So, we didn’t quite make the splash Cleveland did (see below) but here’s what we did do. The Pistons sent Priomz Brezec along with cash considerations to the Raptors in exchange for Juan Dixon (6′3″, 165 lbs.). I didn’t quite get why the Pistons would pick up another guard and trade away our only true center. Then it was cleared up a little for me after reading this on Pistons.com:

The Pistons have the option of cutting one of their spare guards and adding a big man currently a free agent. The likeliest scenario? Flip Murray, who hasn’t played in two months, could be bought out of his contract at little cost – it’s due to expire at the end of this season – and Dale Davis, who played for the Pistons last year and is free to sign with any team, could be signed as veteran big man insurance.

My wish for the Pistons was to pick up a large foul eating big man. Not so much for the East, but whom ever we might meet out of the West in the Finals. While I love Double D, I wonder what he’s got left in the tank? He hasn’t played since last season and even then it looked like he really labored up and down the court.

Juan can be a nice guy coming off the bench especially in favor of Flip Murray who is just too free lancing for our team. Dixon has not come close to the collegiate success he enjoyed leading Maryland to the 2002 NCAA Championship and being named the Final Four’s MOP. This season he’s averaging 4.3 ppg, 1.8 apg in 12 minutes per, with career averages of 9 ppg and 1.7 apg. The Pistons are the 4th team for Dixon since being drafted 17th overall in 2002 by the Washington Wizards, yes, ANOTHER Wizard’s retread. Juan, like Brezec, is in the last year of his contract. If we end up re-signing Dixon, Joe D. must go after Desmond Mason, the marketing possiblities would be through the roof!

Ben went where??

The Cavs were involved in a 3-team, 11 player deal that netted them former face of the franchise Ben Wallace. They also got Wally Sczcberbiak, Delonte West and Joe Smith. They sent Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, and Shannon Brwon to Chicago. And, Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall to Seattle.

Dan Gilbert’s Piston’s envy knows no bounds.

LBJ wanted some turnover and he got it.

When I first heard about the deal I just heard Ben Wallace & Drew Gooden and I was happy because it was another chance to get back at Ben for bolting, and the Cavs, already hurting for someone not named James to score a bucket, just down graded. But, then there’s Delonte West..solid, Wally Longlastname…solid, Joe Smith…savvy thorn in the Pistons’ side solid. All the sudden the Cavs have nice complimentary pieces to take some scoring pressure off Elvis.

Who would have thought the Bulls could move Ben’s contract? Maybe the same people who thought the Cavs could move Hughes’ big bank.

The rivalry just got a little more raw. You think Chi figured if they couldn’t overthrow us they’d help Cleveland do it? I’m not looking forward to seeing Ben in that nasty Cavs jersey. While I’ll miss hating that big gumpy mouth breather Drew Gooden, I think Delonte West is plenty ugly enough to get under my skin.

Buckle up Pistons Nation.

….Oh, also, former Piston pit bull Mike James was traded from Houston to New Orleans.

So much for retiring a Piston. I’m kinda sad to see the borderline out of control hot chocolate craving accessory whoring Slovenian gangsta go.  I wish him well, also, it looks as if all the connections between us and Toronto has led to a new trading partner, poor scorned Orlando.

TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors acquired center Primoz Brezec and cash from the Detroit Pistons on Thursday for guard Juan Dixon.

Dixon was averaging 4.3 points and 1.8 assists in 36 games with Toronto this season, his second with the Raptors. (via: ESPN)

Admittedly this is a crappy time to have shitty limited internet access, so I’ll have more on the days events tomorrow when the connection is stronger.

The Pistons (39-13) will host the Magic (33-21) at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Tip off is 7:30 pm est and can be viewed locally on FSN Detroit.

Magic Snapshot
Road record: 19-10
Last game: 2/13 (Weds) W 98-109 Vs. Denver
Last 10: 6-4
Injuries: Tony Battie (torn left rotator cuff)
Last meeting: Jan. 25th Magic (93) @ Pistons (101)

With the All-Star weekend in the rear view it’s time to get back to games that mean something.

