'Nasty News - Traversing Time & Space' Vol: 58

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091123/S ... -West-trip

Suns blow out Pistons for fourth straight loss on tough West trip
It was probably too much to ask of this young Pistons team to come up with another solid effort Sunday night. Not when they were completing a four-game, six-day swing through Western Conference playoff contenders. And especially when the last game was against the Phoenix Suns, one of the West's best teams. So it wasn't surprising that after a slow start (by their standards), the Suns ran the Pistons out of U.S. Airways Center, 117-91.

Don't try telling that to Pistons first-year coach John Kuester, who didn't try to hide his displeasure. "I'm not going to lie to you, I'm disappointed in the way we played," Kuester said. "We said all the right things before the game. We had a great breakfast meeting today. "You got to lie to your body. You got to say, 'Hey, listen legs, we need you.' " The Pistons lost all four games on the trip and are struggling through a five-game skid overall.

After making the Lakers play the entire game and losing close contests at Portland and Utah, the Pistons fell behind as much as 29 points, and the fourth quarter was basically garbage time. "Until this last game, we lost three games we can learn a lot from," Pistons guard Will Bynum said. "I don't take it as a total disappointment, but we did lose all four." Detroit had no answer for big man Amare Stoudemire, who scored 21 points. "It was tough," Bynum said. "They did pretty much what they wanted to do."

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http://twitter.com/detroit_pistons

MLive: Pistons fall to Phoenix, finish winless on four-game West Coast road trip: The Pistons still are without inj... http://bit.ly/5tNoLx

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http://twitter.com/detroit_pistons

DetNews: Pistons lackluster in fifth straight loss: Maybe returning home will do the Pistons some good. Certainly... http://twurl.nl/afkup1

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http://twitter.com/detroit_pistons

DetNews: Hot Suns send weary Pistons to fifth loss in row: Maybe returning home will do the Pistons some good. Ce... http://twurl.nl/huczal

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http://twitter.com/detroit_pistons

DetNews: Kevin Garnett's jumper gives Celtics OT win over Knicks: Paul Pierce carried the Celtics while the rest ... http://twurl.nl/mqkcga

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... sto_1.html

About Last Night: Detroit Pistons were never really in it against Phoenix Suns
In a shocking twist, the Detroit Pistons played like a team closing off an unsuccessful road trip last night. Great analysis, right?

Unfortunately, there's just not much to dissect here, it was just a beating. The Pistons, as they always do, played with effort, but it was obvious the legs weren't there. The Pistons had a long, tough trip against four of the best teams in the Western Conference. I'm sure they wouldn't say it, but heading into the trip, they would've been OK with 1-3. Going winless on the trip with two of five starters out was a distinct possibility all along.

The team played hard in four games, had insane comebacks in LA and in Portland and really should've won in Utah, before getting blown out by the Suns. Overall, things could've been worse. But a game's a game, so as poorly as the team played, we still have to come up with some notes.

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... sto_1.html

Post passing: The abilities of Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum to make plays in the passing game has been tirelessly debated around these parts. All three have the ability to get others involved, all three sometimes struggle to do so. This we know.

But, one area where all three are pretty consistent is entry passes into the post. And by consistent, I mean they are all consistently bad at it. Last night's game was the best illustration of this: Ben Wallace had to catch passes at his feet on at least three occassions. Chris Wilcox had an entry pass go sailing over his head -- he barely got a finger on it when he jumped to try and corral it. Charlie Villanueva was given the ball late after calling for it in good position twice in the first half. By the time he got it both times, the defense had recovered.

This is a major aspect of the game where the Pistons miss Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton. Both are very fundamentally sound passers, while Gordon/Stuckey/Bynum get moving so fast, sometimes their passes sail on them or are underthrown in halfcourt sets.

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... sto_1.html

Missing Prince/Rip part deux: Obviously the biggest reason the team needs Hamilton and Prince back is to help with the scoring load. Two Pistons starters were playing with major energy and effectiveness early last night. Unfortunately, they were Ben Wallace and Jonas Jerebko, the two starters who opponents have rarely guarded this season.

