The Pistons got a decent lead early, but just could never put this team away until the 4th quarter. Lots of fun to watch this one, as we got to see some action from Darko, non-garbage time, for the first time in a long time. And man, did Darko ever do some nice ball handling. It should have been 4 assists if Davis would have expected that pass. Darn, that was a nice pass. On defense, Darko got beat by Brezec once. So what. Give me that a few more times and I bet Darko is stuffing his shots. Darko sorely needs experience, experience he can only get from playing in the game. But funny though, Darko's offensive game sure looked sharp tonight, contradicting this observation. To clarify, you can practice offense in practice somewhat, as you know where your teammates are going to go. But defense? You don't know what the other team is going to do, and then how your teammates are going to react to what they do. Great to see some minutes for Darko to gain the experience he so much needs.

Evans had a fine game. Quite a few rebounds. On a "found" ball situation, Evans calmly banked one in off the glass. Ben connected with him for an assist inside. He hit a triple. Thankyou very much, giving Arroyo yet another assist. He was also involved in a couple of fast breaks that went well for us. And he made a quick pass into the corner to Rip for that triple. The only drawback I can see to all this, its the third great game he has had in a long stretch, where each time its against a cellar dwellar. Hopefully, some of what he did tonight will translate into better performances when we face the Dallas's of this league.

Carlos Arroyo ran our offensive very smoothly. Lots of assists. No turns. Some offense from him to, with a cut inside, and making his free throws. Dyess hit some shots. Still that crazy pattern though, the more open he is, the more likely he is to miss the shot. Maybe hypno-therapy is needed. I don't know. Dyess would be totally awesome right now if he could just mange to hit the easy ones. The fantastic fade-a-ways he gots down just fine.

Delfino made a lot of difference, getting some steals and helping with the ball handling. But he only played in the rotation for the 1st half, and then in garbage time. Lets talk about garbage time. Two things that might surprise some people. One, Delfino played as the point guard, and did very, very well. We scored time after time. And the 2nd, Jason Maxiell was playing at small forward, and of course, completely dominating things out there. If only he could hit his free throws. Got to be a mental thing again, as he generally hits every other one. He has a great midrange game, no way he should be missing his free throws. He was all over the boards. Defensively, he looked just fine. Plenty of speed, and similar to Ben Wallace, those inspector gadget arms for bothering his man's dribble.

Dale Davis got into the game. Got some rebounds. Defended just fine. Hit one free throw, giving him 2 points for the year now. He played the end of the 1st half, and the end of garbage time.

Nothing any different really from Sheed, Ben, Rip, or CB. Rip hitting his shots. And note, two of them from feeds from Arroyo off curls. One pass was pretty incredible, zipped hard and right on the money.

The biggest story at the moment among the starters remains Tay establishing his outside shot. Tay hit several tonight.

We got a ton of assists. Can't wait to see the boxscore on that. I know we were on a pace for over 30 early though.

Charlotte enjoyed some pretty darn steady shooting tonight, or this game would have been a total laugher. We got to see Alan Anderson play a bit and make a shot or two, and Bernard Robinson made some impressive plays around the basket.

Charlotte was undermanned, and basically started 4 guards and Brezec. Kind of amazing they hung in there, but they used their quickness to get open on the outside, and like I said, they were hitting their shots. Still, this was no measuring stick for us or anything. Just an expected win. And yet stil, it was great to see us take the game very seriously, share the ball so well. And it was absolutely fantastic to welcome Darko back. I liked seeing Dale Davis getting some burn too.

Dyess was in early foul trouble, helping Flip make the decision to go to Darko and Dale in this game. Plus Ben had a scare, staining his knee after getting pushed and fouling down funny. No foul called. Clean it up Mr. Stern. There has got to be enough money to get more refs out there or something. Maybe a main ref in the booth who can hit a button, stopping play here and there for review. Clean it up before someone gets hurt.

Well, thats all I can think of for the moment. GO PISTONS!!!!!