Pistons 84, Grizzlies 89

TAKE FIVE
A five-point dissection of the Pistons’ latest Sunday setback

1. MEMPHIS MALAISE – The Palace observed a moment of silence prior to Sunday’s game to honor the memory of William Davidson. The Pistons then went quiet for two quarters, digging a 21-point ditch and eventually losing to the woeful Memphis Grizzlies in their first game since learning of the death of their longtime owner two days earlier.

Maybe it was the resumption of their Sunday doldrums, temporarily suspended two weeks ago with their win at Boston, as the Pistons fell to 2-11 in Sunday games. Maybe it was the sobering reality of Mr. D’s absence, poignantly portrayed with his picture propped on his customary baseline seat, draped in black and adorned with a single red rose. Or maybe it was the cumulative effect of overtime games in their past two outings catching up to them, compounded by the injury absences of Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson.

Or maybe, as Michael Curry posited, it was just a team that wasn’t ready to play.

“The reality is we’re down 17 at the half to the Memphis Grizzlies,” said Curry, more visibly angry after a game than perhaps all season. “We didn’t come ready to play. Can’t be down 17 at home, an important game. Whatever we did on Saturday, we didn’t give ourselves a chance to be ready to play early on Sunday.”

“I understand his anger,” Antonio McDyess said. “We came out with no energy. Looked like we didn’t have any will to win in the first half. We picked it up in the second half, but you can’t spot a team 20 – I don’t care what their record is – you just can’t do that and expect to win the game at the end when you’ve expended all your energy just coming back.”

McDyess wound up giving the Pistons 19 points and 12 rebounds in another high-end performance, but it was his unavailability due to first-half foul trouble that contributed to the Pistons’ sputtering start. McDyess picked up two fouls in the first six minutes, went to the bench, then got hit with his third foul two minutes after re-entering the game in the second quarter, playing eight first-half minutes.

Memphis led 55-34 late in the first half – a half in which the 16-48 Grizzlies shot 58 percent – before the Pistons cut it to 17 at halftime. They chopped 10 more points off the lead in the third quarter and actually took the lead twice in the final six minutes. But then they sprung defensive leaks again and were guilty of poor execution on several key possessions.

Trailing by one point with 1:39 to go, the Pistons came out of a timeout and immediately turned the ball over when Rodney Stuckey’s pass for Rip Hamilton was deflected by O.J. Mayo off of Hamilton and out of bounds. Still trailing by one after a Mayo miss, Tayshaun Prince missed a 10-foot runner well defended by Rudy Gay. After two Mike Conley free throws made it a three-point Memphis lead, Hamilton got off a clean look at a tying corner triple that missed.

“We never gave in,” Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. “We lost the lead one time by one point, we got it right back and we just kept playing.”

TEAM COLORS
The story of the game in Pistons red, white and blue

2. – In his previous 56 career games at The Palace, Darko Milicic had never recorded a double-double. In fact, he’d never scored or rebounded in double figures, let alone both in the same game.

But Milicic, whom the Pistons selected No. 2 in the loaded 2003 NBA draft before trading him to Orlando in February 2006, had a triumphant return to The Palace, scoring 12 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out three assists.

3. BLUE COLLAR – With Wallace unavailable and McDyess spending much of the first half in foul trouble, Curry had to turn to Kwame Brown early and often. And Brown responded with a game that resembled the kind of efforts McDyess has given the Pistons of late.

In the first four minutes of the fourth quarter alone, he took a charge on Hakim Warrick, came up with one of his career-high five steals and grabbed four rebounds, three of them offensive, two in one possession that resulted in a McDyess jumper to cut Memphis’ lead to three.

On successive Memphis possessions, he forced a tough shot from Marc Gasol and grabbed the miss, then slapped the ball away from Gasol to force another turnover.

Brown wound up with 13 rebounds, seven offensive, and six points in 26 minutes

“One of my longer-minute games, I don’t know about better (games),” Brown said. “I’m not worried about personal stuff. I’m just worried about winning. As long as we win, I don’t care what happens.”

“Kwame came in and was as active as he’s been,” Curry said. “He did a great job playing head up in the post. He’s done a consistent job of that all year.”

4. RED FLAG – The redemption for the Pistons in drafting Milicic and missing out on players like Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh was the draft pick they got from Orlando for Milicic that they converted into Stuckey.

But with Milicic having a big game and Conley, the Memphis point guard picked 11 spots ahead of Stuckey in the 2007 draft, going head to head against him, it was a bad time for Stuckey to have a bad game.

And he had a decidedly bad game, shooting 1 of 7 for two points and committing four of Detroit’s 15 turnovers. Conley wasn’t great – he committed seven turnovers – but he did put up 20 points and was 3 of 5 from the 3-point arc.

Will Bynum outplayed Stuckey, who finished minus-17, giving the Pistons 12 points and a six assists, tying his career best, in 25 minutes. Bynum came on for Stuckey with 3:34 left in the third quarter with the Pistons trailing by 11 and when he left for Stuckey with 3:28 to play in the game, the Pistons trailed by one.

“I wanted to play,” Bynum said. “I knew it would probably be hard for Stuck to sit the whole quarter and come in with three minutes left. I definitely wanted to play, but whatever the coach wanted, I’m behind him 100 percent.”

THE LAST CALL
A little perspective on a costly loss

5. SLIPPING A SPOT – A home-court loss to a team with the league’s third-worst record in the middle of a playoff chase is inexplicable – and perhaps inexcusable.

Combined with Philadelphia’s win over Miami, the Pistons have now slipped to the No. 7 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff seedings.

They’ve also put themselves at risk for slipping back below .500 during their two-game trek to Texas with games Tuesday at Dallas – itself battling to hold off Phoenix for the No. 8 playoff spot in the West – and Wednesday at Houston.

“We can look forward to two tough games, I know that,” McDyess said. “We’ve just got to go out there and start at the beginning, not wait until the third or fourth quarter to try to pick up our energy and get the game going. We’ve got to start from the top. These are two good teams that are going to be looking to put us away in the beginning, so we’ve got to get off to a fast start.”