Wizards-Pistons Preview

By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN
Posted Feb 11 2012 12:46PM

The Detroit Pistons continued their season-high win streak by extending a run at home against one of the NBA's worst teams. Now they get a chance to do the same to another such club.

The Pistons have won their last seven meetings at The Palace of Auburn Hills against the Washington Wizards, who enter Sunday night's matchup with a 1-10 road mark.

Detroit's four-game win streak is its longest since a five-game run Dec. 4-12, 2009. The Pistons (8-20) beat New Jersey for the 10th straight time at home in Friday's 109-92 rout.

"Our guys have a good rhythm," coach Lawrence Frank said. "We have to continue to raise the bar, continue to do better, but we're playing with a good rhythm and a good spirit."

Greg Monroe had 18 points and 11 boards for his fourth straight double-double. He's averaging 20.0 points and 12.5 boards and shooting 62.5 percent during that run.

Detroit has won eight of its last nine against Washington (5-22), which last won at the Palace with a 99-96 victory Jan. 26, 2007.

None of the Wizards who played in that game are still with the team, which is enduring growing pains as it prepares to begin a five-game road trip. Washington's 1-3 homestand was capped by Friday's 106-89 loss to Miami.

The Wizards shot 38.2 percent and allowed the Heat's trio of stars - LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh - to total 68 points. JaVale McGee and Trevor Booker each had double-doubles.

"We've got to go to Detroit on Sunday and go in there with the attitude that we had tonight," interim coach Randy Wittman said. "We just gotta keep building what we're doing, five games, 10 or 11 days, I think, we'll see where we are mentally.

"We had a grueling stretch here at home with some good teams and now we have to go out on the road after playing a game like this."

The 7-foot McGee, a Michigan native, will be counted on to provide resistance in the middle against the 6-11 Monroe. McGee is shooting 70.8 percent with a total of 38 points in five career games at Detroit.

The Wizards, though, have more to worry about than Monroe. Rodney Stuckey is averaging 14.5 points in this win streak and Jonas Jerebko has totaled 36 points in the last two games.

"We're a very young team and with a young team chemistry is going to take a while; trying to feel each other out as far as trying to develop it," forward Tayshaun Prince said. "I expected us to play faster, create turnovers and just go and when that happens it opens up things for us and guys get more comfortable."

Sunday's game features the first point guard matchup between Detroit rookie Brandon Knight and Washington second-year guard John Wall, who each spent a year at Kentucky before bolting for the NBA.

Knight has shown flashes of strong play for the Pistons while Wall is averaging 25.0 points on 52.8 percent shooting over his last three games.

"Times are rough right now but just keep working as a player, make sure you're getting better, make sure you keep leading these guys," Wall said.

McGee, Wall help Wizards rout Pistons 98-77

Posted Feb 12 2012 10:26PM

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) JaVale McGee had a few fans in the stands to cheer his big game for the Washington Wizards.

The center, who was born in nearby Flint and started his high school career at Detroit Country Day, had 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Wizards to an easy 98-72 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night.

"JaVale was the MVP of this game," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "He had eight dunks, and he had a huge defensive impact on the game in the paint. He might have only gotten two, but he's the best shotblocker in the game, and you always know he's there. He changes a lot of shots."

McGee's presence was a big reason why the Pistons hit just 42 percent of their shots in the paint and saw their four-game winning streak snapped.

"At the start of the game, we talked about this turning out to be an energy game, and that whoever won that, was going to have a chance to win," Washington coach Randy Wittman said. "We ended up doing that."

John Wall was another reason it was such a runaway for the Wizards. He had 15 assists - and then gave his jersey to a girl sitting next to the visitor's tunnel. She had been wearing a Brandon Knight Pistons jersey - Wall's successor as Kentucky's point guard - but she was quick to replace it with the one Wall gave her.

McGee and Wall weren't the only problems for Detroit, though. The Pistons made only 19 percent of their shots outside the paint, including 1 of 11 on 3-pointers.

"One guy didn't make us miss all of those shots," Ben Gordon said. "We just didn't have any energy tonight. We had that during the last four games, but it was gone tonight."

The Wizards took control with a 22-2 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters.

Nick Young added 22 points for the Wizards, while Greg Monroe had a game-high 27 for Detroit.

The game was tied at 45 at the half, and the Wizards took a 62-61 lead late in the third quarter on Wall's first points of the game. Two straight turnovers by Detroit let Washington quickly build the lead to five, and it was 74-63 by quarter's end.

"That was big," Young said. "We never folded, and that's something we can learn from. John kept us going, pushing the ball and we got aggressive and won the game."

Things got so bad for Detroit during Washington's run that Knight's mask came loose, and he ended up tossing it to a fan. An arena employee retrieved the mask at the end of the quarter.

