Nice comeback in the fourth quarter, but it didn't matter. Might have made a difference if the Pistons had bothered to show up in any of the first three quarters.

This was a game that was lost in the 1st quarter. Why doesn't Flip ever do anything to make a statement when the starters just stink up the place and replace all of them with the bench? Pretty pathetic that Rasheed doesn't even jump one inch to contest the tip-off, that set the tone for the lack of effort in this game except for a few spurts. Finally Dale Davis gets a little burn and he was rebounding and playing hard but now back to the bench for the next 10 games. Chauncey was pretty rusty and not at the top of his game but he'll be fine. I'm more concerned with Rip who seems to be really hurting, he might want to sit a few games to just rest up. So is there a reason Maxiell didn't get any playing time tonight? The Rockets sure have our number, they are a tough team and if they played in the East they would be going neck and neck with us for the first spot.

They're definitely a good team, but I don't any reason to think that they "have our number." As webz said up-thread, the Pistons had beaten them six in a row, and 9 out of 11, coming into this game.

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

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Question, can we beat Houston. Answer, of course we can. We did not beat them tonight, but I think Flip was more worried about finding out what does and does not work against this team. What does not work: Webber trying to be a jump shooter over Ming. What does work: Webber driving in on the slower Ming. Webber missed a ton of jumpers in this one trying to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt thats not the way to go. And then shot some more just to make sure.

Billups was light on defense, and was not contributing anything at all in the first half. Oh well, I guess keeping Billups in condition is more important than a win. Despite the near comeback he led at the end of the game, we would have been better off starting Blalock in this one. We would have a point guard who was not hobbled, who could have drove and dished, and who could have played defense. Defense would have helped a lot. They said CB could not move full speed in practice this morning; good reason not to play the guy.

Rip scored well enough. Here is another guy that was moving a bit gingerly tonight, from a nasty bruise on his thigh. He missed very badly on his first couple of shots, then seemed to start getting his shooting, but just not ever quite all the way back.

Dale Davis was simply tremendous in the first half. If he did not get the bound himself, he fought hard enough such that another Pistons did get the ball. On D, he was right where Houston happened to pass the ball, breaking up the play. Why no Davis, one of our best players tonight, in the 2nd half. Simple. Flip already saw what worked, and was on to learning new things.

No Jason Maxiell, yet we could have used his energy big time. Matter of fact, I bet if he played at small forward in this game, Houston would be hard pressed to stop him. I wonder why Flip chose not to learn about that? Not playing JMAX is always a mistake in my book. Whatever the excuse.

Delfino missed a couple of shots when called upon in crunch time to force something. Not his game. He did hit 2 triples in the 4th to make a game of it.

Flip did fine, as a shooting guard. However, I will point out that Delfino can play the shooting guard positon too, with better D. Murray had a good game overall, plenty of scoring, and good effort on D.

More of what does not work. Webber can't guard Ming. But Dyess can. So why did we let Ming go to town on Webber some more despite how obvious this was. Again, time to learn new things.

Tay did well enough on offense, but his outside shots did not help us tonight. He made some, but we should have been going inside more. Only Delfino, and maybe Billups, should have been shooting any threes tonight. Delfino has been making a very high percentage on threes of late.

Dyess not only can guard Ming with all his new found ups of late, but he can score inside and out. He should have started this game, that is, if we only cared about winning it. Dyess however does not help us when he takes outside shots. He does not make enough consistently to overcome the fact that his outside shots never draw fouls, never force the Houston defense to get packed in tight around the basket so they can't fast break. Dyess should really, really, turn up the effort on going inside.

Delfino played some fine D on TMAC. But yet, Flip never tried to bring in any bench players early to help in either half. Just Dyess. All in all. Good game. Lots of good stuff. GO PISTONS!!!!!

LA Dre, very good recap. It covered a lot I left out. Thanks for writing it.

No Piston Karma because I moved to Raleigh, but no karma couldve save us tonite. As you could see by the empty seats , there is too much to do in Houston for anyone to care bout thisgame. Rockets are a 1st round loss waiting to happen. Pistons looked like a team that spent the night at McDyess' mansion with some of Houston's finest!!And believe me-EVEN WHITE BOYS GOT TO SHOUT when u go to Texas!!! I miss my whitegirl waitress at The Sky Bar named Annie, who was about 40 y.o. and built like JessicaSimpsonmeets collardgreens!..but I , as usual, digress, The Sheed 3 at the end of the game AND 4 MISSED LAYUPS in the final 3:00 sealed this one. Damng! I guess just a little too much 'adoinkydonkdonk" last night...ON to San Antone!!..Oh Loawd!

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Yeah yeah that's it.

Thanks Lee, but you're still cap master

Anybody notice the defense Delfino was playing on TMac? Most of the time it resulted in a pass, which is a huge accomplishment. Prince wasn't doing much to slow him down.

Also, I'm really impressed that Yao shoots their T's.

The biggest thing from this game is that we didn't quit and gave ourselves a legitimate chance to win this one. Would have been the best comeback of the year for us.

It's nice being in the East, cause it really doesn't matter.