Michael Jordan will not play against the Pistons tonight at The Palace. Vince Carter sat out Monday's game here.
  No doubt it's disappointing for those who bought tickets in advance to see two of the NBA's most exciting players play the home team.
  But fans shouldn't fret. There is still a good reason to go to The Palace. It's the Pistons.
  No one would have been able to guarantee you that at the start of the season. After all, the Pistons were coming off a horrid 32-victory season. They made a lot of personnel changes. No one knows if players will mesh until they play together for a while. Finally, the Pistons hired a rookie coach in Rick Carlisle. And even though he came highly recommended, there was still no guarantee that the players would grasp what he was preaching and respond.
  "So you have to go with a certain marketing scheme, and I guess they didn't know what to expect from the team," center / forward Cliff Robinson said.
  That's why the Pistons' marketing department sold the idea of seeing opponents rather than the Pistons. The last thing you want to do is invite people to the party, and when they get there, the house isn't clean and the food isn't done yet.
  So ignore those billboards off the highway. Of course, they tell you to come see Michael, Shaq, Kobe and Iverson at The Palace. Block it out and think that you should go to The Palace to see Stack, Cliff, Big Ben and the rest.