Yikes, what an ugly game. The Pistons somehow almost won it, thanks largely to a shocking 6-22 performance at the FT line by the Rockets. It was unbelievable, they were something like 1-15 at one point. JMax was the one real star of the night, crashing the boards on both ends and playing some great D. He was the only Piston who consistently played well throughout the game.

The starters let the Rockets get way out in front early in the 3rd quarter, and it was looking like a blowout, but they showed some heart by going on a big run to get within 2 going into the 4th. The bench played several minutes early in the 4th and kept it close, only to see the starters immediately give up a big run to go down double digits again right after coming back in. But they started chipping away and got right back in it on a couple of 3s by Sheed and Rip. They even had a couple of chances to tie or lead in the last minute, but couldn't get over the hump. Two 3s missed in the final seconds after a horrendous call gave the Pistons one last chance--CB had lost it out of bounds but the refs somehow gave it back to the Pistons.

Overall, I'm actually not too disappointed with this loss--it sucks that they played so poorly for much of the game, but they really did show some stones to get back in it when it looked like they were toast. The weirdest sequence of the night was one bit late in the 3rd quarter, I think...Tay was totally invisible for almost the whole game, but he stole a pass, ran down the floor, and absolutely posterized Yao on the break. It was a stunningly great 10 second stretch for him in the midst of a totally lackluster performance.

One good thing was that after Dice turned his ankle pretty badly midway through the 4th, he came back from the locker room and played the last couple of minutes. So hopefully it looked a lot worse than it actually was.