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

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... Pistons-96

THE BIG NUMBER: 22 -- Jerebko's point total. He was the high scorer for the Pistons, draining four three-pointers and playing 33:56.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... Pistons-96

THE OTHER SIDE: Former Central Michigan star Kaman scored 26 for the Clippers and played 36:07.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... Pistons-96

GOOD MIX: Detroit's starters against the Clippers were an interesting mix of youth and experience: Rookies Jerebko and Daye took the court with the ageless Ben Wallace and the more-seasoned Stuckey and Charlie Villanueva.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... Pistons-96

STICKY HANDS: Before the game, Pistons players sprinkle rosin on the bench near the media table and make sure they rub their hands in the stuff. Great for them, tough on the writers, one of whom began sneezing.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... Pistons-96

PRINCE-LIKE: Daye, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Tayshaun Prince physically and in the way he moves on the court, finished Friday's game with 13 points and five rebounds.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... Pistons-96

INJURY REPORT: Rip Hamilton (ankle) missed his 15th straight game and Prince (back) missed his 13th.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... Pistons-96

UP NEXT: The Pistons tackle Atlanta at home at 1 p.m. Sunday.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... don-(ankle)-out-Daye-gets-first-start

Gordon's injury means first start for Pistons rookie Austin Daye
The youth movement was on display at the Palace on Friday night as Pistons rookie Austin Daye started for the injured Ben Gordon against the Clippers. Gordon, who sprained his left ankle against the Cavaliers on Wednesday, will be re-evaluated tonight. The Pistons' leading scorer is undergoing treatment from strength and conditioning coach Arnie Kander. The injury does not appear to be as severe as the ankle sprain that has kept Rip Hamilton out since the opener. Daye and fellow rookies Jonas Jerebko and DaJuan Summers have been filling in for the hobbled Pistons since the season started. Jerebko has been subbing for Tayshaun Prince (ruptured disk) and doing well.

The rookie trio starred in the Las Vegas summer league, but the Pistons could not have foreseen such strong development in the regular season. "It's tough to have a lot of your veterans go down, but the younger players got to step up and make plays and hopefully be guided by our young core," Daye said. Daye and his youthful teammates will be called upon to play a lot as veterans like Hamilton and Prince recover from their injuries.

Pistons coach John Kuester said Daye got his first start because of a sound game against the Cavaliers. He scored nine points in 22 minutes. "The way he played in the second half against Cleveland -- I thought he did a real nice job," Kuester said. "He's capable of knocking down threes, and he's got a very good feel for the game. Obviously, he needs more strength ... but, defensively, he's got tremendous length, and he's deceptively fast." Despite the injuries to the Pistons' big guns, Kuester says the team will be OK and that Daye and the younger Pistons will grow in stature and maturity with the chance to play often. "This is a great opportunity for other players to step up to the plate," Kuester said. "We're going to be just fine."

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... don-(ankle)-out-Daye-gets-first-start

IN A ZONE? With Hamilton, Prince and Gordon missing, will the Pistons play more zone defense? Kuester wasn't giving much away Friday. "You'll see a sprinkling of it," he said.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... 7th-in-row

Rookies look sharp, but Pistons lose 7th in row
Will Bynum provided plenty of spark, but the Pistons fell short of snapping their losing streak, falling to the Los Angeles Clippers, 104-96, at the Palace on Friday night.Detroit has now lost seven straight. Bynum scored 14 points and combined with rookies Jonas Jerebko (22 points) and Austin Daye (13) to light a fire under the Pistons early in the game, but the Clippers picked up steam in the final period and ran off with the win. Jerebko, who along with Daye started the game, crashed to the floor chasing the ball in the fourth quarter, but shook it off and showed he is a potential team leader. Rodney Stuckey scored 21 and Charlie Villanueva added 11, while veteran Ben Wallace, with 16 rebounds, showed there is fight in the old dog. Leading, 75-74, at the end of the third period, the Pistons failed to contain the Clippers down the stretch.

Pistons coach John Kuester said his team lost intensity as the game progressed. "I thought we were in decent shape in the first half, and then in the second half they were the aggressors and we weren't," Kuester said. "We've got to be the team that is more aggressive." Former Central Michigan standout Chris Kaman, who was quiet in the first half, came to life in the third and fourth periods, bringing the Clippers closer to the Pistons with several timely baskets. Al Thornton also caused problems for Detroit, making some spectacular shots in the fourth as the Clippers stretched their lead.

