Deadlines can do strange things to reporters. Exhibit A: This line in Friday, June 17's New York Times, from Howard Beck's game story about Detroit's victory in Game Four of the NBA Finals: "Equally strange was the sight of Detroit's scoreboard, which might need its light bulbs changed for the first time in years. The scoring-challenged Pistons, who rarely break 100 points in a game, had 51 by halftime."

It's a cute line. It's also silly. In 13 of 41 regular-season home games this year, the Pistons scored at least 100 points. Twice they did it three times in four-day stretches. Beck might also have checked with his Times colleagues Liz Robbins and John Eligon, who covered games in which the Pistons had broken 100 in their previous series, against the Miami Heat.

Fortunately for Beck, for every deadline writer there's a deadline editor. The boneheaded line didn't make the final version of the article.