Wondering why the Cavs couldn’t have waited for Detroit’s season to end before interviewing/hiring Larry Brown? The New York Daily News’ Mitch Lawrence suggests — as will many if the Pistons don’t repeat — that their coach’s latest case of wanderlust has undermined his authority.

As the Pistons melted down late in the fourth quarter Sunday night, they displayed the classic signs of a team that knows that its leader has one foot out the door. How else to explain the two technical fouls assessed to Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups, 40 seconds apart, with the Pistons still having the chance to win? How else to explain a veteran championship team coming totally unglued at the end of a crucial home playoff game? How else to explain a team that seemed to tune out its coach while falling behind to the Heat, 2-1?

Asked if he thought his rumored run to Cleveland is posing a major distraction, Brown, stopped as he walked off the practice floor and wore a quizzical look.

“This has been going on how long?” he said yesterday. “I mean, it was New York. Then it was L.A. Now it’s Cleveland. Before, it was Denver.”