I was at the Palace, in my usual seat overlooking the Pistons bench. It was tons of fun to cheer on the Pistons. A young couple sitting next to us was at their first Piston game, and loved it. They got a hoot out of how much yelling I do.

There were some negatives in this game for sure, but plenty of positives too. I'll gleam over some of the bad stuff quickly. Yes, Dyess is wiped out, as far as I can tell, and yes, our play did drop off when he returned in the 2nd quarter. Our young guys were doing great. They had knocked the lead up to 25. We did not need our starters to return in the 2nd quarter of this game. Hayes played a short spell, and did pretty much nothing right, and Afflalo got the rest of his 1st half minutes and all his 2nd half minutes. Yes, it seemed like Flip was coaching with wrong thinking, imagining that Orlando was going to fold all the sudden, and then the bench could come in for extended garbage time. Nope, Flip, you got to sub in late 3rd quarter, assume the worst.

Now the good stuff. We rocked in the first quarter, getting a 21 point lead. The game was somewhat anticlimactic after that. It was just a matter of whether we were going to put the game away early. That first quarter featured some very impressive post work by Sheed.

Amir sure enough came in the game and played a good stretch of the 2nd quarter. He was very effective on the offensive glass, and at one point, the Pistons as a team had more offensive rebounds than Orlando had total rebounds. (Of course, we were shooting about 77% at that point too, so Orlando was not getting that many defensive board opportunities. A few blocks from Amir helped out cause too. After two straight offensive rebounds on the same play, Amir put the ball in the hoop for his only basket. Amir was not given a shot to take otherwise.

JMAX hit a couple of much needed midrange jumpers in the game, plus he made one very impressive move from the left to the middle, ending in a short jumper.

For the whole game, we outrebounded Orlando badly, with Dyess getting the most. Sheed was guarding Howard the most in the first quarter, and doing a pretty good job of it, but Dyess was taking his turns too.

A couple of times, Afflalo was guarding Lewis, which would seem quite a mismatch. The ref blew the whistle on Afflalo the first time, seemingly arbitrarily, maybe just for pwar. Playing While A Rookie. Lewis then backed him down later and scored an easy bucket. But hey, Afflalo still looked capable of doing the job, maybe if given some more experience and a bit more of a fair whistle from the refs.

Interesting that Orlando outscored us in quarters 2, 3, and 4. This included a 33 point 2nd quarter if I recall right. 49-18, yep, 33 points. Orlando hung in there, despite falling behind so far so fast. While we can certainly laugh at how easily our guards scored on Arroyo, it must be noted that they can score on a lot of guards. Meanwhile, Arroyo was having a particulary good shooting game and dishing the ball right and left to give Orlando good shots. Contrast that to earlier in the season when Nelson was their point guard. Nelson plays no D at all, and no way could match the point guard play of Arroyo. That game back then was easy. (And Dyess was not worn out at that point, the 2nd game of the season.)

Their star, Lewis, hit one triple early and seemed to some extent to shoot Orlando right out of the game. I mean, you think that somehow they could get the ball into their star, Howard, right? They did, but we continually fouled Howard when they did and he only makes half his free throws. Howard's free throw shooting woes are a big weak spot for the Orlando team. Sheed ended up with serious foul trouble from the late 3rd quarter on when he picked up his 4th foul.

Afflalo only got to take one outside shot that I recall, and he made it, a midranger.

Stuckey, did get stuffed driving in the one time, but oh well, he has to keep doing what he does best. The more he drives in, the more comfortable it will be for him to do so. Open players will become more easy to see. Keep it up Stuck.

When we need a score, there is Billups to drive in and get to the line. When we want to score some buckets, there is Rip with his steady as ever midrange game, and you better not give him an open look at a three. Great job of shooting by Rip tonight.

Tay had a decent all around game. Nice passing. Key rebounds. Some scoring. Good solid D. He probably did play maybe a bit too much, but this was not a back to back, and we don't play for a few days. Still, I would like to get Sammy Mejia on the team, a lockdown defender, strong rebounder, and excellent ball handler. Tay could get some serious rest if Mejia was on the team, and could do a lot of what Tay does when he is playing all those minutes.

Why do I want Samb on the team? To close out the 2nd quarter. Give us some shotblocking, and let Dyess get more rest than he did tonight.

OK, about all I can think of at the moment. Overall, this was a very good win. Things may not be running as nicely as they could, but they are running down the right track.

GO PISTONS!!!!!