--Rasheed Wallace does not believe his tutoring of Orlando center Dwight Howard is counterproductive. Wallace has given Howard numerous tips during Howard's four-year NBA career. But Wallace is not worried that those suggestions will come back to haunt him and the Pistons in this series.
"You ever had an intern? Get an intern and you'll see what it is," Wallace said during the Pistons' shootaround Saturday. "You teach an intern some things, but you won't teach an intern everything." Detroit held Howard to 17.3 points a game during the regular-season series while forcing him to make an average of 3.5 turnovers. "With the all the success he's had, especially winning the dunk contest and all that stuff, he's humble," Wallace said. "He doesn't have the flamboyant attitude. That's what I like about him."
--Point guard Chauncey Billups is just as surprised as most NBA fans that Eastern Conference eighth-seed Atlanta forced a Game 7 against No. 1 seed Boston. "It's a dogfight," he said. "I am shocked. I'm happy for Woody (Atlanta coach and former Pistons assistant Mike Woodson). I've said all along that for us, teams like Philadelphia and Atlanta are a nightmare because they're just too athletic and they play so free. They junk it up and switch a lot on defense, so they're tough. Obviously, it's tough for Boston, too.
"That's the difference between a team that has gone through a bunch of playoff series together and a team that hasn't. You don't know how those people are going to react in those types of situations."
Billups attributes it more to Boston's draw, rather than a lack of familiarity. "That's easy to say now because they're struggling, but if they had gotten somebody else, it could have been a sweep and nobody would even talk about that," he said. "In the playoffs, it's all about matchups, I don't care if it's the first round, third round or Finals."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I try to bring the energy every night. It's my job. I try to go down low and be dirty, be rough and get physical." -- Power forward Jason Maxiell on his 12-point, nine-rebound outing against the Magic.
