<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Something about the Utah Jazz always brings out the worst in the Pistons. Remember last season, when the Pistons did not make a single basket in the fourth quarter and still won the game? Remember earlier this season when they blew a 13-point halftime lead and lost in Utah. The rematch here on Saturday was just as bad. The Pistons blew a 14-point first half lead. They blew a 12-point fourth quarter lead. They failed to execute in three of their last four possessions of regulation, including the last possession, and, the final indignity, in overtime they watched as journeyman backup guard Milt Palacio scored the final four points, leading the Jazz to a 94-90 victory. "It's the same story," said Tayshaun Prince. "We just seem to let them hang around and hang around and then we get ourselves into a tough situation. I don't know what happened, but they deserved to win. They made all the crunch plays." It was just the Pistons' fifth loss of the season, two to the 17-17 Jazz. It also ended a 10-game home winning streak. "Even after playing them twice and in overtime, I can't put my finger on it," said Chauncey Billups of the Jazz's mastery. "They are a tough team, man. They play extremely hard, they mix up their defenses, they are well-coached and very disciplined. You have to give them credit." Andrei Kirilenko, who scored the Jazz's final seven points in regulation, had 24 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Rookie Deron Williams had 14 points and Matt Harpring 12 off the bench, as the Jazz reserves contributed 52 points. Billups led the Pistons with 24 points and Richard Hamilton had 18, but the two combined to hit just 14 of 41 shots. Billups, who was fouled by Williams near midcourt, hit two free throws with 21.1 seconds left to give the Pistons an 82-80 lead. Kirilenko answered that with two free throws with 15.6 seconds left. The Pistons last possession of overtime was fitting, in that it was a total mess. Billups dribbled and fumbled and dribbled and wound up having to take a wild, scooping finger-roll as time expired. "It was a high pick-and-roll and I just slipped," Billups said. "The shot still felt good. It just didn't go in." In the overtime, Greg Ostertag (nine points, nine rebounds, three blocks) scored three points and kept another possession alive with an offensive rebound in the final 40 seconds. Former Piston Mehmet Okur (13 points) drained a key three-pointer. But the Pistons, like they did all night, couldn't get organized offensively, settling for too many quick shots. "We couldn't make shots," Coach Flip Saunders said. "When you get a team down like that, what you want to do is get to their confidence. But they kept chipping away." It was a minor miracle that the Pistons were even in contention down the stretch. They were outrebounded, 56-41. The Jazz had 21 second-chance points and a 34-20 edge in points in the paint. The Pistons, who played a lot of one-on-one basketball, shot a miserable 36.4 percent. "It was just energy," said Ben Wallace, who finished with 16 rebounds and two blocks. "They wanted it more than we did. It wasn't nothing special that they did. They just went after it and got it." The Jazz took their first lead of the game with 4:14 left in the third quarter. They did so with a Mehmet Okur free throw, which came as a result of the ninth technical foul of the season on Rasheed Wallace. Wallace was in early foul trouble and not much of a factor until overtime. It was then, when the Pistons looked their most frustrated and vulnerable, that they locked in. It started with Billups, as it so often has this season. He scored five straight points and had seven in a 12-1 run that enabled the Pistons to take a 65-55 lead into the final quarter. Hamilton, who drained a three-pointer in the run, hit a jumper to start the fourth and the Pistons looked to be in control. They weren't. "We will do the same thing we do after every loss," Billups said. "We will think about it, look at it and put it away. Let's keep on moving. We can't dwell on this loss." The Pistons let the Jazz back into the game with some horrendous shooting in the second quarter. With four bench players on the floor, the Pistons missed their first seven shots and didn't score for more than three minutes. They missed 18 of their first 20 shots and were just 4 for 23 in the quarter. The Pistons are 1-2 in overtime games, losing both at home.</div> http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../601080403/1127
