What is about the Detroit Pistons? The Pistons no longer have Rahseed Wallace and Chauncey Billups. Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton missed the game due to injury yet the Pistons still gave the Magic fits and were able to pull off the upset, winning 85-80.
The Magic are now just 6-29 against Detroit since taking a 3-1 lead on the Pistons in the first round of the 2003 playoffs.
I’m starting to wonder if the Magic are ever going to get this Pistons monkey off of their back.
Detroit completely controlled this game. They played the game at their pace, holding the Magic to just 77 points. The Pistons held the Magic to just 36.7% shooting from the field (29-of-79) and 28.6% from downtown (10-of-35). The Magic did miss a lot of open looks. Ryan Anderson was 1-of-11 from behind the 3-point line. Detroit also forced 16 Magic turnovers, while turning the ball over just 9 times.
The Pistons were also much more aggressive than the Magic, going to the line 38 times, making 31 of their attempts. Orlando was just 12-of-16 from the line.
Orlando settled for way too many outside shots and although they did miss a lot of shots that they would usually make (especially Ryan Anderson), the Magic needed to put the ball on the floor and get to the hoop more often.
Especially Vince Carter. He was 6-of-16 from the field and just 3-of-9 from downtown. He did have a nice stretch in the third quarter where he made three 3-pointers but Vince is usually very good at attacking the basket and needs to get to the hoop more often.
After the game, Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy said that he didn’t think that Vince felt comfortable going to the hole on his ankle. He also found out, after taking Carter out in the fourth quarter, that he would be unavailable for the rest of the night after tweaking his injured ankle.
The Pistons won the game without making a 3-point shot (0-of-6) and shooting just 37.5% from the field (27-of-72).
At two different points in the third quarter, it looked like the Magic were going to extend their lead, but they couldn’t. The Magic built a 47-41 lead, but Detroit scored the next 8 points. Then, Orlando scored 8 straight to go back up 55-49, but the Pistons answered with another run, this time scoring 9 straight.
After the Magic tied the game at 77, Jameer Nelson committed two turnovers and the Pistons scored the next 8 points, taking an 85-77 lead.
Nelson couldn’t follow up Sunday afternoon’s excellent performance. He scored just 7 points on 3-of-11 shooting.
J.J. Redick had it rough Tuesday night too. He was 4-of-12 from the field and 3-of-6 from downtown, scoring 14 points. He also was called for a technical foul after he complained about a late whistle against him on what looked like a clean defense of a Ben Gordon missed jumper. J.J. had a couple of good possessions after that. He put the ball on the floor and created a nice shot for himself, hitting a jumped. You’d like to see him do that more often. He also did a nice job of drawing a foul on a 3-point attempt on the next play.
The Magic could not guard the Detroit Guards. Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum combined for 63 of Detroit’s 85 points. Ben Gordon led all scorers with 23 points.
Ryan Anderson couldn’t keep up his incredible shooting. He was just 2-of-14 from the field and was 1-of-11 from downtown. He missed several open looks and finished the game with a season-low 17 points. Ryan is going to need to shake this off very quickly because the Magic will need his shooting tomorrow night.
Dwight Howard barely saw the court. He fouled out (and was called for a technical foul) in just 17 minutes of play. He was clearly frustrated throughout the game. At one point, he was taken back to the locker room with the trainers because Rodney Stuckey knocked Howard to the ground, bothering his already injured shoulder. Howard finished with 8 points and 5 rebounds.
Marcin Gortat didn’t fare any better. He played just 23 minutes before fouling out, finishing with 4 points and 7 rebounds.
Brandon Bass continues to show off his shot, but was ineffective for the most part. He finished with just 6 points and 5 rebounds and at one point was badly blocked by Ben Wallace.
In his post-game, Van Gundy said that the only two players played well at all – Matt Barnes and Jason Williams. And Van Gundy took the blame for playing Williams just 14 minutes.
Barnes filled up the stat sheet again, scoring 11 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, dishing out 3 assists and grabbing a shot.
Jason Williams hit two 3-pointers and finished with 8 points and 5 assists. Van Gundy said that Nelson had a “nightmare game,” so Williams should have received more time, but as I said, Van Gundy took the blame for that.
Game notes:
- This was Dwight Howard’s first game without a double-double this season.
- Both J.J. Redick and Dwight Howard were called for technical fouls.
- Charlie Villanueva was 3-of-11 from the field, but was very unlucky. He had at least three shots go in-and-out.
- Tayshaun Prince played in 496 straight games before missing this game. His last missed game came during his rookie season.
- The Pistons had just 8 assists. Orlando finished with 18.
- Detroit out-rebounded the Magic 44-42 and scored 26 points in the pain to Orlando’s 24.
- Ben Wallace had his third double-digit rebounding game of the season, grabbing 10 tonight.
- Jonas Jerebko earned his first start for the Pistons and scored 0 points on 0-of-5 shooting in 26 minutes.
- Orlando was attempting to become the first team in Magic history to start the season 4-0.
Next up: The Magic will host the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm EST to conclude their first back-to-back of the season.
Final Thought: You have to give the Pistons credit. They were missing two starters but played the game at their pace and were able to pull off the upset. All the Magic can do is regroup and get ready for Wednesday night’s game against the Suns.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)