Detroit at Washington

[Bugs']

Preview for tonight's game that I think we will win:

Detroit (14-12) at Washington (15-11) 7:00 pm EST

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- The Detroit Pistons look to match their longest winning streak of the season and move three games over .500 for the first time in 2004-05 when they face the Washington Wizards at the MCI Center.

The Pistons won their second straight game Monday, a 100-90 overtime victory over the New Jersey Nets. Richard Hamilton scored five of his season-high 37 in the extra session as Detroit improved to 4-0 in overtime games.

Hamilton has averaged 31 points in his last two games after scoring 11.5 in his previous two.

The defending NBA champions have had a three-game winning streak just once this season, from December 4-8, and have lost in its three previous games when they were two games over .500.

The Wizards will look to continue that trend as they continue a stretch in which they play seven of eight at home.

Washington shot a season-high 55 percent (40-of-73) and had six players score in double figures in a 106-87 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Monday.

In addition to the trio of Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes and Antawn Jamison - the league's highest scoring threesome - the Wizards got a career-high 15 points from Jared Jeffries and 14 and 12 from Brendan Haywood and Jarvis Hayes, respectively.

Detroit has dominated the series, sweeping all three matchups last season and winning 10 of the last 11 overall.

[Fatty P For The Pulitzer]

We opened up a can in that 2nd quarter. We should be able to hold on and pull this one out. I don't think Kwame played at all in the half. What is his deal?

[DonMagicJuan]

we switched identities kinda, were playing good D, and were scoring on them, we drank the pistons gatorade!

[jthomas]

Kwame was injured in the first half of the game vs CHA.

[thito_da_skins_fan]

So far, so good.

They're starting to slip.

KEEP THE INTENSITY!

[thito_da_skins_fan]

Arenas is ballin!

[Skinned]

The refs are definitely on the Detroit payroll tonight...:puke:

[Fatty P For The Pulitzer]

Unbelievable, if there's one thing the Wiz are great at it's blowing leads to make games closer than they should be.

*Edit*: Man is MCI rocking, I wish I was at this game.

[mad4comp]

Detroit can thank the refs for that one. GJ refs.

[Fatty P For The Pulitzer]

107-105 Detroit.

Way to go Wiz, these are the kind of games we have to win if we want to be any good.

[Bugs']

Damn, this one hurts! :puke:

[thito_da_skins_fan]

Those have to be the worst NBA refs I have ever seen.

[Diablo23]

I'm tired of these last second wins.

Wizards are supposed to make my Redskins pain ease. :(


How in th world do you blow a 19 pt lead? :rolleyes:

[garg8050]

Unbelievable loss. I think this game really showed how much we miss Kwame and Etan. You cannont consistently match up Jamison with Power forwards like Rasheed and get away with it. Especially when Jordan decided to go "small", we got killed on the offensive boards.

Bottom line, great game to watch...devastating loss for the Wiz.

[Fatty P For The Pulitzer]

Originally posted by thito_da_skins_fan
Those have to be the worst NBA refs I have ever seen.

We must've been stuck with the crew that called the 4th Heat game. Those clowns had something against Abe or EJ or someone associated with the team.

[garg8050]

Originally posted by thito_da_skins_fan
Those have to be the worst NBA refs I have ever seen.

When you're considered the "Clippers East" for the past 20 years going against the defending champs, you're not gonna get many calls. In that situation, you need to play well enough to keep the refs out of the equation. It's almost a given that any close call goes the way of the better team.

We're not there yet but hopefully in time, the Wiz will get the "respect" from the officials that the good teams get.

[Diablo23]

You can't just blame it on the refs...

We didn't execute.


I'm probably just bummed out after the lost. :puke:

[Gamebreaker]

Originally posted by Diablo23
How in th world do you blow a 19 pt lead? :rolleyes:

It's called NBA referees, and when they're riding your opponents jock, you're gonna be in for a long night. It is no coincidence that the wizards barely got one shooting foul the whole second half.

[thito_da_skins_fan]

No doubt we f'ed up by blowing a 19-point lead, but I can blame that game on the refs.

[Warhead36]

The officiating in this game was the worst I've seen all season long against the Wizards(and there has been bad officiating)but we shouldn't have let it come down to that. I don't know why but I had a feeling the Pissed-ons would rally back and make a game of it.

[Bugs']

Originally posted by Warhead36
The officiating in this game was the worst I've seen all season long against the Wizards(and there has been bad officiating)but we shouldn't have let it come down to that. I don't know why but I had a feeling the Pissed-ons would rally back and make a game of it.

