Ugly game but both teams played their guts out. In some ways it reminded me of how Philly played against us -- they missed some makeable shots early, tightened up and started taking harder shots. We started off at a breakneck tempo and rushed things all night.

It's hard to identify anyone on the Pistons who played well, and I guess it's a positive thing that you can say that yet still win.

Ben was terrific on the boards, but we got killed as a team. Sheed was doing a lot of the right things, but his shots weren't falling. Nice clutch shot and tip at the end. Meanwhile Hamilton won the game but did a lot more to try and lose it, with terrible defense (how many times did he fall down out there?) and a million bad decisions. Billups got outplayed by West and never really asserted himself. I think the Cs have found their point guard. Prince looked a step slow and got badly burned by Pierce, but Pierce is a handful for anybody when he's fresh.

This was a deja vu game from two years ago ... watch our backcourt struggle, see Rip go 1 on 4 a few dozen times, yell at Prince to be more assertive, wonder why the heck the bench isn't getting more play. In both cases it was early on in a new coach's system. We'll see what happens.

Bench notes: McDyess is a zombie out there. He gave us nada and almost seems disinterested. On my team he's one bad appearance away from becoming our sixth big. Evans made a big 3 but is still sort of waiting around for someone to pass to him. He hasn't figured out the offense or his role. Delfino needs to play more, and I think he will. He wasn't terrible against Pierce in brief service but the lineups didn't favor him this night.

Arroyo didn't do great as a playmaker but is really shooting well. I'd like to see him play alongside Chauncey a little more. Darko played good, just not enough. Feed him the ball, you dopes. He had low post position several times but never got the ball. His one jumper showed how much he has loosened up in game situations, quick-triggering it late in the clock while someone was rushing out at him. Tellin' you, when his shot has that high arc it's the best barometer of his offense.

Celtics announcer and all-time homer Tommy Heinsohn was actually insisting that Boston would be better than Detroit this year because they were more committed to developing a second unit and not burning out the starters. I scoff at that, but I also wonder if there isn't a grain of truth in it ... we'll see.