Well the never say die Pistons put up a valiant effort, but ran out of gas down the stretch. They trimmed a 19 point deficit down to 4, but then a could not capitalize with a couple of bad plays in the end. Flip Sr did one good thing tonight and that was to at least rest Rip, Tay, and Cwebb the last 7 minutes of the game. Neither of the three had steller games, so lets hope all three rebound tomorrow vs the Spurs.
The game may have been lost in the first quarter when Yao gets 2 fouls in the first two minutes and Van gumby rolls the dice and leaves him in there long enough to get some easy buckets and the Pistons hit only 2 of their first 14 shots due to the Yao intimidation factor. Getting that 3rd foul on him in the first quarter would have change the flow of the game and Pistons probably would have been leading at the half instead of trailing IMO. The fact that Yao never got another foul the whole game mystifies me as Flip should have been able to call a play to take out Yao
Looking at the boxscore the Pistons had only 6 turns to their 9., out boarded them by 1, out pointed them in the paint by 2 and out blocked them 4 to 2. However, the biggest block went to Yao with 23 seconds left on Delfino who probably should have fed the ball to CB for a three or taken it himself. After all Fino was 2-6 tonight with his only makes the two three balls.
When Sheed got his two fouls in the first, he was yanked and I don't believe he scored in the first half due to getting another quick foul in the second qtr. He came out firing in the third, but missed all five of his 3 balls including a turn and shoot one with 10 seconds on the clock. I don't even thing he looked in the direction for the basket??? Billups came out slow, but helped lead the comeback with Dice and Murray. His groin appeared to still be bothering him, but Flip wanted the W tonight and played him 36 mins.
No Pforum guys in the crowd tonight for the Piston karma, so no victory. We will get them tomorrow tonight if Barbara San Anton goes to the game..after all she is forum member.
Go Pistons