'Nasty News - Traversing Time & Space' Vol: 31

[nasty daddy]

http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx? ... W11178.htm

Cleveland begins a brief two-game road trip at Washington on Thursday, while the Pistons resume their three-game road trip at New Jersey on Wednesday...Detroit fell to 17-19 on the road this season...The Cavs won three of the four matchups with the Pistons this year and won the season series for the first time since 1997-98.

[nasty daddy]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime ... ime-090401

Tuesday night felt like a playoff game and mattered a lot to both teams. Even though they have struggled, the Pistons are the only team below the top four seeds that have any chance of making the first round interesting.

In case they have to face them in the playoffs, Cleveland didn't want Detroit thinking they could beat them. The Pistons' offense is a mess. They don't know what they want to do. Allen Iverson is still a good enough scorer, but he needs to be the focal point. That is not how the Pistons play. When the trade went down, I said it would be tough for Iverson to play in a structured system because he is used to branching off and doing what he wants to do. That doesn't work in Detroit. One of the big problems for Detroit is that they can't finish anymore. They are a horrible closing team. Chauncey Billups was their guy for that and now they don't know what they want to do. They have a lot of young guys handling the ball and they get demoralized a lot easier than they used to. They used to dig in and fight back. Now they get kind of defeated. In a playoff series, a team like the Cavs would take the heart of the Pistons.

Getting rid of Billups is 75 percent of what happened to the Pistons. After the deal, I thought they would win 45 to 47 games and still be relevant. More than just the X's and O's, Billups was their emotional leader and nobody could have imagined the negative impact his departure would have on this team.

[nasty daddy]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime ... ime-090401

The Cavaliers defeated the Pistons on Tuesday, tying two significant NBA records in the process: Cleveland equaled the largest lead that an NBA team has ever held in its division or conference. The Celtics set that mark when they finished last season with a 25-game lead over the Raptors in the Atlantic Division.

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http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime ... ime-090401

• The Mavericks defeated the Timberwolves on Tuesday, giving Dallas 11 consecutive wins over Minnesota. That's the fourth-longest current team-versus-team winning streak: the Pistons have won 13 straight against the Clippers, the Spurs have 13 consecutive against the Nets and the Spurs have won 12 successive games against the Clippers.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2009 ... s+new+role

Pistons' Allen Iverson already tired of his new role
It took two games and already Allen Iverson is fuming about coming off the bench. Rasheed Wallace was finally back after missing 11 games because of a left calf injury, but he'll sit out again tonight in New Jersey after picking up his 16th technical foul Tuesday in the Pistons' 79-73 loss to the Cavaliers. "We outrebound them (53-43), we hold them to 38 percent shooting and LeBron James goes 9 for 24," coach Michael Curry said. "That's a game you should win." At the very least it's a game the Pistons should be encouraged by, given that the Cavaliers ran roughshod over them the last time they played at Quicken Loans Arena. But nothing about this game felt good. "How many minutes did I play," Iverson said after he scored 11 with three turnovers in 18 minutes. "It seemed way, way, way less than that. Eighteen minutes? Come on, man. I can play 18 minutes with my eyes closed. It's a bad feeling, man. I'm wondering what they rushed me to get back for? For that? "It's a bad time for me mentally."

The Pistons hardly rushed Iverson back. They let him sit out a month with back pain. And as far as his minutes, other than a six-point flurry in the fourth quarter, he hardly played well enough to displace any other player. He was on the floor during a key part of the Pistons' collapse in the final five minutes. "I am just trying to get through it without starting a whole bunch of nonsense," Iverson said, after initiating the conversation about his playing time. "I'm looking at the big picture. If I vent my frustration then it's like, given who I am, I'll be the one everybody points the finger at. I am just going to try to laugh to stop from crying."

Wallace picked up his 16th technical foul at the end of the third quarter, protesting a foul called against Tayshaun Prince. Prince appeared to draw a charging foul against James, but the foul went against Prince. "It was a stupid-star call, that's what it was and that's what I told the ref (Bennie Adams)," said Wallace, who had nine points and nine rebounds in his return. "Tay was there. But that's what happens when you speak the truth." Curry and Richard Hamilton seemed upset at Wallace. "He knew he was one tech away," Curry said. "That's it on that." Hamilton just shook his head. "I didn't know that. Not having him out there is huge." James scored eight in the final five minutes to put the Pistons away. He finished with 25 points. "We just have to be better," said Hamilton, who scored 13 , hitting just 4-of-14 shots. "Too many turnovers and we were just a little too indecisive." The Pistons led 69-67 with 5:19 left, but didn't score another point for three minutes. They made four turnovers in six possessions in that span. "We just didn't finish," Iverson said.

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http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2009 ... s++cringes

Cavaliers net smiles, cringes
By now you have seen the skits and posing the fun-loving Cavaliers do before the game, during the game and after the game, right?

You've seen the picture-taking skit, the Mo Williams hitting a home run skit, the players huddled in a circle pantomiming starting a campfire. All just silly fun, and that's how the Pistons view it. "I think it's funny," coach Michael Curry said. "The thing is, you still have to get on the court and perform, and they've been performing. "Whatever they do prior to the game doesn't matter."

Rasheed Wallace thinks it's funny, too, though he thinks the Cavaliers might have infringed on the Pistons' copyright with the picture-taking skit. "We've been doing that stuff all along," Wallace said. "Rip (Hamilton) was the first to start doing all that picture stuff. That's where they got it from, but of course they (the media) are going to blow it up more because it's LeBron (James). "But I don't worry about all that little stuff they do."