# GT: Detroit Pistons @ Dallas Mavericks



## croco (Feb 14, 2005)

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*Dallas Mavericks [53-11] at Detroit Pistons [42-22]*
 | Sunday, March 18, 2007 | Detroit, MI | Palace of Auburn Hills | 2:30pm ET | 
| *TV*: ABC | *Radio*: 103.3 ESPN Radio |

*Game Notes*

The Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons ripped through a road trip against West opponents, but they're hardly out of the clear. 

The Pistons look to extend their winning streak to six games when they return home Sunday to face the Dallas Mavericks in a showdown between the top teams from the two conferences. 

Detroit (42-22) completed its first perfect five-game road trip against Western foes since 1991-92 with Friday's 105-83 victory over Phoenix -- the team with the NBA's second-best record. Two days earlier, Dallas (53-11) lost 129-127 in double-overtime to Phoenix. 

The Pistons handed the high-scoring Suns their most one-sided home loss of the season, holding their opponent below 84 points for the fourth time in five games on the trip. During the winning streak, Detroit is outscoring the opposition by an average of 13.8 points while shooting 50.5 percent from the floor. 

"I don't think it's just 5-0. I think it's how we played," said coach Flip Saunders, whose Pistons forced an average of 19.6 turnovers on the trip. "More importantly, we played the way we thought we've got to play in the playoffs." 

Detroit is seeking to secure the top spot in the East for the second consecutive season and win a third straight Central Division title. The Pistons, who won the 2004 championship, lost to Miami in six games in the conference finals last season, and the Heat went on to defeat the Mavericks in six games in the NBA finals. 

Dallas (53-11) has the best record in the league, and is using last season's loss in the finals as motivation for a title run this year. 

The Mavericks and Pistons have split the season series each of the last three seasons. Detroit won 92-82 in Dallas on Dec. 7 in the first meeting this season. That was the Mavs' last home loss before losing to Phoenix on Wednesday -- a span of 23 games. 

Dallas had a team-record 17-game winning streak end with a loss to Golden State on Monday, but avoided a third straight defeat on Friday with a 106-101 victory over Boston. 

Dirk Nowitzki rebounded from two rough shooting performances to score 19 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter Friday. The loss to Phoenix marks the only time in 18 games this season the Mavericks have lost when Nowitzki has scored at least 30. 

Nowitzki, who was 14-of-39 from the field in the two losses, shot 8-for-12 after halftime against Boston. 

"He's our leader and we follow him," Josh Howard said of Nowitzki. "Leaders do what it takes to get us a win and he did that." 

Howard matched a career high Friday with 30 points -- his total from the previous two games -- but was held to 12 points on 5-of-16 shooting against Detroit in December. 

Nowitzki had 29 points and nine rebounds in that loss to the Pistons, and is averaging 25.2 points in his last five games against them despite going 1-of-12 from 3-point range. The 7-footer has missed all six of his 3-point attempts in his last five games overall. 

The Mavericks have lost three of their last five games at The Palace of Auburn Hills, but Detroit also has been struggling there lately. 

The Pistons lost their last two home games before the five-game road trip, and have lost three of five at The Palace while allowing opponents to average 96.6 points and shoot 49.2 percent. 

Detroit may be without Chauncey Billups for this game after he strained his left groin midway through the second quarter against the Suns. 

"It's been coming on for about two weeks," said Billups, who's averaging 17.1 points and 7.4 assists. "I've been feeling it. Finally it just went a little bit, but I know it's not too bad because I can walk right now. I'll be all right." 

If Billups can't go, the Pistons hope for another solid performance from reserve Flip Murray, who scored a season-high 25 points on 12-of-16 shooting on Friday. Murray also had six steals in 32 minutes, his most since Jan. 15 when he started for an injured Billups. 

Detroit hasn't won two games over Dallas in a single season since winning both meetings in 1997-98.












Who's hot: *Chris Webber* 

Actually, it's the Pistons who have been hot since Webber's arrival. After starting out 4-3 while he was getting acclimated in the lineup, they have gone 17-4. Webber is averaging 13.7 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists with the Pistons. ... Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups have been their top two scorers for four consecutive seasons, the first guards to achieve that for Detroit since Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars from 1990-93. Hamilton and Billups combine to average more than 38 points per game. ... Dirk Nowitzki has had back-to-back 30-point games for only the second time since mid-January, when he had three in a row of 30 or better. 

Who's not: *Mav ballhandlers* 

They have averaged 18.3 turnovers in the last three games and tied a season-worst with 23 against Golden State, not exactly known for defensive wizardry. ... Mavs centers Erick Dampier and DeSagana Diop are coming off a combined four-point, nine-rebound game in 46 minutes against Boston, their least productive outing in weeks. ... The Pistons swept a five-game trip West, concluding Friday at Phoenix. In that game, reserve guard Flip Murray had 25 points, one of his best games in a season in which he's shooting under 40 percent from the field. 

*Injuries*
*Mavericks: *D.J. Mbenga (_right knee_) is out; Devean George (_right knee_) and Greg Buckner (_left knee_) are day-to-day. 
*Pistons: *None.











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## t1no (Jul 10, 2005)

Dirk has improved a lot in crunch time this year but i really don't know what is going on with his free throw shooting. Is it because of what happen in the Finals last year?


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## Jet (Jul 1, 2005)

I wouldnt be suprised. The Mavs got lucky though because Rip missed a lot of key FTs.


