http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/6812/fc20040119insidelt7.gif
http://www.uglyjackass.com/cool_stuff/mugshots/jason_kidd.jpg
http://sportsmed.starwave.com/i/magazine/new/vince_carter_a.jpg
http://web.wireimage.com/images/thumbnail/340496.jpg
http://www.espn.go.com/media/pg3/2005/0413/photo/mikki_i.jpg
http://tspweb02.tsp.utexas.edu/webarchive/03-22-01/Images/322.collinstwins.colorsub.jpg

vs.

http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/2609/logopistonsnn6.jpg
http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/5930/chauncey20billupswtrophies012e.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/GlennDanzig/hamilton.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/GlennDanzig/tay_grows_a_pair.jpg
http://www.rasheedwallace.com/graphics/emailface.jpg
http://www.hoopsvibe.com/IMG/Nazr_Mohammed-arton21099-240x240.jpg

Also featuring
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2877/goonsquadoq1.jpg
http://www.nba.com/media/pistons/goon_squad_370.jpg


New Jersey (11-16) at Detroit (17-8)

By NICOLINO Di BENEDETTO, STATS Writer

The Detroit Pistons appear to have rediscovered their interior game, and that does not bode well for the short-handed New Jersey Nets.

Detroit goes for its fifth consecutive win Tuesday in a matchup with the Nets, who recently lost starting center Nenad Krstic to a season-ending knee injury.

The Pistons (17-8) were faced with replacing their own center in the offseason when Ben Wallace signed as a free agent with Chicago. Detroit responded by signing Nazr Mohammed from San Antonio.

The adjustment to playing without Wallace was evident in the season opener, when Detroit allowed 70 points in the paint and lost 105-97 to Milwaukee.

"After that Milwaukee game, we really put an emphasis on protecting the basket," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "It's become a point of pride that we contest everything."

Since then, Detroit has solidified its inside game and its 92.5 points allowed per game ranks second in the Eastern Conference behind Cleveland's 92.2.

Recently, Mohammed has seen his contributions increase, with a combined 38 points and 24 rebounds in the last three contests.

Detroit's interior play could be further helped by the Christmas break, with power forward Rasheed Wallace getting to rest his sore ankles.

His limited minutes lately, though, may end up helping Detroit's frontcourt because Jason Maxiell has begun to emerge. The second-year forward has averaged 12.8 points and 5.8 rebounds over the past four games.

Maxiell was one of five Pistons to score in double figures with 14 points on Saturday, and Mohammed led Detroit with a season-high 19 points and 10 rebounds in a 108-81 rout of Atlanta.

The victory was the Pistons' fourth in a row and sixth in seven games, as they have held opponents to an average of 84.7 points in that span.

"For the first time this season, we were able to just come out and do what we needed to do," point guard Chauncey Billups said. "We just took control and never looked back. We should have a lot more games like that."

Detroit could have success in the paint against New Jersey, as Krstic was ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee during a 99-95 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday.

The Nets (11-16) followed that defeat with another Saturday, falling 115-104 at Milwaukee for their sixth road loss in seven tries.

"If we give up a lot of easy buckets and we don't get to the paint, it's going to be hard to win," New Jersey coach Lawrence Frank said.

Jason Collins moved from forward to center and managed only three points and three rebounds in place of Krstic, the team's second-leading scorer and rebounder with 16.4 points and 6.8 boards per game.

The Pistons' four-game win streak started in New Jersey, winning 90-82 on Dec. 16 despite Krstic's season-high 27 points. The Nets won 79-74 in their most recent visit to Detroit on March 26.

Hopefully the Pistons pull a page out of Rod Marinelli's playbook tonight.

No, that doesn't mean we'll set an all time high in turnovers, it means POUND THE ROCK inside.

They'll most likely go small, and dumbshit Flip will probably be reactive and match them instead of being aggressive and going big.

If we don't outrebound them by at least a third, then that's just poor coaching.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2877/goonsquadoq1.jpg
There is no Gonn Squad w/o my favorite Hotheaded coach(not bobby the soft guy night either).

http://gallery.phillyburbs.com/photos/354/2.aspx
Coach: You are a redshirt 5th year 12th man. Your job right now is lay someone down. represent the school with pride kid!