The last time these two teams met it started to get a little chippy near the end of the game. I suspect Orlando, who hasn’t won at the Palace since ‘04, has grown tired with being pushed around by Detroit and would probably love to end the Pistons 10 game winning streak on the Palace floor. Orlando is one of the better up-and-coming teams in the East and they’re looking for respect.

This is the 4th and final regular season meeting between the two teams with Detroit up 2-1. The Pistons are a 7 point favorite.

The premier match up tonight will be down low where Dwight “Superman” Howard tries to leap the tall building known as fellow All-Star, Rasheed Wallace. In the past three games vs. Orlando Sheed has put on a clinic on how defend the Dunk Throw the Ball into the Hoop Champion Howard. Dwight too will be committed to d-ing up after being called out for his lack of basket bulwark by Coach Van Gundy last week.

The Pistons need to be leary of falling asleep on Hedo Turkoglu who’s having a career year (19.5 ppg / 6.1 rpg / 4.6 apg) and is probably feeling a little salty after being passed over for All-Star squad. The game the Pistons lost to Orlando was in large part to being unable to find Turk off the pick and roll in the 4th quarter.

For a Magic P-O-V check out Third Quarter Collapse.

Although Rip didn’t do so hot in the 3 Point Shoot Out and Team Detroit couldn’t repeat in the Shooting Stars comp, all was not lost if you’re a basketball fan on All-Star Saturday. Dwight Howard, aka Superman, was pure entertainment winning the Dunk contest (which actually should have been his second straight IMO).

• Chris McCosky of the Detroit News rails on Micheal Jordan’s GM futulity and I love it


  Is it safe to say that as a team-builder, MJ was a great, great player? He ruined Washington, in case anybody forgot, and now he’s making a mess in Charlotte.

• The Pistons are #1 in your hearts and now #1 in the rankings, both NBA.com & ESPN.com
• Fight in the NBA West good for the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics. I agree. It’s no secret that the West has more quality contenders than the East. So let them beat each other up in the playoffs, we only have to beat one of them.
• National pub alert: Really good write up by Sports Illustrated on the Pistons winning consistency


  Death, taxes and DEE-troit, BASK-etball. Same old, same old, without getting old to the crowds at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

• Sorry Automotion, Sacramento’s dance team is my new favorite, unless you can top this.

• It’s a rumor that the Bulls were interested in having Larry Brown in the first seat, but they deny it
• When the Pistons play in Milwaukee on Feb. 20th the Bucks will be honoring “The Dobber” Bob Lanier
• LeBron James says the Pistons and the Celtics are the biggest smack talkers in the league.


  Detroit, we all know that they get flying at the mouth sometimes, but they play great basketball.

• Trading deadline is coming up, does Detroit need to make a move?
• Pistons.com does a good write up on “The Microwave” Vinnie Johnson

The Pistons (37-13) will be in Atlanta to take on the Hawks (21-26). The tip will be at 7 pm est from the Philips Arena. The game can be viewed locally on TV20 Detroit.

Hawks’ snapshot
Home record: 15-10
Last game: 2/9 (Sat) - L 89-108 @ Rockets
Last 10: 4-6
Last meeting: 12/14 Hawks (81) @ Pistons (91)

UPDATE! Rip Hamilton missed Tuesday’s morning shoot-around at Philips Arena due to a gastrointestinal illness believed to be food poisoning. Hamilton is in Atlanta, and the Pistons will re-evaluate his condition before today’s game. Krista Jahnke is reporting that if Rip can’t go Arron Afflalo would start in his place, Flip Murray would be activated because Lindsey Hunter is still in MI battling the flu.

This will be the 58th 4th and final meeting between the Hawks and Pistons this season. The Pistons will be looking to sweep the season series from the Hawks tonight for the first time since the 2000-01 season.

