Quotes, Notes, and Links: Detroit Pistons 103 Atlanta Hawks 80

Recap

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Highlights

Larry Drew:

"You have to give Detroit credit tonight. They made shots. Defensively we didn’t same sense of urgency that we did in the third quarter when we held them to 15 points. We completely fell apart in that fourth quarter. We turned the basketball over, they were able to run out on us and we just couldn’t get the job done."

Mike Bibby:

"It got out of hand quickly."

As quickly as it could in an 88-possession game.

Michael Cunningham, zing machine:

Usually it’s the good teams that make the Hawks pay for each mistake at winning time but the Pistons managed to do it, too.

Josh Smith:

"It got away from us and I don’t know how. It really started with those three-point shots. T-Mac had an unbelievable game, probably his best game of the year. I think it broke our backs. We did a bad job on the rotations."

Sebastian Pruiti breaks down the defensive rotations that led to two of Detroit's six fourth quarter three-pointers. SPOILER ALERT: dribble penetration against Jamal Crawford and the threat of dribble penetration against Mike Bibby are the instigating incidents.

Jason Walker on Al Horford's role in slowing down the offense last night:

I've lauded Al Horford time and time again, so allow me to nit pick regarding his performance tonight. Many times Horford holds the ball too long at the top of the key. I know he's looking to pass because the play calls for it, but there are times when nobody is open and his defender is nowhere in sight that he has to go to the basket with the ball. He defers way too often when he doesn't have to and sometimes it puts the Hawks in a position where there is no time left (because we initiate the play with 10-12 seconds left) and all that can be done is a long, contested, jump shot.

At Pistons Powered, Dan Feldman points out that prior to last night the Pistons had not beaten a team with a winning record.

Charlie Villanueva:

"We know we are a much better team than our record shows. We were desperate to get a win tonight after what we did against Toronto."

John Kuester:

"That was huge. This game is fragile -- don't ever forget that. During a run like that, everyone is second-guessing themselves, but we did a great job of executing at that point and kept them from getting ahead of us."

Tracy McGrady:

"It would be nice to be able to play like this on a consistent basis."