Detroit Pistons

PHILADELPHIA -- The Clippers filled their void in the post Friday, acquiring forward Zach Randolph and guard Mardy Collins from the Knicks for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Golden State Warriors traded disgruntled forward Al Harrington to the New York Knicks for guard Jamal Crawford on Friday.

AUBURN HILLS -- The Pistons talked a lot about trust Friday, a day after they were crushed in Boston, 98-80.

Jamie Samuelsen can be heard on the morning show on WRIF-FM (101.1) and blogs for freep.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. You can reach him at jamsam22@gmail.com and read more of his opinions at freep.com/jamie.

AUBURN HILLS — Pistons forward Walter Herrmann was released from a Boston hospital today after suffering a mild concussion in a game against the Boston Celtics.

The Offbeat is upbeat today. An unlikely basketball victory in New York City proves that no matter how many hits Detroit automakers take in Washington, Michigan isn't ready to give up the fight.

Kwame Brown and Jason Maxiell will be delivering fully prepared Thanksgiving dinners to five less fortunate families in Pontiac

A recap of tonight's game.

A preview of tonight's game.

From Chris McCosky: “Walter Herrmann was back home in Detroit Friday after spending Thursday night in a Boston hospital. He suffered a slight concussion in the fourth quarter and was kept behind as a precaution. He is listed as day to day, but is expected to return to practice Saturday.”

The first time the Pistons faced the Celtics this year, it was Allen Iverson’s second game since the trade and the entire roster looked completely disjointed. For the most part, things have turned around in the five games since, with the exception of the disaster in Phoenix and the first half last night. Can the [...]

Lindsey Hunter is turning heads: “At Hunter’s level of tenure, there are plenty of players in this league who would have wanted no part of being on the floor late in the third quarter of a 30-point game. Not only was Hunter out there, but he set an example for his younger teammates with [...]

Walter Herrmann has been released from a Boston area hospital after suffering a mild concussion Thursday night against the Celtics. Here he describes what happened and how he’s doing today.

So this is why Iverson was so willing to let Rondo get past him: “You need to have that trust, night in and night out. You have to be able to trust that if you get beat, somebody else is going to be there. You have to be able to trust your defensive assignments. If you [...]

Lindsey Hunter in a Chicago Bulls jersey?  Does that look weird considering most of us thought that Lindsey would finish up his career here?  Or with all that gone on recently in Pistons Nation is it just what ever? Hunter’s played 3 games since signing with the Bulls.  He’s averaging 9 minutes a game and not [...]

John Hollinger lists this season's 15 early surprises and Tayshaun Prince is ranked at number five. November 21, ESPN: 5. Tayshaun Prince, Pistons That Prince can play isn't exactly a state secret. But he's never been as aggressive a scorer...

The Holiday spirit is alive and well with Detroit Piston players. Teaming with Orchards Children's Services, Piston players will deliver Thanksgiving dinner to those in need on Monday the 24th. November 21, Pistons.com: Detroit Pistons players Kwame Brown and Jason...

The Pistons beat an undefeated Laker team in Los Angeles on the back end of back-to-back games in California(going 2-0 after beating Golden State and the Lakers). Then the Pistons stopped the Cleveland Cavaliers eight game win streak five days...

Thanks to the folks at Gillette and EA Sports, the guys gave away a free copy of NBA Live '09 for the XBOX 360 on yesterday's Wednesday Night Tip-Off Show.

The question posed to our listeners was, "Instead of a buying a brand new Hummer H2, what would you have done with the $80,000 that LeBron James' mother received when he was a senior at St. Vincent-St. Mary?" The best and most colorful response came by way of Jon from The City of Brotherly Love:

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80K the Bron Bron Way

"With $80,000, LeBron's moms was definitely trying to buy her baby a phat ride. No knocking that. So, your boy needs a car. He's also 6'8" and 240 pounds, so no Fiats. Your manchild needs room. So, here's what I suggest:

Forget the Hummer. Get him a vintage 1957 DeSoto Adventurer! A car Snoop Dogg would be proud of! Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1I4Pp15ato

You've got to go with the white with gold trim! Get some hydraulics in that mother and Bron gets his pimptastic ride for half the cost!

