Assessing Detroit-Indiana

Watching the Detroit-Indiana series, I'm noticing the following:

• Tayshaun Prince, who plays so very will for the slow-it-down Pistons, gets out on the break and finishes the alley-oop as well as anyone. He's fast and long and ready to throw it down. I promise you that he sometimes fantasizes about playing with Phoenix or Dallas or some other fast-breaking team that would let him score 25 a night.

• Fred Jones is on the list of players I'd like to have on my team. Those guys with long arms, quick legs, and and sharp minds are all winners (see the aforementioned Tayshaun Prince). There was a play in the third quarter just now when two players and the ball were all floating out of bounds together. Jones had the reach and the brain to snare the ball, chuck it off a Piston into the crowd. Pacer ball.

• Steve Kerr pointed out that earlier this season the Pistons won a game without scoring a basket in the entire fourth quarter. That's some sweet D.

• Seeing Dale Davis back in Pacer yellow, it's almost like the bad dream of Portland and Golden State never happened. I bet that throwback idea is selling at least 20o tickets a game to Pacer games. People love those lunch-pail guys.

• Jamaal Tinsley is a great example of a point I am always making: to get open, you don't need to be faster than the man guarding you. You just need to be able to get to a spot where he isn't. Speed helps, but being shifty is just as good.

• Tinsley didn't play high school basketball.

• Rasheed Wallace is an amazing player on an amazing player, but he has some flaws. One of them is little hands. Watch: the drops a lot of alley-oop passes, and loses a fair percentage of 50/50 balls because of it.