I watched the Detroit Pistons on national TV two nights in a row last week, first on Thursday late nite against the Golden State Warriors, at Golden State, and the next night Friday late nite against the undefeated 7-0 LA Lakers. The Pistons played terrific basketball both nights.
Since then, they lost on the road to Phoenix (a tough game), spanked LeBron James and Cleveland after being down at the half when Iverson got hot in the 3d quarter and Wallace got hot with threes in the 4th quarter (stopping a 7 game winning streak by cleveland) and taking over the division lead from Cleveland: and then losing to boston on the road last night. But overall, the pistons have only four losses, and they have looked spectacular when they have been winning.
On Thursday nite the Pistons beat a young, tough Warriors team that was running and battling them for the lead all night, but finally the Pistons established their defensive game and shut the Warriors down in the 3rd and 4th quarters and took over the game and won. Allen Iverson had an amazing 3d quarter offensively, and Rasheed Wallace had an amazing 4th quarter offensively as well as on the boards and defensively. Rick Hamilton poured in twenty or more points and Tayshoun Prince and the rest of the team was outstanding.
On Friday nite, the Pistons were even better. They shut down the Lakers just about all nite, holding the Lakers to a little over 40 points in the first half and about 90 on the game, while Detroit scored more than 50 in the first half and more than 100 in the game. The game was never in doubt. Detroit played amazing defence, and they scored off the running game, off of steals, off the halfcourt game, inside, outside off of threes by Tayshoun Prince and Rasheed Wallace, off of perimeter and lane drives by AI, off of constant foul shooting by all of their guards, and even with a bad shooting night by Rick Hamilton, Prince Wallace and AI all threw in 25 points apiece, while Detroit also took down a lot of boards, made a lot of steals and controlled the tempo of the game from start to finish.
Here’s what Detroit looks like with Iverson: like a team that is going to go to the NBA Finals and wipe out the Lakers in four games. I’m predicting it now. It’s a long season to go, and I know that Rasheed Wallace and AI are not the most emotionally level, but they are intense, and together, they are a very, very difficult combination to defend. On defense, Detroit is very sticky. Hamilton, Prince and Wallace all defend well, as do the remaining Detroit players, and with such a sticky defense, AI is free to gamble more freely on steals and double-teams, which results in more turnovers which results in more fast-break points for the Pistons. It’s really an ideal situation for AI. He finally has the supporting cast that has eluded him his entire NBA career. Nor does Detroit depend on AI to score to win. They have Prince, Hamilton, Wallace, Stuckey and others to go to for offense. Rasheed Wallace drains the three like other players drain a layup, and since noone can double team both Wallace and AI, one of those two players is always open, or Prince or Hamilton will be open.
On some sets, Prince was playing the point with the ball, with Wallace playing either the low or the high post, with Hamilton and AI playing the wings. When Wallace plays the high post in this set, AI or Hamilton can easily penetrate without the ball, get the ball, penetrate, draw the double team and then dish off to the open man wherever, either in the lane or the perimeter. It just seems like an unstoppable force.
Defensively, this team is spectacular and offers a lot of strengths.
Boston, Cleveland, Orlando and other NBA Eastern teams will be tough all year long. I’m still not sure how Detroit will match up with the Celtics again in a seven game series. It may be that Detroit still needs another piece, or that they need to re-sign McDyess. But I think they look different, more dangerous and hungrier than last year.
One tantalizing thought; both Rasheed Wallace and AI will be free agents after this year. That makes this year the last run for this basic nucleus of Detroit players. In addition, it raises the question of whether a team with cap room, maybe Philly or another team that’s losing a star player and that has cap room, like Cleveland, might want to sign them both. AI might want to finish his career where he started, and Wallace played his high school ball in Philly. If you added Wallace and AI to what the Sixers currently have, the Sixers would immediately become a threat to win the NBA title, since Andre Miller is a great point guard, Dalembert and Brand play defense and offense, and Iguodala does all the things that a Prince does. It’s a nice dream to have.
Looking elsewhere, Boston is still good, but the big three are veterans and are a year older. Boston needs to ramp up its younger players or perhaps trade for another piece of the puzzle to keep going. Cleveland with LeBron James has an outstanding team and could go to the finals based on King James alone. Orlando has an outstanding team as well. The Knicks look much better, and might make the playoffs this year. In the west, it’s hard to tell yet, but clearly the Lakers, the Suns and the Nuggets all look improved after moves. The Nuggets have clearly benefited from the Billups-AI trade. Billups is a motivator for Carmelo, while AI needed to go somewhere where he could just be himself and not constantly be on Carmelo’s back to play hard all the time. Also, Denver runs an uptempo offense that needs a very skilled point guard. AI was making too many turnovers in the Denver system; he’s more suited to the slower Detroit tempo and in general to the NBA East more physical, slower style of play. This trade is a win-win for both sides.
In terms of straight matchups, it seems to me that Detroit matches up very well with Cleveland; not so well with Boston; well enough with Orlando; and can beat anyone else in the East. Detroit can beat anyone coming out of the west, perhaps with the caveat that they may match up better vs the Lakers than vs. the Suns.
But i’ve seen the future of NBA basketball at least for this year, and it is detroit with AI.
–art kyriazis, philly/south jersey
HOME OF THE WORLD CHAMPION PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Tags: AI, Allen Iverson, Andre Iguadola, Andrew Miller, Antonio McDyess, Boston, Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Cleveland, Dalembert, Defense, Denver, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Elton Brand, Fastbreak points, free agents, Golden State Warriors, Knicks, Lakers, NBA, Orlando, Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers, Rasheed Wallace, Rick Hamilton, Sixers, Stuckey, Suns, Tayshoun Prince, Warriors
