Great win for the Pistons tonight! The big news is that the bench played BIG minutes in the 4th quarter, and they played extremely well. It was tied going into the 4th, and in the first few minutes of that quarter, there were NO starters out there for the Pistons. After a few minutes, Rip came in for Flip Murray (a good switch, Murray had a horrible game), but the other bench guys stayed out there for a few more minutes. JMax, Delfino, Dale, and Blalock all played at least half the 4th quarter, and they did a great job, setting the Pistons up with about a 5 point lead, after it was tied going into the 4th. JMax and Dale both played awesome defense, with 5 blocks between them, and JMax had an absolutely insane dunk earlier in the game--I think I know what one of DrSimp's plays of the week will be! The Pistons lost the lead after Billups and Tay came back in, but they went on a huge run in the last couple of minutes, keyed by some more great D. Rip and CB combined to go 20-29 from the floor, with 53 points between them. Kristic was the big scorer for the Nets, with 27, but Vince had a horrendous game, only 5-21 from the floor.

Blalock's first significant minutes of the season were quite successful. Didn't get on the stat sheet too much, but he moved the ball well on offense and played some good solid D. Quite an encouraging debut. He even had a strip on Kidd in the 4th quarter that keyed a fastbreak, which I think ended up with Fino getting fouled and hitting 2 free throws.