DENVER – They pawed at him, tugged his grey shirtsleeves and hugged his thick legs, boys and girls, about 20 in all, screaming and squealing as one. Chaun-CEE! Chaun-CEE!

It’s been six weeks since the Detroit Pistons sent Chauncey Billups home, and he’s returned yet again to his old Park Hill neighborhood. The Hiawatha Davis Rec Center is 1,200 miles and a couple 3-pointers from the Palace of Auburn Hills. No B-B-B-Billups here. Only Chaun-CEE, the local kid made good.

On this night, Billups has helped transform the center’s gym into a makeshift holiday store, purchasing $3,000 worth of toys for nearly two dozen families. The children wander between the tables, plucking away their dolls, board games and soccer balls before rushing toward their basketball Santa. Soon, Billups is waist-deep in the grade-school mob, distributing autographs and hugs.

Christmas has come early, and perhaps no one knows this more than Billups’ current employers. On Nov. 3, Pistons GM Joe Dumars delivered the Denver Nuggets the present of their dreams, express-shipping them a heady, veteran point guard in return for Allen Iverson. All that was missing was the gift wrap and a bow atop Billups’ head.

The Nuggets needed someone to stabilize them, someone to lead, and Billups has done all that. Denver has gone 16-6 since his arrival, giving the team its best start in franchise history, along with a perch above the Northwest Division. No longer do these Nuggets appear to be all talent and showmanship. Just maybe, Billups has given them the grit to end their run of one-and-done playoff failure.

“I think Chauncey’s the best thing to happen to Denver so far,” said Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony. He didn’t say whether he meant the team or the city.

The tattoo on Billups’ left shoulder says enough: “King of the Hill,” a title bestowed upon him by his neighborhood. Bracketed by Colorado, East Colfax, East 52nd and Quebec streets, Park Hill is in northeast Denver; its demographics running south to north, black to white, high income to low. Billups grew up here, as did the families of each of his parents, Ray and Faye, their kin stretching a mile in each direction from the Hiawatha Davis Rec Center.

To this day, Billups calls the rec center “my everything.” He spent much of his childhood there, playing basketball, dominoes, cards, pool. Anything and everything. The gym has since been rebuilt – a hotbox before, it now has six baskets, two levels and a running track overhead – but the center’s old coaches and staff members still keep the graying box scores showing Billups’ 0-for-7 afternoons.

“We used to call him ‘Bricklayer,’” said Harry Hollines, the center’s former director, jokingly.

Even then, Billups showed an unusual ability to relate to adults and accept coaching. Whereas most boys started launching shots the moment their shoes touched the court, Billups stuck to the fundamentals, sliding his feet, jab-stepping, zipping a sharp bounce pass. Mike Brown, the Cleveland Cavaliers coach who began his career as a video coordinator and scout for the Nuggets, once worked a youth camp that Billups attended.

“I thought he was a man back then,” Brown said. “His presence was just something that you wanted to follow.”

Billups went on to star at George Washington High School, and when the ACC and Big East came calling, he said no thanks. The University of Colorado in nearby Boulder was just fine. Home was still home.

No matter where Billups’ career took him, from Boston to Toronto to Denver to Minnesota to Detroit, he always returned to Park Hill in the summer. He and his younger brother, Rodney, who starred at the University of Denver, hold a free basketball camp for 300 children each year. Billups’ foundation has a scholarship program at local Regis University, and each summer he sponsors a team – and plays – in the pro-am league at the rec center. On some days, he just stops by to shoot pool or play dominoes.

“You’d think he’d just walked in off the street corner,” said Tony Wells, the center’s longtime track coach.

That sense of community further endeared Billups to the neighborhood. Park Hill has produced plenty of talent. Former New Jersey Nets All-Star Michael Ray Richardson. Billups’ cousin, current Tennessee Titans running back LenDale White. But no one’s shadow has stretched farther than that of Billups. “He’ll be royalty forever,” White once said.

Billups had told friends and family in recent years that he was interested in someday joining the Nuggets’ front office. His chances of playing for them, he figured, were done. He was happy in Detroit. He’d signed a five-year, $60 million contract ($46 million of which was guaranteed) in the summer of 2007 that figured to take him to the end of his playing days. Dumars had promised a shakeup in the wake of the Pistons’ loss to the Boston Celtics in the East finals, but it was hard to argue with the team’s success. The Pistons had made six straight trips to the conference finals and won the NBA championship in 2004 with Billups as the Finals MVP. These were not the Minnesota Timberwolves.

On the evening before the trade, Billups called his dad and spoke favorably about the potential of the Pistons’ younger players. It wasn’t until later that night that he got a strong sense a trade was in the works.

“The first thing you have to deal with when someone tells you you’re being traded is just that,” Billups said. “You’re being traded.”

Billups now says he would have “probably not” re-signed with Detroit if he thought there was a chance of him being moved. But while he clearly wasn’t happy about the way his stay with the Pistons ended, he couldn’t argue with where they sent him.

“I guess he was a little bit sore at first,” said Cleveland center Ben Wallace, a longtime teammate of Billups in Detroit. “But if you’re gonna get traded, wouldn’t you like to go home?”

For Billups’ family and the Park Hill community, there was no bitter with the sweet. They were happy only to have him back. “The ceiling was too low as high as I jumped,” said Billups’ brother, Rodney. “I had to change my number because we were getting so many calls.”

