| Frank is known for his tenacity on the court during games |
Tonight at the Prudential Center, the Nets take on the hapless Detroit Pistons as New Jersey tries to break out of a 2-game losing streak. The Pistons are trying to snap their own losing streak, a 6-game one, which was extended by a blowout loss to the Knicks last night. It looks like Marshon Brooks (toe) and Mehmet Okur (back) will both miss tonight’s contest while DeShawn Stevenson will probably return to the starting line-up. Detroit is also facing major injury problems as Net-killer Ben Gordon (shoulder), Will Bynum (foot), and Charlie Villanueva (ankle) are all out for the Pistons and didn’t even travel with the team to New Jersey.
Background on Detroit
The Pistons are a team with an oddly-constructed roster as it seems that GM Joe Dumars isn’t sure whether to hold on to and build around the wily veterans that have been part of successful teams in the past (Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace, Ben Gordon) or to scrap the current roster and keep the younger players that have been recent draft-picks of the team (Rodney Stuckey, Austin Daye, Greg Monroe, and Brandon Knight) as building blocks. Regardless, the on-court product of this mixture of players has produced the 2rd-worst record in the NBA as of right now and it doesn’t look to be getting much better anytime soon.
Another thing of note is former Nets and current Pistons head coach Lawrence Frank will be facing his old team for the first time since Frank was fired from his post with the Nets during the 2009-10 season.
Previous Game
In their most-recent game which also happened to be last night, the Pistons got absolutely crushed by a struggling Knicks team to the score of 113-86 at MSG. Detroit had no answer for Carmelo Anthony and the star-studded Knicks who went off on on the offensive end of the game last night, shooting exactly 60 percent from the field. Detroit really missed the offensive jolt that Gordon and Bynum usually provide to their team and the game really became a blowout in the 3rd quarter, in which the Knicks scored 24 points compared to the Pistons’ 12. At this point of the season, Detroit simpyl can’t make up for that offense lost when their better players go down with injury.
The Nets also played last night and even though they had a better performance than the Pistons, they ended up with the same result and lost to the Indiana Pacers by a score of 106-99. The Pacers were headed to a blowput win when they were up by 18 in the 4th quarter, but the Nets, mainly Deron and Morrow, fought back and brought to within three points in the final minute of the game. However, Danny Granger grabbed a huge offensive rebound after a missed Indiana shot and ended the chances of an upset win for the Nets. It was a solid effort by the Nets who managed to compete with one of the NBA’s better teams even having only 10 players available for the game.
DET- Stuckey (PG), Knight (SG), Prince (SF), Maxiell (PF), Monroe (C)
2. Attack the paint- Like the Nets, the Pistons are really undermanned right now due to injuries and it would be a smart strategy for New Jersey to draw as many fouls on possible on Detroit’s better big men so they will have to be taken out of the game. This would be imperative for a Nets win because without Gordon and Villanueva, two of Detroit’s better scores, the Pistons will have to get much of their offense from the interior and if the better interior players are on the bench due to fouls, then the Nets defense would have a better chance of stopping Detroit’s offensive attack.
3. Get Anthony Morrow the ball- Deron Williams did a great job of doing this last night, but other than him, the Nets haven’t really been doing a great job of getting the sharpshooter crisp passes so he can get open three-pointers. So far this season, New Jersey has been having a real issue with passing and it has affected the better shooters on the team like Morrow and Shawne Williams who haven’t been getting the open looks that they should be getting if their teammates were making good passes. If Morrow gets good passes from his fellow Nets, then he might score 28 points like he did against the Pacers.
Both of these team aren’t very good right now and are facing a ton of injuries, but I just think the Nets have more talent available to play so I’ll predict a close, 95-88 Nets win. Let’s Go Nets!
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