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Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

Dwight Howard may be the most dominant big man in the game, but the Pistons had a plan to contain him last night, holding him to just 12 points and eight boards as Detroit routed the Magic 91-72. Flip Saunders talked about Detroit's strategy after the game. "You're not going to stop him. Tonight's game is not going to happen very often," said Saunders. "But the big thing is we try to send a lot of bodies at him. And we wanted to keep a fresh body on him all the time."

Jason Maxiell started out on Howard, but Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess and Theo Ratliff all took regular shifts banging with him. The steady stream of physical play took its toll on the Magic, who responded late in the game with chippy play on both ends of the court. That's not usually Orlando's style, but it's something Detroit relished. "Well, you can't rough up the game with us," said Rip Hamilton. "We've been doing this for years, and that's the way we want to play. So they tried, but you know, we enjoy it, we like it."

Things almost boiled over in the fourth when Rashard Lewis wrapped up Theo Ratliff under Detroit's basket. Ratliff shook off the contact, but Lewis drew a technical, as well as an earful from Maxiell. "I wanted to make sure my teammate's okay," he said after the game. "We're all family here, so I let it be known [if they] try to get physical, it's not going to be that easy for them and we're going to fire it back at them."

When asked if the rough play affected the Pistons, Maxiell laughed. "Oh no, not at all," he said. "We're a rough team ourselves. We're going to do the roughing."