Billups jokes that his mother is more excited to have her three granddaughters back than she is her eldest son. He makes two, three, sometimes four trips to his parents’ house each week. Unlike in Detroit, where his star status made it difficult to go out in public, Billups can take his family to eat in relative peace.

“Since he’s come back, it’s been all positive,” Billups’ father, Ray, said. “All positive.”

That wasn’t the case the first time Billups was traded to Denver, after the Nuggets acquired him from Toronto in a three-team deal midway through the 1998-99 season. He had yet to establish himself in the league, and teams weren’t sure whether he was better equipped to play the point or off-guard. He also wasn’t quite ready for the role of hometown hero.

“I was 22 years old, just came into a lot of money and being in the NBA,” he said. “It was just kind of overwhelming for everybody to want a little bit of your time.”

After missing most of the next season with injuries, Billups was sent on his way. The Nuggets tried to bring him back when he became a free agent in 2007, but they didn’t have the salary-cap room to make an offer that approached the deal he received from Detroit.

“When he left here early in his career, I never thought he’d come back,” Rodney said. “Wishes do come true.”

Billups wasn’t quite sure how the Nuggets would accept him after the trade. Iverson had been popular among his teammates, and Anthony and Kenyon Martin both sounded disappointed about his departure. But Billups did know this much: He could help the Nuggets if they let him. They lacked self-discipline, and he could give them that.

“I knew I would be able to change that fast because I would be the one with the ball in my hands,” he said. “All that run-and-gun, fast shots, crazy shots, I would be able to affect that because you can’t do it if you don’t have the ball.”

Nuggets coach George Karl had already spent much of training camp trying to give the team more of a defensive mindset, no small challenge considering Anthony and Iverson were liabilities on that end of the floor and shot-blocking center Marcus Camby had been traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. The Nuggets played fast and loose, they were fun to watch and they won 50 games last season. But they still got swept by the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.

“After failing to even scare L.A., I said if we’re going to be a Western Conference playoff team and be successful, we’re going to have to change,” Karl said. “In a very unique way, everything we wanted to change, Chauncey believed in and was.”

The Nuggets needed to share the ball. Billups is unselfish. The Nuggets needed to improve their defense. Billups is a rugged and willing defender. The Nuggets needed someone to lead. Above all else, Billups does that.

Billups isn’t a screamer like Kevin Garnett. He guides and counsels, pointing his teammates in the right direction, talking to them between free throws. Already, he has done the unthinkable, giving Anthony a conscience. Two days after the Nuggets’ recent loss to the Houston Rockets, Billups stayed long after practice, forever chatting with Karl on how they can work together to move the team forward.

Said Anthony: “Maybe we needed that guy on the court to say, ‘I know George is the coach, but, no disrespect, I’m running the show now. I’m the general on the court.’ ”

The Pistons, meanwhile, have only recently begun to gain some traction since Billups left, splitting their past 12 games. Iverson has been fined twice: first by the team for skipping practice; then by the league, which docked him $25,000 for comments he made to a fan in Charlotte.

Billups still frequently talks with Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton and Antonio McDyess. Asked if his former teammates say they miss him, a big grin starts to stretch across his face. “Definitely,” he said.

The Nuggets still have work to do to distinguish themselves as legitimate contenders for the West finals, evidenced by their lopsided loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday. The attention to detail isn’t there every night. J.R. Smith, their mercurial young guard, remains flighty. “We don’t have a commitment to get better by every player,” Karl said.

Still, the culture has changed around these Nuggets, and a lot of that credit goes to Billups. Iverson didn’t lack for fans here, but Billups is one of them. Just the other night, Karl went to a local sandwich shop and was stopped by an elderly man who said he used to run the clock for Billups’ high school. He told Karl how much his wife loved Billups, how much everybody loved him.

“There’s obviously a spirit to his years here in Denver and at the University of Colorado,” Karl said. “It’s there. It’s not flaunted. It’s not exuberant. But the kid must have been pretty damn good.”

No one needs to tell the people of Park Hill that. The King is back. For Chauncey Billups’ old neighborhood, for these Nuggets, Christmas came early.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Chauncey Billups is 6-3, an All-Star guard for the Detroit Pistons. One of his nicknames is “Smooth.”

Kendrick Perkins is 6-10 and 280 pounds of hulking, plodding center for the Boston Celtics. He’s not a bad player, but he’s so nondescript he has no nickname, other than “Perk.” He’s such a banger that it might as well be “Tree” or “Oak.”

So when a defensive mix-up left Perkins covering Billups in the open court of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday, you could feel confident that Billups would cross up Perkins on a dribble and whip right past him.

It should happen 100 out of 100 times, even with Billups’ hamstring bothering him. At least if Billups is paying attention.

Naturally, he wasn’t, and Perkins, a man who is averaging 0.3 steals a game in his career, took the ball mid-dribble.

He stole it from Billups like he knew what he was doing. Of course, he didn’t really know what he was doing, evident when Perkins tried to dribble up court only to bounce the ball off his knee and get his feet tangled up like a center is supposed to in the open court.

Not that it mattered.

When Kendrick Perkins is making open-court steals on Chauncey Billups, the game is over. The Pistons, famed in part for their no-shows, weren’t showing up for this one.

Boston 94, Detroit 80.

So much for the series hinging on the Celtics’ inability to win on the road; it just swung on the Pistons’ ability to lose at home. Boston now has a 2-1 lead and a tremendous opportunity to seize control of the series Monday in Game 4.

