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The Detroit Pistons and the New York Knicks go head-to-head in London on Thursday night,
as the NBA continues its efforts to appeal to to a wider global audience.
This will be the seventh NBA game to be played in the English capital, but tickets for this
year's edition of 'NBA London Live' sold out in record time.
Detroit's hopes raised by their opponent's recent struggles, but Pistons centre Greg
Monroe is taking nothing for granted:
"I mean, at the end of the day they are still one of the best teams in the league. They
have great players, so like I said, we've got to come out, match their intensity, match
their focus. We have to out work them if we want to give ourselves a chance to win the
game."
Pistons coach Lawrence Frank hoping his team behave off the court:
"Well, as long as they don't get trapped in the, you know, Tower of London, you know,
and they don't go back to doing what they used to do there hopefully it will be all
right. No, look, I think that's part of the maturity of being a professional that....
look, when you step off this hardwood, you know, enjoy yourselves, but when you step
back on you've got to be locked in."
Knicks forward Amar'e Stoudemire quietly confident:
"Well, they're great inside, you know. They're a great rebounding team. They're, that's the
area where, if a team's pretty good at rebounding it can have a great chance to win because
it gives them more opportunities at the offensive end, for offensive rebounds. So if we do a
great job of boxing those guys out and getting those rebounds, and defending the pick and
roll, we have a great chance to win."
The Nicks have even brought along celebrity fan, Spike Lee. The film director revelling
in the best squad his team has had in a while:
"It's been a lot of years, but.... as I said before, people are very enthusiastic about
New York Knicks this year and hopefully, you know, we'll get a chance to meet the (Miami)
Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, and (if) we do that we're beating them."