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

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http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4683192

Shaq practices after 5-game absence
Shaquille O'Neal is back at practice and hopes to play in Cleveland's game at Detroit on Wednesday.

O'Neal has missed five games after he tried to block a dunk by Miami's Michael Beasley on Nov. 12. O'Neal, who is calling his injury a strained rotator cuff, practiced on Monday. He says he tried to persuade the team to inject him with cortisone so he could play through the injury, but says the Cavaliers wouldn't do it.

Cleveland has gone 4-1 without O'Neal in the lineup.

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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... ebook.html

Big Ben's brief Suns stint
When the Suns traded Shaquille O'Neal, the idea of Ben Wallace going away was a big part of the $18.5 million in savings they would reap. Wallace seemed to be close to retiring when trade talks began, but he wound up back with the Detroit Pistons, who visited Phoenix on Sunday night. "I wasn't going to play," Wallace said. "I was retired. I was about to sign the papers."

His family's prodding prompted a comeback. He accepted a $10 million buyout from Phoenix for a $14 million salary, a move that will save the Suns $8 million when factoring in the luxury tax. Wallace declined to say if he wanted to play for Phoenix but said he could fit the Suns' system."When I'm healthy, I can play any system," Wallace said. "What I do is not about Xs and Os."

Even at age 35 and despite his injuries, Wallace is Detroit's starting center and leading rebounder. "I rededicated myself to getting stronger and healthier to see if I could rekindle my love for the game," Wallace said.

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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... ebook.html

Bynum's road
Will Bynum's basketball progression began when he signed with Arizona and played there 1 1/2 seasons. He said he transferred to Georgia Tech to be closer to his mother in Atlanta. She was hospitalized due to diabetes. He went on to a Final Four and had a circuitous pro route, playing in Israel three years before landing with Detroit last season and becoming its sixth man this season. "I still got UofA in my blood," said Bynum, citing Salim Stoudamire, Andre Iguodala, Luke Walton, Hassan Adams and Channing Frye as UA teammates who made the NBA.

Bynum said he learned a lot from then-UA coach Lute Olson and has kept in touch with him. He watched UA lose to Kansas in the 2003 Elite Eight after he transferred. "It was horrible," he said, "Salim got in foul trouble. That would've been my cue right there."

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/video/2009/1 ... index.html

Pistons at Suns - Postgame Recap

Video in the link above^.

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http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop

•William Wesley as a hero of Auburn Hills.

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http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop

•An oddity about language and sports. If you're cheering for someone, you say "go!" As in "Go Pistons! Go Lakers! Go Celtics!" But what does the word "go" really mean in that setting? In, say, a running race, the meaning is clear. Run! But in other sports ... it means something a little different than just moving. It means something like getting fired up, playing hard, being aggressive ... not a lot of which really has all that much to do with the strict meaning of "to go." Yelling "go" at a sports game means something else. During the game, you'd yell at a team to go. But after the game, would you praise the team that "went?" Not at all, right? In past tense, the sports application of the word "go" loses just about everything.

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http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop

•When the pace picks up, the Pistons lay down.

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http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop

•Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News: "One thing I'm noticing on the NBA beat is the schedule plays such a big role. It didn't seem as much in the NHL. It does in the NBA, and you could tell this was going to be a tough game to win from the day the schedule came out. Fourth game in six days, last game of a trip, and the Pistons wound up playing overtime Saturday in Utah. All the ingredients for a blowout loss, which it turned out to be."

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/video/2009/1 ... index.html

The Spare Tires: Making it BIG
Eli Zaret examines what it takes to become a LARGER than life dancer on the Pistons spare tires.

Video in the link above^.

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http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerrank ... 010&week=4

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

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http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerrank ... 010&week=4

22 (18) Pistons 5-9 : You can rationalize Detroit's 0-4 trip out West when you factor in the quality of the opposition and the Pistons' injury woes. Harder to explain or accept is the fact that Will Bynum has been steadier than Rodney Stuckey.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91123.html

Silver Lining
With Cleveland and Atlanta on the docket for Thanksgiving week, and with no timetable yet established for the return of either Rip Hamilton or Tayshaun Prince, things could still get worse before they get better for the Pistons. But they are going to get better. We enumerated a handful of reasons why the 0-4 Western road swing wasn’t the wipeout it could have been in Sunday’s True Blue Pistons, promising a deeper examination today of the problems of the handful of teams with which the Pistons will be fighting for the last four playoff berths in the East.

So here we go. It appears even more of a certainty today than a month ago that the top four seeds in the East, barring major injury calamities, will be doled out to Boston, Cleveland, Orlando and Atlanta. The only thing that’s really changed at the top is Atlanta looks like an even more solid bet to qualify in the top four than the Hawks did coming into the season. At that time, I had the Pistons as one of six teams – along with Chicago, Washington, Toronto, Philadelphia and Miami – scrapping for those final four Eastern Conference berths. Milwaukee has since stamped itself as worthy of consideration with that group. In fact, the Bucks have a better winning percentage today than both Cleveland and Boston and rank just a shade behind Orlando and Atlanta.

It’s not very likely Milwaukee can keep up with that crowd, but with the emergence of Brandon Jennings and the commitment to defense Scott Skiles has drawn out of the Bucks in his second season, no one would be surprised if Milwaukee hangs around in the playoff race. Here’s a quick look at that group of teams, going in order of today’s record.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91123.html

Milwaukee (8-3) – The Bucks are due to get Michael Redd back tonight after he’s missed the past nine games. But Andrew Bogut is scheduled to miss another month or so and that could cost Milwaukee a handful of games.