“Maybe losing at home and taking away that security blanket made them focus more,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers of regaining the home-court advantage the Pistons stole Thursday.

The Celtics deserve credit for playing a great game. They jumped Detroit immediately, opening the game with two dunks en route to an 11-0 lead. They withstood an early Pistons run and then ran away with it. Only a furious, and too late, surge by the Pistons made it close.

Boston had six players reach double figures, including big-time efforts by non-Big Three members Perkins (12 points, 10 rebounds and, of course, one steal) and guard Rajon Rondo.

As good as Boston was, however, this was about how bad Detroit played. The Celtics’ bench couldn’t contain their disbelieving smiles in the first half as the Pistons failed to defend (Boston shot 55.2 percent), crash the boards or even hustle.

“You (saw) what happened,” guard Rodney Stuckey said. “We didn’t come out and play from the beginning. Point blank. We didn’t give (any) effort at all starting the game. That killed us.”

How and why the Pistons would let a 66-win regular-season team regain control of a series with virtually no resistance is inexplicable, even to them. Detroit claims if “it ain’t rough, it ain’t right,” but wasn’t that the point of ending Boston’s almost two-month home-winning streak Thursday? Is the Eastern Conference finals, against the No. 1 seed, media darling, establishment power Celtics, not enough to get anyone’s attention?

Did the Pistons wish they were downtown watching the Stanley Cup finals?

Anyone?

“We were not aggressive at the point of attack,” offered coach Flip Saunders.

“It’s like a snowball effect,” Billups said. “Too many breakdowns.”

“There (are) no excuses why we shouldn’t have won tonight,” Stuckey said. “We were slow today. It can’t happen. We had a good advantage to take this series over but we didn’t do it.”

Instead, Boston has the advantage again. All the doubts and questions about whether this team was capable of winning away from the Boston Garden faded into thin air before the first half was done.

The Celtics kept saying their road woes meant nothing, but now that it was behind them, it felt like a monkey off their backs.

“More like a gorilla,” Paul Pierce said. “That’s why we came out from the start of the game. I think the loss (in Game 2) rejuvenated us.”

What that means going forward is impossible to figure in a series that has swung around unpredictably. Who knows who shows up Monday?

At the least, Boston eyes Memorial Day as an opportunity to all but lock up a berth in the Finals, where their eternal rival Lakers might be waiting.

A weekend road sweep for Boston? Coming into Saturday, that was as improbable as Kendrick Perkins picking Chauncey Billups’ pocket in midcourt.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Dave Cowens, former Boston Celtics great and current Detroit Pistons assistant coach, was leaning against a wall in a back hallway trying to bridge the gap between accomplishments.

Detroit had just dispatched Orlando, 91-86, to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth consecutive year. It’s an accomplishment not done since 1990 and only managed by a few teams ever, including Red Auerbach’s Celtics of the 1970s and ’80s.

Red was a flamboyant character in NBA lore, unafraid to make a scene or light up a celebratory cigar before a victory was even complete. He knew talent, he knew teams and he knew winning. And not only did he know he knew it, he wasn’t afraid to let everyone else know it either.

The current architect of sustained excellence soon tried to shuffle by and flee from a hallway filled with backslappers and media. The unassuming Joe Dumars has always been content to leave the focus on his players and coaches. He’s quick to shrug off any genius label for being the general manager who has made Detroit a most unlikely year-in, year-out power.

“Personality wise, he and Red have some similarities,” Cowens said. “Red wasn’t a big speech maker. Red was pretty much tell-you-how-it-was, straight up. He had that tough demeanor but was kind of soft on the inside from an emotional standpoint.

“I don’t know Joe as well as I did Red, but he seems to be that kind of person. He seems to have empathy for folks.”

And an understanding of them, too, particularly ballplayers. These Pistons haven’t enjoyed a run of championships that make them one of the game’s great dynasties – they’ve managed just one title and two trips to the Finals.

But what they’ve done is notable, particularly because they’ve done it without a parade of megastars any of those championship Celtics teams or Showtime Lakers had that managed eight consecutive conference finals in the 1980s.

To win in the NBA without a central megastar – or two – is unheard of. Even this era’s other great “team,” the San Antonio Spurs, have been anchored for two decades by David Robinson or Tim Duncan, a pair of franchise No. 1 picks.

Through the years, though, Dumars has put together both a solid core and a rotating supporting crew made mostly of castoffs that other teams either misused or misunderstood.

Dumars’ best attribute may just be that empathy. He sees qualities in people others miss.

“Red always used to say, ‘You have to draft character as well as talent,’ ” Cowens said. “(You) look at players not so much what they do ‘X’ and ‘O’ (or) statistics-wise, but at the quality of the person. A lot of stuff can disintegrate in the locker room no matter how good a player is.

“Joe knows that (character) because that is what he is.”

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Dumars grew up the son of a custodian and a truck driver in little Natchitoches, La. He became a self-made player at McNeese State who blossomed into a star with the Pistons. He won two titles, reached the Hall of Fame and presented himself, even as part of the Bad Boys, as one of the classiest players in league history.

He can quickly identify the difference between a passion for winning and a passion for points, some of his staff says. It’s what has driven some of his greatest personnel moves.

