Pistons News

"As his teammates strapped on basketball shoes and took the floor at Amway Arena for Thursday's practice, Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups sat barefoot along the sideline, awaiting word from strength-and-conditioning coach Arnie Kander about what to do next. "I trust in him," Billups said, "and listen to everything he says." With his strained right hamstring, there would be no running or cutting or playing Thursday. There would, however, be plenty of work."

""It doesn't bother me that much because people are going to say things," Lewis told Florida Today. "Obviously, Detroit is a better team on paper, they have won a championship and been to the Eastern Conference finals, so a lot of people are going to say that Detroit is going to win the series. But they still have to beat us because we're not laying down for anybody.""

"Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups used an ominous adjective to describe his right hamstring Thursday. "It's just sore, man," said Billups, who refused to guess whether he'd be ready to play in Game 4 against the Magic on Saturday. But his medicine man -- Pistons strength-and-conditioning coach Arnie Kander -- put the injury in a much more positive light. "My goal is to get him ready for Saturday," Kander said. "It's feasible, of course.""

""Sore, man, it's just sore," he said. "I am just going to take it one day at a time." The Pistons are listing Billups as day-to-day. He did not practice Thursday but continued his rigorous and unrelenting treatments with Kander. "He's going to go through about 90 different treatments in the next couple of days," said Kander, exaggerating only a little bit, "and my goal is to get him ready for Saturday." "

"The Detroit Pistons looked like a ship that just lost its rudder. The Pistons, who looked so confident and in control through the first two games of this best-of-seven, second-round playoff series, veered off course quickly when point guard Chauncey Billups went to the sideline with a strained right hamstring less than four minutes into Game 3 Wednesday night. Their leader was gone."

"Flip Saunders wanted his post players to get more touches in Game 3. But they had trouble making the ones they got worthwhile. Rasheed Wallace was 4-for-15 for 11 points, while both Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell went 0-for-2 with no points. "We were trying to ride (Hamilton and Prince) a lot," Saunders said, "but that sucked some energy out of them. We didn't have enough.""

"In the postgame glum Wednesday night, the Pistons held on to one big hope. They think they should have their captain back Saturday. Point guard Chauncey Billups played only four minutes Wednesday before straining his right hamstring in the opening quarter. After slipping under his own basket, Billups stayed down for a few moments before he stood and went to the bench, where strength-and-conditioning coach Arnie Kander assessed the damage."

"The Pistons lost Game 3 to the Orlando Magic in the first quarter, when they fell behind by 18 points and lost point guard and team captain Chauncey Billups to a hamstring injury. They rallied to within three in the second half, but couldn't recover from their early troubles, losing 111-86. Their series lead is now 2-1."

"There is a difference between understanding something and loving it. Antonio McDyess understands why he's coming off the bench after starting 78 games and the first three playoff games for the Pistons. But he does not love it. "I wouldn't say that I am comfortable with it," McDyess said at shoot-around before Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Magic on Wednesday. "It's still an adjustment for me. It's just something that's working and I just have to roll with it.""

"The Magic had a lot on their emotional plate prior to Game 3 on Wednesday, not the least of which was the 0-2 hole they were in against the Pistons. For starters, the team had a layover in Cincinnati after the team plane had mechanical problems on their way out of Detroit on Monday. That threw their schedule out of whack. Instead of having a film session and a short, comfortable practice Tuesday (which the Pistons did), the Magic had to cram all of that into their shoot-around Wednesday morning. "

"One thing you have to know: If Chauncey Billups' strained right hamstring isn't right by Saturday, Rodney Stuckey will be. "I'm good," Stuckey said, when asked about the possibility of starting a critical Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. "I ain't feeling nothing. I'm ready to play. I am just going to go out and do what I did today." "

"The series has a very different feel now. The Magic, given up for dead after two uninspiring losses in Detroit, raised themselves off the mat with a rousing 111-86 victory in Game 3 on Wednesday night at Amway Arena. "

"And just like that, an ugly streak has ended --- and maybe an intriguing series has begun. It has been a long time since one victory reverberated through the Orlando Magic franchise the way Wednesday night's did at Amway Arena. The Magic routed their Eastern Conference nemesis, the Detroit Pistons, 111-86 in Game 3 of their playoff series in front of a sellout crowd at Amway Arena."