While Jennings has been nothing short of a revelation, from his 55-point outburst against Golden State to his 49 percent 3-point shooting, Milwaukee has benefited greatly from the NBA’s easiest schedule. The Bucks’ 11 opponents to date have a puny .366 winning percentage and Milwaukee has played seven of its 11 games at home.

The schedule will catch up to the Bucks sooner or later, but they’ve shown enough that if a few other struggling teams don’t right their ships, Milwaukee could slide into the No. 7 or 8 spot in April.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91123.html

Miami (8-5) – Miami, similar to Milwaukee, owes a good deal of its early success to the schedule maker. The Heat have played nine of their 13 games at home against teams with a combined winning percentage of .481. And it continues this way through early January for Miami, which gets 21 of its first 33 games at home – which means 29 of Miami’s final 49 games will be on the road.

In other words, Miami had better have a nice cushion over the No. 9, 10 and 11 playoff seeds by the time the schedule turns on the Heat. And there are cracks showing already. The Heat have dropped four of their last six with the two wins both one-pointers over struggling New Jersey and New Orleans teams.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91123.html

Chicago (6-6) – The Bulls, like the Pistons, have played a considerably tougher schedule than most in this group. In fact, Chicago’s opponents’ winning percentage is the highest of the bunch at .579, eight one-thousandths higher than that of Pistons opponents.

Chicago is in the midst of its own Western road swing necessitated by the circus being in town. The Bulls got to start their trip off at Sacramento, winning that game before getting drilled by both the Lakers and Denver. They’ll play at Portland tonight and wrap it up with a Thursday date at Utah and would do well to split that pair. But there are some troubling signs for the Bulls. They’re getting outscored by four points per game despite their .500 record – in contrast, the Pistons, even after Sunday’s blowout loss at Phoenix, are being outscored by just 2.1 points per game – and they are clearly missing Ben Gordon.

One reason the Bulls felt they could afford to let Gordon walk was last season’s play by John Salmons. They also had Kirk Hinrich returning after missing much of last season with a wrist injury. But Salmons is shooting a dreary .345 overall and .310 from the 3-point line; Hinrich isn’t much better at .360 and .316. And Chicago overall is shooting .432.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91123.html

Toronto (6-8) – The Raptors, like the Pistons, took a beating on their recent Western swing, opening with a win against the Clippers before losing to Phoenix, Denver and Utah.

While Chris Bosh is playing his way into the MVP discussion and Toronto’s offense has been as good as expected, fueled by the improved play of 7-footer Andrea Bargnani and the impact of free agent Hedo Turkoglu, the Raptors are among the league’s weakest defensive teams.

They rank 28th in points allowed and 24th in field-goal percentage defense and similarly in every other important defensive metric. Can they remain a serious playoff contender playing defense that poorly? Maybe, but it places great stress on the offense to maintain those levels of efficiency.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91123.html

Philadelphia (5-8) – Given the difference in their schedules so far – Philly’s opponents have a combined winning percentage of just .455 and the 76ers have played seven home games – the Pistons are in better shape than Philadelphia at this point.

Philly is getting outscored by 4.6 points a game despite the soft schedule it’s enjoyed so far. Elton Brand has begun to play marginally better, but still appears an odd fit for the personnel around him, and Samuel Dalembert somehow holds on to his starting spot despite minimal productivity and the widespread knowledge that the 76ers are shopping him around the league.

Philly has missed the steady hand of point guard Andre Miller as much as expected. Third-year forward Thaddeus Young, with star potential, has not played as well as Philly had hoped. Second-year big man Mareesse Speights, who was outperforming both Dalembert and Brand, will miss another month or so with a knee injury.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 91123.html

Washington (3-9) – No team has been a bigger disappointment in the East than the Wizards, who were my pick to slip into the No. 5 playoff berth based on the return to health of Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood; the off-season acquisitions of Mike Miller, Randy Foye and Fabricio Oberto; the development of talented young players JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche and Nick Young; and the hiring of coach Flip Saunders, whose offensive vision seemed the inspired choice to pull all of those pieces together.

But the Wiz have stumbled badly out of the gate, being outscored by 5.5 points per game. The schedule hasn’t been especially kind, with Washington playing five home and seven road games against a composite .549 winning percentage, but Arenas’ erratic play and the apparent head-butting going on between him and some of Washington’s other established stars – Haywood and Caron Butler, most notably – portends more trouble down the road.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/chat_mailbox ... ilbag.html

Peter (Jackson, Mich.): Stuckey keeps taking bad shots at the wrong time or driving to the basket and getting stuffed, which turns into a transition basket for the other team. That 12-0 run Phoenix made in the second quarter was due to bad decision-making by Stuckey. When is he going to learn to get his teammates involved? The ball should have been going to CV during that stretch.

Langlois: You make a fair point with regard to the 12-0 run, Peter. Stuckey probably took two shots that made John Kuester cringe in that stretch. I don’t see it as a persistent problem, though, and I think the returns of Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince will help immensely in this regard. There are times, when Charlie V is out, that Stuckey is one of two legitimate scorers on the floor, which cuts down a point guard’s options severely.

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http://www.nba.com/pistons/chat_mailbox ... ilbag.html

Lisa (Gaylord, Mich.): I’m a die-hard Pistons fan and have very much enjoyed watching the hustle and desire of this year’s team. Is there a reason for us to be concerned because our point guards continue to be our high scorers?

Langlois: When it’s all said and done, Ben Gordon and Rip Hamilton will be the Pistons’ leading scorers and Charlie Villanueva will probably be No. 3. Stuckey and Bynum, plus Prince, will be 4-5-6 in some order, and their ability to score is an asset. Right now, they’re scoring out of pure necessity.