Chauncey Billups was on his fifth team when Dumars saw the kind of leader who could be a Finals MVP. Tayshaun Prince was a steal at No. 23 in the draft, a guy who slipped because few knew what to do with his unusual physique. Where others labeled Rasheed Wallace a malcontent, Dumars saw a guy with who was simply too competitive at times.

He snagged Ben Wallace out of Orlando as a throw in when Grant Hill was going to sign there anyway. He saw the difference between Jerry Stackhouse and Richard Hamilton and made a shrewd swap. Antonio McDyess was a glue guy who was more valuable than his stat line.

It’s about people, Dumars said.

“I don’t think you can accomplish this with talent alone,” he said. “I think you have to have character. I try to get character guys who are all about winning.”

Conversely he isn’t patient when personalities change. He can be as cold and calculating as necessary. He’s twice seen difficult coaching personalities – Rick Carlisle and Larry Brown – get shown the door. He smartly let Ben Wallace sign with Chicago when he was demanding monster money. Big Ben has never been the same since.

“If you don’t want to be here, he’ll get you out of here,” laughed Hamilton.

And for his celebrated mistake of selecting Darko Milicic second overall in the 2003 draft, he has still managed to reload the roster with young talent while competing for championships.

His best skill might actually be adding the short term complementary pieces that tend to make the difference. He once brought in Elden Campbell mostly to play Shaquille O’Neal for a few minutes. Jon Barry added some outside shooting once. Chris Webber helped with his passing.

“He has a great feel for teams,” said Scott Perry, the Pistons vice president of operations. “He knows how to constantly tweak his roster at a level that can compete. He drives the whole organization; coaches, players and staff, we settle for nothing less than success.”

——————————————————————————–
Tuesday night was vintage Pistons, which means they won via a lot of things a lot of people call boring.

There was the great defense, including Prince’s brilliant final minute block on Hedo Turkoglu. There was depth that saw as many as four Pistons cover the Magic’s great young center, Dwight Howard.

There was free-throw shooting (16 of 16 from Hamilton), a playoff record-low three turnovers (including none after the first quarter) and a relentless 15 offensive rebounds despite a disadvantage in size.

The Pistons even won without the injured Billups, who was replaced by a quintessential Dumars’ combination of 37-year-old Lindsey Hunter and 22-year-old Rodney Stuckey.

Former Bulls general manager Jerry Krause once received heat for claiming it was organizations, not just players, who won championships. But the Pistons are a testament to what he was talking about.

“(We share) one goal and that’s a championship,” Hamilton said. “We’re supposed to win. (A sixth conference final) is something we feel as though we’re supposed to (do). That’s our confidence.”

Later, Dumars smiled at that sentiment and shrugged. It’s true. He doesn’t take this lightly and he doesn’t undervalue the accomplishment, but the goal isn’t to reach the conference finals. It’s to win a fourth NBA championship, a second as an executive to match his two as a player.

Auerbach wouldn’t have been satisfied yet either. So Joe Dumars will leave the cigar and the celebrating for later.

Why yes, there were suggestions that Avery Johnson was losing his Dallas Mavericks, including the struggling Josh Howard. No more. The Mavs aren’t just listening to the coach, they’re reading him, too.

The trouble is, it appears Howard never made it past the title of Johnson’s new book, “Aspire Higher.”

In perhaps the most stunningly honest, if ill-fated, response to a question in a long, long time in the NBA, Howard said Friday – of all places – on Michael Irvin’s radio show, that yes, smoking marijuana was a part of his and his peers’ summer vacations.

Surprise, surprise.

” … What I was stating was just [in response to] a random question [the Morning News] asked me about the marijuana use,” Howard said. “I just let him know that most of the players in the league use marijuana, and I have and do partake in smoking weed in the offseason sometimes and that’s my personal choice and my personal opinion. But I don’t think that’s stopping me from doing my job.”

Well, this was wonderful timing for the beleaguered Mavs and surging NBA. Dallas was fighting to stay alive in its Western Conference playoff series with New Orleans, trailing 2-0 before winning Friday night’s Game 3. No Mavs had struggled worse than Howard and Jerry Stackhouse in this series, and together they still found a way to deepen the drama around Dallas.

Stackhouse ripped New Orleans coach Byron Scott, calling him “a sucker,” but it was Howard’s stunning honesty that promises to be a story that won’t go away in these playoffs, even if the Mavs do. So far, NBA commissioner David Stern had been blessed with star power, drama and intrigue in these playoffs, and Howard sent it, well, up in smoke.

Whatever Howard’s take, he didn’t need to breathe life into a week-old newspaper story that no one noticed by volunteering to on the radio and make matters worse within hours of Game 3. Of course, one of ESPN’s NBA house organs was calling the game, chastising Howard for dragging other NBA players into the story.

Well, guess what: Howard knows the deal. It is what it is. He’ll be ripped for doing so, but he was honest. The timing was a mistake, yes, but telling the truth never is. Apparently that goes against NBA-sanctioned announcers playing make-believe in their television and radio work on the network.

“We don’t comment on any specifics related to our anti-drug program,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said Friday night.

NBA players are tested throughout training camp and the regular season, but there are no suspensions and no public acknowledgment of positive marijuana tests until a player’s third positive. With harder drugs, you get popped right away. The NBA probably can’t suspend Howard, 27, but the league conceivably could drag him into a league-sponsored drug education program.