I agree, I can not blame this game on the officiating....hell, we blew a 19pt. lead...winning teams rarely do that. Still some growing to do...:2cents:

[bofluid]

Three second half free throw attempts. That's pretty sad considering we were driving to the basket so often.

[Diablo23]

When's our next game.


That's one thing I like about basketball, you can forget about it cuz theres most likely a game in a day or 2 :D..


I won't forget this one though.


:doh:

[Fatty P For The Pulitzer]

Friday afternoon, at Boston. It would've been nice to take this one because our next 3 games are winnable and it'd be nice to be on a 5 game roll when Seattle comes to MCI next Thursday.

[hands11]

Originally posted by Fatty P For The Pulitzer
Unbelievable, if there's one thing the Wiz are great at it's blowing leads to make games closer than they should be.

*Edit*: Man is MCI rocking, I wish I was at this game.

I was. First half was sweet. We were up 11 and I beat the guy next to me that we would be up 20 at half. I missed by one point.
I missed most of the 3rd walking around so I dont know how they caught us. Ill have to watch the tape.

[hands11]

Lets face it. We just arent strong enough for a team like this with out Kwame and Etan. We really needed Kwame active to cover Rashed. We would have won if we have Kwame active. We needed a big body with quick feet to defend him. He was 9-17 for 23 pts. 23 power points not 3 pointers

This is why I think Jordan is a moooorooon.

If you don't have Kwame and Etan against a team like this, you have to activate Ramos. You know Detriot is physical going into the game.

You go into a game like this with Haywood, Ruffin as your Centers and your forwards are and Jamison, Jefferies and Hayes.
None of which I would call strong powerful man and not true power forwards. Not like a Rashed.

You put this up against Ben Wallace, R. Wallace, T. Prince, A. McDyess

Rashad can cover Haywood but Haywood isnt a great match up against Rashed. I think he can outsize Ben, but Rashed is to much for him. Jamison couldnt cover Rashed either.

Jefferies should be ok against Prine.

These are all tough match ups for us and on paper I would definatly see a problem.

If Jordan would just activate Ramos against stronger teams, we would stand a better chance. Specially since he didnt have Kwame. Why have Kwame just sitting on the bench. Activate Ramos, put Walker on the IR. We don't use him anyway.

Haywood against B Wallace, then Ramos.
Jamison, Ruffin against Rashead
Jefferies against Prine. Then Hayes ( I wish it was Profit or again, roll Blake into PG, slide Gil to SG and play Hughes some at SF when the match up allows.

If Haywood gets in foul trouble, you bring in a huge Ramos.
Now Ruffin stands a better chance against Rashed because Ramos is behind him. Ruffin can use his fouls.

Ruffin is in the model of a Rodman. Rodman was a better PF then Center. Your asking to much from Ruffin to be a center against a good team with strong tall front court players.

Ruffin can do all the good things he does for us playing PF, which Im sure is his possition, not Center.

Coaching. Making the correct decissions on who to activate, who to play, when to call time outs. Winning the important momentun building games.

This team hitting the ceiling its hitting is as much about our coach as anything, because I believe we have players, he just isnt playing them.

[Bugs']

One thing stood out to me yesterday as a glaring reason that we lost the game and continue to give up a lot of points. I hate to say it but Gilbert Arenas sucks on defense. He allows too many guards to dribble penetrate which causes one of two things.

1.) They score or kick it out to a perimeter shooter for an open shot.

or

2.) One of our Bigs fouls the guard and we get into foul trouble.

His bad defensive play has been there all year and was amplified last night. You can blame the refs or Ruffin or Eddie Jordan like everyone always does but I blame Arenas.

[thito_da_skins_fan]

Originally posted by hands11
Lets face it. We just arent strong enough for a team like this with out Kwame and Etan. We really needed Kwame active to cover Rashed. We would have won if we have Kwame active. We needed a big body with quick feet to defend him. He was 9-17 for 23 pts. 23 power points not 3 pointers

This is why I think Jordan is a moooorooon.

If you don't have Kwame and Etan against a team like this, you have to activate Ramos. You Detriot is physical going into the game.

You go into a game like this with Haywood, Ruffin as your Centers and you forwards are and Jamison, Jefferies and Hayes.
None of which I would call strong powerful man and not true power forwards. Not like a Rashed.

You put this up against Ben Wallace, R. Wallace, T. Prince, A. McDyess

Rashad can cover Haywood but Haywood isnt a great match up against Rashed. I think he can outsize Ben, but Rashed is to much for him. Jamison couldnt cover Rashed either.

Jefferies should be ok against Prine.

