if there was a such thing as a good loss, then this was it. the pistons are still struggling but they played hard and the game could've gone either way. they made a few too many mistakes early and couldn't catch up in the end, along with some very generous foul calls on turk driving the lane (and other instances). the refs called the game much differently in the 2nd half, and gave orlando all of the whistles in the 4th.

stuckey looked much better tonight. he ran a few simple pick-and-rolls with max that should've resulted in at least 1 or 2 baskets, was better on defense, and picked good times to drive the lane. maxiell was much better, making his free throws and finally getting back into double figures. we played 11 guys and had 6 in double figures. tay was aggressive on offense and looked much better.

really the only thing that cost us this game was turnovers in the 1st half, and not defending the high pick-and-roll well in the 4th quarter. fault tay all you want, but dyess was just as bad, practically setting screens for orlando himself. when dwight would come out very high, dyess stayed far too close to him and left the basket open, when dwight is absolutely zero threat past the FT line. the lane was unprotected and tay had an extra body to go through, and it didn't work.

i'm not happy with losing, but i'm content with how we played tonight.