| Play the Pistons: Pick Your Poison Authored by James M. Morisette - November 18, 2005 - 7:52 pm
Remember Mother Goose’s humorous but frustratingly unrepeatable rhyme “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers?” Remember how many times you and yours tried to say it correctly only to say “Peter Piper packed a pecker’s peppers,” or “Peter Piper pecked a pike of pickers.”
Well I have bad news folks. Mother G’s rhyme has been replaced. That is right. It has been replaced by a rhyme that has rapidly spread to NBA cities all across America and injected itself into the minds of NBA fans. The rhyme goes like this. “Play the Pistons pick a peck of potent poison.” In other words, the 2005-2006 Detroit Pistons basketball team is straight up deadly.
Thanks to the solid defensive foundation laid by former Detroit Piston coaches Rick Carlisle and Larry Brown and also to the elaborate offensive house that Saunders constructed above it, the Pistons have expeditiously driven Joe Dumar’s V-12 Venomobile past its first seven NBA opponents.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the Pistons during the early stages of the 2005-2006 campaign is not that they have been winning, but rather how they have been winning. Through the first seven games, this selfless core of battle-hardened veterans has proven their ability to score against and stop their opposition at will. The evidence to support this assertion lies in the fact that this Pistons team scores 102.7 points per game (3rd in NBA) yet gives up only 89.4 points per game (3rd in NBA). That is an NBA leading + 13.3 point ratio. The Cleveland Cavaliers, which is second in this category, has a + 8.5 point ratio.
Offensively speaking, Chauncey Billups and Co. are currently ranked first in the NBA with a field goal shooting percentage of .489%, second in assists per game (24.9), second in assist to turnover ratio (2.05 ast/to), and dead last in the league with just 85 total turnovers. The Utah Jazz by comparison, leads the league with 153 turnovers.
Yet while this Pistons team currently lies in the top five in nearly every offensive category, not one individual on the Pistons, other than Chauncey Billups, lies in the top five in any NBA offensive category. That is because the starting five for the Pistons knows how to share the wealth. Each starter averages more than 10 points per game and shoots over 40% from the field. The Piston’s bench, led by Carlos Arroyo, Maurice Evans, and Antonio McDyess are also doing well.
Defensively, the Pistons have slipped just a little bit in two categories. They are currently ranked 10th in the NBA in rebounds per game (43.3) and 21st in blocks per game (4.3). However, the Pistons are second in the NBA in steals per game with 8.4 and, as stated earlier, they are allowing just 89.4 points per game.
While there are many reasons to be excited about this season’s Pistons team, fans should heed the wisdom of Rasheed Wallace (0 technical fouls through 7 games). The NBA season is less a sprint and more the Tour de France. The Pistons are just 7 games into the present campaign. This means there are 75 games remaining on the schedule to be played.
But if the first 7 games are indicative of the remaining 75, basketball loving mortals all across America may be singing the blues when their favorite team is forced to play the Pistons and pick a peck of potent poison.
James M. Morisette covers the Detroit Pistons and Lions for RealGM.com. He can be reached by e-mail at jamesmorisette@yahoo.com. |
