The Detroit Pistons held off the Philladelphia Seventy Sixers on Sunday 88-81. The performer of the game had to be Ben Wallace. Here's what Dana Gauruder of Nba.com had to say about Wallace in his article:
Wallace scored just two points in the Pistons' 88-81 victory over Philadelphia on a Sunday afternoon but he showed his team how it could win without Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton. Wallace grabbed a season-high 16 rebounds, including nine of Detroit's 21 offensive boards.
He also had three blocks and three steals and spearheaded a defensive effort that held the 76ers to 43.6 percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers. "He's amazing," said Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva, who scored 16 points. "He's 35 years old. I have something to look up to now. When I hit 35, hopefully I can do the things he does."
The one thing that gave the Pistons a decided edge in this game was rebounding, especially on the offensive end. They out rebounded the Sixers 51-39, and on the offensive boards Detroit beat them 21-14. It seemed as if everyone was reeling in boards, even Will Bynum collected a career high of eight.
Austin Daye and Jonas Jerebko again had play the small forward position by committee with Tayshaun Prince sidelined for an unknown amount of time. Keith Langlois at True Blue Pistons has a good assessment on their performance on Sunday:
He didn’t get on the floor in the fourth quarter, but Jerebko did enough in the first three to further the Pistons’ confidence in their ability to stay afloat for however long Prince needs to heal from the ruptured disc discovered by a weekend MRI exam.
Jerebko finished with 10 points and five boards in 22 minutes, but the biggest thing was the rock-solid defense he continues to play. This time he was going up against Philly’s immensely talented third-year forward, Thaddeus Young, holding him to just 10 points and six boards on 4 of 13 shooting.
“You see him get those extra possessions, those are key offensive rebounds and put-backs,” Kuester said. “They can change the momentum of a basketball game.”
Perhaps even more surprising is how well Daye has held up defensively. Daye finished with seven points, missing all four of his 3-point shots even though he had good looks and most of the shots looked good in flight.
“I was teasing with Austin – he had about two or three looks, I hadn’t seen him miss that many times all preseason and into the season itself. He’s done a great job for us.
“Both of those guys are not afraid to mix it up. You think Austin is going to get broken in half, but he’s mentally tough and physically he’ll take the challenge.”
This was a good win for the Pistons but some things might seem better than they are. Detroit's frontcourt looked very good in this contest but they were competing against a Philly front court that isn't all that intimidating.
Elton Brand has not been the same player in the Sixers' Princeton offense that he was with the Clippers. In his defense he has been injured for a large portion of his time in Philly. Even when healthy though Brand has not put up good numbers, averaging 11 points and 5.6 rebounds this year.
Philly's other big man Samual Dalembert has never been an offensive powerhouse, but can defend the paint with good effectiveness. He only managed to play 14 minutes though, as the Sixers tried to play the smaller Marreese Speights.
Let's see if the Pistons front court can manage to put together games close to this against the bigger and better equipped front courts of the Lakers, Boston, and Cleveland.
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