Ok, lots of comments here on both boards. Lots of ways to write the game up. In the end, Cleveland made shots. A fade-a-way triple from Bron. Big Z hit a fairly long one. Gibson connected. Gooden too. All in crunch time. The Pistons were storming back as per normal, but Cleveland weathered the storm this time. Now, can they do it two games in a row?

On a personal note, this means I am going to game 5. I look forward to watching us close Cleveland out this Thursday night.

Unbelievable. No assists and practically no points from either Rip or Billups in the first half. For the game, our front line came up huge, with at least 15 points each from Webber, Sheed, and Tay. But Webber I liked the most cause he kept going inside. Him picking up his 4th foul early in the 3rd quarter may have sidetracked out usual 3rd quarter surge for a moment, although we did manage a 12-2 run starting about midway into that quarter.

Unfortunately, Dyess made a few outside shots. Again, unless he makes like 6 or 7 of those, it does nothing but hurt the team. We need inside play, not jumpshots.

Typical Flip Saunders. Maxiell gets 15 points in a game, so gets shutout of the rotation in this one. I don't like that. His defensive energy was sorely missed.

Flip Murray did ok. Got some points, gave up some too. Still, he was giving Billups a good long rest. Indeed, since things were going ok, why did Flip bring Billups back for 90 seconds to end the 1st half. And Tay too. Hey, let them sit and relax a bit. 90 seconds ain't going to decide the game.

Dale Davis is another guy missing lately-against Big Z, the guy Saunders said he would get minutes against. No Hunter-but I won't say much negative about that.

Great to see Tay hit the one triple. Not great to see him not getting any rest in the 2nd half. Billups too saw no rest in that 2nd half. Basically, our rotations are nowhere. Flip might have a plan, but I doubt he can remember it during the game whatever that plan might be.

The Pistons did have a darn good defensive stretch in the 2nd half, with Murray in the game. We all hate triples, but when Sheed hit two straight followed by the one from Billups, it sure looked nice. Yes, I love for the ball to go inside, but triples sure can help too, especially with plays designed to get nice wide open ones.

It is surprising what occurred between the halves. In the first half, Murray plays for Billups, and gets some scoring for us. Instead of going back to this to give Billups some rest, now Murray comes in the game for Rip. What, trying to find something that won't work? Does make you wonder. Things don't have to go perfect, but if they can go halfway right, then give your starters at least a bit of a rest to start the 4th. In this one, Saunders failed to rest his starters, and indeed had them all back out on the floor with 8 minutes to go in the game. Kind of early. Did they have it in them-they did execute offensively. But just maybe with a bit more energy left in the tank they could have made those shots a bit harder to make for Cleveland. Or Maxiell could have simply played. His long arms and quickness would have surely made Cleveland miss a couple of those shots. GO PISTONS!!!!!PS-Nice shot by Delfino off that fancy move of his.