With the other 40 G's, Momma can get a make over. Hair, nails, facial -- the works. Then she buys a fur coat. Cause the mother of the best basketball player needs to look good.

How much does an oxygen chamber cost? With whatever is left, buy a donkey cause you know Bron's back will be killing him from carrying his teams!"

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We'd like to thank Jon and all the other listeners who sent in their responses. Thanks for your support of MVN Live and we hope to hold more contests like so in the future. We'll see you next Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET for the Maui Invitational Preview!

As was evidenced in their recently-snapped eight game winning streak, the Cavaliers finally have a potent offense to match their potent defense this season.

One of the things I was skeptical about at the start of the season was the proposed commitment to a higher tempo game from the Cavaliers. One would think that if a team pushes the ball more on offense, it can only lead to more opportunities for their opponents to score, thus hurting the defense.

In one of Cleveland's early games, an announcer commented that every team says that they are going to run more this season, but after a while every team falls back into their own identity. In accordance with the conventional wisdom, the defensive-minded Cavaliers seem to have followed that trend, now 12 games into the season.

From what I have seen so far, it appears that the tempo advantage for the Cavs is not found in running more, but simply running better.

The addition of Mo Williams has allowed the Cavs to be more effective in the open court by allowing LeBron to run free off of the ball and finish more in transition. Much of these observations can be explained by some of the statistics brought up earlier. With regard to pace factor, the Cavaliers rank 25th in the league with 89.3 possessions per 48 minutes. That is slightly down from last season where they had a pace factor of 90.2.

The more interesting stat is their offensive rating in the 2008-09 campaign through the winning streak. Last year, the Cavs finished the season ranked 20th with 106 points per 100 possessions. This season, however, is a vastly different story as the Cavs - get this - lead the league in offensive rating with an astonishing 113.8 points per 100 possessions. The impact of a full complement plus the addition of Mo Williams has done exactly what was expected and really bolstered this team's offense.

When taking a closer look at the team's offense the conventional wisdom, you could say that the improved shooters have primarily led the Cavaliers' offensive surge. With sharp shooters like Williams, West, Gibson, and Szczerbiak, the Cavaliers surely have their best three-point lineup in the LeBron James era. However, when looking at the percentages, this team is shooting worse than it did during the last two seasons.

At 35 percent, the Cavaliers are not exactly lighting it up from the three-point line. In fact, that percentage puts them at 17th in the NBA. As with everything else referenced to in this article, this is still a young season. But it is definitely a point of interest that a supposed strength of the Cavaliers is, at this point, somewhat of a weakness.

One possible explanation is a propensity for quick or even bad 3's from more confident shooters. In any event, it is an interesting statistic for all of those praising the Cavs new-found three point shooting "prowess".

The real improvement is with regard to the general field goal percentage and the Cavs free throw shooting. Cleveland is off to a torrent start, at least by their standards, from the free throw line. Led by their star LBJ, the Cavaliers are shooting 77.9% from the line, up 6% from last season. As far as field goal percentage is concerned, the Cavs are shooting a hot 47.6%, up a big 4% from last season.

This leaves us to the question of how the defense matches up with both the league and past Cavalier teams.

Last season, the Cavaliers ranked 11th in defensive rating, allowing 106.4 points per 100 possessions. As usual, come playoff time the Cavs were able to lock down on the defensive end and used that to propel them to a game seven against the Celtics. This season, the Cavaliers have managed to give up only 104.9 points per 100 possessions.

In other words, if anything has changed defensively, it's that the Cavs have gotten even better.

The last three games before the loss at Detroit summarize it exactly. When the Cavs needed to step up on the defensive end late in the games against the Nuggets, the Jazz, and the Nets, that is exactly what they did. This is even more reason to be excited about the potential for this years Cavaliers as they now not only can dominate defensively at will, but they can also score it at will.

