http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/truebluepistons.htmlAI’s return gives Curry wealth of options
The injury run that stripped Michael Curry’s roster of his All-Stars similarly limited his rotation decisions. It was another night, another All-Star return for the Pistons at The Palace on Sunday – with a decent chance they’ll make it three in three games Tuesday if Rasheed Wallace gives it go – and, well, his decisions are going to get very interesting from this point forward. Case in point: The Pistons backup guards, Will Bynum and Allen Iverson, sparked a 10-0 run after the Pistons fell six points behind early in the fourth quarter – though accuracy demands that the 10-0 actually coincided with Amir Johnson’s entry into the game – and Bynum finished it out, playing the entire fourth quarter. And he played it on a night Rodney Stuckey was terrific in the third quarter with 12 points and two steals in a stretch where he went on his own personal 8-0 run. A few weeks ago Michael Curry had a struggling Stuckey at point guard, backed up the largely unknown Bynum, with Rip Hamilton and Allen Iverson mothballed by injury. Today – with Hamilton returning in Saturday’s win at Washington, Iverson stepping into his new role as sixth man in Sunday’s win over Philadelphia and Bynum having used their absences to prove he belongs – he suddenly finds himself with four guards capable of changing games by themselves. “Will, a lot of times, or Stuckey will be in there at the point,” Curry said when I asked him a question more important that who’ll start games – who’ll finish them? “I just think the big key down the stretch, we run our sets through Rip regardless of who’s on the court. He draws a lot of attention and he can get shots. To get to that point (against Philly), we ran a lot of stuff through Allen. I don’t know how many times down the stretch Allen and Rip will both be on the court, but we’ll see. I liked the way things worked tonight.”
Iverson played 21 minutes after missing 16 games and said, on a scale of 1 to 10, his conditioning level was “a one.” His first half was a little rocky, but the lineup combination Curry put out there once Johnson replaced Maxiell – Iverson, Bynum, Johnson, Tayshaun Prince and Antonio McDyess – really clicked. The Iverson-Bynum combination is one Curry said he wanted to avoid earlier this season. The logic at the time made sense: Curry didn’t want to pair two small guards and risk getting overpowered defensively. The logic now is let’s let the other team worry about how to stay in front of a couple of waterbugs on the other end. “We see that having two guys that aggressive on the court at the same time, even if they’re smaller with Will and Iverson, we can take advantage of that and have teams kind of downsize to us,” Curry said. “And then, if they’re going to try to post one of those guys, maybe we’ll just play some zone when they’re in there. But I think we’ll have the advantage when we go to the other end.” The Pistons got 50 points and 18 assists from their four guards in Sunday’s win – a huge win for playoff positioning, as it moves the Pistons back ahead of Chicago into the No. 7 seed and keeps them three games ahead of No. 9 Charlotte in the loss column with nine games to play. Hamilton, one night after playing 38 minutes in his return, only had to go 31 this time – which should help lessen the wear on the problematic strained groin that has caused him to miss 14 games over two stretches of the season. He sat for almost the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter while Iverson held down the fort, then hit two huge shots – the only two baskets the Pistons scored after his re-entry at 3:17, the last a trademark Hamilton baseline 15-footer off a nice feed from Prince with 14 seconds left to put the Pistons up by four.
Bynum had scored the two previous baskets prior and also had three of the points in the 10-0 run. Bynum missed two shots after that, with Hamilton in the game, and when his 19-footer late in the shot clock missed with the Pistons leading by four and 39 seconds left, it was Iverson who was off the bench and out to greet him first, giving him a tap on the head, as Philly called timeout.Iverson talked of the strangeness of coming off the bench and the difficulty of finding a rhythm while adapting to a new role coupled with the return from an extended absence, but ultimately he sounded genuinely earnest about filling the role to the best of his ability. “I knew I could get through the whole thing physically,” he said, “but mentally, it was tough for me. But the whole thing, I thought about the big picture. And that’s helping my teammates get a win. And the more I thought about it, the more I relished the challenge of having to come off the bench. “I’m just as happy as I can be to come back and be around the guys and get in front of the fans and contribute and get a win. Now my whole thing is trying to be the best sixth man I can be – the best sixth man in the league.” “Just having him back on the bench in Washington with the guys was great,” Curry said. “I knew that would kind of get him excited. I know his body is going to be sore, but he came in and gave us a huge boost off the bench.” A few weeks ago Michael Curry didn’t know what he was going to get from his backcourt. Now he has four players who’ve shown the ability and, just as critically, the willingness, to take big shots. The Pistons aren’t out of the woods just yet where qualifying for the playoffs is concerned. But if they get there, their coach is going to have some interesting decisions to make – and some imposing challenges to throw at a high seed that won’t be thrilled with their pairing.
