FanHouse ArnieKander

The Pistons were absolutely destroyed by the Celtics last night, and most of the damage was done in the second quarter in which Boston outscored Detroit 30-10. With seven seconds left in the half, the Pistons called a timeout, but after taking the in-bounds pass, Rodney Stuckey held onto the ball for a few seconds before giving it up to Rasheed Wallace, who missed badly with a 27-footer just before the buzzer.

I was at the game, and when that play happened, I turned to the guy sitting next to me and said, "Seriously, that's the play they drew up?"

In hindsight, no, that probably wasn't the play that Michael Curry wanted, but Stuckey had good reason for not attempting to drive the lane: he was suddenly overcome with feeling dizzy and lightheaded. Moments after the halftime buzzer sounded, he dropped to his knees as he was walking off the court before being helped off by trainer Arnie Kander.

Chauncey Billups has made improvements in his recovery from a strained hamstring, but the Pistons refuse to let him rush him back. From Krista Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press:

"I don't even know what we are. What are we? OK, 3-1," strength and conditioning coach Arnie Kander said. "To me, it doesn't make a difference. I look at purely the comfort level of a player, what they can do. He's getting much closer to it."

How close? For one, Billups hasn't had a single setback from day to day, and he's tested the hamstring with a lot of strenuous activity.

"He can do a lot of pretty intense things on his legs right now," Kander said, "and he has no pain." Kander said he worked with Billups "doing everything from hard dribbles, defensive slides; we box, we did all sorts of maneuvers and he didn't feel anything. So it's good."

The fact that Detroit has a 3-1 lead over Orlando certainly gives them a bit of cushion in terms of being cautious with Billups, as does the fact that Game 5 will be played at the Palace. But if he does sit again, it's not like the don't have a solid backup plan: rookie Rodney Stuckey and veteran Lindsey Hunter may have combined for only six assists while replacing Billups in Game 4, but they didn't turn the ball over once. Plus, the team frequently runs the offense through Tayshaun Prince, who had five assists himself in Game 4.

The Pistons don't need Billups to beat the Magic, nor do they need to win Game 5 to advance to the next round. Considering a sixth-straight Conference Finals appearance is seemingly in the books, getting Billups back at full strength, no matter how long that takes, should be the primary goal. As Pistons fans say, in Arnie we trust.

Sadly, Grant Hill's last seven years in the league have been nothing like his first six with Detroit. In fact, he was damaged goods before he even bolted the Pistons for Orlando's big bucks, having injured his left foot late in the 2000 season. And while it's usually not Hill's personality to say anything even remotely inflammatory, he sounded more than a little bitter looking back at the injury now. From the Orlando Sentinel:

"You're assuming the medical advice you're getting is the right advice," Grant Hill says now. "When they say you can do no further damage, let me tell you, you can always do further damage."

Hill will play in Game 2 tonight against his old team, the Detroit Pistons. It was seven years ago, when he was given drugs to mask the pain, that he limped out on the court for another Game 2 -- the last game he ever played for the Pistons and a game he thinks might have ruined the best years of his career.

Regrets? He has a few.

"All the time, I regret it," Hill admits. "I had no business being out on the court. I was heavily medicated and went out there and played until the wheels fell off. But I'm not going to blame anybody or point any fingers."

No, he's not going to point any fingers. Not at all ...

"I was told I just needed to rest it for a few days," Hill says. ...

When the Pistons got back to Detroit after Game 2, doctors finally X-rayed Hill and discovered his bruised ankle was actually a broken ankle. Although Pistons doctors said at the time that playing on the already-sore foot probably didn't cause the broken ankle, Hill doesn't buy it. He says there's no telling how long he played on that broken ankle and how much damage he did too himself.

"That's the great unknown," Hill says. "How much worse did I make it by playing on it?"

... and trainer Arnie Kander put it there. From the Detroit Free Press:

He and assistant Dave Boyer balance the pH levels of each player's water using alkaline drops. On the road, they forgo tap water and buy bulk supplies of their favored bottled water at grocery stores, then they pH balance it at the hotel before the game.

Sometimes, Kander even uses a machine to change the angles of the bonds in the water molecules.

"Ask anyone who has drank the right water," he said, "the right bond angle, the right temperature, the right alkalinity, and they'll say they can't go back."

Does it actually make a difference? Sure, why not? I mean, at the very worst, the psychological effect of thinking it helps has to count for something. But I wouldn't it past Kander for being onto something real.

As I mentioned last week, Kander has been credited for turning around Chris Webber's season, and he's probably one of the biggest reasons why the Pistons have enjoyed such success keeping their top players on the floor -- last year the team set the NBA record for most consecutive starts by the same starting five (67). A few players have been nicked up here and there this season, but over the last several years they've managed to avoid any type of catastrophic injury that seems to hit most teams sooner or later.

Chris Webber's tenure ended badly in Philadelphia, and many 76ers fans aren't too happy with him now that he's moved on to the Pistons, where he's helped spur a 22-7 record (including a 21-point win over the Sixers last night) since moving into the starting lineup. But, according to C-Webb, perhaps it's not his fault. From the Philadelphia Daily News:

How, Chris Webber was asked, was he able to go from having a foot injury, being listed as inactive and being generally unhappy with the 76ers to all but reinventing himself with the Detroit Pistons?

People, he was told, would like to know.

"They should ask the coach, the coach that was in charge of me, that didn't allow me to play," Webber said before facing the 76ers last night.

In the next sentence, Webber directly identified Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks, saying, "Like I told you before, Mo came to me and said 'We're going to cut half your minutes, half your time.' I said, 'I just came off a 20 [points] and 10 [rebounds] season.' I don't have an answer for that."

Of course, Webber was also nursing a legitimate injury when he came over, a sore left foot that limited his mobility. But the Pistons also have a secret weapon in long-time trainer Arnie Kander, whom Flip Saunders credited for quickly getting Webber back to full strength:

"We've got the 'Magic Man,' Arnie Kander," Saunders said, referring to strength and conditioning coach Arnie Kander. "Arnie's done an amazing thing with a lot of players. We thought Arnie would actually be able to help him a lot, and he has. After 3 days, [Webber's] soreness in his feet was gone."