The Pistons started slow again and by the time the Pistons mounted a comeback, there just wasn’t enough clock left to retake the game.
It was an ugly game for Detroit. They were competitive for the first quarter but spotted the Hawks a huge lead in the second and didn’t really start chipping away at it until well into the fourth quarter. By then, there just wasn’t enough time left. Jeff Teague was the best player in the game, but almost all the Hawks had at least good nights. The final score says that Atlanta won by seven, but this was one of those games that wasn’t really that close. Atlanta sewed it up long before the final buzzer and then they just let off the gas when there wasn’t enough time left for the Pistons to mount a real comeback.