The Mind of Mullin: POSTGAME: PISTONS

Biedrins gets his 16th straight double-double and 5th MVW

MVW: Andris Biedrins

The Good
Andris Biedrins: 36 min, 7-14 fg, 7 off, 19 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk, 17 pts
C.J. Watson: 35 min, 7-15 fg, 6 reb, 1 stl, 17 pts
Kelenna Azubuike: 44 min, 5 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 15 pts
Stephen Jackson: 46 min, 5 reb, 9 ast, 15 pts
Corey Maggette: 28 min, 9-12 ft, 4 ast, 4 reb, 13 pts
Brandan Wright: 17 min, 6 reb, 2 blk, 9 pts

The Bad
C.J. Watson: 35 min, 4 to
Corey Maggette: 28 min, -15 +/-

The Ugly
Stephen Jackson: 46 min, 5-19 fg

Best and Worst +/-
C.J. Watson: +7
Corey Maggette: -15

Team Statistics
Warriors : Pistons
pts - 102 : 107
fg - 37-90 (.411) : 39-86 (.453)
ft - 27-37 (.730) : 23-31 (.742)
3p - 1-9 (.111) : 6-13 (.742)
reb - 51 : 49
oreb - 18 : 13
ast - 20 : 23
to - 15 : 17
stl - 6 : 9
bs - 4 : 5
fast break pts - 24 : 19
pts in paint - 48 : 50

Box Score
Highlights
Popcorn Machine's Game Flow

Azubuike was good in the paint, awful from long range

Notes

starting lineup: Watson/Azubuike/Jackson/Maggette/Biedrins
back to small ball
Biedrins and Jackson continue to show great chemistry; pick 'n roll
Watson and Maggette have their hands full (Iverson and Wallace)
Watson shows why he's not a starting quality PG; turnovers, bad passes, lack of flow
5-27 3pt on the season for Azubuike; still hasn't found his stroke; last 2 years shot 43% and 36%
Marcus Williams first Warrior off the bench; needs to pump up that trade value; not looking good early - turnover on drive down the middle, missed floater off the front rim; don't expect us to see Williams in a game for a while after this sad 4 min. of action - he did not step-up like he is capable of doing
keep it in the paint Buke! big dunk on Maxiell
Brandan Wright 2nd off bench
Biedrins with 8 rebounds in 1st quarter; gets double-double before 2 min. mark of 2nd Quarter
Wright has nice hands; grabs Azubuike's lazer pass from close and high over his head; quick reactions; very active; Nellie limiting his court time for whatever reason
Morrow in at start of 2nd quarter; rebound and scores in paint
Turiaf in for Biedrins at 9:30 mark of 2nd quarter; all-ball on Bynum dunk attempt, but called for foul; ref says he got arm, but not true
good use of bench, initially
Wright looking aggressive on both ends
Jackson passing well to everyone
Watson doing decent vs. Iverson; playing passing lane; missed wide open 10 footer but he's playing decent overall
no Belinelli in 1st half
DeMarcus Nelson takes on Iverson
Detroit go on big run middle of the 3rd to take the lead (16 pt swing); Maggette is a defensive liability right now
Warriors can't buy a bucket late in the 3rd; end quarter with long 3 attempt by Azubuike...miss; he should consider not shooting from beyond the arc until he gets his stroke back in practice - no more green light for Buke
no ball movement, lots of 1-on-1, no PG
no Randolph to help defend on drives; would like to have seen Randolph on Wallace on the perimeter, allowing Biedrins and Wright to defend the paint
Rasheed playing at 5 opening up lanes for other Pistons; Nelson has no answer
lots of offensive boards; Beidrins is among the quickest bigs in the league
Morrow looks like he belongs, not intimidated
Azubuike is great at blocking dunk attempts; starting to feel it offensively
C.J. making stupid mistakes = momentum shifters; take him out and put in Randolph to counter Wallaces perimeter shooting or Belinelli for more offense (Morrow and Beli at the corners = nightmare for defenses)
Morrow snapping the nets, beautiful stroke
C.J. making it closer than it really was with late scores and And-1's
Maggette at PF over Wright is a disaster and something fans do not want to see; Maggette should not be taking minutes from Wright or Randolph, but should be relieving Jackson and Azubuike
Starting 5 should be: Jackson/Azubuike/Maggette/Wright/Biedrins
disappointing distribution of minutes: Maggette too many for player coming back from hamstring injury; Jackson too many as usual; Watson too many even after all the mistakes he made that would get any other young player nailed to the bench for the next couple of games; DNP-CD for Belinelli and Randolph - unacceptable for a fan; Azubuike getting too many minutes - should be shared with Belinelli/Morrow/Randolph
not a fun game to watch, not because it was a loss, but because we did not see much of our future: Belinelli, Randloph, and Wright; I understand they are trying to win games, but learn from last year - playing your vets too many minutes and denying capable young energy guys minutes does not give you the best chance to win; I will not pay money to watch that kind of game

Watson's game looked good in the box score,

but not so good on the court

Quotes

Don Nelson
On Tonight's Game:

“Well actually we played a pretty good game, for a long time. And what threw us off our game plan, of course, was the move I was most worried about...Rasheed (Wallace) playing the five, where we had to guard him with Goose (Andris Biedrins). Andris is one of my best players, so it’s hard for me to take him out of the game. But if I had to go back I probably would have matched up smaller on that lineup and subbed for Andris. Anyway, we had a nice lead until they did that and then we just couldn’t do anything right and we couldn’t stop them. They took our game plan away defensively, so that’s really what hurt us. We had to go to the zone…I thought that got us back in the game. We made some mistakes down the stretch, which I have to expect, and we’ll talk about them and show them and hope we don’t do them a second time. “

Corey Maggette
On His Hamstring:

"It’s Ok.. It gave me an opportunity to get back out on the floor so that’s a positive start. I just wish I had more power and was able to attack more. But I’ll take what it is and hopefully we can bounce back. I’m just disappointed because we had this game.”

On Tonight's Game:

“It’s tough because we had several opportunities, but we went cold down the stretch and it really hurt us. And when you put a veteran team on the free throw line to make big plays towards the end they really capitalize on it. Rasheed made some big plays, Rip Hamilton, and A.I. (Iverson) these guys are veterans and all-stars, so they did what they had to do to win a game.”

Andris Biedrins
On Tonight's Game:

"We just couldn’t execute the plays down the stretch. We were in the wrong spots, at the wrong time and we went cold down the stretch. And when a team like the Pistons hits their free throws it’s tough to overcome. We played the zone quite a bit, and they were able to finally figure it out in the final minutes. They made some great plays and were able to figure it out.”

On Rasheed Wallace:

“He’s pretty difficult to play. You have to make sure you go out and contest his shot, but at the same time you have to be worried about him getting rebounds. It’s pretty difficult to play against a player like that.”

Related Links
Thoughts on Game No. 9: Pistons 107, Warriors 102 - Geoff Lepper
Unlike Warriors, pair of vets pick up the slack for Pistons - Marcus Thompson II
Late surge by Pistons stops Warriors - Sports Ticker
Pistons mess up less than Warriors - Janny Hu

NBA Season 08/09 - Detroit Pistons @ Golden State Warriors
From: 8Shorty7