I'm a little bummed out because I had a Tivo malfunction and missed the entire 2nd half... but did manage to catch the last minute. Sounds like I missed some good bball.

I was pretty frustrated with the refs and needed a timeout anyway. Oh well. So I will only see 81.5 games this year.

Sorry, yet another star went off on us and our coaching staff was helpless. Is this going to be the story again in the playoffs?

Our half court offense was lethargic. They got up into us and we couldn't execute. Most of our points/lead came off of turnovers early on.

How bad was that last Sheed 3 that followed a series of poor offensive sets down the stretch? Meanwhile, Kobe was having his way on the other side. Tay's rebound and shot were lucky outs. Is this the formula to go all the way...??

This Laker team without Bynum is not great defensively.

We really seem to lack a big body down low expecially for a 7 game series.

Thanks for the alert microscoe...I ignored the site and chat until I had watched the game in it's entirety.... it was a nail biter to say the least and for while it apppeared that I would I have to face a couple of local Laker fans (like my mother in law) with my tail between my legs

Good win and lot of positive comments already posted so I will state obvious first. What if we had actually lost this game? Believe me we were heading that way as once again we let a team hang around that was supposedly limping across country into the palace to almost beat our completely healthy team (save Rip). Tay's three ball avoided an almost certain defeat and left the local Laker announcers speechless.

That 17 point lead disappeared when Sheed missed a 3 ball from the left and the Lakers rolled off a 15-5 run to close out the qtr and trail only by 5 at the half. All of the points off TO went for not as the Pistons slowed it down at the end and continued their funky play with the starters into the third qtr and allowed the Lakers to take the lead and quiet the Piston faithful.


THANK GOODNESS for our bench in the second half. (and beginning of the 2nd qtr). We would have lost this game if Flip had chose to go with Max and Hayes only. Excellent idea by Flip to leave Stuckey in there for extended minutes in the 4th, because CB was actually holding the ball to long in that 3rd. I loved Sheeds aggressive defense in the second Qtr, but he played with reckless abandon tossing up to many 3 balls in the second half.

I know our starters are our bread and butter, but we could have lost this game on the three techs on CB, Rip and Dice. The refs were bad though. They must have thought this was the TNT televised game . Lakers with 22 FTA in the first half to the Pistons 2?? It was almost even in the second half, but the Pistons could have exploited it more if they gone to the hoop in that third as they got in the bonus with 8 mins left and didn't capitalize on it.

Like I said before the game, we would need the our youth to win this game, because their guys would try to outhustled our "old me" and Kobe and his band of meery men almost did.

Just wanted give the obligatory negative spend that would been spewed out if we had loss this one...I can sleep ezy tonight...thanks Tay....ok you too Flip....

^

To expand on this a little

MICHAEL ROSENBERG: Prince is the hero, but he isn't a defensive stopper

Harsh critique of Tay in the paper. I haven't watched the game yet. Watching SAS/PHO right now, but it is unnerving how one player almost beat us again.

Stars are stars cuz, you can make the best plans against of them but they can always overcome. Kobe is on of those players who can take over regardless of opponents and ther plans. So this is useless whining but rest of your critics holds ground.

Btw, lakers fans expected a bad loss( a blowout) and were pleasantry suprised when things didn't go so.

You may not belive that most of them were convinced that they lost this game because of...refs.

HOOPSWORLD | NBA News, Rumors and Information

Agree with you here Lapiston, Kobe almost beat us by himself because ...he can. But his role players know how to keep it close. Thank goodness their 3 point shooting was off and they had 22 TO's.

We had 17 steals...anybody know what the Piston record is for steals in a game?

The Laker coaching staff told their team that they just needed to cut down on their turnovers from the first half. They were right. The Lakers were very effective against our half-court offense. They had trouble with Stuckey on the second team. The Lakers fans rightly thought that they had the game won. They outplayed us the entire second half, really, except for that quick spurt by the second team.

Down the stretch we had a poor turnover type lean in shot by Billips, an outside jumper by a hurting Rip and that Sheed 3 ball. Sheed was blocked on a broken play and we did have a Billips layup. Not good sequences against a Bynum-less team.

Yes, Kobe is Kobe but we have stopped him before. What I worry about is not tonight but the pattern of the last two playoffs that seems to pop up here and there again. Do we ever stop up a player when they start to go off on us? Can we? Can we score consistently enough when it really counts...?

What in this world are absolutely sure? I mean, besides taxes and death.

That everyone makes at least one rationalization a week.