BlueMonk

Brashear gets one game for that crap he pulls, but Orr gets five games for doing nothing more than responding to it. And I guess sucker punches are in fashion again. The league has no problem with an idiot coach (Hanlon) sending a tough guy out to rough up a star European player and cheap shotting a guy for something he said, but they crack down hard on the other team for responding to that. The sense of justice in this league is beyond me.

This is great. Listen with the sound on, and make sure to watch all the way to the end of the clip.

A win for Parros against an overmatched McCarty who really doesn't ever get set in the fight. They nod to each other at the end, you get the feeling D-Mac is just fighting for the sake of the team at this point. He used to be a fiery scrapper out there, but it's been a long time since I've seen any of that from him.

Did you guys see Atlanta-Washington last night? Whoa! Old time hockey. Something like 5 fights in the last couple minutes of the game.

The quality isn't too bad, but YouTube is changing everything when it comes to finding videos online.

I'm registered over there, but I thought it would cool to discuss the fights here as well. Yep. Not only that, but he always gave the young, up and coming fighters a shot at the title. Not many of the new guys are willing to do that. They prefer to cherry pick who they fight and when.

The NBA playoffs have been amazing so far. So many crazy finishes, lots of drama. The physical play (several flagrant fouls), the crazy Chris Kaman/Reggie Evans ******** pulling incident (as bizarre as it gets), the Lakers, a possible all-Los Angeles second round matchup, the Bulls taking it to the Heat, the Kings taking it to the Spurs. Amazing stuff so far. Kobe's shots at the end of regulation and OT in game 4 were insane. Wow.

64 wins, amazing to me. I thought this team was going to win 50-55 games again this year and wait until the playoffs to go nuts. They went nuts from opening day on, though! If the Pistons make it to the Finals, it's going to be really hard to beat them with home court advantage in the 2-3-2 format.

I have my doubts that Cato will play, but we'll see. Delk is really something. What I like best is his ability and willingness to go to the basket. He can get dribble drive penetration and not need to kick it out, he looks to get his points in the paint. And he's strong defensively. Him and Lindsey Hunter are causing problems with the full court press. They forced a couple of backcourt violations against Miami the other night. Ever notice how strong all the Pistons reserves are? Look at McDyess, Delk, Maurice Evans and Dale Davis. Those guys are carrying some serious muscle mass. Hunter and Delfino aren't that big, but they're both pretty tough and neither one is exactly small.

I read that Davis will be starting because they don't want to mess with McDyess's rhythm coming off the bench. Pistons have 9 games left. If they go 7-2, they get home court throughout the playoffs no matter what San Antonio does. That will be tough to do (go 7-2) because they face some good teams, but if the Spurs lose any games, the Pistons can do worse than that. Basically, the magic number for the Pistons to get home court advantage is 7.

Pistons and Spurs both have 7 home and 4 road games remaining. Detroit is 2 games up on the Spurs, but the Spurs would need to gain 3 games on Detroit and finish with a better record to secure home court advantage throughout the playoffs, because Detroit owns the tiebreaker with a 2-0 series win between the teams.

Pistons really flipped the switch tonight when Jerome Bettis and all the celebrities showed up at the game. Ben Wallace managed to be a huge force without scoring a single point. What an effort out there by Big Ben (the REAL Big Ben, not the impostor sitting in the stands wearing a #7 Pittsburgh jersey)

Vokoun is the best goalie I've seen this year. He's been playing like this pretty much all season. The Wings didn't play their best game, but he was still in great form.

I sure hope the Steelers win. I love the way that team is built. Mostly, the idea of having a homecoming for Bettis on what could be the last game of his career. And Foote is from Detroit, too. Be nice to have some good PR and human interest stories about our city during all the media coverage. But the Steelers play the kind of football I like. Smashmouth, run the ball down your throat, tough defense football.

I'm not a big fan either, but 81 points is ridiculous. And Lakers needed almost every one of them, too. They were trailing the Raptors by something like 18 points in the 3rd quarter when Bryant went off. Very impressive.

John Hollinger, the alternative stat guy for ESPN, was very critical of Detroit's bench last year. Today, he wrote a blurb on ESPN about how well the Pistons' bench has been playing of late. He pointed out that they're not just playing well in blowouts, but often (like last night) they're the reason the Pistons are blowing other teams out. I thought Hollinger was excessively critical of the Pistons bench last year (although he admitted they were playing well during their playoff run), but to see even him changing his tune is a good indicator of how sound the bench is. There are better benches in the NBA, but this one is good enough to have all the Pistons starters playing fewer minutes than they did last year. That's the main thing.

I read the article. It's pretty funny. Legler, and ESPN in general, just can't get their hands around the Pistons being successful. The Heat win and it's all about, "Shaq is unstoppable! The majesty of Wade cannot be denied!" The Pistons win and it's, "Hmm... can they stay healthy?" I'm used to it by now. That won't change, ever.

Because they were completely worn out by the time they faced the Spurs. They had to endure the brawl, the Larry Brown sagas - including his health problems and the reports of him coaching other teams and the fact that they had to play all out defense almost all the time for 82 games plus the playoffs. They had to do that because they couldn't score points the way they can now. And Brown wouldn't use the bench, so the starters all played too many minutes. This Pistons team is pacing itself. They get outrebounded, outscored in the paint and rely on mostly jump shots in every game, but still win. They don't play that tough inside most games, but still win. Because they're getting easy baskets, they can get away with that and save the wear and tear. But look at what happens in games they take seriously: They still can play amazing defense, dominate the glass and get to the basket. But they know they can't play every game like that, so they take the easy buckets most nights and save themselves. This year, their biggest problem will be making sure they're all healthy to start the playoffs. Injuries are the concern, like they are for any team. Other than that, they're in good position to beat any team come playoff time.

Has an official announcement been made about a suspension? The Pistons are going to need a backup point guard tomorrow night at San Antonio!

What I meant was, the offensive and defensive ratings change when you factor in pace. The team that scores the most points per game is not necessarily playing the best offense, as these stats reveal. Detroit is the 2nd slowest paced team in the NBA right now. That's about where they were last year. They don't want to change that.

I've been following the efficiency stats for offense and defense, and it's been like that all season. Detroit has the highest offensive efficiency of any team in the NBA. The defense has been middle of the pack. Phoenix, meanwhile, has the 2nd best defensive efficiency in the league! Funny how things change when you factor in pace.

I just answered my own question: Yes, it's the same people on both FSN broadcasts! If you look at the local pages for FSN Northwest and FSN Detroit, some of the same talking heads are featured on both. Wow! I had no idea. That's ridiculously lame.

Whoa. Are you guys saying that the crew in the FSN Detroit studio are not actually local? Angie Mentink (sp?) and that blonde haired guy?

I have a feeling the Heat might take this game tomorrow night. They desperately need to get it together after a disappointing start, and they can make a big statement with a win at The Palace. The Pistons, meanwhile, could possibly be taking the game lightly. That sounds ridiculous, as highly touted as the Heat have been, but I think they really put a lot more stock in that Spurs game then they're going to put into this Heat game.