Detroit lost 106-103 with a three at the buzzer just coming up short – all despite trailing by 15 going into the 4th quarter.

We didn’t come out right, letting Atlanta shoot jumpers uncontested. It was too bad, because the Piston faithful were extremely excited. It was the best crowd we’ve seen at The Palace in a long time. The Hawks led 31-22 after one.

Our energy was lacking in that first half. It was like Stan Van never made the adjustment. They were obviously a jump shooting team, but we let them have too much separation for the second quarter, again. The score mirrored the first, a 33-23 loss to put us behind 19 at halftime.

In this position, the key is to look at the deficit in parts. First, try and get it back down to single digits. Low and behold, we did just that in the third. Brandon Jennings lit our fire with some risky treys, cutting the lead to nine. Instead of cementing it and establishing a new game, we got a little greedy and kept launching. The lead crept back up to fifteen going into the final frame.

We finally pressured the Hawks shooters in the fourth quarter, letting ourselves back into the game. The crowd was really behind us. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope sparked another rally with 16 points in the 4th, cutting the lead again to single digits with some long guns. Another KCP three put us down just four points with a minute to play.

Reminiscent of San Antonio, we refused to give up. Al Horford missed both his free throws. Unfortunately, we were a little trigger happy, setting a franchise record for 3-point attempts by missing two more. However, a split at the stripe gave us a glimmer of hope, and a quick Greg Monroe basket put us down three. The “Moose” then knocked the inbound off Paul Milsap with one second to go.

We had a chance. It had to be KCP, but the leaner came up just shy at the horn. It was what the fans had came to see, albeit a losing effort. We’ll be back against Brooklyn tomorrow, baby.