Billups and Kander’s quality time

Published by Matt Watson on May 9, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Injuries. 20 Comments

Flip Saunders claims he’s thinking about using Amir Johnson in Game 4. From A. Sherrod Blakely:

Pistons coach Flip Saunders talked some about Rashard Lewis who has given them fits throughout this series. Lewis’ play is one of the reasons why Jarvis Hayes is out of the rotation, and replaced by Walter Herrmann. Saunders said he’s also giving some thought to putting Amir Johnson on Lewis tomorrow night.

“Just because of his (Johnson’s) quickness and his length and his ability to defend people out on the floor, but also if he gets beat off the dribble, he can make it up and contest at the rim,” Saunders said.

A.S.B. also has the latest Chauncey Billups update in the same article; not much has changed, though it seems Chauncey and Arnie Kander are getting to know each other quite well:

“I’m feeling a little better,” Billups said. “Y’all probably have a better chance of asking my roommate Arnie.”

As in Arnie Kander, the team’s strength and conditioning coach. Billups was up to about 1 a.m. this morning doing stuff with Kander, with treatments resuming about eight hours later.

“He doesn’t need a room,” Kander said. “He’s been in my room. We were up to 1 in the morning and started back at 9 this morning.”

No matter what Saunders says, I’m quite confident we’ll see a dinged up Billups before a perfectly healthy Johnson, which is actually pretty sad.

Arnie Kander heals Chauncey and delivers babies

Published by Matt Watson on May 8, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs and Injuries. 23 Comments

Chauncey Billups was still sore at practice this morning but the training staff doesn’t seem too concerned. From A. Sherrod Blakely:

“I’ve seen about 2,000 hamstrings,” said Arnie Kander, Detroit’s strength and conditioning coach. “I look at this as being nothing more than what we’ve seen in the past. Because of the slowness of the movement; because of the nature of what occurred, him being able to pull out of it and the fact that he feels this morning the same as he did last night … that’s a great sign. Usually the next morning, you feel worse.”

Also, as a testament to Arnie’s amazing healing touch, he also found time to give Krista Jahnke advice on her pregnancy:

I asked him jokingly on Wednesday whether he can give me an advice to have a pain-free labor (I’m seven and a half months pregnant).

He didn’t skip a beat, saying, “Sure,” and launching into a quick rundown of stuff that was over my head. He mentioned “healers” and said something about how it’s all about “moving energy.” He said his wife had two nearly pain-free labors without any medication.

If he can do that, what’s a strained hamstring?

The man is a wizard, I tell you.

Game 3: Pistons and Magic

Published by Matt Watson on May 7, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs, Magic and Previews. 307 Comments

That’s what Chauncey’s controversial three-pointer looked like from the stands. (Well, that’s what it would’ve looked like from the stands if you’d been boozing for the first three quarters — that’s pretty blurry.) Personally, I have to agree with A. Sherrod Blakely:

You know what’s the best part of about tonight’s Game 3 matchup? It will (hopefully) put to bed all the shot clock controversy from Game 2.

If the Magic can’t win a game on their own floor, they’ll have a hard time convincing anyone that one shot at the end of the third quarter on Monday actually decided Game 2. In any case, the game just started — leave your thoughts in the comments.

Where do fans outside of Detroit go to watch Pistons games?

Published by Matt Watson on May 7, 2008 in Crowdsourcing. 45 Comments

I don’t know the answer to that question, but if you do, I’m hoping you’ll tell us.

I know there’s a group of readers in Portland who get together to watch games, and I’m hoping to help anyone else who’d like to meet up with fellow fans in other cities to do so. I don’t know exactly how this is going to work, but I know there are a lot of readers in and around Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, so that’s where I’ll start.

In order to needlessly complicate add structure to this grand experiment, I’ve created four separate posts for DC, NY, Chicago and LA below. If you’re a displaced Pistons fan in one of those locales and know (or want to know) of a good place where a fellow fan can catch a game without feeling completely outnumbered and/or having to argue with the bartender to change the channel, click on your city’s link below and leave a comment. If all goes to plan, hopefully readers from these cities can either discover where all the other Pistons fans meet up, or at the very least organize a new place.

