BOX SCORE
Auburn Hills, Mich. -- Without saying anything, Tracy McGrady said it all.
After the Pistons' 104-91 loss to the Orlando Magic -- who were missing Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, Mickael Pietrus and J.J. Redick -- reporters gathered around McGrady in the locker room.
"I'm not doing it tonight," McGrady said politely. "I don't want to say something I'll regret later. I'll see you all Sunday."
Howard, Nelson, Pietrus and Redick were all out with a bad stomach virus that was sweeping through the team, but it was the Pistons who were feeling sick after letting the Magic shoot nearly 60 percent from the field, score 50 points in the paint and out-rebound them, 35-22.
"Just the fact of us losing in Orlando the way we did, you'd think we would come back and put a fight up," said Charlie Villanueva, who had 15 points and three rebounds. "I guess they wanted it more than us, man. I mean, they were shorthanded. They came ready to play.
It just seems like it's hard for us to get into a flow out there. Everything seems hard for us, on D, offense. It's hard for us to get a good shot. They just wanted it more."
The Pistons lost in Orlando Tuesday night, 90-79, and that was with Howard, Nelson, Pietrus and Redick in the lineup.
But Magic coach Stan Van Gundy actually said after Friday night's game: "I thought Detroit played a lot better than they did the other night."
Really?
The Pistons were down by five points entering the fourth quarter, 78-73, yet they allowed the Magic to score on 10 of their 16 shots.
"We're there, the fourth quarter comes, when teams start to knuckle down and execute, that's when your defense has to be at its best, and obviously our defense hasn't been at its best at that time," said Tayshaun Prince, who tried to keep the Pistons in it with his 30 points. "I think we're getting better offensively down the stretch and things like that, but defensively we have to do a lot better."
Oh, yes, Magic forward Brandon Bass came off the bench to lead his team with 27 points on 11-for-12 shooting. His one missed shot still ended up as a basket for Orlando as Marcin Gortat had the put-back.
Richard Hamilton (10 points) and Ben Gordon (five) combined to go 5-for-20 from the field and Ben Wallace and Jason Maxiell had one rebound between them (Wallace). Gordon had a career high nine rebounds, more than any Piston. That's just not going to get it done.
"There's no question, we need one of them to step up," coach John Kuester said of Hamilton and Gordon. "More importantly, though, we've got to do things as a team defensively.
"It's always good to have somebody that had a hot hand. We could ride him. Unfortunately, the flow was not the way we wanted it to be. It seemed like we were almost fighting ourselves almost through the entire night. We couldn't get a rhythm and attack."
At 6-14, the Pistons remain last in the Central Division and don't look like a team headed up anytime in the near future.
Kuester has switched starting lineups, rotations and nothing seems to work.
"At this stage right now, again, we're still searching to get the right rotation, there's no question about it," Kuester said.
Prince was asked about the good old days when the Pistons were in the NBA Finals or at least the Eastern Conference Finals every year.
"The thing about it is, at that time you had five guys who played together for a long time," Prince said. "Even though we did communicate on both ends of the floor, we knew where each other was going to be regardless, no matter what happened.
"We just don't have that chemistry with these guys right now."
Dec. 3, 2010
