http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/trueblu ... 00120.htmlRole Playing
The Pistons swallowed hard last summer and understood that losing valued veterans like Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess was the cost of clearing cap space to infuse the organization with the generation of players who would assume their roles. Charlie Villanueva, in effect, was taking Wallace’s – a big man who could stretch the floor with his shot-making ability, a 26-year-old who’d have a chance to ascend to All-Star status during the course of his five-year contract signed as a free agent. In the first meeting with Boston since Wallace signed on with the Celtics last July, Charlie V justified Joe Dumars’ faith in making him a part of the future. It was Villanueva’s triple from the corner opposite Boston’s bench with 55 seconds left Wednesday night that gave the Pistons a seven-point lead and, essentially, sealed a huge win – a big shot at a big moment that gives the Pistons a glimmer of hope that the second half of the season can still carry playoff possibilities. Villanueva finished with 19 points off the bench, hitting three of the Pistons’ four 3-point baskets. Wallace scored 16 for Boston, including a 3-pointer from the corner of his own on Boston’s next possession, but Villanueva wasn’t at all disappointed to spoil Wallace’s return in a game that opens a six-game stretch at The Palace to close January. “(Wallace) wanted to show the fans what they were missing,” Villanueva grinned after the game, “but Charlie V is here.”
Villanueva played hard at both ends, blocking two shots and doing a reasonable impersonation of Wallace’s two-way play. “He had an outstanding game on both sides of the court,” John Kuester said. “Getting him to buy into how we want to defend, we’ve got a heck of a basketball player there.” When he gathered a rebound as he was falling out of bounds and fired it off of Kendrick Perkins to save the possession, Ben Wallace – a defensive force again in a 10-board, two-block performance – gave him a nod of affirmation for a crowd-rousing play. It was a crowd sitting on its hands until midway through the third quarter on a night the Celtics seemed destined to win until Jason Maxiell changed momentum, serendipitously enough on another play involving Wallace. With the Celtics leading 58-52, Wallace took a pass at the foul line with an open path to the basket. He rose for an apparent easy dunk, but Jason Maxiell came from the weak side to crush the shot, fueling a fast break punctuated by a Rodney Stuckey layup. “I just came over and tried to contest the shot as best I could,” said Maxiell, who gave the Pistons 12 big points, two steals and three boards in addition to the emphatic block. “It happened to start a great fast break. Sheed told me he was going to get me back somehow.” “Max, his intensity throughout the game was outstanding,” Kuester said. “I thought he gave us a big boost. I was very pleased with that.”
The Pistons were mostly responsible for taking the crowd out of the game early when they committed a ghastly 15 first-half turnovers – 10 in the first quarter – with seven of them from Rip Hamilton. Those 15 turnovers led to 23 of Boston’s 56 first-half points. It was no coincidence that they cut their second-half turnovers to two while holding Boston to 30 points. And once they got Boston to play a half-court game, they trotted out a zone defense in both the third and fourth quarters that Kuester assistant Brian Hill designed in time for them to practice on Tuesday. The Celtics shot .265 in the second half and committed 10 turnovers, finishing the game with 19 to the Pistons’ 17. The win marks the end of the season’s first half, one in which the Pistons lost 90 man-games to injury among five players. Tayshaun Prince (32), Ben Gordon (16) and Will Bynum (14) were again idle against the Celtics, who were without Kevin Garnett, while Hamilton (27) was back after sitting out Monday’s loss in New York, the one loss in five games since the Pistons snapped their 13-game losing streak. They have five more games to close January, including a Friday-Saturday back-to-back with Indiana and Portland, and if they can snatch wins in those games suddenly the possibly of a playoff drive in the second half won’t seem so remote. “It’s a great win,” Maxiell said, “but it’s going to mean nothing if we don’t win on Friday and Saturday.”