Deeeeeeeeetroit Basketballllll

Clips from the Detroit News.

AUBURN HILLS -- Pistons coach Larry Brown isn't still mad at Carlos Delfino or Darko Milicic, and he isn't holding any grudges.

But, as he made abundantly clear during his radio show on WDFN 1130 Tuesday, he's tired of their selfish attitude and unless they wise-up, they are probably not going to be part of the Pistons' playoff rotation.

"There have been a lot of situations where I don't think these young kids have come off the bench with a desire to play," he told Mike Stone, host of the "Stoney & Wojo" program.

The topic came up in reference to Brown's benching of Delfino, Milicic and Carlos Arroyo after they gave up seven straight points in just over a minute in Toronto on Sunday.

Milicic and Delfino each played two minutes Wednesday night against the Wizards. Milicic was 0-for-2 and gave up five points to Peter Ramos. Delfino had an assist, rebound and steal.

"Darko is a young kid that just doesn't get it," Brown said. "He wants to play, but he wants to play on his terms. He sees all these other kids from his draft class playing on bad teams and it's tough for him. ... Listen, if he'd have played last year and we lost, he'd been much happier. That's not a bad thing. That's just what we're faced with."

Is this the punchline to the joke, an Argentinian, a Serbian, a Puerto Rican, and an Old Jewish man walk into a basketball arena...? Has there ever been a young Euro with this much audacity? FREE DARKO.

In the last five games, Ben Wallace has averaged 16 points, made 30 of 50 shots (60 percent), 19 of 26 free throws (73 percent) and averaged 13.8 rebounds.

"Everybody has been telling me to shoot," Wallace said. "They tell me that nobody is guarding me and don't be afraid to shoot. If everybody on the team is telling you to shoot, I have to look to make some shots."

Wallace's heat-check came near the end of the first quarter. The Pistons were inbounding the ball with a second left on the shot clock. Chauncey Billups, as a last resort, lobbed the ball to Wallace, who was some 26 feet away from the goal.

Wallace banged it home off the glass.

"Don't let him tell you he called the bank," Lindsey Hunter joked.

"That's what we call hating right there," Wallace fired back.

Actually, Wallace practices crazy three-point shts as a matter of his daily routine.

"He has to make two before we can start practice every day," Billups said.

It was Wallace's first three-pointer this season and fourth of his career.

"There was one second on the clock," he said, laughing, "that was an easy one."

Tell me you wouldn't want to be the Pistons's beat journalist/biographer for a week.