As others here have mentioned, this game was looking like a typical Pistons game (maintaining a small-medium lead) until Amir Johnson came in and we went on a 10-0 run. The pattern is making itself clear. He plays good D, which results in easy O for us when we get blocks, steals, etc. This is why we are seeing so many of these gaudy runs when he is in the game.

Observatios:

• Dyess only attempted 1 shot. I noticed that he passed up a completely open jumper from his sweet spot in the 2nd half and then threw it away on a pass. Not sure what the problem was. Maybe b/c Sheed was rolling, he didn't look to score, then wanted to let the young guys get shots later? His D looked a little shaky tonight too. Maybe he has a cold or something.
• Tay got to show off a bit without Chauncey.
• Sheed was having one of his best games of the year, until he got completely bored and took that horrible lefty shot over the backboard. That was about it for him.
• I'm really not basing this on the results, but Dixon's form looks pretty good. Nice compact release without too many moving parts, nice arc, and good rotation. He also seemed surprisingly like a 1, which does not fit his rep as a 1/2.
• Herrmann with the razzle dazzle. In only 4:40, he took 4 shots, got fouled, grabbed 3 rebounds, and dished out 2 assists?!?! That is at least 9 touches in a very short period of time. That baseline pass was one of the year's passing lighlights for Det.

Statistical Anamolies:

• We made 20 more FG's than they did (44-24). I'm not sure I've ever seen that big of a disparity.
• They attempted 34 FT's to our 12. That is also one of the biggest spreads. However, these are correlated, since when we foul them on a shot it gives them free throws and doesn't count as a shot attempts.
• Cory Magette got more free throws than our entire squad.
• In the 2nd and 4th quarters, the Clippers scored 27 total points. Nice job ZOO CREW! 18 total points if you ignore free throws.

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"Everybody knows how Sheed felt when we went small, but he's buying into it." Rip