Montgomery to Replace Musselman

Eric Musselman told Associated Press he was fired Wednesday after only two seasons as Golden State Warrior coach. He will be replaced by Stanford’s Mike Montgomery, a source told AP.

Musselman told AP in a phone interview that he received the news of his firing from Chris Mullin, new executive vice president of basketball operations.

Stanford spokesman Gary Migdol told AP that Montgomery met with his players Wednesday to discuss the Warriors’ situation.

A Pacific 10 Conference source said Montgomery told the players he had accepted the job.

Montgomery and Golden State officials were not immediately available for comment.

The Warriors missed the playoffs for the 10th consecutive year in an injury-plagued season, finishing 37-45.

“It’s been a great two years. The players have played their hearts out,” Musselman said. “The organization’s headed in a great direction.”

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Detroit and New Jersey are out of secrets, and soon one team will be out of time to make a championship run.

A year after both reached the Eastern Conference finals -- where the Nets swept the Pistons -- one will fall short of that after tonight’s Game 7 at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.

“Everybody knows what’s at stake,” Detroit’s Ben Wallace said. “It’s not going to come down to Xs and O’s. It’s going to come down to who wants it more.”

Piston Coach Larry Brown called the scenario inevitable.

“When this season started, you figured you had to beat New Jersey,” Brown said. “It doesn’t matter if you beat them in the first round, or the third round or second round, you had to beat them.”

Richard Hamilton is glad the Pistons had a better regular-season record than New Jersey, because they get to play Game 7 at home, and home teams have won more than 80% of such games in NBA history.

“It’s going to be crazy. I can’t wait,” Hamilton said. “You get the jitters just thinking about it.”

Since Jason Kidd was traded to New Jersey three years ago, the Nets have advanced to the NBA Finals twice -- without experiencing a Game 7.

“They haven’t played a Game 7, but a closeout Game 6 is the same thing, and they’ve had a lot of those,” Brown said. “They’ve won a lot of big games.”

Brown is 4-3 in Game 7s with four teams, and 33-year-old Lawrence Frank will coach in his first.

“This is a great opportunity,” Brown said. “This is the only chance you get to move on. If we can play good, it’s down to the final four.”