Wow, thats 4 games in a row with Flip coaching very well, getting our bench ready for the playoffs. And 4 wins in a row. So far, playing the youth has not lost us a game.
The best part? Tight game to start the 4th, and our whole bench is in, save Afflalo, who had already played most of the 3rd quarter. Now, I don't know if this was planned, or if Rip, due to a bruised leg suffered in the first half, had to come out of the game there. Either way, it was great, four subs with Rip in there to help with some of the scoring.

Our bench stayed in until about 5 minutes left, and the starters managed to finish the deal. A triple by Tay with 4 seconds left put us up one. An Odom miss after we denied the ultra hot shooting Kobe the ball did the rest.

I see some complaints about the bench not being played even more, but hey, they played a whole lot. A whole lot in the 2nd, and a whole lot in the 4th. And the subbing started early, in both halves. I love this rotation.

Tay ended up with 22 points. A lot of that was going in to the rack. Rip hit a lot of shots, especially early where he could not miss at all. Billups and Sheed did some scoring. Dyess got very little, but he did manage to put in a couple of shots off rebounds.

The starters played good D to start this one, but they were settling for outside shots as LA got off to a quick, but short lived lead. Flip called a timeout, and bam, a 10-0 run with us going inside more. Nice adjustment, but the Pistons have got to learn that just because CB takes a 3, which is part of his game, it does not mean everyone else has to play follow the leader.

Stuckey scored a very spectacular 10 points. Did he have a miss? A turn even? All I can remember is good defensive plays, and the WOW. A pull up made in the lane. A drive in and dunk. A drive in from the right for a made contested layup. A drive in the middle finishing with a nifty double clutcher. A drive from the left resulting in two made free throws.

Afflalo had a pair of 3's, and two made free throws, the first two for the Pistons tonight, amongst his 10 points. He Also made some nice passes on fast breaks.

Amir made one post up bucket, but it was just against Radmanovic. No big deal. A fast break dunk off a pass from Afflalo. Nine rebounds last they mentioned. He was in during quite a run we had in the 2nd, where we went up 17 points. What happened to that lead. I don't know for sure, but I can tell you there were a ton of whistles all the sudden, taking a free flowing game down to a total grinding halt.

Maxiell was part of the literal explosion of energy from the bench, as was Hayes. But neither could hit a shot. (Hayes did hit one, and Maxiell did make both free throws the one time.)
In case anyone wonders why Sheed did not make hay inside tonight, like in Indiana: Kwame Brown does not play for Indiana.

Afflalo guarded Kobe a lot in this one. A learning experience for sure. Kobe did score on him. But hey, Kobe lit up Prince something fierce in the 4th quarter, in crunch time. Kobe was on fire, and the refs were in mother hen mode. Good win considering all that.

If anyone can imagine just how delighted I am watching both Afflalo and Stuckey (yeah, especially Stuckey) light up the score board tonight, and watching JMAX and Amir come in as a tandem to start the 4th and provide the energy they did, well, I hope you join me in realizing this: The Pistons will win it all this season, staying on the path they are on right now. Now just imagine how happy we are all going to be when that happens.

One more thing, if memory serves, we were down a few points when the the bench came in in the 2nd half, and they walked off with us up a point. I will double check that next time I watch.

GO PISTONS!!!!!