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Struggling Pistons visit Wade, Heat

Feb 24, 2009 - 11:19 AM Detroit (27-27) at Miami (29-26), 7:30 p.m. EST

MIAMI (Ticker) -- If it's hard to recognize the Detroit Pistons, it's because they are playing like they don't even know themselves.

Detroit hopes to avoid a seventh straight loss when it visits Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat on Tuesday.

The Pistons are coming off a 99-78 pounding at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, a contest that saw Detroit fall behind by 33 points at the break.

"We were out on the court playing like either we don't like each other, or are we strangers? That was disappointing," Detroit coach Michael Curry said.

Allen Iverson scored 14 points in the loss to lead Detroit and even he admitted how bad the Pistons looked.

"We stunk the gym up," Iverson said. "We usually play together on the road, and we just acted like strangers out there tonight. We didn't get it done."

The Heat are coming off a blowout loss themselves as they lost to the Orlando Magic, 122-99, on Sunday.

Although the rest of his team struggled, Wade poured in a career-high 50 points on 17-of-30 shooting in the loss.

The outburst moved Wade into the lead for the league's scoring title at 28.8 points per game. LeBron James is second at 28.7 per contest.

A loss drops Detroit below .500 for the first time since it was 4-5 on November 17, 2006.