As Wallace's previous Pistons teams have shown, it is possible to have an effective offense with on starter on the floor who is rarely paid attention to by opposing defenses. Having two in the same lineup? That won't work very often. Even a poor defensive team like Phoenix was able to have a pretty good defensive game by focusing nearly all of their attention on Gordon/Stuckey/Villanueva.

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... sto_1.html

Summers breaks out a bit: DaJuan Summers went from being kind of a disappointment in the preseason after a great Summer League to finding himself on this west coast trip. He had his best game scoring-wise against Phoenix, finishing with 13 points in 23 minutes. He was also the first wing player off the bench again, passing Austin Daye on the depth chart the last two games.

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... sto_1.html

The defense gave them no chance: Phoenix is always going to score points. They've scored over 100 in every game this season so far. But the Pistons didn't make them uncomfortable doing anything.

Point guards Steve Nash and Goran Dragic combined to shoot 12-of-15. The Pistons struggled to get back in transition. The 6-foot-11 Villanueva took advantage of the fact that he was being guarded by the 6-7 Hill early in the game, posting up often, but they went away from it completely in the second half. The offense didn't succeed at any point in the game in slowing the pace.

Not much to analyze here. Phoenix plays at the fastest pace in the league, Detroit plays at one of the slowest paces. Phoenix was able to set the pace the entire game. Facing a running team is not what you want to do on the last leg of a brutal road trip.

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... sto_1.html

What's next?: The team comes home and gets to rest, but has to host Cleveland on Wednesday. They close out their brutal November schedule with home games against the Clippers, who are improved but still kind of a mess, and the Hawks, who have been the best team in the East so far.

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... sto_1.html

What the Blogs are Saying:
Need4Sheed: "What’s up with Kwame Brown? DNP today and little play on the road trip altogether. It doesn’t help that Chris Wilcox shamed the Pistons by getting blocked by a pony-tailed dude."

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... sto_1.html

PistonPowered: "Michael Curry struggled last year in large part because of the Chauncey Billups-for-Allen Iverson trade. It wasn’t just that Iverson wasn’t as good as Billups. Curry made a plan before the season about how to run the team. After the trade, the plan was void, and Curry didn’t know how to react. I don’t know if John Kuester has as rigid of a plan as Curry. But it’s looking like it. Detroit clearly has deficiencies when the pace is high. The Pistons need to run more to get accustomed to this style of play."

[nasty daddy]

http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... sto_1.html

Motown String Music: "Will Bynum probably had the Pistons' best game with 11 points on 5-8 shooting, four rebounds, four assists, and two steals. It is never good when your best player for the game has just 11 points."

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http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/20 ... as_in.html

Was William Wesley the MVP of the Pacers-Pistons fans brawl?
If you're a hardcore NBA fan and aren't familiar with the exploits of William Wesley -- aka "Worldwide Wes" -- then you should read up if you have some time. He's one of the more powerful and mysterious guys in the league. Well I've been familiar with him for a while thanks to Henry Abbott's constant reporting on all things Wes over the years at TrueHoop, I had no idea he was in Auburn Hills the night Ron Artest was provoked into going into the crowd, and Wesley played a key role in getting players out safely, apparently:

There is only one person on the face of the earth who performed well that terrible night in Michigan. As you review the vdeo, there was only one person who kept his cool and did the right thing the whole time. That person's name is William "Wes" Wesley and - in the video - you can see him in a what once was a very nice, blue suit, a suit that he probably had to throw away that night because it was soaked with blood stains, human sweat stains, beer stains, soft drink stains and who knows what else. "Worldwide Wes" did one thing and one thing only that night. He did his best to take players who were and still are about 10-times bigger and stronger than he is and he hauled them towards secure areas or away from danger. He did as much as he could and he kept on doing it. In the video, you see him get a guy to the locker door, then leave and go back to assist in another way.

