Clippers 104, Pistons 96- What happened in the 4th?

Well, tonight the Clips faced another team severely depleted

 by injuries and barely pulled out the win.

The Pistons went without Ben Gordon, Richard Hamilton, and Tayshaun Prince.  And somehow the Clippers put

 together performance to beat them.  This is not the same                                                                                                       team we saw in Indiana, blowing it to a depleted Pacers team.                             

Chris got back into form, and Baron continued his recent excellence.  Gordon and Thornton both finished with

 decent numbers, despite 7 or less for them and everyone else in the first half.

The Pistons were severely depleted without the 3 big guns on their roster, Gordon, Hamilton, and Prince.  This forced Detroit to play Austin Daye 33+ minutes, Jonas Jerebko 34 minutes, and actually put Chucky Atkins in the game.  So the Clippers should have had no problems tonight, right?  Wrong.  After a first quarter that ended with a 27-27 tie, the Pistons pulled ahead in the second to secure a 54-47 Halftime lead(incidentaly, the Clippers shot 54% and the Pistons 47% in the first half of play).

In the third quarter, we saw Rasual Butler make a jumpshot.  Baron and Kaman played a 2-man game for the majority of it, chipping the Detroit lead down to 1, 75-74, going into the final period.  Thats when it got wierd.

When Fox Sports West came back for the 4th Quarter, there was no video, only audio.  We listened to Ralph and Mike for around 1 minute of the fourth, until the whole game went away.  Completely.  We endured a long commercial break followed by...  World Poker Tour.  After around 10 minutes of poker, we came back to the game, except with Detroit's broadcaster's and camera, which happened not to fit my screen so I only saw the scoreboard.  Anyway, we came back with around 3:30 left, and the Clips up 97-90.

Now, how we got to that point  is beyond me.  All I know is that EJ and Al must have erupted with the cameras off because they finished with 14 and 19, respectively.  The Clips held off the Piston's run in the last couple minutes and pulled it out.  However, Eric missed 3 FT's in a row late, that didn't matter towards the final, but worried me.

- Offensive Rebounding

The Clipper's woes continued tonight, as the Pistons outrebounded them in the game 43-35 and 19-3 on the offensive glass.  This allowed Detroit to have a few possessions where they got 3 or 4 looks, demoralizing and crushing the Clips.  With Marcus having returned from his inhuman rebounding crusade, the away team had nobody get more than 9 boards(Marcus Camby). 

- Baron Davis

Baron got a double-double tonight with 25 points, 10 assists, and 5 boards.  Thats the Baron I want to see.  And it wasn't only his numbers, it was his prescence.  It was almost like whenever he stepped out, the whole team calmed down and took a deep breath.  And the 25 points doesn't hurt.

- Chris Kaman

Chris was leaving many fans worried with his slump recently, but seemed to take advantake of an older, more tired "Big Ben" Wallace.  He got 26 and 7 tonight on 11-13 shooting, one of his best games of the year.  This answers the question of whether or not the first couple of games where a fluke.  He appears to be back into form.

- Jonas Jerebko

Well he's not a Clipper, but he's another unknown Clipper killer.  After averaging 5.0 points so far and shooting 17.6% from three, he got 22 on 8-11 shots and 4-4 threes tonight.  His high before tonight was 10.  Scary Anthony Morrow de ja vu?  I think so.

- EJ

Eric had some rust tonight still, going 4-11 on 0-5 3's, but he still got his 14 points.  He also had 4 each of boards and asists and a steal.

- Marcus Camby

While Marcus didnt continue his rebounding excellence(18 and 21 the last two games, 9 tonight), he still was a crucial part of the attack for the Clippers tonight.  He got 7 points on 7 shots, 9 boards, 1 assist, and 6 blocks.  I think we know who won the battle of the 35-year olds tonight.  He also played 42+ minutes, the most of anyone in the game.

-Find the BoxScore here

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