These are all tough match ups for us and on paper I could definatly see a problem.

If Jordan would just activate Ramos stronger teams, we would stand a better chance. Specially since he didnt have Kwame. Why have Kwame just sitting on the bench. Activate Ramos but Walker on the IR. We don't use him anyway.

Haywood against B Wallace, then Ramos.
Jamison, Ruffin against Rashead
Jefferies against Prine. Then Hayes ( I wish it was Profit or again, roll Blake into PF, slide Gil to SG and play Hughes some at SF when the match up allows.

If Haywood gets in foul trouble, you bring in a huge Ramos.
Now Ruffin stands a better chance against Rashed because Ramos is behind him. Ruffin can use his fouls.

Ruffin is in the model of a Rodman. Rodman was a better PF then Center. Your asking to much from Ruffin to be a center against a good team with strong tall front court players.

Ruffin can do all the good things he does for us playing PF, which Im sure if his possition, not Center.

Coaching. Making the correct decission on who to activate, who to play, when to call time outs. Winning the important momentun building games.

This team hitting the ceiling its hitting is as much about our coach as anything, because I believe we have players, he just isnt playing them.

This post is flawed in so many ways.

With Kwame, I agree, we probably would have won. We also would have won with different refs. Kwame is hurt. Nothing we can do about it.

Jordan is not a moron, contrary to what so many people here recently seem to think.

I have no problem activating Ramos. But you cannot automatically assume because he is big, that he's good. Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. He's not playing for a reason. I'll let the coach decide that.

Again, I'd love to see what Ramos can do, but don't assume he can just come in and guard a R. Wallace. He probably couldn't. He might not even be able to body him. He could be soft. Who really knows.

Rasheed presents match-up problems for almost anyone. He raped Jamison all night. I would have liked to seen Jeffries on Rasheed a little more.

Why is there so much hate for Hayes? He played a great game last night IMO.

Blake into PF? Huh? Blake's my boy but he shouldn't have been in the game. I believe he gave up 8 consecutive points, and a lead change, to Billups as soon as he came in during the 4th.

Billups was the problem. We couldn't cover him. Disagree all you want, but I'd put Dixon in. Dixon can play defense. Or even put Hughes on him. We had to stop Billups and couldn't. Rip wasn't doing much of anything.

This game was about the refs. Plain and simple. We blew a lead, yes, but we blew it to the defending champions. It was a tough game to lose, but I blame the loss on many bad calls. I would have liked to seen a few different match-ups on defense, but I refuse to place the loss on EJ.

[DonMagicJuan]

well said thito....

[hands11]

This post is flawed in so many ways.

With Kwame, I agree, we probably would have won. We also would have won with different refs. Kwame is hurt. Nothing we can do about it.

Jordan is not a moron, contrary to what so many people here recently seem to think.

I have no problem activating Ramos. But you cannot automatically assume because he is big, that he's good. Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. He's not playing for a reason. I'll let the coach decide that.

Again, I'd love to see what Ramos can do, but don't assume he can just come in and guard a R. Wallace. He probably couldn't. He might not even be able to body him. He could be soft. Who really knows.

Rasheed presents match-up problems for almost anyone. He raped Jamison all night. I would have liked to seen Jeffries on Rasheed a little more.

Why is there so much hate for Hayes? He played a great game last night IMO.

Blake into PF? Huh? Blake's my boy but he shouldn't have been in the game. I believe he gave up 8 consecutive points, and a lead change, to Billups as soon as he came in during the 4th.

Billups was the problem. We couldn't cover him. Disagree all you want, but I'd put Dixon in. Dixon can play defense. Or even put Hughes on him. We had to stop Billups and couldn't. Rip wasn't doing much of anything.

This game was about the refs. Plain and simple. We blew a lead, yes, but we blew it to the defending champions. It was a tough game to lose, but I blame the loss on many bad calls. I would have liked to seen a few different match-ups on defense, but I refuse to place the loss on EJ.

-----------

Disagree if you must, but what I say is still true.

We had no answer for Rasheal on our bench. Kwame would have helped. He is hurt so you have to give yourself a chance by activating the players you do have. IE Ramos. I am not automatically assuming anything. I have seen him play over the summer. I've heard and read lots of good things about him. I saw him play a few minutes for us once this season. He is very tall, athletic and decently heavy. We as fans arent going to know much more then that until he plays on the court.

I was at the game. One thing that suprised me was how much Ramos interacted with the other players. He seems to be involved and not an outsider.