If you don’t live near one of these four cities, just leave a comment on this post and we’ll go from there. Make sense? I hope so. If there’s any real participation, I’ll put up a permanent link to these posts so other fans can follow suit and the word gets out.

Where do fans in D.C. watch Pistons games?

Published by Matt Watson on May 7, 2008 in Crowdsourcing. 7 Comments

(What’s this about? Read this.) Pistons fans are everywhere, they just need to find each other!

If you know where fans in and around Washington D.C. get together to watch games without feeling outnumbered and/or having to argue with the bartender to change the channel, tell us in the comments. If you don’t know where to find other Pistons fans but wish you could, leave a note and maybe suggest a place.

Where do fans in Chicago watch Pistons games?

Published by Matt Watson on May 7, 2008 in Crowdsourcing. 6 Comments

(What’s this about? Read this.) Pistons fans are everywhere, they just need to find each other!

If you know where fans in and around Chicago get together to watch games without feeling outnumbered and/or having to argue with the bartender to change the channel, tell us in the comments. If you don’t know where to find other Pistons fans but wish you could, leave a note and maybe suggest a place.

Where do fans in New York watch Pistons games?

Published by Matt Watson on May 7, 2008 in Crowdsourcing. 10 Comments

(What’s this about? Read this.) Pistons fans are everywhere, they just need to find each other!

If you know where fans in and around New York get together to watch games without feeling outnumbered and/or having to argue with the bartender to change the channel, tell us in the comments. If you don’t know where to find other Pistons fans but wish you could, leave a note and maybe suggest a place.

Where do fans in L.A. watch Pistons games?

Published by Matt Watson on May 7, 2008 in Crowdsourcing. 24 Comments

(What’s this about? Read this.) Pistons fans are everywhere, they just need to find each other!

If you know where fans in and around Los Angeles get together to watch games without feeling outnumbered and/or having to argue with the bartender to change the channel, tell us in the comments. If you don’t know where to find other Pistons fans but wish you could, leave a note and maybe suggest a place.

Pistons go up 2-0 on Magic

Published by Matt Watson on May 6, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs, Games, Magic and Shameless Plugging. 60 Comments

I have all sorts of stuff from last night’s game going up at FanHouse this morning. Before the game, Rashard Lewis told me that the brewing war of the words between he and Theo Ratliff was over and done with:

“I’m a basketball player, I go out there to play basketball and not to trash talk. It was just something that he said and I responded to it. It wasn’t nothing personal, it was just me being a man and responding to what he said. But at the same time, I’m not that type of player. I go out there to play basketball and try to win for my team and let the trash talk stay on their side.”

After the game, Ratliff told me that Dwight Howard isn’t on the same level as David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon … yet:

“He’s a phenomenal talent — his athleticism, his size, but he’s still young. He’s going to continue to get better and continue to get better and he’ll probably be at the status of those guys later on in his career.”

Jason Maxiell explained why he’s so freaking active on the court:

MW: At the end of the last series, Thaddeus Young had a pretty entertaining quote about you. … He said, Maxiell is crazy, he’s crazy crazy. What do you think about that, that’s a sign of respect, wouldn’t you say?

JM: Yeah, to a certain degree. I guess with my size, I got to keep moving, going for offensive boards. They don’t run plays for me, so the way for myself to score is to get to the board.

And, of course, the clock thing. The Pistons obviously got a gift, but the Magic refused to blame that one play for their loss:

“They didn’t start the clock and he made the shot, but I didn’t think that determined the game,” said Rashard Lewis. “We were still in the game, we were down two points at the time. We still had another full quarter to go, we were still in the game, but I think we made a lot of little mistakes that made us lose that game.”

You can’t get too upset about an iffy call when you go out and finish the game shooting 25% and committing five turnovers over the last 12 minutes. That whistle on Keyon Dooling for “pushing” Rip Hamilton before the in-bounds pass? That was bad, too, but the Pistons were already up three with the ball so it’s hard to say that was a game-changer, as well. I will admit those types of things add up over time, though. I’m willing to chalk some of it up to the refs being partly influenced by a LOUD crowd at the Palace.

Pistons, Magic, Game 2

Published by Matt Watson on May 5, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs, Magic and Previews. 253 Comments

I’m at the game for FanHouse — leave your thoughts in the comments.

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