- Game info: 8:00 pm EST Sat Dec 11, 2004
- TV: WDIV, GRSN
The Detroit Pistons hope to get back to their winning ways as they visit the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum.
Detroit had its season-high three-game winning streak snapped by Atlanta, 88-72 on Friday night, matching a franchise record for fewest points in a home game.
“I’ve been here for two years, and I haven’t seen anything worse than that,” the Pistons’ Chauncey Billups said.
Detroit had scored 72 points three other times at home, most recently Dec. 12, 2003 against Seattle.
The Pistons could be without Rasheed Wallace (hamstring) again, as he’s suffering from a sore right hamstring. He sat out Friday night and was replaced by Elden Campbell in the starting lineup.
With Antonio McDyess already on the injured list with a strained calf, an ineffective Campbell—four points on 1-of-5 shooting in 19 minutes—and Ben Wallace were the team’s only veteran inside players.
Little used second-year player Darko Milicic was forced to play a career-high 24 minutes, and finished with four points.
“We think we can just go out and play any way, take any shot and everything’s going to be OK,” Detroit coach Larry Brown said. “You get exposed when you don’t have your big guys to bail you out.”
Richard Hamilton led all scorers with 24, but the rest of the Pistons combined to shoot just 29.6 percent (16-for-54).
Memphis comes into this game having lost its first big game under new coach Mike Fratello, 92-84 at Miami on Friday night.
Shaquille O’Neal and Dwayne Wade proved too much for the Grizzlies, as O’Neal scored 11 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and Wade narrowly missed a triple-double, finishing with 26 points, nine rebounds and nine assists for the Heat.
“He took over at the end. No one guy can stop Shaq,” said Lorenzen Wright, who had 14 of his 18 points in the second half for Memphis. “We had our chance to win but we couldn’t stop Shaq at the end.”
Memphis which lost for the second time since former Heat television analyst Fratello took over as coach five games ago. The Grizzlies held a 22-8 edge in offensive rebounding, but couldn’t overcome 35.9 percent shooting.
“It was a good game for about 42 or 43 of the 48 minutes,” Fratello said. “We just hit that one five- or six-minute stretch. We couldn’t do anything right, and they did everything right.”
The Grizzlies are allowing an average of 90.2 points since Fratello took over, a decrease of 5.2.

Currently:
Detroit Bad Boys
Straight Outta Vancouver