Back in January, few noticed when the Indiana Pacers’ David Harrison, a mildly talented 7-footer, was suspended for five games for violating the league’s substance abuse program and reacted in a less than shame-on-me way.

“Is that bad?” Harrison wondered. “That’s the question I really want people to ask themselves sometimes. Following rules blindly doesn’t mean you’re right just by following those rules. There needs to be a just rule. I mean, a long time ago George Washington sat around, didn’t want to pay taxes to the crown … and we broke that rule and we have America today. You know, if we would’ve lost that war, George Washington would be Benedict Arnold.”

Listen, this is a debate a lot of Americans want to have on the legality, the ethics, of marijuana use. Only, athletes aren’t allowed to be part of that discussion. You know the drill: What will the kids think? And there’s truth there. For a league that is constantly fighting issues related to racial stereotypes, Stern understands that whatever intelligent conversation that someone else might want to have on the issue, it is suicidal for his sport.

Along with his suspension, this waxing of philosophy on Harrison’s part probably will make it tougher for him to find work this offseason. Yet Josh Howard isn’t David Harrison. He’s a borderline All-Star in the NBA. He’s a pretty popular player. To his credit, Howard didn’t insist that he was misquoted, or burned, or taken out of context. Yes, he said it. Maybe no one wants to hear that there’s marijuana use in the NBA – never mind society – but someone asked and Josh Howard answered.

“I was raised on being truthful and honest with myself and my family, so I can say it with no problems and go out there and perform to the best of my abilities (Friday) and not even think about it.”

Maybe this sounds crazy to people today, but in its own way, that’s professionalism.

PHOENIX – Boris Diaw has heard it all from the local hang up-and-listen psychologists. French Pastry. Doris Meow. Phoenix Suns coach Mike D’Antoni, once lamenting Diaw’s expanding waistline, questioned how many croissants his French forward had eaten over the summer.

The criticism has never seemed to hang on Diaw for long. For better or worse, he shrugs his shoulders, nods his head and smiles. He doesn’t have an Alpha Dog personality and he never will, and while that burns more than a few Suns fans, it can also lead to moments like Sunday.

Then, the one Sun who often looks like he’d rather be lying on a beach postponed his vacation for at least a couple days. Totaling 20 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists while corralling Tony Parker on the other end of the floor, Diaw extended the Suns’ season with a 105-86 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of their Western Conference playoff series.

“He was phenomenal,” D’Antoni said.

Give D’Antoni credit for this victory, too. He’s weathered considerable heat after the Suns fell into their 0-3 hole against the Spurs, much of it justified. But after watching Grant Hill limp along for three games, the Suns coach made his most important adjustment yet: He told Hill he wasn’t going to play and started Diaw in his place. Now D’Antoni wishes he made the move two games sooner.

“I was kind of snookered a little bit,” D’Antoni said, “because I thought we won the first game, so why change?”

The Suns also, Steve Nash said, “adjusted their effort.” They played desperate and aggressive, and if they had played that way Friday, this series might be even. Now they have to fly to San Antonio for another elimination game Tuesday.

“We’re still in a deep hole and we understand that,” Raja Bell said. “But we still have life.”

Bell helped make sure of that. He scored Phoenix’s first seven points and set the tone with his aggressiveness. The Suns did a better job of fighting through the Spurs’ screens and when Parker and Manu Ginobili started to penetrate, Amare Stoudemire and Shaquille O’Neal stepped up to meet them. Always, it seemed, the lane looked too crowded for the Spurs guards, evidenced by the nine turnovers they totaled.

The difference? Diaw. Needing someone to fence in Parker after he torched the Suns for 41 points Friday, D’Antoni called on the guy who knew him the most: His best man. Diaw stood next to Parker at his wedding in July and shadowed him Sunday. The two grew up together in France’s national program, long enough for Diaw to learn a few things about his best friend. Whereas the Suns often sagged off Parker in Game 3, Diaw used his 6-foot-8 frame to rarely give him separation. The first shot Parker put up, Diaw threw back.

“I kind of know sometimes when he wants to go to his floater, when he tries to go for his jump shot,” Diaw said, “or when he is looking to pass.”
Parker missed 10 of his 17 shots and finished with 18 points but didn’t give his friend too much credit, insisting he merely missed shots he usually makes. “That’s coaches,” Parker said. “They always think (length) is going to bother me.”

There’s a reason for that: It does. Parker has struggled at times against longer defenders, including one the Suns used to throw on him: Shawn Marion. He eventually finds a way to counter, and he might this time, too, maybe even as soon as Tuesday. If the Spurs had to lose, this way was probably the best way for them. Gregg Popovich was able to rest Parker, Ginobili and Tim Duncan while giving Robert Horry and Brent Barry a chance to regain some of their rhythm.

D’Antoni instead chose to play Diaw a season-high 45 minutes. “I trust him,” D’Antoni said, “and I always have.”

Sometimes too much. After Diaw averaged 13.3 points, 6.9 assists and 6.2 rebounds while filling in for Stoudemire during his first season in Phoenix, the Suns rewarded him with a $45 million contract. Diaw took his fat contract and got fat, soon becoming Example No. 1 why Phoenix was too soft. When the going got tough, didn’t the Suns only get their passports?