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## Copper (Dec 9, 2004)

I would like to know if the Mavs fans are worried based on this game. Without Billups and with Rip playing bad we were able to keep it close. As a Piston fan I was surprised we were as close as we were late in the game.


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## croco (Feb 14, 2005)

t1no said:


> Dirk has improved a lot in crunch time this year but i really don't know what is going on with his free throw shooting. Is it because of what happen in the Finals last year?


I think he looks very exhausted at the end of games sometimes and that makes it tougher to hit clutch free throws. His defense in the last minutes was pretty good though.

The turnovers almost killed us, I mean sometimes the Mavs didn't just throw the ball away, the Pistons stole it from the hands of someone like ten times, that's inexcusable. 

Devin played very well overall today, hitting some midrange jumpers and an important three that gave us the lead. But we really missed the gritty defense of George and Buckner.


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## Jet (Jul 1, 2005)

Copper said:


> I would like to know if the Mavs fans are worried based on this game. Without Billups and with Rip playing bad we were able to keep it close. As a Piston fan I was surprised we were as close as we were late in the game.


Im not really worried.. I mean, I know you guys didnt have Billups playing but we didnt have a couple of our key guys in the rotation player either...George and Bucker, and in my opinion they are two of our best 3 defenders. But I can tell you one thing, if these two teams face off in the Finals, we are going to have a great series.


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## croco (Feb 14, 2005)

Copper said:


> I would like to know if the Mavs fans are worried based on this game. Without Billups and with Rip playing bad we were able to keep it close. As a Piston fan I was surprised we were as close as we were late in the game.


Worried might be a stretch, but certainly not happy with the way the Mavs handled this game. It was a somewhat bizarre game in the second half because any momentum was either killed by turnovers or missed free throws.

The Pistons always find a way to make it close, especially at the Palace, but without Chauncey I wasn't too worried in the final minutes.


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## t1no (Jul 10, 2005)

Copper said:


> Rip playing bad


You can't use that. Shoot he had a better game than Diop, Stackhouse, and Dampier.


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## Jet (Jul 1, 2005)

croco said:


> Devin played very well overall today, hitting some midrange jumpers and an important three that gave us the lead. But we really missed the gritty defense of George and Buckner.


Devin played awesome today, Im glad he decided to start shooting, I know at Wisconsin he was a scorer, and I kind of want to see him become a scorer once again. Pssing is good, but I get get tired of seeing him pass up an open jumper. 22 points though, that pleases me.


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## croco (Feb 14, 2005)

Jet said:


> Devin played awesome today, Im glad he decided to start shooting, I know at Wisconsin he was a scorer, and I kind of want to see him become a scorer once again. Pssing is good, but I get get tired of seeing him pass up an open jumper. 22 points though, that pleases me.


I also recognized that his jumper looks a lot better within 18 feet than outside that mark. I don't if it was just the camera angle, but you could see he practiced that shot thousands of times.


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## Saint Baller (May 3, 2006)

croco said:


> I also recognized that his jumper looks a lot better within 18 feet than outside that mark. I don't if it was just the camera angle, but you could see he practiced that shot thousands of times.


His shot looks like it has more arch now, no?


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## Jet (Jul 1, 2005)

His shot just looks better period.. He supposivly spent a lot of time over last summer trying to improve his jumper, but this was the first game it actually showed


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## edwardcyh (Dec 13, 2005)

BTW, GREAT GT, Croco!

Looks like Croco has the mojo now. :biggrin:


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## edwardcyh (Dec 13, 2005)

I am actually not concerned about the game considering Billup was out, etc...

What I saw was the fact that the offensive Dallas trying too hard to play defense. The dirty-work players were out, which means the regular guys have to pick up the slack in their absence. Stack, JHo, Terry, Dirk were all focusing more on defense than anything else: getting back in transition, protecting the paint, trapping, etc... Devin is still doing his normal "thing," but defensively the rest of Dallas team wasn't too shabby with key stops, hard fouls, etc...

Hopefully George and Buck can come back soon so the rest of the team can focus on offense again. :biggrin:


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## Jet (Jul 1, 2005)

Unfortunatly nobody used it till after the game...


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## edwardcyh (Dec 13, 2005)

As long as the mojo is there! Can't complain.... :biggrin:


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## Copper (Dec 9, 2004)

t1no said:


> You can't use that. Shoot he had a better game than Diop, Stackhouse, and Dampier.


 A better game than them? he should have a better game than those guys. He also missed some rediculous fts. Without Billups I was expecting a double digit loss. As you could see in the closing minutes we just had no direction and very bad shot selection.


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## croco (Feb 14, 2005)

edwardcyh said:


> BTW, GREAT GT, Croco!
> 
> Looks like Croco has the mojo now. :biggrin:


Thanks, we are like 5-0 now when I make the game threads :biggrin:


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## Ninjatune (May 1, 2006)

Keep the mojo running!


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## Ninjatune (May 1, 2006)

On another note: I really can't wait until we get Buck and George back at full strength.


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## xray (Feb 21, 2005)

Ninjatune said:


> On another note: I really can't wait until we get Buck and George back at full strength.


You ain't lying!!


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## Ninjatune (May 1, 2006)

And Dirk needs to cut out all these late game free throw dramatics. 

Just make the damn shot like you do 90% of the time. Stop thinking about it, cause you know he'll be faced with more than a few of these situations come playoff time.


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## edwardcyh (Dec 13, 2005)

We need to figure out another song for him to hum....


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