If you think that Rasheed Wallace is a lock to stay in Detroit once his contract expires this summer you are wrong.

The Pistons are still the front runners for the All-Star forward's services according to Wallace's agent William Strickland, but he also added that Wallace is not ruling out any potential suitors either, including the Knicks.  New York was his team of preference before being traded from Atlanta to Detroit.

"I've been very straightforward with him and he knows every one of his options," Strickland said. "But right now, it's too premature to discuss free agency."

The no-risk trade of aquiring Rasheed Wallace at this year's deadline wasn't a no-risk trade after all according to Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free-Press.  The risk comes in the form of young 7 footer Mehmet Okur, and the fact that he could be pushed out of Detroit.

Wallace thus far has been tentative in these playoffs, being too unselfish for his own good.  With guard Chaucey Billups strives for the ball to be in his hands with the game on the line, the same cannot be said for Wallace.  With the Game 2 coming down to the wire coach Larry Brown drew up a play for second year forward  Tayshawn Prince - not Wallace - to take the final shot.  These are the plays that earn a player big dollars.

'If he's hesitant to assume the burden of wanting the outcome of a crucial playoff game on his shoulders, then he's not worthy of the maximum free agent dollars he could command from the Pistons this summer.' writes Sharp, who has not been the only person to notice Wallace's play.  Charles Barkley called out Rasheed at halftime of TNT's broadcast on Saturday, saying Wallace possessed too much talent to put up modest numbers and that he can't be afraid to star.

Wallace will be GM Joe Dumar's top priority this summer, and Okur will be up there too, but with his minutes on the decline during these playoffs will he be tempted to leave for a team wielding dollars?  Detroit cannot afford it.

Perry Farrell of the Detroit Free Press writes that if the Detroit Pistons want to take control of their series with the Milwaukee Bucks, both Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince need to take more shots.

Wallace is averaging 16.5 points while shooting 58.3 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from three-point range., while Prince is averaging 15 points shooting 45.5 percent from the field.  More importantly though Wallace has been averaging 12 shots and Prince 11 a game.

"He's a mismatch for anybody, so we must get him a little more involved and play off him a little more," said point guard Chauncey Billups on Wallace. "We've been working on a couple of things as far as getting the ball down low and letting him open the game up. If you have a player like that you have to take advantage of his abilities."

What was harder for the Detroit Pistons, losing home court advantage or the circumstances of how it happened?

The Milwaukee Bucks deserved to win Game 2, yet the Pistons were still in with a chance to win the game down two points with 4.1 seconds left.

The Pistons 11 game home winning streak all but ended at this time when the ball sailed out of Rasheed Wallace's hands and out of bounds as he set up for a potential winning three-pointer.

"It definitely was a wakeup call," said Chauncey Billups. "I said before this series this was a tough team. To me it's like playing a four seed. We didn't have the same intensity for the first 45 minutes that we had for the last three. I think some of you guys might have taken them lightly, but I knew they would keep coming at us."

Redd agreed.

"We should have been a fourth seed and we gave that away," he said. "But we're a tough team. We deserve to be here."

Richard Hamilton was thrown out of the game with 4:58 left in the fourth quarter after his second technical foul.  He had 18 points.

Forgotten man Toni Kukoc turned out to be the difference between a 0-2 deficit and evening up the series against the Detroit Pistons Wednesday, scoring 15 points off the bench in a 92-88 win.

Kukoc, playing in his 93rd playoff game, was 5-of-5 from the field in the second quarter, scoring 10. He also hit a couple big shots in the fourth quarter as Detroit desperately tried to get back into the game, including a big three pointer with nine minutes remaining then a tough fallaway jumper at 6:27 help hold off the Pistons.

"I hit some shots early and that kind of opened the game for me," Kukoc said. "Got active and felt pretty good energy wise. I've been in enough of these games so I do what I can."

"Big minutes," Milwaukee guard Desmond Mason said. "I talked to Toni after the last game and told him, 'We need some of that veteran playoff leadership. You've been in these wars before, man, so you can help us a little bit more.' In practice the last couple days, he's been a little bit more vocal and it's helped our team."

Tayshaun Prince's NBA career didn't blossom until Game 5 of last year's first-round playoff round against Orlando.

Prince, a rookie last season, had a five-game audition as a starter, but it didn't go well. It wasn't until Michael Curry got into foul trouble against the Magic that coach Rick Carlisle went to Prince again.

Not only did the 6-foot-9 small forward respond well, he became a key part of the offense. By the time the Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, they were calling plays for him. Prince averaged 9.4 points in the playoffs with a high of 20.

