After watching the Detroit Pistons lose another game to the Minnesota Timbewolves, 93-85, the cable TV remote took me to the defending NBA champions visiting the upstart Los Angeles Clippers, featuring our departed (by trade) but rejuvenated Chauncey Billups.
This contest promised to be fun for Chauncey cheerers because he would have a more prominent role, due to a minor injury to the Clips' new main man, Chris Paul.
Sure enough, Billups was red-hot with 10 points, including a pair of triples, during the first three minutes. Then he went ice cold before hitting the game winner with one second to play as L.A. knocked off the Mavs, 91-89.
Billups still has an uncommon way of sinking shots without having the net move. That was the case with his game-winner, a threee-pointer from the right wing.
We Pistons fans seem to face a fate of being forced to root for team outcasts if we're going to enjoy much basketball this season, and so I'm rooting not only for Chauncey in L.A., where the Clippers are striving to upstage the Lakers in popularity, and also for Rip Hamilton in Chicago, where the Bulls are competing with the Miami Heat for best team in the Eastern Conference.
Billups seems like a good fit in Los Angeles but he wll be competing with ex-Cavalier Mo Williams for playing time, and despite Chauncey's heroics against Dallas, Williams has the edge so far. Billups scored 21 points on 7 of 19 shooting (6 of 18 prior to the game-winner, and 2 for 13 through the middle of the game), while Williams canned 26 on 10 of 14 shooting. For the season, Billups and Williams both are shooting 39 percent on triples, but oddly enough, Billups is at 35 percent on two-pointers while Mo is at 55 percent. And of course, Williams is still in his prime while Billups is nearing his sunset.
The Clippers, with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and the draw of the L.A. ratings market, will be on TV plenty of times this season. Check out L.A. and Chauncey when you get a chance. It will help ease the frustration of the Pistons' downfall.