The Hawks are coming off a bad 19 point loss to the Houston Rockets. The Hawks gave up 54% shooting to Houston while shooting 32%. The Hawks struggles were highlighted by no Atlanta starter being able to crack double digits and a season low 10 point second quarter.

Look for the Pistons to jump on the Hawks early like the did with Portland and Charlotte. I am personally looking forward to seeing Rodney Stuckey in his first action versus the young and athletic Hawks.

Amir Johnson / Marvin Williams is an intriguing matchup to look for. They’re both young and athletic with similar builds. Williams has the offensive upper hand but we know how Amir gets after it on the defensive end. Should be fun.

• The Hawks currently hold the 7th playoff seed in the East
• Detroit is 17-9 away from the Palace
• The Pistons, going for their 9th straight victory, are a 6 point favorite tonight
• Also see, Hawks rookies victimized by practicle joke:


  “Jermaine O’Neal and I came into the league together,” [Lorenzen]Wright said. “JO told me that when he was in Portland that Gary Trent, Rasheed Wallace and all them jumped him, took all his clothes, locked him out of his room and then trashed his whole room. And I’m talking about flushing sheets down the toilets, soaked all his clothes and everything.”

[box score] It didn’t take long to tell that the Pistons were going to get their eight straight win and improve to 20-4 at the Palace. The Pistons opened up a 20 point lead 27-7, in the first and never took their foot off the throttle.

The Bobcats came out sloppy and the Pistons took full advantage. Their only real bright spot was the play of Saginaw native Jason Richardson who scored a game high 27 points. Richardson had some extra scoring burden with Charlotte being without their leading scorer Gerald Wallace who was out with a foot injury.

The Bobcats porous perimeter defense led to the Pistons attempting 24 three pointers, converting on a season high 12 of them. Many of the attempts came on second shot opportunities with the Pistons all over the board war 46-35.

Tayshaun Prince got the Palace party started by scoring 14 in the first quarter by scoring 14 points which included 4 triples. Prince with a team high 21, (5/6 from beyond the arc) to go along with 6 boards and 3 assists.

Richard Hamilton scored 18, with 5 boards. Chauncey scored 11 and handed out 7 helpers. McDyess was again big on the glass grabbing 12 boards to go with his 8 points. Newly anointed all-star Rasheed Wallace had a modest 8 point but did dish out 5 assists.

It was another big game for the bench seeing extended minutes. Rodney Stuckey (6 asts) repeated his career high scoring with another 13 points game. Also like the game prior, Stuckey hooked up with Amir Johnson (6 pts, 4 rbs) for an ally-oop throw down as they continue work on their chemistry. Jarvis Hayes gave the Pistons 10 points on 50% shooting.

The bench combined for 47 points, 16 boards, and 12 dimes.

Perhaps the only thing that wasn’t impressive about the bench’s play was the Arron Afflalo’s (6 pts) break away dunk which came on the heels of a big time Rodney Stuckey throwdown.

“That was terrible,” Billups said. “First Stuckey goes down and has a driving dunk, dunking over someone. Then he follows it with that.” (Via: Detroit Free Press)

GAME NOTES: The Pistons had 31 team assists…every Piston had a positive +/- stat…Nazr Mohamed had 10 pts and 8 rbs in his first trip back to the Palace…Dave Cowens & Lindsey Hunter both missed the game with the flu

David Stern gives Wallace a “take that” All-Star birth.

AUBURN HILLS — NBA commissioner David Stern has named Rasheed Wallace to the Eastern Conference All-Star team as a replacement for injured starter Kevin Garnett.

It is Wallace’s second All-Star selection as a Piston, and his fourth overall.

Wallace is averaging 12.9 points and 7.3 rebounds this season.

Garnett has been out with a strained abdomen.

The All-Star Game is next Sunday in New Orleans (via: Detroit News)

The Pistons (36-13) will be hosting the Bobcats (18-32). The tip will be at 6 pm est from the Palace of Auburn Hills. The game can be viewed locally on FSN Detroit.

Bobcats snapshot
Road record: 4-17
Last game: 2/8 (Fri) - L 104-90 Vs. Nets
Last 10: 2-8
Last meeting: 1/12 Pistons (103) @ Bobcats (100) -OT

It’s been a rough year for Bob’s Cats. They’ve been without two of their best player, Adam Morrison & Sean May the entire season and have battled the injury bug around every turn. They’re currently on a 5 game skid and have only won 4 road games in 21 tries. But, just like back on Jan. 12th, don’t expect Charlotte to just roll over for the Pistons. Down to eight players, none of which were PG’s, the Cats took the Pistons to their first and only extra session game this year where Detroit escaped with a controversial 3 point victory. This will mark Nazr Mohammed’s first trip back to the Palace since being traded to Charlotte on Dec. 14th. Nazr has been solid for the Bobcats. He’s averaging 10 pts. (51% FG) and 7.5 rbs. in 24 minutes of play. It’ll also be a homecoming game for Flint native Jason Richardson (20 ppg, 5 rbs) who always plays well at the Palace.

The Pistons are looking to extend their league leading winning streak to eight.

If Rip can do this in the comp he might just have a chance.

I’m usually not a fan of the literary stylings of a one Mr. Rob Parker, but some of the things he says in his latest column in the Detroit News are beefs I’ve had about Detroit sports fans for years now.

For whatever reason, fans here will give the Lions the benefit of the doubt any chance they get. They were duped this season after the Lions got off to a 6-2 start.

The Tigers get the royal treatment even though they lost to an inferior Cardinals team in the World Series in 2006 and failed to make the playoffs last season. And the Wings haven’t brought a Cup home since 2002.

It’s time for Detroit fans to recognize that the love of this city’s life is the Pistons and you shouldn’t take them for granted another minute.

There’s a lot of you out there that take the Pistons for granted, not all of us of course, but there are those don’t appreciate or put into proper context what the Pistons have done and continue to do. The Pistons are on a run of greatness the likes we may never see again in our life time. They’re well on their way to a SEVENTH straight season with 50 or more wins, which includes a franchise best 64 wins in 2006. They’ve been Central Division Champs 5 of the last 6 seasons. They’ve been to the Eastern Conference Finals 5 straight years. They’ve been to the NBA Finals twice, winning once in ‘04.

The Bad Boys were great, but even their run can’t boast some of the same accomplishments, and these Pistons are still in the midst of their run.

All this and they always seem to play second fiddle if there’s another hot pro team in the Motor City as any regular listener to sports radio can probably attest to. If the Wings are good, forget about it. This is still Hockey Town no matter what the Pistons do. The Lions can totally ignore the will of their fans and never put any winning product on the field and you’d still think they’re a perennial powerhouse. The Tigers were the worst team in baseball in the 1990’s and they string together two good years and it’s hard for anyone to pay attention to the ‘Stonz come the start of baseball. The worst part about the is that the start of Tiger’s season is congruent to the Pistons title run.

I’d just like to see our fans and city as a whole pay more homage to the Pistons.

ALSO SEE: JOE DUMARS: Pistons president on possible moves at trade deadline, jaded fans

[box score] After the first quarter Chauncey Billups was on pace for a 68 point performance after scoring a Piston’s season high 17.  Fortunately for Mr. Big Shot the 17 points were plenty enough production from their all-star point guard, the “Zoo Crew” took care of the rest combining for 40 points.

The final score read the Pistons winning by 9 but that was merely a push by Portland at the end to make the final score more cosmetic for them.  The Pistons led by 20 + points for most of the night with the lead getting up to as many as 27 at one point in the second half.

No Pistons starter played over 28 minutes, while five guys off the Piston’s bench playing at least 20 minutes.   Most games the Pistons look to see how the bench plays when subbing for the starting unit, but in this game the coaching staff got to see how well the bench can mesh with each other.  The chemistry was very exciting to the Pistons and their fans alike with plays like the Stuckey to Amir ally-oop .

Amir Johnson scored a season high 10 points to go along with 3 blocks and 6 rebounds.  Rodney Stuckey  recorded a new career high 13 points along with 3 rebounds and 4 assists.

GAME NOTES:  The Pistons have now won 7 straight, the longest current streak in the NBA…The Pistons had 26 team assists, they’re now 18-0 when having 25 or more assists…The Pistons take on the Bobcats at the Palace on Sunday.

Team Detroit will defend its Shooting Stars title at this year’s All-Star weekend in New Orleans on Feb. 16.

Pistons All-Star guard Chauncey Billups will be joined by Pistons legend and Shock coach Bill Laimbeer and Shock forward Swin Cash as they defend the title they won at last year’s All-Star weekend.

Team Detroit will face teams from Chicago, Phoenix and San Antonio at this year’s event.

The event can be seen on TNT on Feb. 16 on the same night as the dunk and three-point shooting contests.

The Shooting Stars event consists of the team of three to hit shots from six different locations on the court, the last usually being a half court shot. (via: Detroit Free Press)

I love how into the competition Bill Laimbeer was last year.  Remember Bill talking smack about the Lakers becuase he said he still hates them?  There was also the controversy that gave the Detroit team the win because the Bulls shot out of order.  This year we only have the one traditional rival, Chicago.  They could have gotten someone more hateable than B.J. Armstrong though.  What happened to Pippen, isn’t hard up for money?  Get him back, he’s easy to hate.  Also, could they PLEASE get Lambs a bigger jersey?  Wait, scratch that.  That’s part of his game, because what’s more unnerving than getting beat by a 50 year old Bill Lamibeer??  Getting beat by a 50 year old Bill Laimbeer in a skin tight jersey.  Soak that in!

The Pistons (35-13) will be hosting the Portland Trail Blazers (28-20) tip off from the Palace will be at 8:00 pm est and can be viewed locally on FSN Detroit.

Trail Blazers’ Snapshot
Road record: 8-14
Vs. East: 12-10
Last game: 02/06 (Weds) W 97-100 Vs. Bulls
Last 10: 5-5
Last meeting: Nov 13th Pistons (94) @ Blazers (102)

It was pretty disheartening when the Pistons lost to the young Blazers back in November. After all, they were without their future franchise big man Greg Oden who was sidelined for the season after knee surgery in the preseason. What we came to find out as the season progressed is that losing to the Trail Blazers wasn’t as contemptible upon further review. Portland won 13/15 in December including a league high 13 straight games. That’s because the Blazers are chuck full of good young players. Second year man Brandon Roy was rewarded for his efforts this season by being named as a reserve to the Western All-Star teams by the coaches. You’ve also got a Rasheed Wallace in the makings with the versatile big LeMarcus Aldridge who’s averaging 17 and 7.5 this season. Add that to the talents of Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster, Steve Blake, and Jarrett Jack. Still, Rasheed is not impressed:

“they haven’t done anything. They went on a little win streak, but when they have a better record than when I was there, that’s when they’ll have done something.” (Via: Detroit Free Press)

GAME NOTES:

• Brandon Roy is questionable tonight dealing with a family emergency in his hometown Seattle
• See Blazers Edge for a Portland P-O-V

Rip Hamilton got his wish, he’ll be competing the the NBA’s Foot Locker Three Point Shootout at All-Star Weekend. He’ll also have another forum in which he can try to best high school rival Kobe Bryant who’s also in the star studded field. It’ll be a real test for Hamilton. As teammate Chauncey Billups could probably tell him being a good 3 ball shooter is only half of it, the other big part is endurance. We’ll see if Rip’s arms can match what his legs do in an NBA game.

Kapono will attempt to become the first back-to-back winner of the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout since Peja Stojakovic won the 2002 and 2003 titles. Stojakovic will return to the competition representing the hometown New Orleans Hornets for the first time since finishing as runner-up in the 2004 competition. Stojakovic and Kapono will be joined by Western Conference starter and 10-time All-Star Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, Daniel Gibson of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Richard Hamilton of the Detroit Pistons and two-time MVP Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns. (via: NBA.com)