Diaw has always seemed to lack an inner fire, and that burned his coach in Atlanta. Mike Woodson was so ready to be rid of Diaw, he would have likely driven him to Phoenix after the Suns asked for him in the Joe Johnson sign-and-trade. Though the Spurs had once hoped to draft Diaw – after Atlanta took him, they traded their pick to Phoenix, which used it on Leandro Barbosa – when the Hawks made him available two seasons later, they, too, were scared off by Diaw’s competitiveness issue.

D’Antoni, however, saw only Diaw’s versatility. He initially viewed him as a possible backup to Nash then played him at center when Stoudemire went down with his knee injury. Now he thinks Diaw may be best suited for small forward. Sunday was the first time D’Antoni started his Diaw-Stoudemire-Shaq frontline, but it won’t be the last. Hill didn’t play a minute and yet, because of his abdominal injury, he still had trouble standing up straight as he left the locker room.

With Bruce Bowen chasing Nash, the Suns were able to post up Diaw on smaller defenders and use his playmaking abilities. Diaw also had similar advantages in the first two games, including an opportunity to win Game 1 at the end of the first overtime, but couldn’t capitalize. At times, he’s been too unselfish, too willing to pass. The Suns, though, don’t always consider that a negative.

“Boris is going to play the way Boris is going to play,” Phoenix assistant coach Alvin Gentry said. “No one says anything when he throws it out to Raja and he’s got a wide-open three.”

Diaw’s biggest impact on last year’s series with the Spurs also came in Game 4. Then he and Stoudemire walked off the bench and into a suspension after Horry hip-checked Nash. On Sunday only D’Antoni left early.

With 3:38 left and Phoenix up by 22, official Scott Foster gave the Suns coach a technical for suggesting the refs were trying to even up the foul count. D’Antoni then jokingly told fellow ref David Jones not to also start in on him because he was going to fill out Jones’ evaluation form after the game. Jones ejected him.

“I don’t know where the sense of humor has gone,” D’Antoni said.

Two minutes later Diaw exited to his own standing ovation. He nodded his head and smiled. In two days, for better or worse, the Suns will lean on him again.

This will be the week remembered for six teams in the West reaching 50 wins, for the Hawks securing their grip on a playoff spot and the Warriors losing theirs, and for the long-awaited returns of two superstars, Gilbert Arenas and Elton Brand.

And, most importantly in the Power Poll’s world, as the week the Celtics reclaimed the top spot. With nothing but sub-.500 Eastern Conference teams remaining on their schedule, the Celtics should stay No. 1. Until the real season begins, anyway.

Onto the rankings.

1. Boston Celtics (2).
Sixty wins. A convincing victory over the Hornets, last week’s No. 1. And they’re still improving.
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2. San Antonio Spurs (3).
As good as the West has been, these guys look to be the best.

3. New Orleans Hornets (1).
Failed in the second half of their test at Boston but rebounded nicely with three-straight subsequent road wins in the East.

4. Utah Jazz (4).
Road woes continue with loss at lowly Minnesota. But no team is better at home.

5. Los Angeles Lakers (6).
Welcome back, Pau Gasol. Now, how about Andrew Bynum?

6. Detroit Pistons (9).
So good they can win with their backups. Well, against Minnesota, anyway.

7. Phoenix Suns (8).
Shaq-detractors have been silenced, at least for the time being.

8. Denver Nuggets (11).
Getting hot at the right time. Six-out-of-seven run puts them in good standing for playoffs, especially since they hold tiebreaker advantage over Mavs and Warriors.

9. Houston Rockets (5).
They’ve cooled off considerably since their 22-game win streak, dropping two of three over the past week.

10. Dallas Mavericks (12).
Josh Howard went for at least 25 in every game in Dirk Nowitzki’s absence, but the Mavs are still happy their superstar has returned.

11. Golden State Warriors (7).
Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson and Monta Ellis trying to become first trio to average 20 on same team since the Warriors of TMC. But that still may not be enough to get them in the playoffs.

12. Cleveland Cavaliers (14).
No wonder LeBron’s back is ailing. It isn’t easy carrying a team the way he carries this one.

13. Philadelphia 76ers (10).
Last weekend’s two-game losing streak was their first since early February, but don’t worry, they’re back over .500.

14. Orlando Magic (13).
They may be good, but as this week shows, they’re not good enough to handle the West’s best, with home loses to the Hornets and Spurs,

15. Atlanta Hawks (20).
Mike Bibby seems to be finding his groove, shooting 57.1 percent and averaging 7.8 assists during five-game winning streak.

16. Sacramento Kings (18).
Artest says he’s not likely to opt out this summer and wants to remain with Kings next season. Poll’s question: Is this supposed to make the Kings happy?

17. Washington Wizards (15).
After almost five months, 67 games and who knows how many postponements and doubts, Gilbert Arenas is back. But Wiz lose anyway.

18. Toronto Raptors (17).
Relax, Toronto. Chris Bosh is back to form: Four games of at least 20 with better than 50 percent shooting.

19. Blazers (16).
With four of their remaining six games left against playoff teams, finishing .500 looks much tougher than it did a few weeks ago.

20. Bulls (23).
One scout says these guys have regressed under Jim Boylan. Considering how poorly they played under Scott Skiles, that’s not good thing for Boylan to hear.

21. Pacers (21).
Jermaine O’Neal returns to action, but when will he return to All-Star form? He says next season, for sure.

22. Bobcats (22).
Sam Vincent says a talk with Emeka Okafor brought the player out of a recent funk. Poll says coach should check the increased minutes. That’s what does it every time.

