Report: Billups dealing with knee tendonitis, could miss game vs. Kings

The Detroit Pistons have been playing some bad basketball lately, especially on the defensive end, and after a shellacking at the hands of the Golden State Warrriors, head coach Maurice Cheeks finally said he'd be considering lineup changes.

But those changes might be forced on him whether he wanted to make them or not. Chauncey Bilups is dealing with knee tendonitis and could miss tonight's game against the Sacramento Kings, according to Vincent Goodwill.

There is no official word from the team one way or the other.

There is no one reason the Pistons defense has been so poor -- the perimeter defense is dreadful and the interior defense has been sloppy. But Billups has certainly shown his age so far this season and the two primary candidates to take his spot in the starting lineup are two of Detroit's better perimeter defenders -- Rodney Stuckey and rookie Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

Stuckey has played better of the two and is most likely to take a spot in the starting lineup, but KCP has the best defensive potential and showed superior range in college, though he's struggled with his shot so far in preseason and his limited minutes in the regular season.