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The Pistons better get used to it. Billups suffered a strained right calf muscle and crumpled to the floor after coming down from making a 3-point shot with 18.6 seconds left Friday night, a basket that cut the Pistons’ deficit to one point, and the early prognosis was that he would miss 10 to 14 days.
The game ended bizarrely - the Pistons losing 93-92 when Darrell Armstrong made one of two free throws with 0.9 left after Carlos Delfino inexplicably fouled him with the game tied - but the bitterness of the loss quickly dissipated into concern for their leader.
“I hurt it before the shot,” Billups said after the game, limping demonstrably. “I knew it wasn’t a cramp. I’ve had cramps before. I would have been able to come back.”
Flip Saunders had already left The Palace when news hit the locker room that Billups would not be back in time for Sunday’s anticipated showdown with the Phoenix Suns and two-time reigning MVP Steve Nash.
For now, it appears rookie Will Blalock and backup combination guard Flip Murray will split time replacing Billups. Lindsey Hunter, who’s missed the last 11 games with an Achilles tendon injury, is expected to resume practicing next week. Ironically enough, Murray’s play had been spotty enough of late that Saunders essentially removed him from the rotation Friday night, Murray not playing at all in the first half and called to duty when foul trouble hit Rip Hamilton in the second.
“I wish him a speedy recovery,” Blalock said. “It’s one of those situations where there’s honestly nothing you can say. I just hope he gets better a whole lot faster than 10 days to two weeks.”
Nothing personal, kid, but the Pistons hope so, too. The Pistons, 18-10, are now on a two-game losing streak and vulnerably exposed at a critical position.
“Hopefully, it’s just a strain,” Billups said. “We’ll have to see. Some guys are going to get more opportunities now than they would have, which is good. I’m sure Flip is going to get the opportunity to lay more at the point guard spot. See how Lindsey feels.
“I’m going to step up and be more of a leader, now that I’m not playing, to Rip and to Flip, when they’re out there, to walk them through certain situations, what I see out there. I don’t really look forward to sitting. I hate it, but I’m going to make sure I get back healthy. I’m hoping it’s not worse than we think it is. I don’t want to be out any longer than they say. It’s frustrating, but better now than later. Better never, but if it has to happen …”
The Pistons began the game looking the way a lot of New York tourists return from the Big Apple - with a hangover, quickly falling behind 12-2. They played an inspired final eight minutes of the first quarter, outscoring Indiana 30-10, and bumped their lead to 15 early in the second quarter on Delfino’s 3-pointer - giving him nine points in his first five minutes before he went scoreless over his final 18.
But after Jason Maxiell, who finished with 12 points, missed two free throws, the game unraveled with head-spinning rapidity on the Pistons. The Pacers closed the first half on a 19-4 run and opened the second half on 16-3 stretch, a stupefying 35-7 advantage.
“Lost energy,” Saunders said. “Didn’t shoot the ball well and we were struggling to find energy. We took some guys out and some of our other guys … we lost control of the game. To our credit we fought hard and put ourselves in a position where we should still be playing right now, but we’re not.”
It didn’t help that Rasheed Wallace was limited to 21 minutes while afflicted with flu-like symptoms or that Hamilton picked up his fourth foul two minutes into the third quarter and played only 32 minutes.
But still they had a chance to win it. Billups’ running 3-pointer from just over the half-court line made it a three-point game going into the fourth quarter and they got within one on Tayshaun Prince’s tip-in with 2:59 left.
But for the second straight game, offensive execution down the stretch - the calling card of these Pistons for the last three seasons - failed them. Hamilton was stripped twice in the final three minutes, McDyess and Billups combined to miss three of four free throws on consecutive possessions and Delfino’s foul - after Hamilton’s driving layup and two free throws with 10.2 and 3.5 seconds remaining, respectively, sandwiched around Danny Granger splitting a pair of free throws - were the most egregious sins.
“When I saw (Armstrong) and it looked like he was shooting, I tried to contest him,” Delfino said. “But it was hard to control myself. It was my bad.”
The Pacers attempted a long in-bounds pass to Jermaine O’Neal (25 points, 13 rebounds), who was guarded near the free-throw line by Tayshaun Prince. The ball got batted toward the baseline, where Armstrong gathered it about 14 feet from the basket. Delfino, charging toward him, left his feet and crashed into Armstrong, who missed his first free throw but made the second.
“I didn’t get a good look at it,” Saunders said. “I was watching the ball when it was tipped. I thought time was going to run out even before he got the shot off. You can’t put yourself in a situation to foul somebody at the end of the game like that when the score is tied. You’ve got to make them make a shot. Our execution the last two games, in late-game situations, fouling guys at the end, those are mental mistakes. And we’re making too many mental mistakes.”
Billups wound up with 23 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, but he had only five assists and four turnovers and shot just 7 of 19. Prince was 5 of 15 and Hamilton 7 of 18 on a night the Pistons shot 42 percent and turned the ball over 19 times.
Without their point guard, their captain and their leader pulling the strings, those numbers might be hard to avoid over the next 10 to 14 days.
Saunders: “That’s who we are. That’s one of the reasons we were in there from the standpoint of the way they shot the ball (56 percent). We don’t turn the ball over. The most amazing stat to me was we took 123 shots and we’re second in the league in (free throws against) and they shot 63.”
