http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... ght_4.htmlAbout Last Night: Closing games is still a major issue, but Jason Maxiell is ballin'
The Detroit Pistons aren't mailing it in. One night after a terrible effort against Boston, the Pistons came back and played much, much harder than Cleveland, playing right with the league's top team through about 44 minutes or so last night. Now, as they tend to do for teams that have 23 wins, things happened that prevented the Pistons from having a shot to win it. But I'd rather focus on some things that are going right. Namely, Will Bynum and Jason Maxiell.
There are shortcomings with both players that we can nit-pick all day -- namely, that they're, well, short. But the Pistons are getting consistent energy and, more importantly, production, out of both guys. That's not a first for Bynum -- he was arguably the team's most productive player before his ankle injuries interrupted his season. But Maxiell? Aside from a good game here and there, he hasn't put together a stretch like this ever, and certainly hasn't in the last two years. He's averaging a double-double over his last eight games. He's shooting well over 50 percent from the field.
He's had double-doubles in five straight games, something he's never done before. In fact, he's never even done one or the other: never scored double figures in five straight, never rebounded in double figures in five straight. Maxiell's been in the rotation virtually all season, and while he hasn't been given this many minutes, his early season per-minute numbers, particularly when he was starting, were not good. Something has suddenly clicked with him (maybe it takes almost a full season for the effects of Michael Curry to wear off), and if he can become the consistent, energetic third big the Pistons have always thought they had with him, their offseason shopping list becomes a little bit shorter.
