Photo. Jeffery Salter

Part of the Pistons’ identity is that no one man out of their core group is any more valuable than the other, but yesterday they were hurting without Rasheed (knee) in the lineup. Having to use McDyess and Maxiell to stick Carlos Boozer, Detroit was helpless. Booz did whatever he wanted inside, putting up 36 points on 17-for-20 shooting. And apparently Flip Saunders felt he had to personally replace Rasheed’s emotional spark; he got two techs, and the Pistons trainer even got one … Deron Williams killed Chauncey Billups, too, giving him 21 points and 14 dimes. When it comes time to pick the Team USA roster for the ‘08 Olympics, will Deron get the nod over Chauncey? How about Chris Paul? Then you have to think about Gilbert Arenas at the one. (We’re leaving Kirk Hinrich out of this one.) Jason Kidd is clearly a lock, and odds are they’ll only carry three point guards. So do you want two of those guards to be third-year pros when you could bring a more-experienced Chauncey instead? … You had every reason to believe the Sonics were going to get blown out of the water against the Spurs last night, but Seattle came out strong. Almost every single early possession hinged on Kurt Thomas setting a pick; he was like a personal fullback for Seattle’s scorers, and when they weren’t shooting off the open looks he provided, Kurt would pop out and hit a jumper. Then Chris Wilcox tossed Fabricio Oberto in the oubliette for a minute, and next thing you know, the Sonics were rolling. That’s when Tim Duncan basically said “eff this” and brought the Spurs back, followed by a ball-movement and three-point shooting clinic that appeared to put it away. (Along with P.J. Carlesimo inexplicably going away from the pick-and-pop plays with Thomas.) But then Wally Szczerbiak started giving Bruce Bowen buckets and made it close again. This was all in the first half, by the way … In the second half, San Antonio scored the first dozen points, but even then Seattle wouldn’t go away until the fourth quarter: Wally (27 pts) kept hitting and Kevin Durant (26 pts) played his best game in a while to keep them within distance … Sonics color commentator Snapper Jones: “At this stage of his young life, [Jeff Green] doesn’t know who Tim Duncan is and what effect he can have on a game.” Huh? It’s not like Jeff is seven years old. He knows perfectly well what Duncan does … Amazing the stuff Kobe gets away with from the refs. In crunch time against New Jersey last night, Kobe was whistled for a couple fouls against Vince that he didn’t like, and his reactions would have meant a technical for a lot of other stars, and unquestionably a tech for a non-star. With L.A. down by three with seven seconds left, Kobe (31 pts) got the inbounds and was immediately fouled as he was going up for a shot, and as soon as the whistle blew he glared over at Violet Palmer like she’d done something wrong to him. A bizarre sequence ensued: Kobe made the first two free throws, missed the third, and Boki got the rebound but nearly lost the ball. Just before he had a chance to turn it over, luckily he was fouled. Boki split the pair of free throws, giving the Lakers the ball back with three seconds left and trailing by two. (And of course they wouldn’t be going for the two-pointer.) Kidd and Antoine Wright shadowed Kobe on the inbounds, so Vlad Radmanovic got it, but never even looked in Kobe’s direction to see that Wright had moved away before firing up an off-balance three that never had a chance … Apparently that star on Lamar Odom’s head is a tattoo and not his hair, as we originally thought … Trevor Ariza made his Lakers debut, wearing Derek Fisher’s sneakers. “Are you kidding me? You’re better than that, Trevor Ariza,” Mark Jackson said … E-mail we got during Lakers/Nets (before Jersey went on a 10-0 run in the fourth): “The Nets are comically bad. Basketball fans should be insulted that we’ve been led to believe that they’re anything better than ’stink.’” … Speaking of, we got an e-mail a while back from the Orlando/Boston game that we kept forgetting to put in Smack: “Mark Wahlberg was in the front row supporting his Celts — sorry, obnoxiously supporting his Celts — doing stuff like standing up continually in the second half when Boston was coming back and doing that loud, slow clap thing people do just to be annoying. The best part, though: Who did he have with him? Some hot chick? No. Jordan from New Kids on the Block. When my wife saw them, she squealed like she was in freaking 7th grade again.” … Don’t sleep on Jamario Moon at least making some noise in the Rookie/Sophomore Game, if not becoming this year’s “Who is this kid?” rookie to break out in the playoffs (i.e. Paul Millsap and Daniel Gibson last year). Moon can fly, he rebounds exceptionally well for a small forward (almost Marion-like), and he’s playing too well not to get a lot of tick for the Raptors, who need his rebounding, defense and hustle. Yesterday had a Matrix/Josh Smith-ish stat line against the Bulls: 15 points, 9 boards, 6 blocks and 3 steals. Moon is one of those guys GMs wonder how they missed when they were wasting draft picks on Ndudi Ebi and Fran Vasquez … Again the Bulls couldn’t score when they needed to, getting completely shut down in the fourth quarter. When Anthony Parker’s three made it a 10-point game with three minutes left, it might as well have been a 25-point game. No way Chicago could make up that deficit. After that it was just a question of whether or not the Bulls would crack 80 points. They didn’t … On a positive note, Joakim Noah’s “Sad Faces on the Bench” expression is already in veteran form … It says here that LeBron has just four triple-doubles this season, but it seems like he had four last week alone. He did it again to the Pacers yesterday with 30 points, 11 boards and 10 assists (it would have been 11 dimes if Drew Gooden paid attention and hadn’t let one pass hit him in the face) … But Jamaal Tinsley almost had a quadruple-double: 24 points, 10 assists, 9 boards and 8 turnovers. Tinsely put Boobie Gibson in the spin cycle on one play, posting up and hitting him with two quick spin moves along with a behind-the-back dribble. Boobie had no choice but to foul, otherwise he might have fallen from dizziness … Alicia Keys‘ “No One” is officially out of control. Nevermind that you can’t watch MTV for six minutes without hearing it; FOX played it during the Vikings/Giants game during an Adrian Peterson highlight clip. The song itself is fine, but there’s nothing football about it … We’re out like Flip …