• Ben Wallace, the 3rd best defender of the decade.
• Bill Laimbeer is surprised he likes his new boss, and so am I quite frankly.
• Malice at the Palace no more – Ron Artest and John Green are the best of friends.
• Tom Wilson on how the Pistons organization has changed with the passing of Bill Davidson and the new roster changes.
• The Pistons will have three point guards when camp starts.
• New “D” in town?
• Vintage Pistons editorial Cartoons.
• Former Piston Alex Acker back in the Euroleague.
• The Pistons FINALLY make it to #1 on a list….and I am sure you will agree with this one.
• Love/Hate for Sheed over at Celtics Blog.
• Pistons Recharged – Finally something to watch on Television  it will run on  FoxSports Detroit -  Fri. Sept. 4 – 6:30 PM; Sat. Sept. 5 – 9:30 AM & 5:30 PM; Sun. Sept. 6 – 9:00 AM
• 90% of Pistons fans loath Michael Jordan and with the all MJ all the time coverage he’s (deservedly) getting these Jordan failures are sure to amuse.
• Pretty awesome idea – Drew Cieszynski decided he was going to go on Tour…with the NBA during the 2007-08 season. Not surprised that the Pistons treated him like Royalty and his stop at the Palace made the top of the list.  Also not surprised the the Celtics did not.   If that’s not enough..he’s going Big Ten. Good luck Drew.
• DaJuan Summers (@dsummers35) judging American Idol The Pistons National Anthem Auditions. (Video)
• The lessons of Coach Daly will live on.
• Saddened by the news that Ernie Harwell has incurable cancer. My prayers go out to his family.
• NBA Twitter guidelines.

Lastly…I had an unbelievable once in a lifetime experience (for me). Something I have been waiting to happen for about 23 years. If you Follow me on Twitter you would know what it was.  More on that later, but in the meantime FOLLOW me and Retweet this for another prize (you must follow me to find out what it is) I will be giving away next week.

Message to ReTweet (you can copy and paste):

If you are a Pistons fan you must Follow @need4sheed_com – Repping the “D” regardless of Sheed! #Need4Sheed #Sheedburgler

You know I always catch something when it has to do with Sheed, so when this popped up in the Detroit Free Press this morning it had me asking this question.

Why Does Brian Scalabrine think he’s good at Basketball?

“I’m loving Rasheed Wallace,” Celtics small forward Brian Scalabrine said last week

“I’m incredibly psyched,” Scalabrine said. “Winning championships is something I want to continue to do.” Via The Detroit Free Press

Really Brian? Really?

Not only did he contribute less than nothing to the Celtics Championship run but he looks awful in green and the dude has no sock on…come on.

Maybe it’s the same reason Robert Swift thinks he hardcore.

Put it this way Pistons fans…it’s like saying Darko Milicic saying the same thing.

Via Yahoo Sports.

“Boston did offer Davis and guards J.R. Giddens and Gabe Pruit to the Pistons for forward Jason Maxiell and a first-round pick, but was quickly turned down.”

Now this doesn’t say what year that 1st rounder would come from but maybe that was and issue as well as the signing of Wilcox to fill Detroit’s need in the front court.

I know I don’t have to ask, but how many of you would have like to see this one go down?

From ESPN’s Mark Stein

“It’s believed that the Pistons, as of Thursday, have Rasho Nesterovic and Chris Wilcox ahead of Drew Gooden as their next free-agent targets, since it appears that they can’t assemble an offer sheet rich enough for Glen Davis to keep the Boston Celtics from matching.”

My thoughts..they are Centers, a position Detroit desperately needs to fill.

Though Sheed is gone, I still get a kick out of the video I made of Sheed vs. Stewie.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

We have to keep ourselves busy with something while Joe D is working on what this team is going to look like.

Thanks go out to Need4Sheed reader Dominic Mirabella who made my day with his post on my Facebook page.

Dominic Mirabella: “Funny story… this was the tagline of my buddy’s Facebook status at 9 AM this morning. Thought your follower’s would get a kick out of it”

Steve Schaefer:

“…just ate breakfast at a coney island with 2 police officers, 3 regulars, and Rasheed Wallace…now that’s a morning crew. Rasheed was whistling to “Everybody Wang Chung Tonight” on the radio…unreal.”

And that’s what we will miss….SHEEDTastic!

This had to be done…

And don’t think I won’t be sporting this T-Shirt the first time Boston comes into the Palace.

You can get one HERE.

And as a Bonus!!!! I’m going to give one of these away. All you have to do to win is Follow me on Twitter and Tweet this exact phrase (you can copy and paste it).

No Need4Sheed in the D T-Shirt #need4sheed @Need4Sheed_com Reppin the D Regardless of Sheed

I will be picking the winner next week, so get to tweeting!

UPDATE I announced the Winner via Twitter…and Ryan’s T-Shirt is on the way.

Calling all Pistons fans, (and Need4Sheed fans for that matter) I will be Live on air from 9 P.M EST to about 10 with Celtics Blog RedsArmy on their BlogTalkRadio Call in Show The Two Man Game.

Don’t think I’m switching sides, I will be there to talk Sheed and REP the D!

Tune in and call in, I may need you to get my back.

When they asked me to be on the show I told them I am who I am and that I would bitch slap Robert Parish to get my point across if I had to.  And if they even mention Scalabrine I’m hanging up without notice.

It should be SHEEDtastic!

Danny Ainge weighs in about the Celtics-Pistons trade rumor.

Via Boston.com

“When asked about the rumor this morning during a press conference at the team’s facility in Waltham, Ainge did not offer a denial of the specific report, but strongly indicated he does not expect to deal Rondo, the remarkably talented but erratic 23-year-old point guard.

“We love Rajon and I’m not going to comment on which rumors are true or not true,” said Ainge, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations. “We love this kid and I don’t anticipate trading anyone from our core.”

“If you look at a trade rumor and if you think it makes us a better team and helps us to win a championship this year, that’s the first criteria that any trade rumor has to pass — that it has to help us win the championship this year,” he said.

As Wojnarowski noted in the Yahoo report, it is not unusual for a GM to have someone else in the front office float a trade on his behalf, just to provide some level of deniability if a rumor becomes public. To a degree, that’s the approach Ainge took today.

“We’re certainly not doing anything this year to get a draft pick that’s a developmental project that is going to prevent us winning a championship this year,” Ainge said. “I’ve had many conversations. But a rumor that said lower-level executives are talking about a trade rumor pretty much means it doesn’t really have any merit or any value, if it’s not being discussed at the top.“

An almost laughable deal was said to be offered to Detroit from Boston that would have sent Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen for Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey.

From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:

“The Boston Celtics appear willing to make major roster changes to balance a chance for a championship run and future financial flexibility.

The Celtics offered Ray Allen(notes) and Rajon Rondo(notes) to the Detroit Pistons for a package that included Richard Hamilton(notes), Tayshaun Prince(notes) and Rodney Stuckey(notes), league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Boston general manager Danny Ainge and Detroit’s Joe Dumars never spoke, but rather the Celtics had a lower-level executive make the pitch to a Pistons official over the past weekend, league sources said. Detroit immediately rejected the idea, and it never advanced to the two top executives speaking about particulars.”

This one makes absolutely no sense for Detroit, why would the Pistons trade away their best three players (and bargaining chips) for an again Allen (with an expiring contract) and Rajon Rondo. I can almost hear Dumars laughing now.

Update: PistonsNation points us toward Kelly Dwyer’s post over at Yahoo that maybe Dumars should reconsider.

The Pistons host the Bulls tonight in a battle for playoff position. Chicago comes into the Palace tonight on a four game winning streak a game ahead of Detroit for the 7th seed in the playoff race.

Pistons.com

“Simply put, a win Monday would give the Pistons a leg up on Bulls, whether they’re settling matters for the sixth or seventh seed, provided each team takes care of business in its regular-season finale. A Pistons victory sets up an interesting rundown through the playoff tiebreakers. First, it ties them at 40-41 overall, and win at The Palace would also knot the season series at 2-2, with the home team winning each time. That takes you to the No. 3 tiebreaker – higher winning percentage within the division – but a Pistons victory would give them identical 8-8 records in the Central. The fourth tiebreaker is higher winning percentage in conference games, and that would go to the Pistons, who currently have 26 wins in the East to Chicago’s 23. Keep in mind the sliding Sixers, whose ongoing five-game skid has dropped them to 40-40, could muddle up the mix as well.”

A lot of things to consider with just two games to go in the season.

At this point it’s most likely the Boston or Cleveland in the first round (but Orlando is still a possibility), and it seems plenty of you are ok with facing the Cavs.  Me, not so much, so I thought I would put this one to a vote (taking the Magic out of the vote for obvious reasons).

Tip off is at 7:30 PM and will be locally broadcast of FSN Detroit and on NBA.TV Nationally. If you can’t catch the game on television, you can listen live on WDFN 1130 AM or follow the game online at NBA.com.

This one is important, leave them in the comments or feel free to chat live during the game.

Things have really changed around here when we are celebrating a two game winning streak. The Pistons closed out their tough five game road trip with a solid win in Boston against the World Champion Celtics. The Celtics were without Kevin Garnett, but Detroit’s 105-95 road victory was impressive regardless of the former league’s MVP absence (2004). Remember, the Pistons were without their former MVP Allen Iverson (2001).

Key Points:

• Detroit started the game off strong and went on plenty of runs throughout the game.  What changed in this game was Detroit didn’t let the runs that Boston went on get out of hand.
• Remember when we used the word poised when describing the way Detroit played? Well this is the first I’ve seen of it all season long.
• Detroit had lost five straight regular season games to the Celtics and 9-of-11 including a six-game Eastern Conference final.
• Detroit is back to playing .500 ball and has the same record as the Sixers. They are currently holding on to the 7th playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Get this….16.5 games back of Cleveland.
• Detroit played a solid 48 minutes.
• Rip Hamilton once again led this team to victory with 25 points, an assist away from a double-double. He added six boards in 39 minutes, while shooting 50% from the floor and went 11-for-12 from the line.  Is he trying to emphasize the fact that he should have never lost his starting job?  If he is, and this is the outcome we get…..keep it up Rip.

Photo/Getty Images

• Rip Hamilton’s post game comments. (video)
• “We played our type of basketball,” Hamilton said. “That’s the thing for me with Tayshaun, Rasheed (Wallace) and (Antonio) McDyess, I always know they’re going to be at all times.” Via NBA.com
• Thank you NBA Referees, we bitch when you’re wrong (like when you missed Rip getting mauled at the end of the game) so it’s only right when we thank you for your fine work. That’s just how we roll in Detroit.  Detroit made a season-high 34 free throws, in 40 attempts.
• Sheed 15 points, 6 boards, 2 blocked shots and a steal. Solid defensive game for Sheed. I still wonder if he thinks he can make some of the crazy threes he jacks up.  Maybe it should be Jack ….instead of Roscoe?
  
• Outrebounded 35-31.
  
• Iverson still questionable for Tuesday’s game against Denver.
• Tayshaun Prince again asserted himself in a big game.  Prince scored 15 with 8 boards, 3 assists and 3 steals. How about the kind bounce on the three in the third quarter…nice.
  

Photo/Getty Images

• NBA.com Pistons vs Celtics Video Recap.
• God love Hubie Brown and his pronunciations.
• Pistons led at the half 55-47 and didn’t give the lead up at all until Boston went on a run. Boston led 85-81 when Rasheed hit a tree pointer with 7:04 left to start a 13-4 run that left the Pistons ahead 94-89. They never looked back.
• Maxiell making clutch free throws with under three minutes left in the game.
  
• Rodney Stuckey held his own Sunday afternoon with 10 points, 5 assists, 3 boards, a rebound and just one turnover.
• Will Bynum made a bigger splash and is making a case for more playing time with 9 points, 2 assists, and 3 steals in just 12 minutes.  The takeaway from Marbury that lead to a layup was a thing of beauty, not to mention hard work.
• I will never understand the head tattoo.
• How about Detroit’s determination to come back and regain the lead in the fourth quarter and close the game out?
• 40 points in the paint for Boston to 18 for Detroit.
• Can we just say all hail to The Mighty THOR!  Walter Herrmann was a huge boost for Detroit making 4 of his 5 shots for 11 quick points for Detroit.

Original Thor Drawing/Marvel Comics

• Say what you will, but that inbound pass he tried at the end of the half still has me laughing.  Remember MIGHTY THOR!

• 15 lead changes and this one was tied 20 times.
• Defense…the Pistons had 8 steals  and 3 blocked shots
• 15th technical foul for Rasheed Wallace.
• Stat line of the night, just 6 turnovers for Detroit.
• Look I’m usually not one to bash other teams or their fans, (except Varejoke) but I think Celtics fans have it coming. I can’t tell you how many vile comments I deleted all day by the classy people of Boston. So when I saw this picture of Glen “Big Baby” with that look on his face I found it quite amusing that even the fans reacted with the cry big baby dramatics.

Photo/Getty Images

• Antonio McDyess 10 points, 5 boards and a blocked shot while Jason Maxiell had 8 points in 17 minutes.
• For the second game in a row the ball movement was flowing and the team looked in sync. Be careful to judge these two games as “the Pistons are back,” in fact it may be more difficult once Allen Iverson is back from injury and the rotation issues become prevalent. The problems haven’t disappeared just because of a big win. If the egos can handle what’s going on and they commit to playing the way they did the last two games then they just may have a chance to become respectable again.
• 30 Bench points for Detroit.
• “You can tell they’re playing the system they played before Iverson got there,” said Celtics forward Paul Pierce, who scored 26. “When Iverson is out there they’re still trying to figure out how to use each other, how to all be successful. But that group that’s out there is definitely comfortable because they’ve played together for years.’‘ Via NBA.com
• I’m loving the Blind Date comparison in the comments of the game thread. Feel free to keep them coming.