Pistons beat Celtics; spoil Sheed’s homecoming

Amid the buzz and anticipation of Rasheed Wallace’s return to the Palace, the Pistons pulled off one of their best wins of the year, upsetting the Boston Celtics 92-86. Keyed by Rodney Stuckey, a staunch defensive performance in the 2^nd half and clutch shooting by Villanueva in the 4^th

quarter, the Pistons pulled out one of their best (if not the best) wins of the season.

Here are the 3 keys to the Pistons win:

Rodney Stuckey: Rodney Stuckey had one of his best all around games of the season, posting a line of 27 points, to go along with a career high 11 rebounds, 6 assists (only 2 turnovers) and 2 steals. Even the boxscore doesn’t do him justice; had he not blown several point blank layups he would have gone for at least 35 points. The Celtics had no answer for Stuckey all night, and he came up big in crunch time, scoring 6 points in a 13-0 Pistons run late in the 4^th quarter to put the game away. Rondo had a very solid game (21/8/7) but Stuckey won the war here.

Stuckey seems to have finally put the knee injuries and flu-bug behind him.

Zone Defense: Zone defense was a staple of the Pistons defensive schemes in the Flip Saunders years, but it has rarely been used by the Pistons last two coaches. After giving up 56 points in the first half, they held the Celtics to just 30 points on 27% shooting in the 2^nd half and forcing them into 10 turnovers.

"(Assistant coach) Brian Hill put that zone in the other day and we had talked about using it," coach John Kuester said. "We had a chance to practice it the other day and it was important to get this win. It enabled us to contest a lot of their shots."

Jason Maxiell had the highlight of the night, emphatically sending back an attempted Rasheed Wallace dunk to bring The Palace crowd to its feet. Big Ben also stuffed a Rasheed Wallace layup late in the 4^th that helped extend a Pistons run.

But the Pistons could not have set up the zone if the Pistons had not taken control of their own turnover problems. After turning the ball over 15 times in the first half, the Pistons turned it over just twice in the 2^nd half against the Celtic ball-hawking defense.

Overall, the Celtics shot just 43% from the field and turned the ball over 19 times.

Controlling the Glass:

This game was ultimately won on the glass. The Pistons out-rebounded the Celtics 45-35, including 13-5 on the offensive glass (Stuckey had 6). The fact that the Pistons were still able to keep the Celtics off the offensive glass despite playing a ton of zone in the 2^nd half, was impressive to say the least.

Next Game: Friday, January 22, 2010, vs. IND