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Orlando beats Detroit, Chauncey Billups hurt

by james on May 8th, 2008

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Chauncey Billups is the leader

Now Orlando winning game three of the Detroit Pistons / Orlando Magic series was no surprise. They almost and probably should have won game number two in Detroit.

Orlando Magic 111, Detroit Pistons 86

The Pivotal game will be game 4 in Orlando. Should Orlando win that game convincingly and Chauncey be playing below par, then this series will change momentum and Orlando will be the favorite, even though the series will be tied 2 - 2.

Chauncey hurt his hamstring in the game.

Point guard Chauncey Billups played only four minutes Wednesday before straining his right hamstring in the opening quarter. After slipping under his own basket, Billups stayed down for a few moments before he stood and went to the bench, where strength-and-conditioning coach Arnie Kander assessed the damage.

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Chauncey is the player that brings the confidence for Detroit.

“Losing Chauncey was huge for us,” said Richard Hamilton, who scored 24 points. “He means so much to our team. To not have him out there made a difference. We fought back, but we just couldn’t get the win.”

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Chauncey does have a backup and his name is Rodney Stuckey. He is actually a pretty good player.

Forced to take over the primary point guard duties, Pistons rookie Rodney Stuckey played 34 minutes, scoring a playoff career-high 19 points. At one point in the third quarter, Stuckey orchestrated a 12-2 spurt that cut Detroit’s deficit to three. He scored six of those points, drew Magic point guard Jameer Nelson’s third and fourth fouls and made four free throws.

Orlando gained confidence in this game. Even though it was a game 3, a game the Pistons typically lose in any 7 game series.

So you could make the argument that Wednesday night was just the Pistons fighting off a collective yawn. Or you could argue that the Pistons’ oil light is starting to flash and the air bags are about to deploy.

I don’t see a complete crash in their immediate future, but this suddenly looks like a six or seven-game series. A lot will depend on Billups, who limped to the locker room with a towel over his head in the first quarter.
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Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis came up big.

Nelson seems to be maturing into a consistent point guard before our very eyes. He’s done that before, only to revert back into Jameer. But he’s never played this well for this long.

Then there’s Lewis. Welcome to the playoffs, Money Man.

The Magic are paying him $118 million to take them to the next playoff level. He’d made 12 of 52 3-pointers before Game 3, when he hit five-of-six. The biggest came when Detroit had cut the lead to 67-64.

The series just may hinge on Chauncey Billups and his hamstring.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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POSTED IN: Chauncey Billups, Detroit Pistons, Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic, Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton