The Pistons lost in a ho-hum sorta game to the current Eastern 6th seed Philadelphia 76ers 94-101. These games seem more and more scrimmagey as we close in on the end to the regular season and this game was certainly not an exception to that. [Box score]

Philly took the lead from the outset and never relinquished it.  Philly has been surging over their 30 games, winners of 22 of them.  The Sixers still have playoff positioning to play for while the Pistons are pretty much just fulfilling their 82 game commitment they have with the league.

To illustrate the Pistons lackluster play(and to make the recap title make sense) you need to look no further than the 76ers 29 fast break points scored in this game.  They also outrebounded us 43-39.

Rip Hamilton sat for the 5th straight game, and 8th of the last 9, still nursing his sore left hip.  The word is that he’ll give it a go Friday at the Palace against the Washington Wizards.  I hope that’s the case.  I’d just like to KNOW it’s not anything more than a “sore hip” and also that he’ll be able to get into rhythm in time for the playoffs.

Arron Afflalo got the start for Rip.  The regular starters again got plenty of rest, and the bench got more court time.  Everyone off the pine who wasn’t Argentinean got at least 16 minutes.

Andre Iguodala who’s never really stood out to me in the past has really impressed me this year.  I’ve always seen him in a complimentary role but he’s really stepped up and carried the load for Philly.  Iggy scored a game high 25, and coupled with Samuel Dalembert (20 pts, 13 rbs) made sure the Pistons never took control of the game.

The win ended a 5 game home losing streak to the Pistons for the Sixers.