Billups unsure if he'll play Saturday
Chris McCosky / The Detroit News
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Pistons are concerned about the condition of Chauncey Billups' right hamstring. But that didn't stop them from having some fun at his expense before practice Thursday.
"It's just a hamstring, nothing beyond what we've seen in the past," said Arnie Kander, Pistons physical therapist.
"I was joking with (assistant coach) Michael Curry that when we were in Utah, before the game we saw a 90-year-old woman do the splits. I said if she can do that, Chauncey, you can do it."
Advertisement
Billups, as you could imagine, was not in a joking mood.
"Sore, man, it's just sore," he said. "I am just going to take it one day at a time."
The Pistons are listing Billups as day-to-day. He did not practice Thursday but continued his rigorous and unrelenting treatments with Kander.
"He's going to go through about 90 different treatments in the next couple of days," said Kander, exaggerating only a little bit, "and my goal is to get him ready for Saturday."
Kander sounded far more optimistic than Billups, which is double-edged, for sure. It's good because Kander knows more about hamstring injuries than Billups, who's never had one; and it's bad because Kander isn't the one who has to deal with or play with the pain.
"You have to look at the mechanism of injury," Kander said.
"That is the key more than anything else. Most hamstring injuries that you are really fearful of are speed-related. They happen off fast movement. This was the slowest hamstring you're going to see. This was like a dancer who tries to do the splits and isn't ready for it.
"They get sore but they don't usually have any lasting effects."
When asked if the injury had to be 100 percent before they would risk sending Billups back into action, Kander said, " Like I said, this injury is a little different. This didn't happen with a lot of velocity. This wasn't like a track and field hamstrings that we see that are velocity-based. This is stretch-related. And you look at the replay, it was in slow motion almost.
"He went a little beyond his normal range, but we don't have to fear these as much."
Again, though, Billups wasn't nearly as upbeat.
When asked if he felt, deep down, he would be ready to play Saturday, he said, "I can't say. I have to be honest with you, right now I can't say."
Billups was injured on a freakish play 3:49 into Game 3 Wednesday. Initially, it looked like his right leg, which was his back leg, slipped and was stretched awkwardly.
"Actually," Billups said, "when I was going to turn around, my foot got caught on Jameer (Nelson's) foot. He was falling back and it kind of pulled my foot and took it with him. My foot wasnt on the floor, it was on his foot.
"I felt a little something. I am hoping it was just a strain."
The Pistons did not, nor are they planning to, run an MRI on Billups' leg.
"MRIs won't tell you anything," Kander said.
"You can tell more by your hands and by palpitations. The fibers (in the leg) felt great, they were together. He was walking normally last night and this morning. If he feels as good in the morning as he did last night, that to me is tremendous."
Kander said he would administer treatments that "Chauncey's never seen before, a lot of stuff he isn't even going to be able to spell."
He said the treatments would continue basically around the clock. Depending on how the leg responds, Billups could test it at practice today, or, more likely, before the game Saturday.
Coach Flip Saunders said he hadn't decided whether Juan Dixon, Lindsey Hunter or both would be activated should Billups not be ready, but he did say Rodney Stuckey would start.
"After the initial shock of getting thrown in there, I thought Stuck came back and played pretty well," said Saunders of Stuckey's 19-point performance in Game 3. "He earned (the Magic's) respect. They ended up having to take Nelson off of him because he was posting him down low. We just have to get Stuck more comfortable playing with the main guys."