"It's not a win, but the Orlando Magic and their fans did get a concession speech from the NBA on Tuesday. The big shots of the NBA ruled that Detroit Pistons guard Chauncey "Big Shot" Billups' 3-pointer shouldn't have counted. And the controversial play just might open the door for expanded instant replay to be used by game officials."

"Take this mask, paste it on some cardboard to turn it into a sign and help the Orlando Magic beat the Detroit Pistons tonight by disrupting the focus of Rasheed Wallace, known as the "Walking Technical Foul." We all know the Magic are down 2-0. They cannot lose a home game if they hope to have any chance of getting out of the second round of the NBA playoffs. They need your help. And Wallace is their emotional weak link. You can rattle him. The mask is Step One and some appropriate snarky comment is Step Two. "

"The Pistons hold a 2-0 series lead over the Orlando Magic, and history says they should go on to win their best-of-seven series. Only 19 teams have come back from an 0-2 hole to advance. Of course, it was only last year the Pistons lost after staking a 2-0 lead. It happened in the Eastern Conference finals, where the Cleveland Cavaliers won the next four games to advance to the NBA Finals. That's why the Pistons say they aren't content as they head to Orlando for tonight's Game 3."

"Seldom does a rookie -- let alone two -- make significant contributions in the playoffs. But that's what the Pistons have received from first-year guards Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo, both of whom have played meaningful minutes in the Pistons' series against the Orlando Magic. Stuckey finished with five points and four assists in 21 minutes, and Afflalo had two points and a steal in just under nine minutes in the Pistons' 100-93 Game 2 win over the Magic on Monday."

"The NBA admitted Chauncey Billups' 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter of Monday's Detroit-Orlando playoff game should not have counted, but said referees weren't allowed to review instant replay to determine that. League president Joel Litvin also said the disputed shot, which gave Detroit a 78-76 lead in its 100-93 victory, could not have been replayed after the clock malfunction was discovered."

"Tayshaun Prince is finding his upside. He's shooting more. He's asserting himself more on the floor and in the locker room. He's providing more offense without compromising his greatest strength -- perimeter defense. Prince can become a star -- not an easy task when you're remembered as the only Pistons starter who didn't make the All-Star Game two years ago."

"Lost in the Pistons' return to their usual form -- and with the barking about physical play from the Magic-- has been the consistent play of Chauncey Billups. Since halftime of Game 4 against the 76ers, when the Pistons overcame a 10-point deficit, Detroit had dominated the last 3 1/2 games going into Monday night, and Billups had been in the epicenter. In Games 1-3 of the 76ers series, Billups felt the effects of not playing a meaningful game in weeks. His shot wasn't as fluid, his pulse of the Pistons' needs was faint and even though his stroll and speech said otherwise, he temporarily lost the thing that makes him special: control. "

"Game 3s have been a tricky proposition for the Pistons in recent years. They had lost six out of seven of them until winning two in a row last postseason (at Orlando and at Chicago). Then came Game 3 in Cleveland, a loss that turned the entire series around. Don't think the Magic, in a similar 0-2 hole, aren't using that as motivation. "Cleveland was down last year, and they made a run," Dwight Howard said. "We just have to keep our heads." The Pistons are a rather pedestrian 6-9 in Game 3s dating to the 2004 championship run."

"The best shot clock operator might make a couple hundred bucks a game. The best players make a couple hundred thousand. Neither earned their money Monday night. If you're seething over Clock-gate this morning, channel some of that emotion into what followed. All Chauncey Billups' shot did was give the Pistons a two-point lead at the end of the third quarter. What gave them the game were all the shots Orlando missed in the fourth. It wasn't just the missing. It was how they missed that left you scratching your head. At least if your head was attached to Stan Van Gundy's body."

"Say what you will about the clock guy Monday night. Call him the second coming of the French skating judge. Call him the third coming of the Soviet clock operator in the '72 Olympics. Call him the biggest cheater since Roger Clemens. And if you're a conspiracy theorist you can even point out that Tom Mauer, the clock operator Monday night, was from the Minnesota Timberwolves, where Detroit Pistons Coach Flip Saunders once coached. But whatever you do, do not -- I repeat, DO NOT -- try to blame the clock operator for the Orlando Magic's Game 2 playoff loss to the Detroit Pistons."

