If you turned the game off at halftime, you probably thought the Pistons were well on their way to the second victory of the season. Admittedly, this is what I did as prior Halloween obligations were calling. When I came back and peeked at the box score, I was quite shocked to say the least.
Detroit, who led by 11 at the half, was outscored by 22 points in the third quarter and that proved to be the difference in Milwaukee on Halloween night. Milwaukee opened the third quarter with a 28-8 run, powered by rookie, Brandon Jennings' 16 points. At one point in the second half Detroit was outscored 41-14. Milwaukee reserves outmatched Detroit's to the sound of 52-14.
Ben Gordon led all scorers with 26 points on 8-15 shooting. Ben Wallace was the key cog on defense once again, grabbing 10 rebounds while recording a steal and a block. It didn't surprise me one bit to see that Milwaukee trailed by two when Wallace was subbed out in the middle of the third quarter and then were up 11 at the end of the quarter.
All in all, this was a game in Detroit's control minus the third quarter collapse. It just goes to show that playing well for three of the four quarters isn't always enough to win a game. Freaking out over the third game of the very young season would be asinine, especially since this team seems more than capable of being good this season. They just need to put it together night-in and night-out for the entire 48 minutes.
Pistons will get a big test on Tuesday when they host the 2008-2009 runners up and currently undefeated, Orlando Magic.