Tayshaun Prince Complains About His Teammates Complaining

When you're winning, you can rack up technicals at a record pace and no one will complain (see: Celtics, Boston). But when you're hovering around .500? All of a sudden it seems kind of silly to be giving the other team extra free throws. Ladies and gentleman, your 2008-09 Detroit Pistons!

Rasheed Wallace leads the league with 10 techs while Rip Hamilton and Allen Iverson each have four. Michael Curry has implored his team to leave the refs alone, but it hasn't yet worked -- the Pistons have picked up a tech in each of the last nine games. Will the message sink in coming from a teammate? Tayshaun Prince hopes so. From Chris Lau of the Detroit Free Press:

"Them dudes, they off the chain," Prince said. "I can't help them. I talk to them as much as I can. I can't do nothing. You know what? There's been plenty of times where we've been aggressive going to the rim, couple things don't go our way, then a couple ticky-tack calls and the next thing you know, we start to yell at the refs."

Prince hasn't received a technical this season.

"This is what happens when you get a technical foul: Teams make a run, referees start to give them a couple calls here and there, and the next thing you know, we put ourselves in a bad position," Prince said. "So, Rasheed and Rip will have to realize when is a good time to make that happen and when is a good time not to make that happen."

And handful of technicals here or there is hardly the sole reason why the Pistons are 8-11 since Iverson joined the lineup, but like Prince said, they are a symptom of a team losing its composure. This team has yet to meet a lead it couldn't blow, so even when they win it's often come down to the wire.

What's most frustrating is that they all seem to agree in the locker room that they need to keep their cool, but come crunch time that plan goes out the window. If the Pistons are going to make any noise in the playoffs this year, this will be one area they'll need to show significant improvement.