AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2006 > November > 22
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
First look at misfiring Pistons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forgive whatever comes below, for I am in a Claritin-induced haze right now that I’ll be lucky to shake by halftime of tonight’s Hawks-Pistons game. Seriously, though, I’ve been looking forward to this game for several reasons.
I’m more than curious to see what kind of energy the Hawks start the game with. Their sluggish starts in their past three games/losses had to serve as the proper wake up call. The Pistons, who are playing better of late, will bury them if they come out slow again.
Speaking of the Pistons, they’re actually the team that has me most interested about tonight’s game. This is my first eye-balling of these guys sans Big Ben (Wallace). Before the season began I was sure they’d be able to handle things just fine without him.
But their demeanor without him has certainly changed. They’re not the same intimidating force they were when Big Ben was patrolling the middle (on both ends of the floor). No one had delusions about Nazr Mohammed being any sort of upgrade over Big Ben, except maybe on the offensive end of the floor. But he’s led the Pistons in rebounding just once so far and his numbers (6.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks and 20 minutes a night) are pedestrian, at best. That puts the rest of the load on the Pistons’ three other All-Stars — Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton, Chauncey Billups — and Tayshaun Prince, the guy who probably should have been an All-Star last season.
A 6-5 record at this stage of the season is probably not what the Pistons had in mind. But their losses have come to Milwaukee, at Utah, at Sacramento and at Golden State and at home to a quality New Orleans Hornets squad. They’ve beaten Boston, Memphis, the Lakers, Washington, Houston and Philadelphia. So it’s hard to gauge what type of team Detroit really has right now.
The Hawks presented them with matchup nightmares last season, despite losing the season series 1-3. That was with Big Ben. It remains to be seen how they’ll match up against them now. But if the Hawks play the way they’ve shown they can earlier this season, a quality showing or win tonight would tell me omething about what type of team they might have the potential to become.
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