
[Det 102 @ Ind 106] Last night Detroit gave all the Ping-Pong Piston fans quite a scare as they almost pulled off a big comeback win over the Pacers.
The Pistons seemed to be behind from the start of this game. Going into the half the Pacers had the Pistons down by 21, the Pacers were shooting the ball straight (60%), and the Pistons were not (37%). The Pistons didn’t offer too much in the way of defensive resistance either.
The Pacers’ lead got up to 24 very early in the third. The Pistons whittled that lead down to 17 going into the 4th quarter. Tayshaun Prince was big in the third as was Jonas Jerebko.
Behind Rondey Stuckey, DaJaun Summers, and Ben Gordon (yes, those last two names are correct) the Pistons mounted a nice rally. Detroit scored fifteen unanswered points to take a one point lead -their only lead of the game- with about 3 minutes to play. But, unfortunately this Pistons’ team cannot seem to close out close games. Danny Granger (29 pts, 6 asts) and the Pacers got right back on top and never looked back.
Rodney Stuckey came off the bench in his first game back since collapsing in a game against the Cavs back on March 5th. He didn’t look a bit tentative out there scoring a team high 25 points in 26 minutes on a variety of drives and jumpers.

Hint: he misses
We had a Richard Hamilton anomaly last night. The Ripster played 19 minutes -about 15 less than his season average- and went 0/3 from the field. That marks the first time in a Pistons’ uniform that Richard Hamilton did not score a point. You have to go back to November of 2000 as a member of the Washington Wizards to find the last time Rip went scoreless.
Coach Kuester rode his hot hands. Rip spent the latter part of the 3rd quarter, and all of the fourth on the Pistons’ bench.
DaJuan Summers made his biggest impact since turning heads in the summer league. DaJuan scored 12 with 4 rebounds in 16 minutes of play.
Coming into the season it was said that Summers was the rookie most ready to contribute right away but that’s awful difficult to do from the bench. The season is a wash. Get this guy minutes and let’s see what we have to look forward to.
Ben Wallace made his return after missing the last 8 Pistons’ game with a right patella tendon injury. Ben’s 24 minutes came off the bench in favor of Jason Maxiell who has been superb in Ben’s absence. Jason (10 pts, 5 rbs) fell well short of his 6th straight points/rebounds double-double. But, to put Mad Max’s 5 consecutive streak in perspective it hadn’t been done by a Pistons since Big Ben did it in 2004 and in was the “JYD” Jerome Williams in 1999 before Wallace. Three time in the last 11 years of Pistons’ basketball.

GAME NOTES: Ben Wallace tweaked his knees in the 4th … Ben Gordon scored 14 of his 17 in the 4th … Pistons are 0-3 on the season vs. Pacers … Stuckey made 3 triples … Tay with 11 & Jonas scored 10 … Troy Murphy had 20 with 8 boards … Pistons have dropped 11 of their last 13 …