I am emotionally drained from watching this one. A lot to remember. Here goes. First, Rip scored 51, most of it in regulation. Rip has all the sudden added the drive and pull up to his arsenal big time. He is shooting with range. He is driving in. He is just shaking people off. Still the occasional hitting one off a pick. Pretty amazing. Just not quite enough tonight in this triple overtime Piston loss.

Mohammed had a decent game. He scored out of the post several times, which the first time this year I can say that. Still, our middle is soft, and Marbury racked up about 40 points coming right down our gut. Mohammed played most of the OT's since Sheed fouled out. He scored a couple of big hoops, and got 4 straight key points at one time. And about 14 boards or so.

For them, first Marbury, then Crawford had big games. Channing Frye hit the big shot for them to send it into the third overtime. Oh, and Curry was huge for them in the first half with 21 points. All in all, NY is showing it has a very talented group of players, and whats scary is Zeke has them playing some pretty good team ball.

Billups flat out stunk late, missing a ton of shots, and committing those fouls that let them get back into the game when the game seemed sewn up for us. And he missed a clutch free throw that would have sealed it. Oh well on that, he can't be perfect, but he could have let someone else shoot the ball or drive in. More next post. This is going to take a while.

Flip Murray barely played in this one. Four horrible minutes where he could not hang onto the ball, and the one time he did, you got it, called his own number and missed badly. Delfino got to play the whole 2nd quarter, and half the 4th quarter. And most of the OT's since Sheed fouled out. Even with Delfino though, I am not fond of small ball, especially with Mohammed as our only big.

Delfino hit his first 4 shots, and then sent the game into the first overtime with a triple. And he did his usual fine defending and rebounding.

Maxiell did not play in the 2nd half nor in any of the OT's. Not a whole lot from him, but I must say he came on with Flip Murray so that is not fair to him.

Dale Davis played plenty, as Mohammed only played about 5 minutes in the first half of the game. Davis played something like 12 straight minutes from early in the 1st quarter until several minutes into the 2nd quarter. He also played the end of the 3rd quarter and I think the beginning of the 4th quarter. But never in OT. No comment on that or anything else about the rotation since, hey, with a little smarter play from Billups in the 2nd OT we win this one. Still, I do wonder if a little bit of energy from either Maxiell or Davis might have helped a bit.

Several players, Rip, Tay, and Billups I am sure, ended up with over 50 minutes after getting around 40 last night. Talk about some fatigue. Considering this, no way will I be at all harsh on any of these 3 about how they did late in the game.

Blalock played. His 2nd half stint went just a bit longer than usual, but Saunders still won't loosen up and let him get more playing time in the 3rd quarter. Billups needs the rest. The game is not won in the 2nd quarter. Let the kid play.

Dyess had a pretty good game. He played the whole 4th and ended up with a double double I believe and about 15 points. Best game of the year for him, but like Delfino's best, and Rip's best, it was all wasted. (and I'd say Mohammed's best too.) Quite a game. The Pistons are still on a pretty good tear despite the loss. GO PISTONS!!!!!

PS, I can't even remember at this point a whole lot about how Sheed or Tay did. Just drawing a blank.