Could another deal be brewing? Probably not, looks like Joe is trying to avoid the luxury tax.

“The Detroit Pistons will trade seldom-used guard Alex Acker to the Los Angeles Clippers for an exchange of future draft picks, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the trade hasn’t been announced.

The Pistons might stand pat before Thursday’s trading deadline, instead of trading Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace, despite its struggles this season.

If Detroit doesn’t make another trade, it will clear about $23 million in salary-cap space to make major moves this summer and in 2010 when a slew of marquee free agents will be available.” Via SI.com

On another note, I know one NBA Coach that’s gone, could there be a change we can believe in?

The Pistons finally won a game on Sunday as they squeaked out a W against a severely depleted Los Angeles Clippers team at The Staples Center. It took an Allen Iverson fingerroll goaltending call with 2.8 seconds left on the clock to seal the 88-87 victory for Detroit.

Key Points:

• Detroit is on its largest win streak of the season at 7, currently the longest active streak in the NBA.
• The Clippers haven’t beaten Detroit since Nov. 3, 2002 at Los Angeles.
• Allen Iverson put up a double-double with 18 points and 10 assists. He was having a hard time hitting all game long going just 7-for-22 but it was his clutch jumpshot with 1:20 and his fingeroll with 2.8 seconds left that won the game for Detroit.
• Like the trade or not, AI has been the Pistons “Big Shot” of late.

Photo/Getty Images

• Another game without Rip and Sheed but McDyess stepped up even when he was hurting. It doesn’t compare to a Clippers team that was without Baron Davis, Zach Randolph, Ricky Davis (suspension), Taylor, Hart and Fred Jones who was hurt after the first two minutes of the game.
• Dyess, unsung hero with 15 boards, a steal and 6 points. The man has heart.
• Rookie Eric Gordon played a heck of a game for the Clippers with a career high 31 points in 44 minutes. They trusted him enough to take the possible game winner when LA had just 0.4 on the clock. Interesting note, the Clippers are so high on the rookie that they assign him the opposing team’s best player to defend. That player wasn’t AI for Detroit….Gordon was assigned Rodney Stuckey.
• The Pistons finally won the war of the boards 47-40. Half of the Clippers boards were courtesy of Marcus Camby (20).
• Tayshaun had another big game with 20 points, 7 boards, 2 assists and 3 blocked shots. He had some key baskets late in the game to help the Pistons win the game. But nothing was better than the play of the game.

Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and FSN Detroit

• This game was close, it was tied 28 times with 42 lead changes.
• Aaron Afflalo wasn’t feeling well but still managed to put up 10 points against his hometown crowd.
• Just what we need from Kwame Brown, 11 boards in 18 minutes and 2 points.
• To all the Pistons fans in the house, we could hear you loud and clear. The Pistons have a huge fan base in California so I’m glad they have taken both games in LA for our Pistons fans on the left coast.
• “Detroit scored eight straight points to take a 78-70 lead with 7:04 to play. The Clippers tied it at 80 with two free throws and a short jumper by Gordon that capped a 10-2 spurt with 2:56 remaining. But the Prince spun around Mardy Collins for a dunk and Iverson hit a 20-footer from the key 32 seconds later, giving Detroit an 86-82 edge with 1:20 left.” Via NBA.com

Video Courtesy of The NBA, The Detroit Pistons and FSN Detroit

• FSN Highlights of the game complete with the Tayshuan Dunks and AI’s clutch plays.
• Can we finally put to rest the argument about Amir Johnson? I, along with plenty of you, have been criticized for being on his bandwagon. Hasn’t he proved his value to this team by now? He’s out there changing games with everything he does on the court. He may not always fill up the stat sheet, but his contributions can’t be denied.
• Amir unfortunately got into a bit of foul trouble and ultimately fouled out of the game. His 6 boards, 4 points, blocked shot and a steal in 23 minutes didn’t tell the whole story when he was on the floor. Did you see his putback jam that had the crowd breathless? It’s ok to watch it more than once.
• If you haven’t jumped on the Stuckey bandwagon yet think about this… Detroit is 13-3 since inserting Stuckey into the starting lineup.
• Rodney Stuckey led the Pistons with 24 on 10-for-24 shooting with 6 assists and 2 steals. He’s playing out of his mind just when Detroit needs him most. I know that Pistons fans have been watching him, but he’s getting noticed by the whole league. He’s being picked up in all the fantasy leagues and he’s the chatter all over the internet. They are even talking about him down under.

Photo/Getty Images

• Rodney Stuckey Highlights.
• The Pistons held the Clippers to 12 third quarter points.
• 40 points in the paint for the Clippers and the Pistons.
• Just 16 minutes for Maxiell who scored 4 with a blocked shot and a rebound.
• Herrmann just isn’t hitting his shots when he gets on the floor and Curry is pulling him quickly. He was 0-for-2 in six minutes.
• The Pistons shot just 39% on the night.
• It’s starting to click.
• Wallace should be ready to play Wednesday in Portland. The Pistons are being more cautious with Hamilton. Hamilton hasn’t tried to sprint or make a hard cut yet. Via The Detroit News
• Dana Guarudner of the Oakland Press is also jumping on the Rip to the Bench Bandwagon.
• Aaron Larson Need4Sheed reader who was at the game in LA had a little tidbit for us. “I watched Sheed during a timeout take a piece of gum off the scorers table, roll up the wrapper and place it in an assistant coaches suit breast pocket secretly…he noticed it, grabbed it and placed it in his EAR…AND LEFT IT THERE ALL GAME. LOL always a joker that Rasheed!”

Aaron and Joe!

Count That Baby and A Foul, Aaron and Mr. Blaha


• Justin Shaw was there too, and he had some pretty sweet seats. “Good to see our bench players pull off a win on the road / Here are some pics from the game, 2 of them are the refs talking to the kids whose drinks Iverson slipped on and hurt his side when he landed on a water bottle / The fans were pretty cool, better than Laker fans for sure cause they know about being a fan for a a team that has struggled / If you watch the video you can see the backs of me and my friend jumping up when Prince takes that one to the rack for the dunk”




• As always I welcome comments, but I would especially love to hear from those of you that attended the game.
• For those of you who downloaded my January Game Schedule Wallpaper the 1st day I had it up, I neglected to put the game against the Hornets on the 17th on. I have since fixed it so check your wallpaper and download again if needed. Sorry about that.

Detroit starts their four game West Coast trip Sunday afternoon in LA against the 8-24 Clippers. The good news – the Clippers, who are just 3-13 at home, are on a six game losing streak, and are a perfect 0-9 against the Eastern Conference this season. The bad news – it’s Sunday! Detroit has yet to win a Sunday game this season.

Don’t fear Pistons fan, Curry says the Sunday jinx is nonsense.

“We talked about that when we did it. We’re past that now,” Curry said Friday. “The losses on Sundays, what happened is some games we should have won, (but) the way we played on Sundays we didn’t take care of it.”

“Then you start playing some really tough teams that would be hard to beat on any day,” Curry said. “The Hawks right now are tough to beat any day at home. But it happened to be another early Sunday game.

“So the reality is I think we’re playing better in that situation and we’re coming out pretty focused on what we’ve got to do to be a good team. That’s where it lies regardless of who we’re playing. We’re looking at how we need to come out and play.” Via The Detroit Free Press

The Pistons will again be without Rip Hamilton (groin) and Rasheed Wallace (foot). Antonio McDyess is still a game day decision with sore ribs.

Meanwhile, Walter Sharpe hit a late game three for the Mad Ants to break a deadlock with 27 seconds left in the game.

Tip off is at 3:30 P.M. and will be locally broadcast on FSN . If you can’t watch the broadcast, tune into 1130 AM The Fan. Can’t do either, follow the game on NBA.com.

You can bet the Pistons will be well represented today in LA. I know plenty of team N4S members that will be at Staples cheering our boys on.

Leave them in the Comments or Chat Live.