A pessimistic title…I know. Had I turned the game off with 1:40 left in the 4th, I would probably be writing words or joy and encouragement. Despite the given opponent being the Nets, it would have been awfully nice to see Detroit go in there and kill Prokhorov’s big debut night. For me, it would have made a statement.

Why? Because winning season-opening road games is never easy, even when it’s against the (slightly-improved) Nets. And for most of the 4th quarter, I thought we had it.

• A 13-3 run in the last 1:40 of the game. The last 1:40 of the game is an extremely bad time to allow a 13-3 run, and it’s a shame we had to re-learn that lesson on opening night.
• Avery Johnson got his first win as Nets coach – and it came against a team that wanted him badly ($$ but not THAT badly $$) a year ago.
• Very evenly-distributed scoring sheet for the Pistons. Rodney, Tay, and Chuck all pitching in with 14 points, and Jason, Will, Ben Gordon, and Rip all had between 10 and 13 points. I think that they’ve successfully pointed out that, like every other season, there will be no dominating superstar this year.
• T-Mac only notched 14 minutes and had a few boards and assists. He didn’t score, going 0-3 from the field. Is this a sign of things to come? I sure hope not!
• Something good: only 6 turnovers for Detroit.
• Whether it was good defense or a poorly-designed inbounding play, Stuckey ended up taking the last desperation shot to force overtime. When Rodney has to shoot a heavily-defended jumper, it usually doesn’t end well.
• Props to the CV/BG Huskie squad for hitting some clutch jumpers down the stretch. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.
• Keep telling yourself — it’s only the first game, it’s only the first game. That’s what I’ve been doing.

Quote of the day:

“It’s very, very frustrating. To be up 7 with 1:40 to go is frustrating. We have to close out the game. We had the game in our hands and we didn’t do the little things to pull it out.”

-Charlie Villanueva

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