Supplanting Curry as the starter this season, Prince had his ups and downs with first-year coach Larry Brown, but he was in playoff mode Sunday. In Game 1 against Milwaukee, Prince came through with 14 points, 11 rebounds and a team-high four blocked shots.

"We're such a better team when Tayshaun stays aggressive," said shooting guard Richard Hamilton, who has racked up 36 assists in his past four games, including a team-high eight Sunday. "By all means, we need Tayshaun to stay aggressive no matter what the situation.

"When Tay is up and excited and jumping around and clapping hands . . . it makes our team a great team. He's long, and we need him out there."

The Detroit Pistons didn't really need any additional motivation for their playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks but they received some anyway Monday when Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers was named the National Basketball Association's defensive player of the year over Pistons center Ben Wallace.

"I definitely felt that trophy had my name on it once again," Wallace said after the team's practice Monday.

Wallace's teammates seemed to think that getting bypassed for the defensive player award would only make Wallace play harder in the playoffs. And that cannot be good news for the Bucks.

"I know he's our defensive player of the year here in Detroit," guard Mike James said. "Without him, the games would be changed. It would be totally different. So he's our most valuable player and that's all that matters right now. He's going to prove to everyone that he deserves everything everyone gives him. He's an all-star, defensive player of the year. . . . He deserves it all because he works that hard."

Said guard Rip Hamilton: "It's hard to give a guy an award three years in a row, so I guess they have to give it to someone else. I think we have the best defensive player in the league. But it makes it better for us now because you've got a guy like (Wallace), he wants it even more now. It makes you want to go out there and prove something even more."

What bothered the Pistons was not just that Artest got the award, but how he got it. Indiana coach Rick Carlisle, the Pistons' coach last season, undertook an extensive telephone campaign by calling reporters who vote for the award, asking their consideration for Artest for defensive player of the year, along with Indiana's Al Harrington for the sixth-man award and Jermaine O'Neal for most valuable player and first team all-NBA.

"Things happen," Wallace said. "Indiana put on a great campaign to get Ron Artest that trophy. Congratulations to the dude and I'll get mine another way, I guess.

"(Carlisle) has got to keep the guys happy that, you know, in this league they say got your job in their hands. So that's the right thing to do, but what I'm saying is you can put on all the campaign you want, but if they do like they're supposed to do and look at the numbers they'll see who should have won defensive player of the year. But that's all right, I've always got next year. I've got bigger fish to fry right now."

On what seems to be Ron Artest day on the Wiretap; today he was named the Defensive Player of the Year. He recieved 476 out of 605 votes. 2 time winner Ben Wallace came in 2nd place followed by Theo Ratliff.

"Artest, however, will miss the Pacers' next game after he was suspended for one game by the NBA on Monday for leaving the bench during a confrontation in the team's win Saturday over Boston in the opening game of the first-round playoff series. The Pacers won the game 104-88"

Milwaukee Bucks guard Damon Jones isn?t a Pistons believer. But they plan on converting him real soon.

Jones, a former Piston, didn?t give the Pistons much credit for their lopsided 108-82 victory Sunday at the Palace in the opener of their best-of-seven series.

The Pistons set a team playoff record for steals with 14, and their defense forced the Bucks into 25 turnovers, which the offense turned into 28 points.

?Their defense didn?t cause us any problems; we just turned the ball over,? Jones said. ?Whenever you give a team like Detroit 22 fast-break points, they?re going to win games.

?But this is just Game 1. The series is not won in Game 1. So, all the chest bumping and all the antics on the other end. ... Hey, if you feel like you?ve got the series won, that?s fine. But you?ve got to come out and play Game 2.?

After four days of stage setting ? four days of healing, practicing and planning for the teams; four days of hyping, analyzing and prognosticating for the fans and media ? the Pistons and Bucks at last begin their best-of-seven, first-round playoff series today at The Palace.

The way the Pistons see it, this series isn?t going to be the slam-dunk everybody seems to think it is.

?I don?t understand that,? said Chauncey Billups, when he was told the No. 3 seed Pistons are overwhelmingly favored to beat the No. 6 seed Bucks. ?I consider that team a No. 4 seed, I really do. It?s just that we?ve been playing so well and winning games down the stretch. That?s the only reason we?re favored. All the games we had with them were tough games. They match up well with us.

?All that favorite stuff is for the bettors in Las Vegas. We don?t buy into it.?

All four games between the teams were decided by six points or less.