Pistons hold of Sixers; Stuckey puts on a show

This game was supposed to be all about Iverson, but Stuckey stole the show with his best game of the year. This game was a tight affair throughout, won by the Pistons on a fade away baseline jumper by Rodney Stuckey with 8 seconds remaining. The loss extended the Sixers losing streak to 11 games and the Pistons extended their own 3 game winning streak (and 4 wins in 5 games).

Here are the three keys to the Pistons win…

• The “Hot Rod” show: Rodney Stuckey is turning the corner. Since Atkins was inserted into the starting lineup and thus moving Stuckey to the two guard spot, Stuckey has flourished, averaging 22 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds on 46% shooting (and leading the Pistons to a 4-1 record). Stuckey just seems to play so much better playing off the ball, relieved of the duties of bringing the ball up the court and getting everyone into their sets.

Stuckey was simply spectacular in this game, putting up his best game of the season. He started it out by scoring the first basket of the game for Detroit, badly crossing Iverson over on this play (0:21 mark), causing Iverson to stumble back on his ass, while he calmly suck the mid range jumper. That was hardly all he did though. Stuckey went on to score 28 points, with 8 dimes and 5 boards. Stuckey started this game out very aggressive, attacking the rim and drawing fouls. But as the game progressed, Stuckey hit the likes of Jerebko, Maxiell and others for open jumpers off of down screens.

After getting blocked by Iguodala on a drive to the rim, Stuckey recovered the ball and put up a fading baseline jumper for the winning score with 8 seconds remaining. It’s worth noting that Stuckey not only had to deal with containing Iguodala on the defensive end, but he also had to do most of his damage against an all NBA defender in Iguodala. Stuckey did catch a bit of a break when he got picked off on an Elton Brand screen, leaving Iguodala wide open for a game winning three pointer, but he bricked it badly and Stuckey made two free throws to seal the win.

• Strong Second Half: After a lackluster first half, Jerebko was really the difference in the second half. He scored all 17 of his points in the second half, while holding Thaddeus Young to 11 points on 4 for 14 shooting (2 points I nthe 2^nd half) and he also grabbed 10 boards. Jerebko had one of the key plays of the game, up-faking a charging Iverson and nailing a wide open jumper to give the Pistons an 84-82 lead with 1:49 left.

• Iverson Stink Fest: While maybe its too early to say that Iverson can’t be a productive player anymore, he sure looked awful out on the floor tonight. Bad defense and low percentage scoring is par for the course for Allen Iverson, but missing wide open layups like he did last night could be a sign that it’s really time for him to just leave the sport. He does not have the same explosion and quickness to the basket that he once had and that is obvious to anyone that has watched him the last couple years.

Here are the bad plays, no scratch that… embarrassing plays that stand for Iverson in this game.

1. Stuckey putting Iverson on his ass with a sick cross over dribble

2. Iverson airmailing a wide open 15 footer

3. Iverson bricking a layup that missed the rim completely

Iverson was brought in to sell tickets… not to win games. And alas, after selling out Iverson’s first game back against Denver, only 12,000+ showed up for this game.

Just sayin.

Next Game: vs. Denver Nuggets, 7:30, Fri. Dec 10^th