Detroit prepared to go with Stuckey
ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy sees a little bit of Chauncey Billups in Pistons rookie Rodney Stuckey.
Both have good size and strength for point guards and are tough to keep out of the paint. But Billups has more than 100 playoff games under his belt, and Stuckey is appearing in just his second series.
The Pistons are aggressively treating Billups’ strained hamstring and hope he can return for Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series in Orlando today. But he’ll be a game-time decision, and it’s not hard to guess who Van Gundy and the Magic would prefer to face.
They need a win to tie the series at 2-2 before it returns to Detroit, where the Pistons have one of the league’s best home records.
“(Stuckey) has had the benefit of both being a very good player, playing for a very good coach, but also having another very good point guard to watch and emulate,” Van Gundy said. “Right now what he doesn’t have is Chauncey’s range. Stuckey can make the 3, but he doesn’t have that range. And probably overall he doesn’t have Chauncey’s experience, which is big.”
If Billups can’t go, Stuckey, chosen No. 15 overall out of Eastern Washington, will make his third career NBA start on a big stage.
The Pistons chose him with a pick dealt from Orlando in the trade that brought in Carlos Arroyo and the now-jettisoned Darko Milicic.
“I’m not nervous – I’m never nervous,” Stuckey said. “This is what I’m here to do.
“Basketball’s not new to me. I’ve been doing this my whole life, so I’m not going to be scared of nothing.”
Billups said Friday he was feeling a little better, but still couldn’t manage a fast walk. The Pistons planned to try a little running and a stronger workout today.
“I don’t have to be 100 percent. This whole postseason I haven’t been 100 percent but one or two games anyway,” Billups said.
“I just want to be good enough to be productive. I don’t care if I even score, but I just think if I’m out there running the show and I’m taking control of the game, that’s me being productive.”
Pistons coach Flip Saunders likes either point guard’s matchup against Orlando’s Jameer Nelson – perhaps even more, on paper, the 6-foot-5 Stuckey’s. Nelson is listed generously at 6 feet tall, and has been picked on by analysts throughout the playoffs as a defensive liability.
But he has also been an offensive spark for Orlando.