1 AND O

Pleasant surprise tonight in Vegas. After a poor first half the Pistons finally started to pick their game up and finished strong with an 89-84 win over the Lakers.

The playas.

1. Austin Daye... 22 pts. 6 rebs. 2 asts. 2 stls.

Looked great. Shooting. Check. Ball handling. Check. Passing, defense, asserting himself. Checks all. He was a match-up nightmare. His fade away, something he's been working on, looked undefendable. Barry kept comparing him to Tayshaun, but Austin has a much better stroke, particularly from long range. Hope to see more of the same throughout summer league and during the regular season.

2. DaJuan Summers...17 pts. 3 rebs. 1 asts. 2 stls.

He's 6'8" 240 and still shows very little desire to post up...ever. DaJuan is not a 4 he is a 3, a big, strong, athletic, wing (Come to think of it, he's almost a giant two-guard). He outweighs Austin by 40lbs. and gets half the rebounds. He's a load going to the basket and lived at the foul line tonight (9-11). If he could somehow incorporate a post move or two into his game it would make him that much more effective.

3. Jonas Jerebko...16 pts. 4 rebs. 3 asts.

Jonas, to me, looked disinterested for half the game, then in the fourth quarter he was like, "All right, let's win this thing" and turned into the Jonas we all know and love, hustling, attacking, drawing fouls, all the things that make him so valuable. I would love to see him collect a few more rebounds, and if he doesn't have a double-double next game I'll be surprised.

4. Terrico White...17 pts. 1 reb. 3 asts. 1 stl. 1 Big Bucket.

Liked what I saw. He looked comfortable with the ball in his hands. One game is not enough of a sampling to draw too many conclusions, but I already like the guy. Big, big, jumper at the end of the game. Looked as athletic as advertised and a better ball handler then I thought. Looking forward to seeing him play again.

5. Greg Monroe...8 pts. 5 rebs. 4 stls.

After what I saw earlier in Orlando with Evan Turner and Derrick Favors I'd have to say that Greg had a good first game. I was glad to see him dunk the ball a couple of times and that he spent much of time on the block as opposed to the high post. He looked smooth around the basket, though he was rushing things a bit which is natural. He had no assists which I thought was atypical of his game, but, again, it was his first game and after taking so much time off of basketball to insure he was injury free come draft time it'll take a few games for him to get his legs. Overall, I was impressed and encouraged.

Great, gritty, comeback. The guys could have just said, It's Summer League, who cares?" But they made an effort and showed a lot of heart. Fun game to watch.