The Pistons lost Chris Webber’s debut at The Palace on Wednesday night, 100-99 to the Utah Jazz, but Webber showed enough of his multidimensional skills, particularly on the offensive end, in a 10-minute span of the second quarter when the Pistons played sublimely, to warrant the excitement both Webber and his teammates were obviously feeling afterward despite the disappointment of the loss.

Webber didn’t even have the luxury of going through a full practice with the Pistons before making his debut. He couldn’t officially sign his contract until Tuesday afternoon, after the Pistons had already practiced for the day, and got a crash course in Flip Saunders’ complex offensive scheme at Wednesday morning’s shootaround.

“After one shootaround, seeing the guys’ personalities, this is where I belong - definitely,” Webber said after a game in which he deliberately played a more passive offensive game than his instincts suggested. “Tonight was a night not to be aggressive. Tomorrow in practice and the next day, I’ll be aggressive. It feels good. This is a great team and I’m just glad to be a part of it.”

Webber entered the game with 10:07 left before halftime to his third standing ovation of the night. The first came when Mason, the public-address voice of The Palace, took the unusual step of introducing Webber following the announcement of the starting lineups, and the second when Saunders summoned him from the bench shortly after the second quarter began.

On his first touch, he fired a gorgeous feed to a cutting Rip Hamilton for a layup - one Hamilton missed. On his second touch, he took a feed from Hamilton and set up on the right low block. He dipped his left shoulder, cut across the lane, drew the defense and found Chauncey Billups on the 3-point line for a basket that gave the Pistons a 34-29 lead.

His first shot resulted in his only points of the night, a 17-foot jump shot with 6:33 left in the quarter that gave the Pistons a 36-31 lead. He fed Prince for an easy jump shot for another assist and worked another pretty play with Lindsey Hunter that resulted in Hunter getting fouled at the rim and sinking two free throws.

Webber finished with two points, five rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot in 17 minutes.

“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “We fit well together. We’ve got two guards who can shoot, big guys that can play, help each other, and this is going to be something special.”

“The first game is always the toughest one to get out of the way,” Tayshaun Prince said. “Everybody’s expecting you to do great. But for any player who gets traded, you try to fit in and get yourself acclimated with what the other players do and he was doing a good job of that. He was finding guys at the basket, did a great job sharing the basketball, very unselfish today. I know he passed up some shots he normally would take. With the first game, those things happen. It’s going to take some time for us to get the feel for him and vice versa. Tough way to lose this one, but there were some great things out there tonight.”

Chauncey Billups said that second-quarter stretch gives fans an idea of what the Pistons are going to look like when familiarity sets in and both he and Webber regain peak conditioning after lengthy layoffs - 19 days for Billups, 21 for Webber.

“No question. I know what he’s capable of, but it gave you all a look at how it’s going to be when everybody gets used to playing with one another. It’s going to be something special, I believe. He’s going to have the ball in his hands a lot to make plays, scoring or passing, which he’s the best in the league at. You’ve got to get him in situations where he can make plays.”

Saunders ran just a small sampling of his offense when Webber was in the game, but he saw enough to know that everything in the book will be in play once Webber gets up to speed.

“For not knowing what we’re doing, you could see at times we functioned extremely well with him,” he said. “He’s going to help us out a lot. It’s just a matter of getting to practice tomorrow, getting up and down a little, understanding what we’re doing and extending him a little.”

“The play calling was limited because I was in the game,” Webber said. “I didn’t want to mess up the flow of the other guys. I didn’t care if I scored one point tonight. Tonight was just to get a feel, to get back in the flow. I haven’t played a game in I don’t know how long. It felt good. My wind felt good. This is going to be special.”