TEAM COLORS
The story of the game in Pistons red, white and blue
BLUE COLLAR – An honorary Blue Collar goes to Tayshaun Prince, who wore it proudly for his 10-plus seasons with the Pistons. Prince played a subdued game in his return to The Palace, playing just the first 10 minutes of each half and finished with four points and three rebounds, making 2 of 7 shots but holding Kyle Singler down, as well, as he finished with seven points and two rebounds. The other returning ex-Piston, Austin Daye, played just three minutes in the first half but finished with six points, three rebounds and two assists.
RED FLAG – The bench that had been so important to the Pistons’ improved play over the past few months sputtered badly in the second quarter. After the starters handed them an eight-point cushion, the bench struggled to hang on to the ball and to put it in the basket when they weren’t turning it over. Charlie Villanueva, Will Bynum and Rodney Stuckey didn’t make a basket in a combined 25-plus first-half minutes as the Pistons fell behind by double digits after leading by 11 points. The only baskets from Detroit’s bench in the first half – two – came from Slava Kravtsov. Villanueva finished 1 of 8 in 17 minutes.
Lawrence Frank came back from the All-Star break with a handful of bullet points for the Pistons – the things they’d need to improve to finish the season’s final 28 games with more wins than losses.
Among the items on his checklist were better protection of their paint, making wiser decisions with the basketball and becoming a more powerful defensive rebounding team. They came up short across the board in a disastrous middle two quarters. Memphis closed the half with a dominant run to turn a nine-point deficit into an 11-point lead and kept expanding its lead in the third quarter, taking it to 27 points at the four-minute mark.
Tayshaun Prince’s return faded into the background as he was glued to Memphis’ bench during the game’s critical stretch – a 23-3 run the Grizzlies used to seize control going into halftime. After a 30-point first quarter in which they scored 13 baskets, the Pistons managed just 30 more over the middle two quarters when they managed a mere 11 field goals.
The Pistons were undone by the items Frank stressed before the game: