Larry Ness
League: NBA
Event: Nets vs Pistons on 04/10/2009 at 5:05PM
Condition: Detroit Pistons
Grade: Ungraded
Promotion: The Pistons have fought their way into the Eastern Conference finals for six straight seasons. This year, they may have to satisfy themselves with the modest goal of just making the Eastern Conference playoff field! The early season trade of Billups for Iverson never worked out, as the Pistons, who were a collective 334-158 (.679) the past six regular seasons, enter tonight's game 38-40. That leaves them a half-game behind the 39-40 Bulls for the seventh playoff seed in the East. However, the good news for Detroit fans (I'm assuming there are Detroit fans!), is that the Pistons lead ninth-place Charlotte by three games with just four to play. The Pistons secured the head-to-head tiebreaker in the season series by beating the Bobcats 104-97 on Sunday, meaning a win Friday or a loss by Charlotte at Oklahoma City will earn Detroit a postseason spot. I like Detroit's chances of "taking care of business" themselves, tonight. They draw the perfect foil in the New Jersey Nets. The Nets, who once upon a time went to back-to-back NBA Finals (2002 and 2003), will now miss the postseason for the second consecutive season. The trio of Kidd, Martin and Van Horn led them to the 2002 Finals, with Jefferson taking Van Horn's place in 2003. Martin then left via free agency and Carter joined Kidd and Jefferson to regularly help the Nets into the postseason but the team never went very far. Now, if one could call it that, the team's "Big Three" consists of Harris (21.8-7.0 APG), Carter (20.9-5.2-4.6) and rookie center Brook Lopez (13.0-7.9). Harris is an All Star and Lopez has been terrific in his first year (with a very mediocre team), while Carter is probably playing his last few games in a Nets uniform. The Nets have lost NINE of their last 10 road games and going back to a Dec 31 loss in Detroit, have lost 20 of their last 25 road contests! Detroit's starting-five these days is Hamilton (18.2-3.1-4.4) and Stuckey (13.4-3.5-4.8) in the backcourt plus a frontcourt of McDyess (9.5-9.8) at center, surrounded by forwards Prince (14.3-5.9) and Wallace (12.3-7.6). All five scored in double digits in Detroit's 113-86 win at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, with Hamilton leading the way with 22 with Wallace (14-12) and McDyess (13-16) both contributing double-doubles. The Nets have NOTHING to play for and are coming off a tough two-point loss at Boston on Wednesday, where Carter had 33 points and 12 rebounds. However, Carter hasn't been much of a factor in three games against the Pistons this season, averaging 11.3 PPG and 4.3 RPG. Detroit surely wants to clinch this final playoff spot and wouldn't mind passing Chicago, which means the Pistons would avoid LeBron and the Cavs in the first round. Detroit will well-remember their April Fool's embarrassment at New Jersey, in which the Nets won 111-98, with six Nets scoring in double digits including Dooling (23), rookie Ryan Anderson (14) and Josh Boone (10). Turnabout is fair play and expect the Pistons to clinch their playoff berth tonight, with plenty of room to spare.

Eastern Conference GOY 20* Pistons.