"In the bitter end, it was the Orlando Magic who could have used a gift basket. After finally solving some scoring woes, the Magic couldn't find the hoop down the stretch and lost to the Detroit Pistons 100-93 on Monday night to fall behind 2-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Magic now face daunting odds as they return to Amway Arena for Game 3 Wednesday night: When the home team wins the first two games, it is a virtual lock, going on to win the series 94.4 percent of the time."

"It's safe to say that Superman was back in the building for Game 2, as Dwight Howard, a.k.a. The Man of Tomorrow, did just about all the things for which his superhero moniker has been known. He swooped through the lane to slam home missed shots. He broke through walls of defenders to grab rebounds. But he couldn't save his Orlando Magic team from slipping into a 2-0 hole in this best-of-seven series."

"Yeah, that whole clock-malfunction thing didn't go over very well with the Magic. Pistons guard Chauncey Billups hit a big three-pointer at the end of the third quarter on a play that started with 5.1 seconds left. The thing is, the clock stopped prematurely, and TV replays proved that the play took 5.2 seconds to run. Sadly for Orlando, officials couldn't review it because of league rules and, thus, they counted the hoop. "They were put in a very tough situation on that call," Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said."

"But at the end of it all -- a wild second half marked with whistles galore, a clock mishap and the Magic's three-point bonanza -- the result was the same as the Game 1 blowout. The Pistons won, this time rallying from a second-half hole and icing the game at the free-throw line to clinch a 100-93 victory and a 2-0 series lead."

"One day after the Pistons and Magic players traded comments that could be classified as light trash-talk, Van Gundy said he hoped the verbal war wouldn't distract his team from the real battle on the court. He had to chuckle when he saw who made the comments on the Pistons' end -- center Theo Ratliff. "I'm not bringing up any names," Van Gundy said, "but sometimes it's pretty amusing to me that the guys who talk are sometimes not exactly key players.""

"OK, OK, what do you want him to do? Give it back? Chauncey Billups was handed a three-point basket by a clock screwup. Fine. He got three free ones. Detroit won by seven. No whining. "It sucks to be on the other end of that," Billups admitted of the play that ended the third quarter, a play that started under one basket and involved dribbling, passes, a dump-off and a Chauncey three-point bomb, yet on the clock only took less than a second. I know basketball is a fast game. It's not that fast."

"There will be no justice for the Orlando Magic on this one. There was a serious clock malfunction during Monday's Game 2 between the Magic and Pistons at The Palace, affecting the outcome of the end of the third quarter. It didn't affect the Pistons eventual 100-93 win. Pistons guard Chauncey Billups hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds, putting the Pistons up 78-76. Problem was, the game clock didn't run correctly, only ticking down from 5.1 seconds remaining to 4.8."

"Sometimes, you'd rather be lucky than good. That's what the Pistons were in Game 2 against the Magic in the Eastern Conference semifinals on Monday night at The Palace. And when it comes to the postseason, many believe you have to get a break along the way to help out, especially if you want to make a championship run into June. In other postseasons, there's always some play, some moment you can look back at and say it was a turning point. For sure, the other team feels cheated. But when you're the beneficiary of it, you don't look back. You simply take it, thank the heavens and keep it moving. That's what the Pistons will do with their 100-93 nail-biting victory before 22,076. They have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series."

"Chauncey Billups knows all about time. When it's time to drive, when it's time for business and even when there's time for a little free time. Time was on the Pistons' side in this one, and yes, so was a bit of good fortune. The Pistons should take this victory and clutch it to their jerseys and be giddy they lead the Magic 2-0 because this was a grimy, grinding effort. When it was over, Billups looked half-relieved and half-pained, with a giant ice pack on one leg and a sore spot on his head. "

