It happened for the second straight night Friday – and for the second straight night, the Pistons lost.

The good news? It’s preseason, when injuries and technical foul counts don’t matter and wins and losses share the stage with experimentation and the granting of experience to those in need of it.

The bad news? The Pistons got pounded on the offensive glass – an area of concern last season and again this year – by a Utah team playing without Carlos Boozer. In the first 10 minutes of the game, Utah outrebounded the Pistons’ starters 8-1 on the offensive end and wound up with a 55-38 overall and a 19-11 offensive rebounding advantage.

“The thing about it was in the first half, their guards had 19 of their 31 rebounds,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said after his team fell to 1-2 in a 100-85 loss in which they were outscored 66-39 in the second half of a choppy game marred by 59 fouls and 71 free throws. “So it wasn’t our big guys. It was more our guards didn’t get to the elbows and areas to rebound as well as their guards.”

As they did a night earlier in losing an 18-point second-half lead and the game to Cleveland, the Pistons saw a 14-point lead evaporate during a 21-point turnaround in the third quarter.

With Amir Johnson (ankle) and Nazr Mohammed (calf) in street clothes, the Pistons ran into a severe frontcourt shortage when Rasheed Wallace was ejected upon picking up his second technical foul of the game – his third in two nights – late in the third quarter.

That left Antonio McDyess, Maxiell and Senegalese rookie Cheick Samb as the only big men left, and when Samb fouled out in the fourth quarter Saunders again had to deploy slight 6-foot-7 Ronald Dupree out of position at power forward.

Samb, forced to play extended minutes by the thinned frontcourt, responded with six points, five rebounds and a blocked shot in 18 minutes. He’s a long way from ready to be a rotation staple, but he showed why the Pistons are so enamored of his potential by knocking down three jump shots, one an 18-footer, and altering several other shots.

“He played pretty good,” Saunders said. “I thought he did a nice job – made some shots, had a block. He was a bright spot for us tonight. (It was the first time he’d played) that many minutes and that physical. I’m sure he was looking for oxygen. He got elbowed right in the stomach. He can shoot that (18-footer). That’s one thing he can do – face up and shoot. It wasn’t a surprise.”

Jarvis Hayes came off the bench to lead the Pistons with 16 points. Wallace had 12 in 22 minutes, motivated early by his matchup against ex-Piston Mehmet Okur. Rookie Rodney Stuckey had 11 points, seven assists and four turnovers, while McDyess, Chauncey Billups and Maxiell had 10 points each.

Ronnie Brewer, trying to nail down Utah’s starting job alongside Deron Williams in the backcourt, led the Jazz with 18 points. Williams and Paul Millsap, starting for Boozer, had 15 apiece.

But how much either team makes of anything about this game is up for debate because of the way it was whistled, especially in a second half that saw 34 fouls called and 40 free throws attempted.

“No flow,” Billups said. “Preseason, refs are always working on something, so they’ve got to blow whistles somewhere. It’s tough, especially when you’ve got two physical teams like us and the Jazz, two really good defensive and physical teams. You can’t really get anything going in a game like this.”