuckey:
The knock on Stuckey has always been the outside shooting, which would certainly help him get in the lane more. But before he gets a better long-range jumper, I think he could really become dominant if he worked on a post game.
Stuckey's big and strong. Many times this season, he's going to be matched up with a little guard like Mike Conley. If he had a post move or two, game over against those little guys. This would also help him draw more fouls.
The frontcourt:
As was the case in the preseason, the Pistons are a very good defensive team when Ben Wallace and Kwame Brown are on the court. The fact that they give very little offensively doesn't matter with scorers like Hamilton, Gordon, Stuckey, Villanueva, Bynum and Prince (and even Austin Daye when he's back). Ben played 28 minutes, Brown played 25. That's a good number for both.
Villanueva got in early foul trouble and sat out much of the first half. He can obviously score, but after missing most of the preseason, he looked a little out of synch with the offense at times.
Also, my apologies to Jason Maxiell, who I put on blast in my lame predictions post. His stats weren't huge (2 points/6 rebounds) weren't huge, but he was active out there and gave the team good minutes. He's a definite rotation player every night with that kind of effort.
Chris Wilcox played briefly in the first half than got a few more minutes after the game was basically over. He didn't look great.
Thabeet, still falling:
The last time we saw Hasheem Thabeet, he was getting pushed around mercilessly by Goran Suton in the Final Four. He fell twice in about four minutes early in the game. Talk about a PROJECT ... good luck with that, Grizzlies.
Tweets of the Night:
From the Grizzlies' Marcus Williams after the game: "Soooo ima act like that aint just happen... In other news...?"
Runner up, from Hardwood Paroxysm: "Zach Randolph, 14 points on 13 shots, 2 assists, 2 turnovers. WORTH. EVERY. PENNY."
What the Blogs are Saying:
Detroit Bad Boys: "This is the sort of game we fans had to sweat last year. With one game, the Pistons have managed to match its number of 20 point victories from a season ago. One game sample sizes are generally useless for predicting future results, but 28 win teams don’t blow out opponents on the road."
Motown String Music: "Now, before we get all high and mighty after tonight's win, let's just remember who the Pistons played. Memphis is not exactly a powerhouse and Detroit's glaring flaws were still exposed. Memphis' starting big men outscored Detroit's 51-24 -- although the contrast in guard totals was more than enough to make up for it -- and Detroit was outrebounded 49-39, despite having plenty more opportunities to grab them considering they shot 51% and Memphis shot 36%."
Need4Sheed: "You know how it feels for Pistons fans to see Sheed on the hated Celtics. Well just bask in the glory that Bulls fans are killing themselves right now watch Ben Gordon don the red, blue and white!"
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