Bynum kept the Pistons in the game early with his accurate passing. He had nine assists. Jerebko and Daye gave the Clippers trouble as well, each scoring and rebounding hard, with Jerebko nailing three-pointers and showing a deft hook shot in the second period. "His overall game was outstanding tonight," Kuester said of Jerebko. "He was someone who had a different gear than the other players." The Pistons led, 54-47, at the half. The Pistons youngsters showed poise beyond their years. But in the final period, the Clippers, with Kaman, Thornton and Baron Davis lifting their games, proved too strong for Detroit.

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

Latest injury information for Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Ben Gordon
According to FSN Detroit's Eli Zaret, there may be a bit of good news on the Detroit Pistons' injury front. If treatment goes well today, there's a possibility shooting guard Ben Gordon could be back in action as soon as tomorrow's game against the Atlanta Hawks. "Ben Gordon landed flat footed, so it didn't damage the ligiments in any way like Rip did," Zaret said during last night's game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Zaret also shed additional light on why Richard Hamilton has missed so much time since spraining his right ankle in the season opener on October 28th. "Hamilton came down on his toe and stretching the four ligiments and various tendons that surround the ankle joint," reported Zaret.

It's still unclear how much damage Hamilton did to the tendons, and there still hasn't been a timetable set for his return. A University of Michigan website dedicated to ankle injuries says recovery from a severe sprain can be six weeks or longer. Considering Hamilton hasn't participated in any live drills during practice, he likely remains a couple weeks away from returning. There's also still no timetable on when Tayshaun Prince will return to action, but there's encouraging news coming out of Auburn Hills. Prince appears to have moved into the second phase of the recovery process.

Oakland Press: “Most of the stuff we’re trying to work on, is make side-to-side movements or diagonal, anything straight and back I’m pretty much fine,” Prince said. “I haven’t had the opportunity to go for a long period of time to see if it will stiffen up and things like that. We been keeping it short and sweet right now. We’ll continue to make progress each day.”Prince said he doesn’t have any limitations running up and down, the problems come when he tries to push off or make cuts. He is trying to ease into being able to make those moves and said there is still no timetable for his return. “We didn’t talk about it,” Prince said of his return. “The doctors, nobody has talked about it. It’s just a situation where they put me in a position where I feel good in consecutive days as opposed to up and down, things like that. Once things start to be on a consistent basis then we’ll schedule that time.

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

About last night: Ben Wallace and Jonas Jerebko have huge efforts, but the Pistons still lose
Losing to the Clippers always stings. After all, they are coached by a guy who may have lost the team about three years ago yet stubbornly hangs around and who thinks it's best to start Rasual Butler while keeping franchise cornerstone Eric Gordon on the bench. But it's also hard to get to down about a game in which the Pistons received maximum effort from just about everyone who stepped on the court.

The injuries the Pistons have faced, which have limited them to one game with their full team on the court together, are mounting quickly. Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Ben Gordon all sat. Hamilton and Prince both have very mysterious injuries that don't seem to be healing very quickly. But the Pistons have also had a very lucky streak when it comes to health in recent years. No player from their core group of Billups-Hamilton-Prince-Wallace-Wallace-McDyess ever missed significant time with injuries in the six years they were competing for titles together. It's really unprecedented. And talking with fellow Pistons blogger Dan Feldman today, he raised a good point: since virtually every team has to deal with significant injuries a time or two, isn't it best that the Pistons are dealing with their unlucky streak now, when the team, even when healthy, was in no danger of being considered a title contender?

Anyway, the injuries don't appear to be going away, and at some point, we have to stop talking about them. Now is as good a time as any, as there were plenty of positive things to talk about from last night. And considering we don't know how the Pistons ultimately lost the lead and the Clippers built one in the fourth quarter since technical difficulties on Fox Sports Detroit gave us some extended Mickey York eye candy while things got re-connected, we'll focus mostly on the positives from earlier in the game.

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

UPDATE: Cause of the technical difficulties, from FSD:

The cause of the technical problems during the 4th quarter of Friday's Pistons telecast were due to an overheated circuit board in the production truck which forced the loss of transmission (and the truck had to be evacuated as a safety precaution). Our crew hustled as best they could to patch in the Palace Vision video for the final few minutes of the game.

