Bitter end

Bucks pounded by Pistons, will miss playoffs

Ben Wallace contributed 10 points and 20 boards, helping the Pistons outrebound the Bucks 47-34. Allen Einstein/NBAE/ Getty Images

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Sam Cassell couldn't pull off what Joe Namath and Mark Messier did.

Cassell guaranteed Tuesday night that his Milwaukee Bucks would beat the Detroit Pistons Wednesday and clinch an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Instead, the Bucks failed miserably, losing by 34 points, 123-89, and they were eliminated from the NBA playoff race after wins by Toronto and Indiana.

"Why shouldn't I have had made that guarantee?" Cassell said. "If we would have played with the intensity we should have had, we would have won the game. We just didn't work hard enough. It looked like they were the ones that needed the game instead of us."

Cassell, playing on a bad toe, scored just six points, 18 fewer than he had in Tuesday's win over Toronto.

"If I had been healthy, I really think we would have won the game," he said. "But I knew it was going to be tough. My body just wouldn't let me do the things I needed to do."

The loss was the final act in Milwaukee's collapse as the Bucks lost 16 of their final 22 games to miss the playoffs.

"We have no one to blame but ourselves," Milwaukee coach George Karl said. "This is a bitter disappointment, but we created it for ourselves with our lack of urgency and our lack of commitment. We just kind of self-destructed."

In Good Company AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Ben Wallace pulled down 20 rebounds Wednesday in the Detroit Pistons' 123-89 rout of the Milwaukee Bucks to lock up the NBA's rebounding title. Wallace's performance meant that Tim Duncan needed 40 rebounds to pass Wallace for the title. Wallace also led the league in blocked shots, and joins Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton as the only players to lead the league in both categories in the same season. Click here for more.

For the Pistons, Cassell's guarantee just gave them an extra boost of energy for a meaningless game.

"When you are playing back-to-backs at the end of the season, you are always looking for a little extra motivation," said Ben Wallace, who finished with 10 points and 20 rebounds to win the NBA rebounding title. "Sam gave us that tonight."

Cliff Robinson scored 24 points and Jerry Stackhouse added 23 as Detroit (50-32) got its first 50-win season since 1996-97. The Pistons will play the Toronto Raptors in the first round, starting Sunday night.

"It felt great to get that 50th win -- it was a goal of ours all season," Stackhouse said. "And we did it by winning with hustle and grit -- that's what this team is all about."

Rick Carlisle passed Chuck Daly for most wins by a rookie Pistons coach.

"Around here, we don't talk about guarantees very often, but there are two things I can guarantee pretty surely," Carlisle said. "One is that this game meant a little more to us than George Karl thought it was going to mean. And the second thing is that there is a good chance Milwaukee is going home."

Glenn Robinson led Milwaukee with 21 points, but Cassell and Ray Allen had only six each.

"We know we are better than this," Allen said. "We've got a lot of things to work on this summer."

Milwaukee could have clinched the seventh seed and a first-round matchup with Detroit by beating the Pistons, but the Bucks were out of the game by halftime.

The Bucks led by as many as seven points in the first quarter, but the Pistons ended the period with a 20-4 run to go up by nine. Stackhouse had 13 of Detroit's 32 points in the period.

Detroit continued to dominate in the second quarter, pushing the margin to as many as 21 before settling for a 64-44 lead at halftime. The Pistons hit eight 3-pointers in the half, one short of a team record.

The second half turned into a prolonged victory party for the Pistons as they led by as many as 36 points.

"I was absolutely surprised," said Jon Barry. "When you are playing a team that has to win the game to make the playoffs, you expect a 48-minute dogfight, but that never happened. We hit a lot of shots early and they never had an answer."

Notes: Detroit's 64-point half was its most productive of the season. ... Detroit will have home-court advantage in a playoff series for the first time since 1991. ... The Bucks finished the season 41-41 after being as many as 13 games over .500 (26-13) in January. ... Wallace's 20 rebounds meant that Tim Duncan needed 40 in his final game to win the rebounding title. ... The Pistons set a team record with 15 3-pointers.

 

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