Rasheed ejected, BKnight 19 assists

[Kori Ellis]

Bobcats beat Pistons.

By Jenna Fryer
Associated Press
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; 11:50 PM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Rasheed Wallace thinks he's the NBA's reigning bad boy since Indiana's Ron Artest was suspended for the season.

Wallace was thrown out of Detroit's 91-89 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday night for picking up two technicals.

The first was for throwing his headband into the stands in disgust after a fourth quarter turnover. The second technical was for arguing that he did nothing wrong.

"Now I know with Artest out, I know I'm back on that blacklist," Wallace said. "I've got that target on my back."

Wallace said the second technical came when he was arguing that throwing something into the stands is not a foul.

"I knew it wasn't the case for the simple fact that I did it a couple of times this year and Ben (Wallace) did it," he said. "That's crazy. I guess it's just a fallout from the other night. People think that sometimes it's me complaining, but it's not ... I got something for it, though. I'm going to have the last laugh in June."

The Pistons should make it into the playoffs, but will have a hard time repeating as NBA champions if they play the way they did against the Bobcats.

The Bobcats won for just the second time this season, and became the first expansion team to beat the reigning NBA champion since Portland and Buffalo defeated the New York Knicks during the 1970-71 season.

They did it behind Emeka Okafor, who had the best game of his young rookie season with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

"We made the statement before that we're not just an expansion team, but it means more if we win," Okafor said. "It just kind of shows that we're legit, and 'expansion' is just a label."

The Pistons had all their players back from suspensions stemming from their brawl last Friday with the Pacers except for Ben Wallace, who sat out the second of six games.

But they never hit a rhythm, and trailed almost the entire game and by as many as 21.

Charlotte, which lost 117-116 in double overtime Sunday night in Detroit when the Pistons' had just eight players, jumped on them early but had to hold on for the win.

The Bobcats saw their lead whittled down to six before Okafor came up with three big defensive rebounds and a layup with 40 seconds to play to push the lead to 85-77.

[T Park]

What a suprise.

Grow up Wallace.


Too late.

Go ahead and toss that prick, along with Artest out of the league.

Time to start cleaning the freakin league up.