The Pistons have dug themselves into a little bit of a hole. But tonight they showed they are fully capable of climbing out. While they surrendered a 10-0 run late in the third to cut their lead to 5 and a 12-0 run late in the fourth to cut the lead to 6, the Pistons by and large controlled the tempo from tip off to the final horn.
The officiating was a huge boon to the Pistons tonight. It was pretty consistent both ways, but the refs swallowed their whistles on a lot of plays that normally result in penalties. And besides being a worse free throw shooting team, the Pistons took more advantage by playing a lot more physically.