But when they looked at the score after the first half, the Pistons were actually trailing by six points.
And that was with Antoine getting desperate and going straight to work in the paint.
You could say they'd had to pull out their trump card just to trail the Lakers by only six.
So what should they do next?
At that moment, Pistons head coach Billups spoke up.
"I think we shouldn't just look at the surface of things. We should look at what's really going on."
"On the surface, we're trailing by six at halftime. But the truth is, Wang Yi has exploded in this game."
"He's already scored 28 points in the first half."
"Usually, when Wang Yi goes off like this, the Lakers crush their opponents."
"But now he's exploded, and we're only down by six."
"That means we've weathered Wang Yi's first-half explosion."
"So can he keep this up in the third quarter?"
"Even if he does, can he keep it going through the fourth?"
"And based on what we saw in the first half, we have a way to deal with Wang Yi when he gets hot: send Antoine to overpower them under the basket."
"Antoine's power down low can completely offset Wang Yi's scoring outburst."
"So there's no need to panic."
"We'll see whether Wang Yi gets hot again in the second half. If he does, we'll keep sending Antoine to bully his way to the basket."
"If he doesn't explode again, we can beat him without even having Antoine go down low!"
Billups went on to take an even longer view.
"Think about it. Wang Yi is already 40 years old. Even if he can explode in this game, can he do it in two games in a row?"
"Even if he can