Knight left the mask off, but it didn't help, as the Wizards scored the first seven points of the fourth to move the margin to 18.

Washington led by as much as 27 in garbage time.

Notes: Ben Wallace played in his 1,054th career game, tying Avery Johnson's record for career games by an undrafted player since the NBA/ABA merger. ... Monroe, who is averaging a double-double, didn't get his first rebound until the final minute of the first half. ... Washington's Rashard Lewis (knee) returned after missing three games, but didn't play until the second half. He passed 15,000 career points with a free throw midway through the fourth quarter. "I'm definitely excited - there can't be too many people on that list," he said. "Sam Cassell just told me that I passed him up, so that's most definitely an honor."

Notebook: Wizards 98, Pistons 77

Posted Sunday February 12, 2012 9:50PM

By Dana Gauruder, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Center JaVale McGee and guard Nick Young scored 22 points apiece as the Washington Wizards notched their second road victory this season with a 98-77 win over the Detroit Pistons Sunday night. Point guard John Wall had nine second-half points and a career-high tying 15 assists for the Wizards. Center Greg Monroe led Detroit, which had its four-game winning streak snapped, with 27 points.

QUOTABLE: "I only took one shot in the first half. I wasn't being aggressive like I was the other games. I got that first basket to go in and found a rhythm. It opened up my teammates to make shots and made it tough for them to help on me. We did a great job of picking them apart and finding guys."
-- Wall on Washington's second-half surge.

THE STAT: 27.3. The Pistons shot a season-low 32.6 percent from the field, including a 27.3 percent performance during the second half when they were outscored 53-32. Monroe was the only Piston to make more than one basket after halftime against the Wizards, who rank 24th in defensive field-goal percentage.

TURNING POINT: Wall went scoreless for 33 minutes but once he broke through, his team got rolling. Wall's drought ended with a three-point play to give Washington a 62-61 lead. That kicked off a 22-2 Wizards run spanning the third and fourth quarters. Young made a pair of 3-pointers during that stretch and rookie forward Jan Vesely finished it off with a dunk off a Wall feed for an 81-63 advantage.

QUOTABLE II: "They said I was breathing at 75 percent. I'm feeling a lot better. I feel like I can stay out there longer. I've just got to keep taking my medicine."
-- McGee, who recently had a change in medication for his asthma problems.

HOT: Coming off a season-high 24 points against Miami Friday, McGee continued his hot roll by making 10 of 13 shots. As usual, McGee did most of his damage above the rim. He converted six dunks and added two alley-oop layups. He also had a game-high 11 rebounds, five more than counterpart Monroe.

NOT: Detroit's guards had a miserable shooting night. Rodney Stuckey, Brandon Knight, Ben Gordon, Walker Russell Jr. and Will Bynum shot a combined 6-for-36 (16.7 percent) from the field while scoring 22 points. They also committed eight of the team's 19 turnovers.

GOOD MOVE: Wizards coach Randy Wittman has shortened his big-man rotation, going with McGee, Trevor Booker (nine points, seven rebounds) and Jan Vesely (10 points, eight rebounds). Booker and Vesely did a solid job containing Detroit's power forwards and Vesely had the first double-digit scoring night of his career.

BAD MOVE: Pistons coach Lawrence Frank keeps giving Austin Daye minutes as Tayshaun Prince's backup at small forward and Daye keeps missing open shots. Daye went 2 for 9 from the field Sunday, including a blown fast-break layup attempt, and is now shooting 30.3 percent this season.

NOTABLE: Wizards forward Rashard Lewis reached the 15,000-point mark for his career with 10 points in 12 minutes. He now has 15,006. Lewis, who returned after missing three games because of a sore left knee, joins Paul Pierce and Jason Kidd as the only players in NBA history with 15,000 points, 5,000 rebounds and 1,500 3-pointers. ... Pistons center Ben Wallace tied Avery Johnson's record of 1,054 career games played by an undrafted player since the 1976-77 NBA-ABA merger with his 12-minute stint Sunday. Moses Malone holds the all-time record with 1,329 but was an ABA draft pick in 1974. ... Washington began a five-game road trip that includes four West Coast stops. ... The teams combined for 40 turnovers.

UP NEXT: For the Wizards, Tuesday @ Portland, Wednesday @ L.A. Clippers, Friday @ Utah. For the Pistons, Tuesday vs. San Antonio, Wednesday @ Boston, Friday vs. Sacramento.

• Wizards: Turiaf
• Pistons: Villanueva

• Wizards: --
• Pistons: --

• Lead Changes: 6
• Times Tied: 7

• Arena: Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI
• Officials: #14 Ed Malloy, #75 Eric Dalen, #7 Kevin Fehr
• Attendance: 12654
• Duration: 2:14