http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/review_mar09.htmlIn Like a Lion
Editor’s note: Pistons.com looks back at the 2008-09 Detroit Pistons season with a month-by-month review, starting with training camp and concluding with the Eastern Conference playoffs. Part VI: March. As dizzying as their downward spiral over the last few weeks of February had been, the Pistons risked vertigo with how quickly they ascended over the last two games of the season’s most brutal road trip. The Pistons had lost eight straight – their worst stretch in 14 years – before scoring a most unlikely win at Orlando, where the Magic had lost only six games all season, to close out February. Less than 48 hours later, they were in Boston for a nationally televised Sunday game against the 47-13 defending champions. Sure, the Celtics were playing without Kevin Garnett, but that hadn’t slowed them down much. The Pistons were playing without Allen Iverson, who’d taken a hard spill earlier on the trip in a loss at Miami – and, without him, things seemed to fall into place for a team that had struggled to integrate Iverson and find the right lineup balance to put in place around him. On the first day of March, they played their second straight dazzling game, beating the Celtics 105-95, putting all five starters in double figures and getting terrific performances off the bench from Walter Herrmann, Will Bynum and Jason Maxiell. The Pistons shot a season-high 40 free throws and held Boston’s backcourt of Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo to four combined field goals. “Two tough road games,” said Rip Hamilton of the weekend sweep after scoring 25 and getting to the line 12 times at Boston. “We just have to build on this. I think guys played with a lot of energy, came out and did everything on both ends of the floor to get a win and I thought that was great for us.” “We have shown stretches of it, and whatever the reason, we haven’t done it consistently enough,” Michael Curry said. “We play our best basketball when we have guys out. … When we have all of our components, we still have to figure out a way to play the way we have played the last three games.” Curry had also made another big decision on that road trip. Whenever Iverson came back from his injury, it was going to be him – and not Hamilton – coming off of Detroit’s bench. In the meantime, the Pistons headed home from Boston suddenly rejuvenated and primed for their next game – the return of Chauncey Billups to The Palace for the first time since his November trade to Denver.
The crowd was electric, settling into their seats well before tipoff so as not to miss their chance to honor Billups for what he meant to the franchise for the previous six seasons. He got the most rousing ovation anyone could recall a visiting player ever receiving at The Palace – then reminded fans why they missed him so much. Billups was marvelous, scoring 34 points and knocking down 4 of 8 from the 3-point line, but with Iverson out for the Pistons and Carmelo Anthony missing for Denver – the Nuggets had suspended him for refusing to come out of the previous game – the Pistons stayed on a roll, winning 100-95 as all five starters scored at least 16 points. “I wasn’t nervous,” Billups said afterward. “I was more excited. It was an unbelievable reception that the fans gave me here. There are really no words that can really explain how good it made me feel. I appreciate it.” The Pistons made it four straight wins over a Golden State team missing six key players, but lost the next night by four in Atlanta when they failed to execute well in the last three minutes. They came back to beat Orlando again – that gave them a 3-0 sweep of the Magic for the season – two nights later at The Palace, but the victory came at a price: Rasheed Wallace limped off early with a calf strain that would cost him the next 11 games. Without Wallace, an ever greater burden was placed on Antonio McDyess, who already was averaging more minutes per game (27.7) than the Pistons had expected him to shoulder. Over the next few weeks, McDyess would play some extraordinary minutes – and put up some extraordinary numbers. He started it with 21 points and 22 boards in 43 minutes of an overtime loss to the Knicks. Then 16 and 13 in 46 minutes of a win over Toronto. And 14 and 20 in 51 minutes of a double-overtime loss at Houston, 24 and 17 in 41 minutes of a win over the Clippers and 16 and 12 in 41 minutes of a tough home loss to Miami. In the midst of that stretch, the Pistons suffered another of their puzzling and damaging losses – another Sunday setback, making them 2-11, this one at home to the 16-48 Memphis Grizzlies – and it proved costlier than they immediately knew. Hamilton, who had missed eight games earlier with a groin strain that never fully healed, reaggravated the injury and wasn’t ready to go as the Pistons headed to Texas for a grinding back-to-back set against Dallas and Houston without three of the biggest stars of the NBA’s recent generation in Wallace, Hamilton and Iverson.
They snapped a three-game losing streak with their 18-point win over the Clippers on March 20 to pull them back to .500 at 34-34, but then dropped three more in a row – to Miami (another Sunday loss, making them 2-12) when Wade scored 39 points but got away with a shove on Stuckey as he went for a game-tying layup, infuriating the Pistons; at Chicago on a night Will Bynum went back to his hometown and scored 20 points with nine assists off the bench; and back at The Palace against the Lakers with Bynum exploding for a career-high 25. They got Hamilton back, after a six-game absence, in time to beat Washington on the road, Hamilton scoring 31 on a night the locals were more interested in another return – Gilbert Arenas’ first game of the season. But the Pistons were 35-37 and, instead of looking up to see if they could slide into the No. 5 playoff position, they were now becoming concerned that they might fall to No. 8 and a first-round matchup with the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers – or, unthinkably, miss the playoffs altogether. But Hamilton was back and Iverson and Wallace were close. They thought they might have all three of them in the lineup for the next night’s game, against Philadelphia, at The Palace. Wallace still didn’t feel comfortable pushing off of his injured left calf, but Iverson, after a 16-game absence, declared himself fit to go against the franchise where he spent his first 10 seasons. He wasn’t great, shooting 3 of 9 for eight points in 21 minutes, but there was optimism within the Pistons’ camp that Iverson off the bench could be exactly the ingredient their second unit needed to make them a formidable force down the stretch and into the postseason. But Iverson dropped some hints after the game that he wasn’t nearly as optimistic about the plan’s success. “I have a lot of respect for guys that come off the bench,” he said, “now more than ever. It’s hard to get yourself going, sitting there for a long period and then having to jump out there into the fire. It was different for me and it was hard.” The Pistons hit the road for Cleveland after the Philly win to close out March, and there was good news: Wallace was ready to go. He came off the bench and drained three early 3-pointers as the Pistons hung tough, leading much of the game. But Wallace got slapped with a technical foul – triggering an automatic one-game suspension as he reached the NBA threshold of 16 – and the Pistons lost by six. They were about to learn they’d be without another player for the rest of the season, too.