And for the record I gots no beef with the goon squad theory. We had one in 1987-1991 with the pistons(if you believe we didn't, then you were smoking crack during that period). So no biggie. [smilie=rip.gif]

In the late '80s, it wasn't a Goon Squad -- it was the Bad Boys.
Show some respect! :)

Did you people forget we have a game tonight or something?

This is very disrespectful to Lawrence Frank.

http://images.quizilla.com/P/piratesmile/1077926409_tweetybird.jpg

Would you rather have Flip or Larry as coach?

Who the fuck does sheed think he is??

he's on FIRE tonight. shooting-wise, defensively, on the boards, EVERYTHING. wish he had this sort of passion and intensity every night.

anyway yet another sign that delfino gets robbed by the refs: josh boone (A ROOKIE FCOL!) absolutely barrels over delfino, who had perfect position and was perfectly set. delfino gets called for the blocking foul! what a complete joke!

i'm not a fan of all these charge calls but that was definitely one deserving of the call!

anyway, i am amazed yet again that flip is actually sticking to this whole 'playing the bench' philosophy. it's about time.

the only bench guy i wish i saw less of is flip murray. i would rather give dupree some play than flip murray.

Hopefully the Pistons pull a page out of Rod Marinelli's playbook tonight.

No, that doesn't mean we'll set an all time high in turnovers,


Delfino = Kitna.

1. Fuck a Net

2. Nice OGT

Flip sucks. Carlos gets no love. Maxiell didn't touch the rock.

The bench was very shoddy except for one shake by Blalock that wasn't converted.

On the other hand, Sheed is the definition of fire.

Why are these folks outrebounding us??

Dale Davis just knocked Mikki Moore around like he was a stack of cardboard boxes.

We need to watch the techs though.

billups' 3 goes halfway down and comes out. :(

he should have asserted himself more offensively earlier on. i know kidd is a great defender but we needed more scoring from billups too.

he's done a great job distributing though.

collins hits one of 2 and nets up by 2.

yeah delfino shoudl have played more and flip murray LESS.

How long has that kid with no shirt been coming to Pistons games?

yeah delfino shoudl have played more and flip murray LESS.

More = all of Flip's minutes
Less = ZERO!

I only caught the second half but I didn't see Flip do anything productive, and I saw Delfino get his own highlight.

Fuck you carrot top

Did Tay trip over Moore's foot or what? Good pickup by Sheed.

I realise that this game is on TVU with 7 seconds left...

I hope it goes to overtime

WOOOOO!

DEEEETROIT BASSKETBALLL

Looked more like Carter pushed off of Sheed to me, but we never really got a good look at it.

Carter got the shot off uncontested and missed it. All of the whining in the world won't change that. It may have been a foul but he didn't get hit while shooting so who cares. Too bad, so sad, goodbye!

yeah and we had a bunch of horrible calls against us too. it would've been a weak call if they had blown that a foul as he was not interfered with while taking the shot. if you expect the refs to bail you out in the final seconds, you're going to be disappointed.

also, we had 3 techs called on us and at least 2 of them were absolute GARBAGE calls. i say that even considering the ridiculous new emphasis on techs. even with that we got quick whistles by the refs.

billups does a small fist pump when he was upset at a call. if he had continued to go on and on, THEN it should be a tech. but to call one when it was a quick spur of the moment emotional reaction is just plain stupid.

once again, the refs and stern want the players to be robots out there. not to mention, that if you're going to use that standard there were about 3 or 4 techs that should have been called on the nets!!!!!!

oh well- nice win. we did what it took to get it. but our offensive execution from about the mid 2nd quarter onwards left a LOT to be desired.

we should've played j-max more as well as delfino.

http://www.nba.com/games/20061226/NJNDET/recap.html

Someone from the Flip Murray fan club was in da house:

Pistons coach Flip Saunders had a discussion with a heckler during the second quarter. After the fan called for Carlos Delfino to be benched, Saunders replied ``You guys complain when I don't play the bench, and now you don't want me to play them. Make up your minds!''

Aside from CBills tech that Higherwarrior recapped, what were the Ts on Dice and Sheed? Looks like it was an exciting game, down to the wire. Sad that we couldnt kill a hobbled Nets team though.

