Ok, been a long drive home. I am exhausted from yelling all game. Man I wanted this one in the win column, and it seemed there was a bit more energy in the Palace than usual. Chants of defense and lets go Pistons abounded.

In the end, CB hit the shots, and the Pistons starting five got real tough on D. Gasol quit hitting those little flip shots he uses. Not a jumper. Not a hook. Maybe you call it a push shot? Anyway, they quit going in and guess what? Memphis did not seem to have anyone else with the guts to shoot the ball.

36-5. Great. The Pistons don't care a darn. All they care about is the game Sunday. But us fans care. A lot. But now that we beat the 35-5 start of the Tigers, hey, I just want to see preparation for the playoffs.

Tay, I am sad to report, has lost confidence in his outside shot. Keep shooting Tay. Passing up open shots is not going to help us. Shooters shoot. Be a shooter. Then again, with Delfino out, it has been problematic getting Tay enough rest. It was the 3rd in 4 nights tonight. In pregame shoot-a-rounds, Tay seemed to struggle quite a bit with his shot at first. I was wondering if maybe he was a little leg weary? Nothing in the game said otherwise.

Rip gave us some scoring. Hit another 3. Sheed was off inside but hit some outside shots. (and missed lots too.) Dyess only gave us the one bucket, right? Evans had a score off a scramble for the ball, and not much more from him. (Although he played for a good long stint in the 2nd quarter, spelling both Tay and Rip somewhat. He played only about 3 minutes though in the 2nd half.)

Arroyo came in and immediately the ball was finding its way right to the basket. Again and again the play was inside. We did not end up getting ahead of Memphis while Arroyo was in, but we played well enough for those 6 or 7 minutes to keep the tie game a tie. Arroyo, using that dribbling skill of his, was basically setting up shop right inside their gut. In the 2nd half, we lost our lead while Arroyo was in, but I can't say I saw anything Arroyo did that caused this. Billups came in at that point, and Memphis stayed hot, going up 6 before we got the game back in control a bit.

The bench rotation in the 2nd half was sparse, with Arroyo coming in really early in the 3rd, about the 6 minute mark, and Evans playing his few minutes in the 4th quarter.

At times, it seemed every time the Pistons stiffened up their defense, we would end up knocking the ball away, but it would get picked up by a Grizz player and they would score. It all evened out though down the stretch, with the loose balls all going our way finally.

Also at times, the Pistons just flat out were slack on their D. Letting guys waltz down the lane. Not jumping out on their shooters. Guys like Mike Miller and Atkins, hey, you don't let them shoot unchallenged shots out there. If they use a pick, the big man has got to show. Yes, this kind of thing happened, but not for most of the game.

To start the game, we were stuck at around 6 points for what seemed an eternity. Yet, we were not down much. Our defense was doing fine to start the game.

Defending Gasol was the big deal for us in this game. Sheed started on him, with Ben doing a lot and Dyess a bit too. Gasol could not be played off of, as he kept draining those high arcing shots of his. You played up on him, and he would drive you, and make sure there was contact. The refs kept giving him the benefit of the calls on that contact, even where Gasol clearly stuck an elbow out. It seemed the refs started to just ignore the contack toward the end of the game, acknowlaging finally that Gasol was the one creating most of it. At that point, we had the game won. Cause the outside shot finally quit falling, and without bogus calls from the refs it turned out that Gasol's inside shots missed also.

Darko got in for one minute. He did nothing. He defended Gasol one time, resulting in Darko fouling Gasol hard and sending him to the line. A pattern continues where if Darko is in the game, he gets attacked hard. (Not trying jumpers over him, not trying to drive around him. I mean going right at him hard.) Hey, keep playing the guy, let them keep attacking. Experience is the best teacher.

Note, the next time down we had Dyess I think gaurd Gasol instead of Darko. Darko does not need to have to be able to stop a guy like Gasol to be able to play a bit.

Well, thats about it for this one until I study the tape. Any comments about what I perceived are welcome and let me know what to look for when I review the game. Man 36-5. GO PISTONS!!!!!