Game 18: Detroit @ Miami (7:30 PM ET)

[Mr. Krabs]

@ American Airlines Arena


Starting Lineups

vs.
vs.
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vs.
vs.

Heat has won their last 10 games while the Pistons don't have a larger winning streak than 2 wins this season.

Edit: Wade is out, James Jones starts instead.

[Kyrama]

Ohhhhh boooooy

[Q00]

Curious to see if Cheeks stays with the Monroe v Battier matchup. I get the idea of staying with your strength, but more importantly is being able to play defense, plus we will still have an advantage inside with Drummond on Bosh.

Battier also did a great job on Monroe in the post in the preseason matchup. So if he's raining 3's on us on one end, and frustrating Monroe in the post on the other end, its going to be a long night.

[E-Z]

Detroit will own a rebounding advantage. That alone will keep the game within striking distance. The Pistons just need to pound the paint and protect the ball. Easier said the done of course.

Miami's offense is too efficient to really complain about the Pistons' defensive woes. Detroit just has to hope these guys have an off night on the perimeter. Keep it close and anything can happen.

[whitehops]

Curious to see if Cheeks stays with the Monroe v Battier matchup. I get the idea of staying with your strength, but more importantly is being able to play defense, plus we will still have an advantage inside with Drummond on Bosh.

Battier also did a great job on Monroe in the post in the preseason matchup. So if he's raining 3's on us on one end, and frustrating Monroe in the post on the other end, its going to be a long night.

they only play battier for like 20 minutes so it shouldn't be too bad.





they are the best team in the league at forcing turnovers so we watch out for that, even though we are good at taking care of the ball. on the other hand, we are the second best team at forcing turnovers and the heat are turnover prone, hopefully that'll be an advantage for us.


let's just hope they don't rain threes on us...

[DETermination]

And we play on NBA TV tonight so lets hope we don't embarrass ourselves in front of the world.

[ImHeisenberg]

Could be a surprise win. Miami has taken games off this season, and been on cruise control. They needed a big 4th quarter from LeBron just to beat the Wiz a few games ago.

But, odds are, a Miami win, unless Drummond repeats his Philly performance.

[whitehops]

potential ECF preview

[DBC10]

I'm just picturing Ray Allen, Battier, B-Easy just raining 3's on us since we collapse the paint too early and our help defense isn't fully disciplined yet. We often overcommit on 1 pass away situations which is hilarious to see.

We'll only win if Miami makes this an off day for them.

[ComboGuardCity]

Would like to see josh shadow lebron all game. It worked on melo for three quarters.


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[Paul Lord]

I have some hope because the Heat trailed by 14 against the Bobcats on Sunday with 8 mins left until Bosh went crazy.

Hopefully the Pistons can hang in there.

[wire28]

pistons up by 15 heading into 4th quarter

pistons end up losing by 8, moose is held to 9 pts, 8 rebounds, 5 fouls

[qm22]

I'm curious to see how we match up. I think Smith might be a relatively good match up for LeBron (though career numbers don't show it, I never really watched their match ups so I'm not sure if they were directly guarding each other anyway). Smith has trouble with smaller SFs but he and LeBron are pretty close in body size. I feel though Smith's SF defense has been below average, his defense on some star SFs may be above average. Our front court size is great in this match up and Jennings always plays hard against Miami. This will be a very interesting game.

[DetroitPistons]

Whoever Smith is guarding will hit 7 three pointers and have their best performance of the year. We lose.

[dan2314]

our 2 biggest problems.. stopping the other teams SF and defensive breakdowns getting picked apart behind the 3pt line, are miamis biggest strengths. this could be embarrassing.

However, im going to remain optimistic for now. This team theoretically should matchup with miami very well. teams that can score inside and outrebound them can hurt them. and i remember watching in the preseason that wade and even lebron sometimes was absolutely terrified of meeting drummond at the rim. If josh smith doesnt continue to help down to try and get some blocks all game because he actually respects lebron, he might stick right on lebron all game, and have a chance to limit him. they may still rain 3's, but if josh smith doesnt continue to force the rest of the defense to rotate, maybe the everyone else can stay home and not get destroyed.

i think theres a good likelyhood we get blown out, but theres a chance we force them to play our game due to being oversized and that is not their strength as they dont have much quality size on the bench.. so if we can do that rather than the other way around, we might hang in there. monroe should have a BIG game. would be a big message to the league saying how bad the east is constantly if we get a win in miami.

[Minas]

I'm already haunted by images of Miami raining down barrages of 3s

[Blkbrd671]

i hope we beat miami just because those a*holes always try to run up the score against us.


Smith vs Bron is going to be interesting to watch, we signed smith with defending Bron Bron in mind. I think we are going to be disappointed with the results.

Jennings should abuse all guards on this team

Dre's probably going to get schooled by bosh, but still get his double double

Fully expect moose to have a good game but miss a ton of easy buckets

[whitehops]

Jennings should abuse all guards on this team

I wouldn't be expecting that, Miami's defense is designed almost specifically to shut down opposing point guards.

[Blkbrd671]

Jennings should abuse all guards on this team

I wouldn't be expecting that, Miami's defense is designed almost specifically to shut down opposing point guards.

chalmers and cole i think are the PG's? my point is jennings is far better player than both, and he should abuse them, and if Miami is set up to defend pg's, then jennings should feed the big men all day

[detroitKG]

No Dwade tonight for the heat...KCP just exhaled LOL