It appears as if the improved efficiency across the board is key to the Cavaliers increased offensive production from last season. It will be quite interesting to see if Mike Brown is able to get these guys to play his defense alongside their new found offense for 48 minutes. Especially if the shooters begin to knock down their 3's, this team has the potential to remain very dangerous even when they continue to play the better teams in the league.

However, it is certainly very early, and the Cavs have much room for improvement - mainly with the consistency of their new-found offense. This was evidenced throughout the streak and in Wednesday's game against the Pistons. Even so, it is clear that the offense is much improved from a year ago and the rest of the team is certainly no worse for the wear.

The loss to Detroit marked the Cavaliers first opportunity to take the next step this season and win a tough game on the road against a division rival. Instead, Cleveland was given a dose of their own medicine as the Pistons were able to shut the Cavaliers down in the second half, holding them to just 40 points. The Cavs defense was also absent from the second half, allowing the Pistons to rack up 58 points after the break. It seemed as if the Cavaliers were satisfied with the first half and reverted back to their 2007 form, i.e. standing around on offense and watching LeBron and now Mo Williams try to carry the team.

Even with the loss to the Pistons, the Cavaliers still have to be quite pleased with the way this season has started. But they have yet to beat a true contender, with most of their wins coming against lottery teams from a year ago. This is a strong criticism against this team, but the fact of the matter is that the Cavaliers are beating the teams they are supposed to beat. This is important because it is something that they haven't always been the best at. It appears as if the regular season means something to these guys this year, and it clearly shows.

Look for the Cavs to start another winning streak as they travel back home to face the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. After Saturday, the Cavs have a streak of seven games against non-playoff teams from a year ago, four of which are at home. This has all of the makings of another productive stretch of eight games for the Cavaliers.

After the first week of December they could conceivably be sitting pretty with 15 or more wins, a mark they didn't pass last season until after the first of the new year.

I'm feeling a little generous tonight, so I thought I'd dispense a little blogger wisdom to the powers that be in Detroit sports.

You can consider me Detroit's Dear Abby, who's dishing out a little tough love.

William Clay Ford: DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! A vote of confidence, talk to the press, something to let me know you plan on kicking ass and cleaning house when the season ends. 

Martin Mayhew: Yes, you've done well in getting a king's ransom in draft picks for Roy Williams, and I can understand your taking a flier on Daunte Culpepper. But you have the stink of Millen all over you. Your future isn't in Detroit. So please leave.

Rod Marinelli: I'm concerned for your mental welfare. Seriously, stop with the constant allegories, you're scaring me. Just resign, for the sake of everyone's mental health.

Dave Dombrowski: DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! A trade, a free agent signing, something to let me know you're making the Tigers better.

Jim Leyland: I hope you know as things now stand, 3/5 of your infield couldn't hit their way out of a dry, wet or no paper bag. Actually, you don't even have 2/5 of your infield, so how about lighting a fire under your boss' ass?

Rich Rodriguez: Don't you DARE tell the Wolverine fanbase how to think! This is your mess (with a little help from Lloyd Carr leaving the proverbial cupboard barren). Clean it up, and don't start pointing fingers at the fans for caring too much. It's so NOT Michigan.

Mark Dantonio: When you refuse to admit you need to root for Michigan to beat the University of Oho State, you are only confirming the belief MSU has an unhealthy obsession with all things Michigan Wolverines. You want the "little brother" stigma to go away? Stop acting like one.

Mike Babcock: Just keep doing what you're doing. Well, I do have one suggestion. Play Ty Conklin more.

Ken Holland: Tell Uncle Mike to play Conklin. Otherwise, we're cool.

Michael Curry: There's one simple recipe to making it through the regular season. Less starters, more bench. You do NOT need to be playing the starters 35+ minutes in November.

Joe Dumars: I think you have a plan. I hope you have a plan. At least something more than, "I sure hope we can sign one of the big time free agents in '09 and/or '10."

Drew Sharp and Rob Parker: STOP! Just stop it! I've had enough of the BS being spewed from your keyboards. Nothing you could write from here on out will ever convince me you are anything more than hacks. Your time has passed, make way for bloggers.