A report from the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Pistons faced the Magic on Dec. 29. Integrating Allen Iverson into Detroit's offense is an ongoing process that hasn't been easy, and Michael Curry isn't done trying new things. Earlier this month he seemed to settle on a "smallball" lineup featuring three guards and Tayshaun Prince playing out of position at power forward, but that's left the Pistons exposed on the defensive end.
More recently, injuries to both Iverson (who missed the second half on Dec. 23) and Rip Hamilton (who's sat out the last two games completely) have forced the team back to a more traditional lineup, and considering the Pistons have responded with four straight wins, including Monday night against the Magic, Curry seems ready to explore moving one of his established perimeter players to the bench.
"The big lineup makes us better defensively," Curry said. "And at the end of the day, we're going to have to make sure we're good enough defensively."
With
When you're winning, you can rack up technicals at a record pace and no one will complain (see: Celtics, Boston). But when you're hovering around .500? All of a sudden it seems kind of silly to be giving the other team extra free throws. Ladies and gentleman, your 2008-09 Detroit Pistons!
Trash talk is part of the game, right?
After
On Friday, the Pistons let the 76ers score 38 points in the fourth quarter, losing the game after leading by as many as 15 points late in the third. On Sunday, the Pistons never had a lead to squander as they let the Knicks score the first 10 points of the game, trailing by as many as 29 in the first half before ultimately losing by 12.
If he didn't know it before, 
Obviously the Lakers were going to lose a game at some point this season, it was just a matter of how soon. In a 