"There will be a lot of chatter about the clock malfunction at the end of the third quarter that essentially gave the Pistons a 3-point shot after time expired. There will be chatter about the seven straight 3-pointers the Magic nailed in the third quarter. And there will be chatter about numerous other crazy things that happened here Monday. But the reality is this: The Pistons took a lot of punches. They took a 22-point, 18-rebound hit from Dwight Howard. They took a 36-point punch from the Magic in the third quarter and took another 8-2 hit at the start of the fourth. But when the buzzer sounded, they were still standing -- up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinals after a grinding 100-93 victory. "

"The Pistons won, this time rallying from a second-half hole and icing the game at the free-throw line to clinch a 100-93 victory and a 2-0 series lead. "We said, 'Let's keep it close, keep it close,' " said point guard Chauncey Billups, who scored 28 points, including a 10-for-10 mark at the foul line. "And we tightened the screws up a little bit and got some big plays in the last two or three minutes from a lot of guys.""

"Pistons veteran Theo Ratliff was kind of amused to see young teammate Jason Maxiell rush to his defense after he was fouled hard by Orlando's Rashard Lewis late in Game 1. Maxiell quickly came to Ratliff's side and got into Lewis' face with a few choice words. "I just told him to calm down, or he'd probably get a technical foul. There was no sense coming to my rescue. That was Rashard Lewis," Ratliff said laughing. "He fouled me hard, but he's a 3 [small forward] man. No big deal." "Tell [Ratliff] he can come out to the 3-point line and guard me," Lewis said."

"The Pistons, who have been in the Eastern Conference final five consecutive years, will go into Game 2 of this best-of-seven series tonight expecting again to smother center Dwight Howard, forcing the Magic out of their comfort zone. "Look at the [veteran big] guys we have. We've already played against the greatest who ever played -- Hakeem, Ewing, David Robinson -- there is nobody we haven't seen or guarded," said Pistons backup center Theo Ratliff. "Sure, Dwight is an imposing player, but it's not something we're really worried about.""

"Sometimes you find wisdom in the strangest places. Like from a guy who punched out a horse. "Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not the muscles," said noted Detroit philosopher Alex Karras. Most Magic players wouldn't know Karras if he punched them in the nose. But if they don't take his words to heart, they're going to get bopped right out of the playoffs. Detroit wants to turn it into a Tough Man Competition. All that would lead to for Orlando is more frustration, not more points. The Magic got only 72 of them in Game 1. The predictable storyline has quickly developed: Are the Magic tough enough against the latest version of Detroit Bad Boys?"

"The Pistons have to wonder which Orlando Magic team they'll see tonight in Game 2. Will they get the three-point shooting finesse team with a dominating big man, the team the Magic was all season? Or will they get a team that tries to match the Pistons' physicality with their own? Pistons coach Flip Saunders has his ideas. "I think they're just going to do the things that got them 52 wins, why they won the first round," he said. "They're going to try to get where they can get three-point shots, get where they can get the ball inside more to Dwight (Howard), try to let him go to work.""

"The Pistons were quite happy with their dominating second half on Saturday, but they did see things that needed cleaning up from the first half. In the second quarter, their offense became a bit stagnant. They shot 53% but turned the ball over four times as they chased mismatches instead of focusing on ball movement. "Guys thought they could just score whenever they wanted, and they can't," Saunders said. "They score out of our offense -- that's when they're at their best. We've got to make sure even though it might be a perceived mismatch, we've got to get to those mismatches out of some motion. Not just throwing a guy the ball and everyone standing and watching.""

"Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups didn't have to sneak into the Orlando Magic's huddle Saturday to guess what those players were thinking in the early moments of Game 1. He is quite certain they took one look at 6-foot-7 forward Jason Maxiell dwarfed inside by 6-11 Dwight Howard and started salivating. "I'm sure they looked at that matchup," Billups said, "and they said, 'We're going to that. We're going to get everything we can out of that.' " Maybe. But that "everything" turned out to be very little."

"Little brothers grow taller. They get stronger. They get tired of their elders beating them. Everywhere except in professional basketball's most dysfunctional family -- the NBA's Eastern Conference. Maturation there often falls shy of expectations, leaving a vacuum of competitive quality and creating a casual confidence among those sitting and smirking at the top. It's not just a Pistons' malaise."

