Pistons all revved up
When Detroit’s Chauncey Billups played for Rick Carlisle two years ago, he was told to do what came naturally.
Shoot.
When Carlisle was fired and Larry Brown was hired, the point guard was forced to do something else.
Pass.
“That was a huge switch for me because when Rick was here, it was me and Rip (Hamilton) doing most of the shooting and scoring,” Billups said Monday. “With Larry, it’s different because he didn’t want his point guard to do all of that.”
Billups showed he still can score if he has to – or wants to – in Game 4 against Carlisle and the Indiana Pacers. He scored a playoff-high 29 points to lead Detroit to an 89-76 win Sunday at Indiana, tying the Eastern Conference semifinal series 2-2.
Billups was dominant much like he was last year in the NBA Finals, when he was named MVP, and like he was at times this season. Still, the eight-year veteran didn’t earn his first All-Star game selection.
Carlisle said the omission was ridiculous.
“He can control the game from the point guard spot as few players in the league can,” he said.
Game 5 in what has become a best-of-3 series is tonight in Auburn Hills, Mich.
“Hopefully, there won’t be a Game 7,” said Rasheed Wallace, who guaranteed Detroit would win Game 4. “If we go out and do what we have to do, we won’t have to worry about that.”
Billups didn’t want to look that far ahead.
“Game 5 is a big game because no matter how it goes, it’s going to be an elimination game on Thursday (at Indiana),” he said.
The Pacers likely need their best players – Jermaine O’Neal and Reggie Miller – to play like stars to advance.
O’Neal has made just 6 of 26 shots the past two games while Miller is coming off a single-digit scoring game for the second time in the series.
“You win as a team and when you struggle you lose as a team,” Carlisle said when asked about O’Neal and Miller.
“We’ve got to get the wheels back on the wagon, but we could certainly be in a lot worse situation than we are now.”
Phoenix happy for extra day of rest
The depth-shy Phoenix Suns got a badly needed extra day off before resuming their Western Conference semifinal series at home against the Dallas Mavericks.
Game 5 is Wednesday night, but the Mavericks would have preferred tonight – when two other playoff games are scheduled – because they know their biggest area of superiority lies in the number of players they can throw at the Suns.
“Their starters are logging a lot of minutes right now,” said Dallas’ sixth man, Jerry Stackhouse. “We’ve just got to continue to work the game and try to wear them down.”
The Suns took Monday off and will return to practice today. The Mavericks went through a light workout in Dallas.
Four of the Suns’ five starters played at least 43 minutes when the Mavericks won 119-109 in Dallas on Sunday night to square the best-of-7 series at 2-2. Phoenix’s fifth starter, Quentin Richardson, played 34 minutes, but that was only because of first-half foul trouble.
All five topped 41 minutes in Game 3.
With Joe Johnson out with a fractured eye socket, Phoenix’s lone dependable reserve, Jim Jackson, is in the starting lineup.
The Suns’ thin bench was no factor in Phoenix’s Game 3 victory, but it was in Game 4, when the Dallas reserves outscored the Suns’ bench players 36-3.
Johnson won’t play Wednesday, and his availability beyond that is in doubt. The Mavs hope the longer the series, the more fatigue will hurt Phoenix, even if it only means a couple of missed jump shots at the end of a tight game.
Around the league
Phoenix Suns president Bryan Colangelo has been named NBA executive of the year by The Sporting News, the Associated Press has learned. Colangelo, whose front-office moves helped lead the Suns to the third-biggest turnaround in league history, will be presented the award at a news conference today. … China expects Houston Rockets star Yao Ming to play for the national team in the Asian Championships in September, even though the All-Star planned to spend the summer resting.