We were lucky to get a picture back. And all things considered, most fans probably would rather not have watched how they lost their lead anyway.

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

His name is Jonas: Welcome to the offensive side of the court, Mr. Jerebko. The Pistons' rookie was 8-for-11 for 22 points and five rebounds, unquestionably his best game as a pro. He confidently knocked down shots from the perimeter (4-for-4 on threes), he had a couple crafty post moves and he continued to provide the hustle plays that he has done game in and game out. Jerebko just gets better every time he steps on the floor and has provided amazingly good value for a second round pick. Generally considered the biggest project of the three Pistons rookies heading into the preseason, he's by far the most advanced.

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

Ben Wallace wants another rebounding title: We're beyond the point of marveling at Ben Wallace's performance this season. It's fair to say he's going to be solid all year, with the occassional vintage performance thrown in. Last night was vintage Ben, with 16 rebounds (10 offensive) and two steals. He also converted a key three-point play late in the fourth quarter when the team was still in it, to cut the lead down to three. To put it simply, he's the team's MVP this season and it's not even close. They'd be a wreck without him.

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

How about those non-point guard point guards?: I'm trying to avoid igniting more fires in the comments. Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum generally leave a bit to be desired when it comes to making plays for others. Against LA, they combined for 16 assists and just three turnovers. Even the most cynical of Pistons fans can't be too displeased with that effort.

Stuckey fouled out with 21 points. Bynum finished with 14. Will also struggled for the second straight game from the floor, going 4-for-17, but did get to the line six times. Stuckey's shooting 45 percent and averaging 23 points per game over his last two games, signaling his early-season shooting struggles may be improving back to his career averages. These things tend to even out.

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

Austin Daye as a shooting guard: Daye started at the two (first time since Allan Houston/Lindsey Hunter in 1993 the Pistons have started two rookies), after playing decent minutes there against Cleveland. Honestly, I like him there. Sure, a 6-foot-11 shooting guard is a bit odd. But he's obviously overmatched strenth-wise as a three or four. He'll still get pushed around a bit by shooting guards, but it's at least a little more competitive for him. Just what the Pistons need, right? More shooting guard depth.

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

Clippers shot too well: The Clippers have actually assembled a nice little shooting team. Firecracker-loving Chris Kaman (you can totally tell he's a CMU guy from that video) may have the best inside-outside game of any current big in the league. Eric Gordon, Al Thornton and Baron Davis are all streaky shooters who were on last night. Kaman/Thornton combined to go 19-for-25 and Baron Davis got to the line 11 times (hopefully Stuckey was taking notes from one of the best PGs in the league at drawing fouls -- Boom Dizzle fouled Stuckey out and had Bynum at five fouls).

The Clippers, other than having possibly the most players you thought were no longer in the NBA (Steve Novak? Mardy Collins? Sebastian Telfair? Ricky Davis? Kareem Rush?) on one roster, are underachievers who have been up and down this year. They also have established, All-Star level players in Davis, Kaman and Camby who make them a threat every night. The Pistons just didn't have the firepower to keep up, especially with their best offensive option, Charlie Villanueva, struggling to a 5-for-15 night.

They played hard. Until they get healthy, they're going to come up short in a lot of games like this.

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http://www.nba.com/2009/news/11/28/barn ... ef:nbahpt2

Magic's Barnes fined $20K for throwing ball
Orlando forward Matt Barnes has been fined $20,000 for throwing a basketball into the stands, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations Stu Jackson announced today.

The incident occurred following the conclusion of Orlando's 99-98 loss to the Miami Heat on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at Amway Arena in Orlando.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20091128/S ... for-Sunday

Pistons guard Ben Gordon doubtful for Sunday's Hawks game
The Pistons list guard Ben Gordon as doubtful for Sunday's home game against the Hawks.

But it seems his sprained left ankle isn't as serious as the sprained right ankle that has hobbled Rip Hamilton since the season opener. Gordon didn't practice today, but was dribbling and walking without apparent discomfort so it looks as if his recuperation period from the injury he suffered Wednesday night against the Cavs will be short.

In another bit of good news, Tayshaun Prince was going through drills with point guard Will Bynum and strength and conditioning coach Arnie Kander after practice, so his back is feeling better. But he still hasn't gone through live drills and still has some hurdles to clear. Same for Hamilton, who appears behind Prince in terms who will return first. He was seen working in the weight area beside the practice court.