Pistons-Magic Pre-game Part Deux

     Just three days ago the Detroit Pistons handed the Orlando Magic their first loss of the season. They look to hand them their second tonight.
    
     On Tuesday, the game turned into a defensive slug fest that saw Will Bynum leave the game in the second half after getting poked in the eye. He later returned to finish the clinic he started earlier in the game.

     In that game Orlando shot a season high 35 three point attempts and made only ten. I don't expect them to hoist that many tonight, but I will not be surprised if they manage to make more than ten triples.

     The Pistons are again going to be without Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince. That means Jonas Jerebko and Ben Gordon will get the start for the third game in a row. Gordon has played extremely well in place of Rip, averaging 26 points per game while playing upwards of 40 minutes a night.

     Jerebko his having himself a very nice showing for a rookie as well. His first two assignments were to guard Vince Carter and Hedo Turkoglu, not an easy task for even salty veterans. He did an exellent job on both of them, holding Carter to 15 points on 6-16 shooting and Turkoglu to 16 points on 5-11 shooting. Turkoglu also had seven boards and six assists, so he was able to still produce but nevertheless Jerebko has more than made his case for playing even when Prince comes back.

     Detroit was able to negate Orlando's big men by consistently getting their guards to draw fouls in the paint. Look for Detroit to try that again tonight, but also look for them to try and get more than six three point attempts.

     Pace shouldn't be to big of a factor to much in this game as both teams are rested and can play up-tempo run-and-gun or grind-it-out defensive basketball. I expect Detroit to try and keep the pace slower and emphasize defense again as they have been for the past few games. Orlando might be looking to try and push the ball up the court and take a lot of early threes, in an attempt to out score what might be an offensively thin Pistons team with two of its starters out.

     This should be another exciting match-up, with Orlando seeking revenge for what Dwight Howard has called "A Really Frustrating Night!!"