<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas joined the Jermaine O'Neal club Thursday, telling ESPN that he'd like to see the 49-11 Pistons in the first round of the playoffs. The Pacers' O'Neal made his proclamation last month. Arenas' desires, however, are based on something a little more personal -- revenge for lack of playing time. "Yeah, because we only played him nine minutes" in the All-Star game, coach Flip Saunders said with a smile after Thursday's Pistons practice, repeating what he had heard Arenas say. Saunders mentioned he played Pistons guard Rip Hamilton just over 13 minutes in the Feb. 19 game. "Maybe Rip doesn't want to play for me anymore, I don't know." Arenas played 9:51 in the All-Star game, less than any other player. He scored one point and missed all four of his shot attempts. Saunders shrugged Thursday and said he did his best to give everyone a fair number of minutes and still leave Houston victorious. The Eastern Conference won, 122-120. "We were all guards," Saunders said. "And it makes it tough to get all those guys a lot of minutes. That's always the toughest thing." Other than Arenas, whom the Pistons will see Saturday when they travel to Washington to play the Wizards, the East had guards Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, Dwyane Wade and Allen Iverson on the roster, as well as LeBron James, Paul Pierce and Vince Carter, forwards who can also slip into a guard role. "I guess, what can you do if you hold grudges for that?" Saunders said.</div> Source
just give that mvp to gilbert right now, 34 pts.... he would make flip think 2x about how much minutes he plays at the all star game, and butler was hot from the field today, he had a few open 3's, the pistons didnt play that good defense.... man who woulda thought the wizards would win by 18???? i would never expected that
wow. Caron had 30 points! I really miss that guy playin for the Lakers. He has stepped it up big time as a consistent scorer behind Gilbert... Nice win over the top team.
Still, I'd rather play the Cavs in the first round, no thanks for the Pistons, second round is okay, but not first.
