--While most people are focusing on how Iverson and Chauncey Billups will impact their new teams, coach Michael Curry is more concerned with replacing Antonio McDyess' scoring and defense on the second unit. His solution for scoring punch is to have Tayshaun Prince play more with the backups.
"We have to change some things up," Curry said. "We're going to move Tayshaun around, even though he's a starter, and make him the anchor scoring forward on the second unit. That should enable him to get more touches and be more aggressive." Prince scored 27 points in Toronto Wednesday after getting shut out in the opening quarter. He got into the offensive flow with the reserves.
"We don't want our role players to step out of their roles," Curry said.
--G Richard Hamilton didn't speak with the media for two days after the trade but it had nothing to do with Allen Iverson. He was just bummed to see his backcourt partner of six years, Chauncey Billups, get traded.
"It's tough. We were like brothers," he said. "We were everything to each other's career. We were nothing when we first got here to Detroit and we won a championship together. When you lose a person like that, a brother, it's a tough situation. We did a lot of special things together."
"The thing that's going to get us past this is winning basketball games and being on the same page," Iverson said. "It's going to be important for me and Rip to have a certain relationship off the court as well as on the court. We just need to be around each other and get to know each other even more than we do now."
Hamilton and Iverson have a connection, since agent Leon Rose represents both of them.
--The Pistons' latest backcourt pairing showed solidarity when they arrived at Izod Center Friday night. They were wearing duplicate T-shirts of Barack Obama in a dunking pose while jumping over John McCain.
--Chauncey Billups won't be replaced as a tri-captain. Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince will serve as co-captains the rest of the season.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I feel bad we lost the game. I'm even more upset that it was a game we could have won because we jumped right on them and we took our foot off of their necks. With this team, it's rare when they jump on somebody and get a lead and then let them back in the game." -- G Allen Iverson on his Detroit debut.
