http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 0315b.htmlGroundhog Day
The Groundhog Day season for the Pistons continues playing the same loop … over … and over … and over. One game after falling 28 points behind Atlanta at halftime, the Pistons trailed Boston by 29 at the break on Monday. Oh, yeah. They also lost another starter to injury. Tayshaun Prince, who hadn’t missed a game due to injury in his first seven NBA seasons, is likely to sit out with his third separate injury on Tuesday night when the Cleveland Cavaliers – no, the schedule doesn’t cut them any breaks, either – visit The Palace. Prince, who missed 26 games with a ruptured disc early in the season and six more with a left knee injury shortly after returning, suffered another back injury early in Monday’s 119-93 loss when Jason Maxiell inadvertently kneed him in the back as Prince, after driving to the lane and shooting, stumbled and fell into Maxiell’s path. After writhing in pain and being administered by Arnie Kander on the court, Prince limped to the locker room and didn’t return. It apparently is unrelated to the disc injury and early reports projected no structural damage, merely intense pain. With the Pistons now sitting at 23-44, there’s no urgency to rush him back into the lineup until he’s comfortable. The Pistons fell to 7-26 on the road, losing their seventh straight away from home, on a night Boston put seven players in double figures and shot .622. “They were good, we were bad,” John Kuester said, about as succinct a summation as possible for this one. “They played an outstanding basketball game and we added to it. “ I’ll tell you this like I told our guys. We’ve got a number of basketball games left and our focus is to get better. There are certain games, certain halves where we haven’t improved, but our guys have worked pretty darn hard except for tonight. We didn’t get the same kind of effort. Now we’re going to come back tomorrow and we’ll be ready to play.”
In Prince’s absence, opportunity was created for rookies Austin Daye and DaJuan Summers. Daye had an uneventful five minutes in the first half, going scoreless with two turnovers, and John Kuester gave Summers the second-half start. Summers finished with 12 points, making 4 of 5 shots, including both of his 3-pointers. Daye wound up committing five of the Pistons’ 18 turnovers that Boston converted into 27 points. “DaJuan did a nice job,” Kuester said. “He shot the ball well, got a little bit better defensively. Austin also did some things offensively good, but he has five turnovers and you don’t want to have that many turnovers in this situation.” Will Bynum had 16 points and seven assists for the Pistons as Rodney Stuckey missed his fifth straight game since collapsing on the team bench in the March 5 loss at Cleveland. ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters reported during the game that Stuckey is wearing a heart monitor, though the Pistons have confirmed that three separate medical facilities have found no indications of heart problems. Kuester indicated to the media before Monday’s game that Stuckey could return to practice on Thursday. The Pistons are scheduled for an off day on Wednesday, as is customary after playing games on consecutive nights. Ben Wallace missed his seventh straight game with a right patella tendon strain and Jason Maxiell, starting in his place, responded with another double-double of 11 points and 10 boards in 30 minutes.
The Pistons, as they did at Atlanta on Saturday, dug themselves a deep early hole by getting beat downcourt for too many easy baskets. Their 11 first-half turnovers too often turned into layups or open jumpers for Boston. But unlike the Atlanta game, when the Pistons actually cut their deficit under double digits in the fourth quarter, they never made Boston think for a second a comeback was in the cards, falling 33 behind early in the third quarter before cutting it to 19. But after a tongue-lashing from Doc Rivers between quarters, Boston moved its lead back up to 28 in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. The Pistons fell 18 points behind by late in a first quarter that saw them shoot 33 percent, commit six turnovers and send Boston to the foul line 12 times. It never got any better than that. “They beat us to the spot on both ends of the floor,” said Rip Hamilton, who had 14 points. “They’ve been doing what they’ve been doing the last couple of years. We just have to be better. They played well early. First quarter they set the tone of the game, feeding off their fans. Getting us to turn the ball over and getting in transition and making shots. I thought that was a big part of the game.”
