Billups out vs. Clips, Stuckey to start | Saunders admits he F'd up
:mccosky:
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Billups out
As you probably know by now, Chauncey Billups flew back to Detroit to tend to a personal matter. He isn't expected to play against the Clips Saturday. That means Rodney Stuckey will get his first NBA start.
Oh, and by the way, stop speculating on why Flip Saunders didn't play Amir Johnson in Utah. My goodness, from all the stuff I am hearing, you would have thought it was Michael Jordan that got the DNP. No, Amir didn't miss shootaround. No, he didn't miss a bus or a curfew. No, Saunders doesn't hate him. My goodness, people. Saunders admitted that he goofed, that's all. He tried to ride Jason Maxiell too long and wound up not getting Amir in.
"You know, Maxey was playing well and we were trying to match things up, but we probably made a mistake," he told us after practice today. "We should have played Amir. We got into a situation where (Utah) made a run (at the end of the third quarter) and then it was too late. I told the team afterward that I should have played Amir."
People, do you really think Amir would have been a good match-up on Paul Millsap that night? Millsap was moving Maxiell around like he was a rag doll, can you imagine what he would have done to Amir? Would Amir been able to close out on Memo Okur better than Rasheed Wallace was? For sure -- and that was Flip's mistake there. But don't tell me he should have put Amir on Millsap. It's insane the fuss that was made over Amir Johnson, the 10th man in the rotation, not getting into a game.
By the way, what's the over-under on how many points Flip Murray puts on the Pistons Saturday. From what I am hearing, he will be in uniform for the Clips.
