Rasheed Wallace finally spoke to the press today, though he didn’t get into details about why he left the arena so quickly after Saturday’s loss. From A. Sherrod Blakely of Booth Newspapers:
“Just a lot of different (bleep),” he said. “I’m not going to mention none, just a lot of different (bleep).”
He wouldn’t get into the specifics, but there were a couple of things that clearly bothered him.
Wallace was noticeably upset with Chauncey Billups taking a contested 3-pointer with 32.9 seconds to play and Detroit down, 88-85, at the time. He didn’t like the ease at which Paul Pierce got into the lane either, which forced Detroit’s big men to collapse on Pierce and left Glen Davis open for easy lay-ups. There were also possessions in which Wallace had a sizable advantage on the player guarding him, but the ball didn’t swing his way.
Now this is the weird part, and I’m confused why it took days for this to come out:
Wallace, too, made some questionable decisions, like when he elected to not join his teammates in a huddle in front of the bench with 1:25 to play and Detroit down 85-83 at the time. He’s done this plenty of times before, so it wasn’t all that unusual.
But his refusal on this occasion, even after assistant coach Dave Cowens went to the scorer’s table trying to convince him, seemed to bother his teammates more than it has in the past.
So Rasheed was upset at his teammates, and his teammates were bothered at his reaction. And somewhere, off in the distance, Chris Sheridan is vindicated.
Time to get worried? Blakely doesn’t think so, suggesting a touch of turmoil will help the team from getting too comfortable. I pretty much agree, although primarily because this seems to be a minor beef between teammates and not Sheed souring on the coaching staff, and the overall chemistry on this team is too good for one game to have a lasting effect. (And besides, I’m guessing even Billups would admit now it was a dumb shot.) Plus, the coaching staff had Wallace’s back after the game, pointing out that a breakdown in the perimeter defense was responsible for Paul Pierce being able to penetrate and find Glen Davis over and over.
Also, credit Wallace for doing absolutely nothing to draw attention to his frustration. Not joining the huddle was immature, yes, but it’s not like he’s been pointing fingers since. Every explanation we’ve heard has been Saunders and beat reporters speculating. Whether they’ve hit the nail on the head is irrelevant. Whatever issue Wallace has (or more likely, had), he’s not made it worse by airing it out in the media.
And just for context, the Pistons are hardly the only team in the league to hit a few bumps in the road even when things seem to be going great. Things like this happen over a long season, it doesn’t mean it’s always a big deal.
I think everyone was pissed at Chauncey’s decision to hoist up that airball late in the Boston game. That was straight stupid.
Rasheed gets hot under the collar, and if he made some of his own mistakes in that game, sure, they’ll have a hypocritical response to Rasheed. He puts himself in that position.
Chauncey’s error was the biggest of the game. He knows better than to not do what he did. That’s the key. Whether or not Rasheed does similar things, and he probably does, given the ‘05 Finals where he left Horry way too open in the closing seconds . . . Chauncey’s error wasn’t THAT costly, but it would have been nice to set up a play against them with a 3-point defecit.
In the end, this won’t amount to anything. Sometimes co-workers have a little cold front pop into the lockers. This Dallas game spells out some sort of frustration. They’ll reset and come back.
I don’t like the look of that bandage on Rasheed’s knee, though.
while chauncey’s shot was about as poorly done as possible, i don’t appreciate the fact that it seems sheed had already given up on his team and the game a minute before.
is it just me or is there a real struggle between the frontcourt players and the backcourt? i know some of the trouble in the ecf’s was sheed’s insistence that they should stick with playing big. now in the last celtics game there seemed to be the same issues, the guards were reluctant to give it to dyess and sheed in the final quarter.
if the issue has been lingering that long isn’t it of a little more import than we’re admitting?
BIG BABY!!!
deeeeetroit baaaasketball wow you know it kind of sounds like a big soap opera. For a winning team they are kind of a joke almost like the knicks. Also i think in that game they got a little scared or maybe they had a little reality check and found out the celtics are the team to beat in the east. Also rasheed wallace said that the celtics have nothing outside garnett,allen,and pierce well that turned out to be a bunch of crap while glen davis a rookie a guy off the bench hurt the pistons and closed the deal for the celts. And also a factor doc kept tony allen on the bench so he could not foul billips and give them the game.
Oh, for joy…another snot-nosed Celtics punk. Sigh. Yawn. [Roll eyes]