Box Score
Post recap
Times recap
Detroit News
Detroit Bad Boys

So remember how we said that tonight would be a big test for our young bigs?  Yeah, epic fail there.

Bucky Katt was there, so let's start with his thoughts:

1. Caron barely played, and when he did play, he mostly shot jumpshots. With the other injuries, I guess he’s saving himself for the season, and is mainly trying to not get hurt.
2. Blatche must have had a bet with Gil to see how quickly he could foul himself out or get pulled from the game, cause he was trying some crazy, out-of-control stuff on offense. He did have a nice block on Rasheed that got called a foul . . .
3. Regrettably, Kwame Brown was not as much of an epic fail as I would have liked. On the plus side, the only times the crowd (about 1/3 full in the lower levels, the top level was closed off) got into the game were to boo Kwame (which is always fun) and try to get free t-shirts.
4. Stewie played pretty well, but it would be nice to see him play inside more on offense. He continues to float around the perimeter a lot.
5. Etan Thomas is . . . let’s just hope he’s rusty. He made some nice plays, but also had some pretty bad ones on both offense and defense, with the bad outweighing the good. Maybe he’ll shake it off as he gets more game time . . .

If we're looking for a silver lining, I liked that Etan at least played like Etan in the sense that he was wild and out of control, but still decently effective.  I liked our perimeter defense as well, they were active all night in disrupting Detroit's offense.  Dee Brown already got some love in this fanshot, but it's becoming clear that he and not Juan Dixon should be the backup point guard with Gil out.  McGuire also looked pretty good, though he turned it over four times.

The bad news is that Blatche looked really bad and McGee followed up his awesome game with one that's more typical of his development.  DerMarr Johnson also really struggled, which is bad because any excuse to not have Juan Dixon on the team is good in my book.  In a perfect world, DerMarr would make the team, but if he keeps playing badly, it won't happen.

Basically, this game was exhibit A as to why preseason basketball can really stink.  It was ugly on both ends and I feel for all those who were there and had to watch it.