Nazr with some great hustle plays down the stretch....how about FlipS trusting maxiell during important minutes towards the end? Mad Max responded by hitting a jumper and nailing two FTs.

nice, gritty game tonight.

Aside from CBills tech that Higherwarrior recapped, what were the Ts on Dice and Sheed? Looks like it was an exciting game, down to the wire. Sad that we couldnt kill a hobbled Nets team though.

With as badly as Billups shooting was, I'll just take the win, ugly or not.

Nazr with some great hustle plays down the stretch....how about FlipS trusting maxiell during important minutes towards the end? Mad Max responded by hitting a jumper and nailing two FTs.

nice, gritty game tonight.

Too bad Max only played about 10 minutes. Especially with Dice racking up 3 TOs, 4 PFs, and a tech in about the same amount of time, you'd think he could get in the game a bit more. How many games of Dice playing like shit before Max finally completely takes him over? Even on his mediocre nights he blows away Dice at this point.

And yea, the bench sucked. Murray, Dice, and Delfino were garbage.

delfino hardly played so i don't see how he was garbage. he had one bad offensive call against him and one defensive foul where he had position and was steamrolled, yet he got called for the foul.

other than that he didn't do much negative in his very short playing time. murray definitely stunk but that's to be expected.

i wish we would trade him or not play him.

I actually thought Nazr looked good out there, grabbing a few rebounds in traffic with a couple nice buckets. I'd rather see him as the number 2 center and not being paid so much, but if he can keep playing like that he'll be serviceable until whatever young guy we draft/sign this offseason can mature.

Tough game, the kind that makes a team grow. I think playing in (and winning) close, gritty games like this help come playoff time.

As far as the non-call at the end of a game, it's pretty well-known that refs swallow their whistles at the end of games. No ref is gonna make that call; it just doesn't happen. Was it a foul? Absolutely, but not with 3 seconds to go. Right or wrong, that's the way the game is played. Either play within those bounds or complain and go home a loser.

I can't believe Frank was complaining so much when the foul didn't really affect the shot. Vince always shoots off-balance anyways.

Tough game, the kind that makes a team grow. I think playing in (and winning) close, gritty games like this help come playoff time.

As far as the non-call at the end of a game, it's pretty well-known that refs swallow their whistles at the end of games. No ref is gonna make that call; it just doesn't happen. Was it a foul? Absolutely, but not with 3 seconds to go. Right or wrong, that's the way the game is played. Either play within those bounds or complain and go home a loser.


Unless TheBron or dwYane Wade are taking the shot. They would have called Sheed for a flagrant-2 and suspended him for a month.

Here comes a hefty fine for Mr. Kidd, my guess is at least $5K


NOT HAPPY: Nets point guard Jason Kidd was not happy after the game, which ended on what New Jersey thought was a bad no-call on Wallace.

"We fought," he said, "but that doesn't mean anything when you have the officials take over the game like that. You've got to be consistent, and they weren't very consistent tonight when it counted. It's unfortunate."

He didn't hesitate to call out referee Tom Washington for not calling Wallace on Vince Carter's final shot.

"You go with the Three Blind Mice," he said, "and it's just sad that Tom just screwed up that game for us.

"We come to work and we work extremely hard at this," he said. "For the officials to screw us ... that play will be on next year to show what was a block. That play will be there. But it doesn't do anything for us because we lost the game."

Yet they wouldn't have even had the shot if the refs didn't get technical happy and hand them 3 points.

But that's just my stupid opinion.

damn i wish they woulda called a charge. just to kick these bitches in the face. the nets are still using whining tactics when they lose to us. Along with the Heat, bulls, mavs, pacers, and whoever else thinks we shouldnt beat them, it seems that the real whiners as I have always said were the teams we beat. [smilie=blaha.gif] [smilie=heatsmiley2:

ever since Aaron Williams pumped his fist when the Nets broke 70 pts, despite LOSING........i've always relished in beating that POS team.

the only thing redeeming about the Nets is Kidd's wife

http://www.nba.com/media/joumana_kidd_190_030604.jpg

Here comes a hefty fine for Mr. Kidd, my guess is at least $5K


$20K

BAM!!

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/28/sports/NA_SPT_BKB_NBA_Kidd_Fined.php