There are regular season games through Thursday the 12th of February 2015, and last night the 9th of Feb. 2015 we saw the Detroit Pistons 21-32, playing the Charlotte Hornets 22-30, in game 1 of a 4 game series of regular season games. The game was played at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina and tip-off time was 7PM ET in a game that the Pistons won easily 106-78.
This coming Sunday the 15th of February 2015, the NBA will be on a break as that is the date of the Annual NBA All-Star game that has the West playing the East with the game to be played at the home of the New York Knicks, the Madison Square Garden’s with tip-off at 8PM ET.
The scoring in this game was fairly close in the 1st half with the Pistons scoring 26 points in the 1st quarter and the Hornets scoring 27 in the 2nd and taking the lead for the 1st and last time in the game. In the 2nd quarter the Pistons scored 28 points, while the Hornets scored 19 points and the game went to half-time with Detroit 54 and Charlotte 46. In the second half it was much of the same with Detroit scoring 29 points in the 3rd quarter while Charlotte score 14 points and the 3rd quarter ended with the pistons leading by 23 points. The final 4th quarter saw the Pistons score 23 points, while the Hornets scored 18 points, and the Pistons of Detroit beat the Hornets of Charlotte 106 to 78 which was a 28 point difference in the final score.
Leading the offensively for the Pistons was PF Monroe who scored 23 points with 12 rebounds and 2 assists, PG Augustin with 18 points, C Drummond with 14 points and 5 assists, and off the bench PF Tolliver with 16 points and 4 rebounds, and SG Meeks with 18 points and 3 rebounds.
Offensive leaders for the Hornets was SF Henderson with 17 points 4 rebounds and 5 assists, C Jefferson with 13 points 10 rebounds and 2 assists, SF Taylor with 12 points 3 rebounds and 1 assist. Off the bench was SG Hairston with 16 points 2 rebounds and 1 assist.
Presently the Pistons are some 11 games below the .500 mark, and they are already gearing up for the postseason as they think they have a good shot since they are in the Eastern Conference play. All their games from now till the All-Star break are with teams that are also jockeying for positions in their conference.
Detroit’s game plan was to stack the lower post and control the Hornets Center Jefferson, but early in the game that appeared to backfire as Charlotte made 8 of their 11 attempts on 3 pointers in the first half of the game. But their coach Van Gundy did not abandon his game plan, and he got his players to do a better job, and the Hornets seem to tire as the game played on and the Hornets began to miss shots, so the plan worked after all. After half-time the Hornets only managed to connect on 1 of their 13 attempts at 3 pointers, while the pistons outscored the Hornets 29-14 in the 3rd quarter. The Hornets center in the game was held by the Pistons defense as he only was 6 for 14 on his shots on basket.
Meanwhile, in the 3rd quarter the Hornets could not stop the Pistons PF Monroe who scored 11 points in that quarter. In the game Detroit scored some 50 points from the court and went to the foul line on 30 occasions and scored on 27 of those shots. With their big lead in the 2nd half the Pistons rested several of their starters, with PF Monroe being the only starter to have more than 30 minutes of play time in the game.
For those that bet on NBA at an offshore sportsbook like SBG Global, and you are a Piston or Hornet van, then for your information the Pistons play at home against the Spurs and the Hornets next play the Thunder after the All-Star break.