"If you start to hear the Magic players complain that the Pistons don't respect them, don't be surprised. Judging from some of the comments Sunday, it's probably at least a little bit true. For instance, asked if things got "testy" in Game 1, Pistons coach Flip Saunders said they didn't from his team's perspective. But in the third quarter, it looked that way when Rashard Lewis pulled Theo Ratliff out of the air then pushed Jason Maxiell when the Pistons forward got into Lewis' face. Ratliff said the whole thing was "no big deal.""

"Will Robinson always loved walking to the team hotel from dinner with good buddy and Pistons fellow scout Stan Novak. One time in Seattle, I joined them for their walk, when a woman claiming to be homeless approached, asking for a handout. She was an attractive woman pushing a baby carriage and said she needed money to feed her child. She pulled back a blanket to show us a sleeping child huddled underneath, protected from the northwest chill. I began reaching into my pocket when Robinson grabbed me and said: "Champ, let's get out of here." When we got out of earshot, he explained to me the woman was running a scam. He said he found it curious she wore makeup, had on a pair of nice shoes and pushed an expensive baby carriage. "

"In the four-game sweep over the Magic last postseason, Pistons guards Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton outscored the Magic starting backcourt of Jameer Nelson and Grant Hill , 162-117. This year, it's Nelson and Maurice Evans , but the result was the same. Billups-Hamilton outscored them, 36-11, in Game 1. "The reason they can't (contain Billups-Hamilton) is because we run our offense," coach Flip Saunders said. "No matter who we go to, it should be tough to guard if we run our offense. We get stagnant when we start to go one-on-one. That's not what we do well." "

"It's on now, at least verbally. Whether the Magic can make any significant adjustments on the court to reverse their fortunes in Game 2 tonight remains to be seen, but they certainly have amped up their bravado. Rashard Lewis took exception to a comment made by Theo Ratliff on Sunday. "I just told Max to calm down, that (Lewis) was about to get a tech," Ratliff said. "There's no need for guys to come to my rescue. I mean, that's Rashard Lewis. He fouled me hard, but he's a three-man (small forward). It wasn't a big deal.""

"So, apparently you can tug on Superman's cape. In fact, for the Pistons, it's fully advised. Tug, shove, poke, prod. Every time Dwight Howard turns, cape or no cape, there should be a big ol' body in his way. The Pistons are at their best when they're agitated and agitating. And in their rollicking 91-72 victory over Orlando on Saturday night, they agitated Howard and the Magic into utter confusion. Will it continue tonight in Game 2? On advice of counsel, I refuse to speculate on the next move by the Pistons, who can flip when you least expect it. But I can tell you this: More than anything in the whole world, they love a challenge, especially a challenge to their manhood. "

"This friendship ended at tip-off. Pistons guard Richard Hamilton lived up to his pregame promise that his close friendship with Magic guard Maurice Evans would be shelved when this series began, pounding his good buddy early to give his team an opening lift. It set a tone that really never changed. With Evans guarding him, Hamilton gave an early clinic on how to play offensively, scoring eight points in the first four minutes after running his defender through a physical maze of picks and screens. Evans responded by knocking off Hamilton's protective face mask on one of his drives. This game-within-a-game was on."

"The rematch was more like a replay. After spending more than a year trying to exorcise their Detroit demons, the Orlando Magic cringed as their nightmares revisited them on Saturday night. The beginning of the Magic's playoff series against the Pistons ended in a lopsided 91-72 loss in Game 1 at The Palace of Auburn Hills, largely resembling last postseason's sweep by Detroit."

"Hedo Turkoglu’s uncontested dunk early in the second half gave the Orlando Magic their first lead. Less than a minute later, the Detroit Pistons took over. Chauncey Billups had 19 points, seven assists and played a key role in the decisive run of the game, leading Detroit to a 91-72 win over Orlando on Saturday night in Game 1 of the second-round series."

"Orlando might as well put a statue of Joe Louis’s fist in the middle of the Magic Kingdom and change International Drive to Woodward. With every snarl, every slowdown possession and every technical foul Saturday night, it became clear: The Magic is trying to out-Piston the Pistons. And that is not going to work. This was only one game — one half, really, since the Pistons only led by a point at halftime before winning by 19. But I’ve seen enough. This is not just a good matchup for the Pistons. It is a great matchup."