The Pistons had chopped a 10-point lead to six with 6:20 left in the fourth quarter, then stopped Oklahoma City cold on three straight possessions. That was their opening – right there. If you had any questions the Pistons would miss Rip Hamilton, for however long his sprained right ankle sidelines him, there’s your answer. The Pistons never could get it below four, never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead.

Until Charlie Villanueva hits his stride, the Pistons don’t have enough scoring up front to give their firepower-laden backcourt much margin for error. And that firepower-laden backcourt – Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey, Will Bynum – knows it.

Which is why it looked like they were all trying to put the game on their shoulders Friday night in the home opener in one me-against-the-world possession after the other.

The Pistons played solid defense in a first half against a young team with plenty of its own firepower – Kevin Durant alone is plenty of firepower – and led 45-38. But the Pistons bogged down offensively in the second half, held to 38 points, and finished with only 12 team assists, none of them, remarkably enough, in the fourth quarter.

“I think (Hamilton’s absence) did,” have a big effect, said Gordon, who led the Pistons with 25 points but had to chuck up 20 shots to get them, as opposed to the 12 that netted him 22 in the opener. “In the second half, we got really stagnant. Everything was a one- or two-pass shot. We stopped moving the ball like we did in the first half and that really hurt us.”

“They played good defense, but we allowed them to play good defense,” John Kuester said after absorbing his first NBA loss – hey, it was going to happen sooner or later, but having it happen in his Palace debut in a winnable game had to sting. “We didn’t have any ball movement and we didn’t execute. We have to make them play defense from one side of the court to the other, get some ball reversal, spacing where we can attack. But it was one pass (and) attack as opposed to three or four passes and attack.”

The Pistons are going to go as far as their perimeter scoring can carry them, of course, but they can’t live by their perimeter alone. Even though they have exactly zero classic low-post scorers, they have to be conscious of dumping it into the post occasionally and playing off of their big men.

Villanueva is a clever scorer with his back to the basket, using either hand. Kwame Brown has enough of a repertoire to at least demand to be guarded. Ben Wallace has always been an above-average passer for a big man.

“(Villanueva’s) probably our best post player, so maybe get him some looks in the post instead of getting him so far away from the basket,” Gordon said when I asked him what the team could do to kick-start his former UConn teammate’s offense. Villanueva, after scoring seven points in his foul-plagued debut Wednesday, had eight Friday night, hitting just 3 of 12 shots. “Get him a couple of easy things and that will start to bring him along. If we rely on the outside shot, it’s going to be tough.”

And that – that ability to utilize their post players – is an area where Hamilton was clearly missed Friday. For everything he means to the Pistons as a go-to scorer when the droughts come, Hamilton has developed into a very good playmaker in recent seasons and knows how to use his big men.

He’s definitely out for Saturday night’s game at Milwaukee and my guess is a sprained ankle isn’t likely to heal fast enough to get him back for 10 to 14 days. Not that there’s ever a good time for the guy who’s led the franchise in scoring seven straight years to roll his ankle, but the timing of Hamilton’s sprain is especially cruel for the Pistons.

Both for when it occurred on the night it happened – with five minutes left in a game the Pistons had comfortably in hand – and when on the timeline of their season.

The first 15 games of the Pistons’ season looked daunting when the schedule came out and it would have been last year, too, even for the team that looked very much like the one that had gone to six straight conference finals.

This year, with eight new faces, and only Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince representing a link to the glory days, it’s cutting.

But Kuester, a two-decades veteran of the NBA, sees opportunity in everything. Without Hamilton, Stuckey will be forced to become a smarter leader, Gordon will be force fed the onus of taking big shots with a game on the line, Villanueva’s scoring will be drawn out of him sooner than it otherwise might have been.

“I still think we had enough weapons to win this game,” Charlie V said. “We started off pretty good offensively and the third quarter we got a little stagnant. We didn’t really move the ball as much. It was like a small-ball effect – one-pass shot. You’re not going to win basketball games like that. … It was just one of those nights where the whole team just seemed like we couldn’t make a shot. It seemed like there was a lid on that rim.

“But the good thing about the NBA is we’ve got a game tomorrow.”

And it’s in Milwaukee, familiar territory for Villanueva. Maybe that’s what will get his offense kick-started. Maybe that will prove another big step in the evolution of the new-age Pistons.

Gordon took three stitches at halftime after getting clobbered while taking a last-second shot and having his head bounced off the court just in front of the Pistons’ bench.

Stuckey was as aggressive offensively as he’s ever been, taking it to the rim throughout the night. Have to wonder if he wasn’t trying a little too hard, motivated by the sting of not being invited by USA Basketball last summer to participate with the Select Team – the young NBA stars being groomed for possible future national team and Olympic participation – while Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, among several 2008-09 rookies, was asked to participate.

Westbrook’s already a good pro with a chance to be special. If Stuckey is among the most athletic point guards, Westbrook is the uber athlete of the bunch. Maybe the most exciting moment of Friday night was Westbrook’s missed dunk when he went down the lane against a set defense and tried jumping over the bunch of them, almost pulling it off but rattling the dunk off the back rim.

Stuckey finished with 21 points but was 4 of 15 with three turnovers and two assists, though he didn’t get many breaks.

He was robbed of another three-point play when Tommy Nunez inexplicably called him for an offensive foul on a drive where Etan Thomas slid off and clearly initiated contact in mid-air. Kuester came as close to getting hit with a technical foul on that call as he has yet.

Westbrook finished with 10 points, 10 assists and five turnovers, shooting just 2 of 11.

Stuckey also spent a chunk of each half guarding Durant, who had 11 in the fourth quarter to finish with 25.

Austin Daye’s NBA debut lasted 1:09. He came on at the start of the second quarter, but Kuester had him guarding OKC rookie shooting guard James Harden while Stuckey matched up on the 6-foot-10 Kevin Durant. But the Thunder got two baskets and two free throws on three possessions in Daye’s 1:09 and Kuester quickly got Prince back in the game to guard Durant.

Harden looks like a keeper. You wonder how long it will be before OKC coach Scott Brooks moves him into the lineup in place of Thabo Sefalosha. In eight first-half minutes, Harden picked up five assists, all honest ones earned mostly by getting into the paint and squeezing clever bounce passes to cutting big men.

Harden finished with just two points on 1 of 6 shooting, but had eight assists in 17 minutes and served as the point guard when paired with veteran Kevin Ollie.

Chris Wilcox and Jonas Jerebko didn’t get in the game, but one of them is likely to get minutes Saturday. Ben Wallace – tremendously active again with 12 boards and two blocks – played 32 minutes and Kuester probably won’t push him hard in a back-to-back.