Yes, you read that correctly: the Pistons have 68 points in the first half. That's a season-high for them. They also have 11 offensive rebounds in 19 opportunities, which is one of the reasons why they have 14 more field goal attempts than we do. It's the usual suspects who are killing us: Rip Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, and Rasheed Wallace have 45 points on 22 shots.
The reason for their dominance? We are not playing any defense. It wasn't until the second quarter that we put a hand in anyone's face. Stan Van Gundy made a critical error in starting the game with Hedo Turkoglu guarding Wallace, who simply and repeatedly overpowered Turkoglu on the left-block and took fade-aways at will.
Carlos Arroyo and Dwight Howard are the only players giving a good effort right now. Arroyo is 5-of-7 for 10 points and has added 5 assists, and the two missed shots were layups. Howard is showing poise in the paint and scoring efficiently, but he isn't rebounding. He's also scored 4 of Detroit's points, inadvertently tipping-in one shot on a rebound attempt and goaltending another. Rashard Lewis is a non-factor, with just 3 points on 1-of-8 shooting, and 2 of his misses were blocked embarrassingly. Way to come up big, dude.
It's just that kind of night. I'm actually surprised we're not losing by more, to be honest.