At least we're not Cleveland: Pistons 103, Cavs 94

Vegas odds* were stacked against the Pistons tonight -- and, I admit, I caught the contagious sickness of doubt before tip-off, too  -- but the Pistons proved the skeptics wrong and took home their fourth straight win in the second game of back-to-backs, 103-94.

Tracy McGrady said the Pistons drew their inspiration from those darned naysayers: 

"Tim Legler, we heard you. You gave us some bulletin-board material. We used that." (via)

"You don't want to be the team that loses to them." (via)

MLIVE's Chris Iott says they not only listened, but they also watched a clip of Tim Legler making his cavalier prediction right before they went out onto the court for tip-off.  Shame on youuuu, Tim.

Is that the kind of insult that could motivate a team throughout the rest of the season? Is this the type of public pantsing prediction that could finally bring about the perpetual DETermination?

Honestly, it's kind of sad to me that the Pistons needed bulletin-board material from the MSM, or anyone really, to help them beat a hapless Cavs team, but if that's what they needed to prevent them from becoming "that team" then good for them. They should keep this in mind and then maybe watch 'The Decision' before Friday's tip. LeBron won't make it out of the first quarter before Karma strikes him down ... if one of Monroe's antlers doesn't strike first. Then, the Pistons might win. 

For now, let us bask in this glorious win.

• Oh, the actual game. The Cavs bench had 17 points. The Pistons' Will Bynum had 17 points (and 7 assists) off the bench himself. The Pistons bench scored 61 points total on 46% shooting. This was a much different Will Bynum than the one we saw in the 4th quarter of the Spurs' game, by the way. In the Spurs' game, I felt he unnecessarily tried to take over the game without the help of his teammates, whereas in this game he distributed the ball nicely while still getting his. 
• The Pistons played a really ugly first quarter, but still outscored the Cavs 25-16. The Cavs are bad.
• The Cavs actually outscored the Pistons in the 2nd half, 51-48.
• Remember when the Pistons lost 13 games in a row last year and that felt like 10-million-and-one losses? 26 would be a lot worse.
• *The Cavs were 1.5-point favorites at tip-off. It's only the seventh time this season they've been favored to win and the first time since January 5th. They are now 1-6 in those games.
• Ramon Sessions 
• Who the fuck still uses a pay phone? 
• Fill in all the holes in the comments.
• Box Score
• Roll Call: Thanks to WaveOcean for being a good sport. 
  
  Shinons, Mike Payne, Packey, Roll The Dyess, Boney, The Boourns, -PS-, JumpingBlob, freywagg, Danny D, Trysdor, Packfill, bugman222, Toledo Joe, C$, WaveOcean, dandresden, Grant E., rovitz707, DBB Diablo, redwingxviii, Kriz, Mac-, kenshi, garrettelliott, curlyfries, Revshawn, MrHappyMushroom, joejoejoe, Tenbatsu, RoscoeJacksonJr, Fadel, heWizard, alaskanpistonsfan, Wheaties, ahtrap, Taiwanese Tora, aussiepiston, Uncommon Sense, thesiberian, rooneymac, tads, Trout Jefferson, MSUDersh

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