Choke!

Going into last night's game, I thought we had a good shot at winning. Those odds increased to me when Iverson decided he had the flu and couldn't play. For three quarters, we played well as a team, with Rip filling in Iverson's role nicely. We were keeping pace with the Baby Bulls. Heading into the fourth, we had a nice 12 point lead, figuring we could coast off of the momentum Rasheed had just built (He scored 15 in the 3rd.) Then Tyrus Thomas started blocking shots and grabbing impossible rebounds, Andres Nocioni started driving through a barren, deserted lane, and Ben Gordon started knocking down impossible shots.

When the dust cleared, we lost by 5, 102-107. What a debacle! The Pistons should be ashamed of the way they defended late in the game, but luck also had a lot to do with the Bulls win. They got some questionable foul calls down the stretch. Nonetheless, the Bulls played like a team that should be in the playoffs. There two young big men were impressive. Tyrus Thomas had 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Joakim Noah had 12 and 16 rebounds. Noah isn't exactly built like a tank. Someone besides Sheed and Tay needs to start grabbing more boards.

We outshot the Bulls, but they grabbed enough offensive boards to make it not matter, 18 in fact. Derrick Rose was 10-15 from the field, and now he already looks like a better player than Stuckey. Rip was hot again last night, going 11-21 for 30 points, and he also had 8 assists. Rasheed had 20 and Stuck and Tay both had 16. We got sucked into playing to fast, and we lost control near the end of the game. We have just got to slow things down.