23. Nets (19).
Time is running out for a Keith Van Horn sighting, though he shows up on the roster every day.

24. Clippers (25).
Finally, some good news: Elton Brand is back. Wait ‘til next year, Clippers fans.

25. Bucks (30).
It’s official: They won’t make the playoffs. Soon to be official? They’re looking for a new coach. Still, that was a great play Larry Krystkowiak drew up to beat the Wizards.

26. Grizzlies (26).
Changing the coach won’t fix these guys but signs sure point to Marc Iavaroni being one and done.

27. Knicks (28).
On the day Donnie Walsh is introduced, Knicks give up 130 to the lowly Grizzlies and lose by 16. Thanks for showing up, fellas.

28. Timberwolves (24).
It’s been a long season, but at least Al Jefferson has established himself as a future star—and perhaps this season’s most improved player.

29. Sonics (27).
Not a pretty finish: Stuck on 17 wins and nothing but Western Conference playoff contenders on the schedule.

30. Heat (29).
Need three wins to avoid losingest season in franchise history. Good luck.

[Source: Yahoo Sports]

As March gives way to April the New Orleans Hornets cede the top rung of the Powerless Rankings to the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics’ convincing victory over the Hornets on Friday was enough to push them to No. 1, a standing they might not give up through the end of the regular season.

The San Antonio Spurs made a sizeable jump, using their seven-game win streak to move to fourth, while the Denver Nuggets, in spite of Monday’s meltdown in Phoenix, have cracked the top 10.

Rankings, as usual, are judged on games from Tuesday through Monday. Previous standing for each team follows current ranking.

PARADE PLANNERS

1. (2) Boston Celtics – Does Celtics’ 25-5 record against the West mean the Eastern Conference finals will be the real NBA Finals? 2. (1) New Orleans Hornets – Coach Byron Scott told Hornets he wanted them to return from six-game trip in same position in which they left. Four games into trek, they’re still looking down on rest of West. 3. (4) Detroit Pistons – Flip Saunders thinks Rasheed Wallace will someday become a coach. In a related story, two-thirds of all NBA referees applied for early retirement this week. 4. (8) San Antonio Spurs – How wild is West? Just ask Spurs. In three weeks they went from first to sixth in conference standings and now back up to second. 5. (5) Phoenix Suns – When Shaquille O’Neal called Amare Stoudemire the best big man in the game less than a month ago, the compliment rang somewhat hollow. Turns out O’Neal just might know what he’s talking about. 6. (3) Los Angeles Lakers – Pau Gasol is expected to return this week. Is Andrew Bynum far off? Bigger question: How long can Derek Fisher continue to play with torn tendon in his foot?

STILL DREAMING

7. (6)Utah Jazz– Toughest closing schedule in the West begins Friday: San Antonio, at New Orleans, at Dallas, Denver, Houston, at San Antonio. Add it up and the Jazz could be looking over their shoulder at the Nuggets by season’s end. 8. (7) Houston Rockets – Since their 22-game win streak, the Rockets are 1-4 against teams with winning records with the four losses coming by an average of 17.8 points.
9. (13) Denver Nuggets – Hardest team in the league to read. They beat Mavericks and Warriors then blow a 22-point lead in Phoenix. What was such a promising week has again left the Nuggets on the outside looking in.
10. (9) Golden State Warriors – Four-game trip that includes visits to San Antonio, Dallas and New Orleans will help determine whether Warriors can strengthen their grip on one of conference’s final two playoff seeds. They have this much going for them: Since Stephen Jackson returned from his season-opening suspension, Warriors haven’t lost consecutive road games.
11. (10) Dallas Mavericks – Losing to Denver and Golden State has left the Mavericks in a three-way fight for survival, but the week did end with a second win over the Clippers and this promising bit of news: Dirk Nowitzki has made enough progress from his ankle and knee injuries that team officials think he might be ready to play in this week’s tough three-game stretch against Warriors, Lakers and Suns.
12. (11) Orlando Magic – Magic’s most feared opponent? Dwight Howard. He’s already knocked three teammates out of the lineup. He tore Tony Battie’s rotator cuff when he whacked him during a workout shortly before training camp. He caught Jameer Nelson in the chin with a vicious forearm last week, causing the Magic’s point guard to experience concussion-like symptoms and miss parts of two games. On Monday, Howard broke the right middle finger on Brian Cook’s shooting hand when he hit him in practice. Cook is expected to miss most of the final two weeks of the regular season.
13. (14) Cleveland Cavaliers – How many more games do the Cavs have to lose before we’re obligated to stop calling them The Playoff Team No One Wants To Face?
14. (18) Toronto Raptors – Raptors still have time to find a little rhythm before postseason. Only two of last eight games are against teams currently seeded for playoffs: Atlanta and Detroit.
15. (12) Philadelphia 76ers – Sixers currently hold East’s No. 7 seed, but that’s not the biggest indication of how much they’ve improved this season. This is: Team is averaging 19,930 fans for its last six home dates compared to 13,263 for its first 31.
16. (15) Portland Trail Blazers – Good news: Greg Oden is dunking. Bad news: It came on a 9-foot rim during a pickup game at a local heath club.
17. (16) Washington Wizards – With Antonio Daniels nursing a wrist injury and Caron Butler playing on a sore hamstring, Wizards might need to lean on Gilbert Arenas more than they expected.
18. (17) Atlanta Hawks – Three-game lead with eight to play should seem fairly secure in race for East’s final playoff berth. Until you notice five of those eight games are against Toronto, Philadelphia (twice), Boston and Orlando.

