London Game Thread: Knicks at Pistons- 1/17/13

(Yes, this is technically a home game for the Pistons.)

Good afternoon, friends! And good evening to those P&Ters in London. Today brings us our first weekday afternoon game thread since...I don't know, Summer League? The Knicks and Pistons tip off at 8:00 PM London time, which is 3:00 for those of us here on the East Coast of the U. States of A.

The headline going into this one is that Iman Shumpert will debut-- start, in fact-- after eight long months of recovery from his knee injury during last year's playoffs. Shump will play short stints adding up to about fifteen minutes, likely starting alongside Jason Kidd, Chris Copeland, Carmelo Anthony, and Tyson Chandler. So, he's the starting two. In a normal game with a healthy roster, he might start at small forward or come off the bench, but this is not a normal game with a healthy roster. We'll see about all that.

While Shump's not likely to make a huge impact in this one, his services should be helpful against guys like Brandon Knight (who's been playing pretty well lately) and Rodney Stuckey. Tyson Chandler and company will have their hands full with Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond. In general, the Pistons are a pretty bad team, but they've been playing decent ball since their winless first two weeks of the season. They're pretty middle-of-the-road on both offense and defense and do a decent job rebounding, but turn the ball over quite a bit (without forcing many the other way). New York really should take this one-- and it'd be especially nice to do so after Brooklyn and Boston last night-- but the Pistons won't go over lightly.

Anyway, here's a game thread for those of you able to watch basketball/play around on your computer at 3 PM on a Thursday. Here is Detroit Bad Boys. Please don't post large photos, .gifs, or links to illegal streams in the thread, but do feel free to call Chandler a "centre" or whatever for the afternoon.

RESHUMPIFICATION IS BUT MOMENTS AWAY.