Anyway, yes he is a question mark until we see him play, but he would have been a great asset to insert so we had better match ups. IE, the ones I posted. It's worth taking a look at. Who would you rather have active on the roster. Ramos or Walker. Please.....

No, I don't agree that you have to agree with whoever Jordan plays and blindly trust his judgement. I think Gibbs has proven to be a successful coach by miles beyond Jordan, and Gibbs was playing Brunell which we all know was stupid. I have disagreed with lots of Jordans rotation decissions, and Im right way more then Im wrong.


Why is there so much hate for Hayes? Read some of the posts on this board. Hes hurt and he shoots .300% and he shots a lot.
It's not his fault. He plays because Jordan puts him in. He needs to rest his hand and thats Jordan's job because he isnt going to take himself out. He also sucks more then anyone on this team on defense.

I would have liked to seen Jeffries on Rasheed a little more.
.. That was probably our best match up but he is still way to much for him and Jefferies got into foul trouble. Would have been nice to have an extra 6 fouls in Ramos. Rasheal plays Center also. That's when Ramos would have been on him. I would have liked to have at least given it a chance. 3-5 mins. That all. Just give it a chance.

Blake into PF? .. Come on. That's an obvious typo. I meant PG.
Besides, I was at the game and I watched it on tape. Blake played great defense. We were even after 1 quarter. Blake played most the the 2nd when we went up 19. He was a part of that. It doesn't show up on the board, but it was Blake, Gil and Hughes. Having Blake in allow Gil to he a SG and Hughes to be the SF.

I did go back and watch the 3rd quarter I missed while at the game. WOW. I had no idea why people said the refs sucked. They were ok the first half. And if you did see the 3rd, you would say they were just bad in the forth. But putting the 3rd and 4th together. Come on.. They just sucked. I watch Rashed run over Jamison. Jam was just standing there and they called it on Jams.

This reminded me of the Miami game. So know we have 2 wins against great teams.. Miami and Detriot.. but they wont show up as wins but we know better.

GO WIZ

[ezdude1970]

I was at the game last night, and let me tell you what an incredible atmosphere that was. Having a sold out house really makes a difference. Unfortunately, MCI staff is not equipped to handle a sold out crowd. We did not get to our seats until 5 min left in the first quarter. With the minute to go in the game when it felt like Wizards actually have a chance the entire MCI went crazy, it was almost a euphoric experience.

Reading your guys comments I have disagree with some of them, having a big guy there would have help, but that is not what cost us a game. Chancy had a freaking night of his life, making all kinds of shots. However, for some reason or another he was always open for the shot. I blame Gil for it mostly. He did not play any defense at all. Also in the second half when Detroit started to play good defense, Wizards instead of trying to play a team game and try to move a ball a little bit were just going for kamikaze shots, either hoping for a miracle or a penalty call. Blake just looked horrible, could not do anything right.

Detroit actually in the second half looked like a cohesive unit, where Wizards looked like they were playing a street ball. That game definitely should have been won by us.

Once again poor coaching of EJ cost us a game.

[Bugs']

Originally posted by ezdude1970
I was at the game last night, and let me tell you what an incredible atmosphere that was. Having a sold out house really makes a difference. Unfortunately, MCI staff is not equipped to handle a sold out crowd. We did not get to our seats until 5 min left in the first quarter. With the minute to go in the game when it felt like Wizards actually have a chance the entire MCI went crazy, it was almost a euphoric experience.

Reading your guys comments I have disagree with some of them, having a big guy there would have help, but that is not what cost us a game. Chancy had a freaking night of his life, making all kinds of shots. However, for some reason or another he was always open for the shot. I blame Gil for it mostly. He did not play any defense at all. Also in the second half when Detroit started to play good defense, Wizards instead of trying to play a team game and try to move a ball a little bit were just going for kamikaze shots, either hoping for a miracle or a penalty call. Blake just looked horrible, could not do anything right.

Detroit actually in the second half looked like a cohesive unit, where Wizards looked like they were playing a street ball. That game definitely should have been won by us.

Once again poor coaching of EJ cost us a game.

I agree with you about Gil playing terrible defense and costing us the game last night due to his defense on Billups...but I have to disagree about Blake...he really helped us build that 19pt. lead in the second quarter and looked good the majority of the night.

p.s. your username? Were you a dude and now something else? ;)

[ezdude1970]

Originally posted by Bugs'



p.s. your username? Were you a dude and now something else? ;)

I am not sure where you going with that, but I clean bathrooms for a living , hence going the username EZ (portable bathrooms) dude (person who cleans them). And as you can guess I have been doing it since 1970. I hope it cleared any question you had my friend!