I've already written a bit of my thoughts on last week's anniversary of that night. Frankly, I don't like re-living it, as I'm sure most fans don't. Just a depressing night as a whole, but it's also further proof of how little we know about who the most connected and influential people behind the scenes in this league are.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/s ... index.html

I just cannot believe how cowardly the press is about Iverson. Everyone is letting this guy off the hook. This guy QUIT on Detroit. Why are you not hammering Joe Dumars? And last I checked, the whole concept of a team is that you will do for the TEAM what it takes to win. So unless the team specified some other arrangement, this is squarely on Iverson. Did they promise him the starting position? No. Sir Clank-a-Lot, one of the most overrated shooters of the last decade, just wants to be a ballhog and get more stats. Let's be honest, having Kobe [Bryant] pass him on the all-time scoring list during the Memphis/L.A. game did not help Mr. "ME". Absolutely amazing that you cannot come out and say that this guy is poison to a team. Look at everywhere he's been. Look at him with Larry Brown, a truly great coach. This is about the most non-team player EVER. But no. You're going to talk about how bad the Memphis organization is for picking up [someone] that no one else wanted. Also, these people need to stop putting this guy up there with "greatest guards ever." This guy was 1. A ballhog; 2. Inaccurate; 3. The worst defender in the league among starting guards. I'd say Steve Nash is a close second, but at least he tries. Iverson runs away from all possible posterizations.

This has nothing to do with Joe Dumars. The Pistons had a playoff roster loaded with veterans trying to win now and were looking for an immediate jolt. A completely different situation than Memphis. Either way, I'm not sure where you're seeing that everyone is letting Iverson off the hook on his Memphis fling. His reputation is taking a beating. I think I made it pretty clear that, as you put it, "this guy is poison to a team," or at least can be to a team that allows him to be. That's why I put a lot of the responsibility on the Grizzlies. Iverson is concerned about Iverson. So the Memphis front office has to be the one to protect the interests of an entire roster that has a chance to one day become a playoff team. He wasn't going to say, "There's a chance I might give everyone a migraine my first game back," he wasn't going to look at the long term and realize that taking minutes from Mike Conley and shots from Rudy Gay, O.J. Mayo and Marc Gasol slows development. Management had to see that and make that known because Iverson wouldn't.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/powerranki ... ef:nbahpt1

1: Atlanta Hawks
2: Orlando Magic
3: Phoenix Suns
4: Dallas Mavericks
5: Los Angeles Lakers
6: Cleveland Cavaliers
7: Denver Nuggets
8: Boston Celtics
9: Portland Trailblazers
10: Milwaukee Bucks
19: Detroit Pistons

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http://www.nba.com/2009/news/powerranki ... ef:nbahpt1

19 Detroit (18) 5-9 Pace: 90.1 (30), Off: 101.9 (20), Def: 104.3 (18)
Still without Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince (who both are just starting to get back on the practice court), the Pistons have lost five straight, struggling on both ends. Rodney Stuckey is shooting 38 percent for the season and just 30 percent over the last four.

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http://www.nba.com/2009/news/11/23/play ... ef:nbahpt2

Bryant, James named Players of the Week
The Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Nov. 16, through Sunday, Nov. 22.

James averaged a league-best 34.3 points on .583 shooting from the field, 5.8 rebounds and a team-high 9.3 assists, leading the Cavaliers to a 3-1 week. James was the only Eastern Conference player to score 30 or more points in each of his games and recorded his first 40-point game of the season in a 105-95 win over Indiana on Nov. 20. Bryant led the Lakers to a 3-0 week, averaging 29.8 points (second in the Western Conference), 6.7 rebounds and a team-high 6.7 assists. With his free throw at the 6:07 mark of the third quarter on Nov. 19, Bryant moved past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (24,176) for second on the Lakers' all-time franchise scoring list; Bryant trails only Jerry West (25,192). On Nov. 17, Bryant recorded his fourth 40-point game of season in a 106-93 win over Detroit.

Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week were Charlotte's Stephen Jackson, Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki, Denver's Carmelo Anthony, Houston's Luis Scola, Memphis' Rudy Gay, New Orleans' Marcus Thornton, New York's Al Harrington, Orlando's Vince Carter and Phoenix's Amar'e Stoudemire.

[nasty daddy]

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/11/21/bibb ... index.html

Hawks' Bibby exits game after spraining ankle
Atlanta Hawks point guard Mike Bibby sprained his left ankle with 6:59 remaining in the first quarter against the New Orleans Hornets and will not return to Saturday's game.

Bibby injured his ankle while chasing for a loose ball near the Hawks bench. Hawks coach Mike Woodson quickly called timeout when the injury occurred as Bibby limped off the floor in obvious pain.