GET THOSE TEE TIMES READY

19. (19) Indiana Pacers – Jermaine O’Neal is back, but Pacers are going to need even more help – from Hawks – if they hope to reach playoffs.
20. (20) New Jersey Nets – Richard Jefferson admitted publicly what everyone had long known about the Nets: “We were dead men walking with the Jason Kidd situation.” The Mavericks feel your pain, R.J.
21. (21) Sacramento Kings – Ron Artest deemed the Kings’ season “a failure” because they didn’t make the playoffs. Considering Artest has only reached the postseason four times in his nine seasons, we call it something else: “the norm.”
22. (24) Charlotte Bobcats – After beating the Lakers, Seattle and Portland in succession, Bobcats coach Sam Vincent declares that he and the team have been “great” this season. That’s one way of looking at it. The other is that Charlotte’s three-game win streak was another example of how the team has underachieved. 23. (22) Minnesota Timberwolves – Timberwolves swingman Kirk Snyder gets the latest Quote of the Week award after receiving a fat lip from former teammate Matt Harpring during Minnesota’s victory over Utah. “He’s a physical specimen,” Snyder said, “kind of like myself.”
24. (23) Chicago Bulls – It’s taken five months, but Luol Deng can finally admit the obvious: “We weren’t that good this year.”
SECAUCUS SIX

25. (27) Los Angeles Clippers – It’s been this kind of year for the Clippers: Elton Brand is expected to return this week. Just as Chris Kaman leaves with a right ankle injury. 26. (25) Milwaukee Bucks – Only suspense left in Bucks’ season is GM search. Suns vice president of basketball operations David Griffin and former Sonics GM Rick Sund have reportedly already interviewed for job. 27. (26) Memphis Grizzlies – Reports continue to surface that Marc Iavaroni’s coaching stint with the Grizzlies could be a one-and-done deal. 28. (28) Seattle SuperSonics– Sonics’ own playoff chances died in, oh, November, but they’ll have plenty of opportunity to play role of spoiler. Their last seven games are against Houston, Denver, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Golden State. 29. (30) New York Knicks – Knicks have practiced just four times in past three weeks. Yet another example of Isiah Thomas’ “championship” plan. 30. (29) Miami Heat – Not all is bad for the Heat. With Joel Anthony, Kasib Powell and Blake Ahearn

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey let out a long, exasperated sigh over the telephone Tuesday, as though to say: Are you kidding? Asking Yao Ming to ease back on his Chinese basketball commitments – never mind sit out the Beijing Olympics in August – is a request that’ll go unasked to his franchise star.

Yao’s body takes a terrible toll at 7-foot-6, something needs to change and still the Rockets are at the mercy of a Chinese basketball federation that never truly let the NBA have the most popular and beloved of its 1.3 billion people. He’s forever on loan, forever on the way to getting his career run into the ground.

“Asking him to not play for China is like, well, asking him not to play basketball,” Morey said. “We understood that when we drafted him and it’s still the case. We know that he belongs to the fans of the NBA and those of China. It isn’t a consideration to discourage him.”

Yao has gone down again. This time, it’s a stress fracture in his left foot. The threshold of chronic injury to his legs and feet creeps closer. There’s a disturbing, depressing pattern. He has broken his foot twice in the past two years. He’s broken a leg. He’s had an infected toe. Four surgeries in two years and the truth is increasingly inescapable: With the way he moves, with 7 feet, 6 inches of unprecedented polish and power, Yao has asked his lower body to support a style, a frame, that no basketball player his size has ever maintained.

What complicates everything is the demands, the pressure, the loyalty that Yao has to his national team. NBA commissioner David Stern had to undergo years of glacial negotiations to crack the Chinese market, to get Yao and Milwaukee’s Yi Jianlian into the league. Yao is such an earnest and loyal son, honorable and decent to the core.

“The national team is a part of who he is,” his old coach, Jeff Van Gundy, said.

Yao has trouble saying no to anyone, Van Gundy said – never mind the government that manipulated his development from birth to the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. Van Gundy calls Yao the hardest-working and best teammate in the NBA. He loved coaching him, loves counting him as a friend. And truth be told, he’s desperately worried about Yao’s future.

As it turned out, Van Gundy walked into a Houston health club Tuesday afternoon and still hadn’t heard the news about Yao’s injury. He was on the telephone with a Miami radio station when someone finally informed him. Just then, guess who walked through the doors?

Yao.

Yao’s personal trainer, the Rockets former strength-and-conditioning coach, keeps his office in the site. So, Van Gundy and Yao talked for a half hour, and what Yao insisted in his news conference – that missing the Olympics would be “the biggest loss of my career until right now” – was repeated with emotion in private. Yao had to get back to represent China, he insisted to Van Gundy.

As Van Gundy said, “The Olympics means so much to him, but after that, he’s turning 28 and it doesn’t do anybody any good if his body is going to be chronically injured. Either he has to develop more of a ‘no’ personality – which isn’t his way – or someone around him needs to be the bad guy for him and say ‘No’ for him.”

It isn’t just the physical toll that the summers with Chinese basketball have taken, but the mental, too. For Yao, he never gets a break when he plays for his country in the summer. It isn’t the Chinese way to make allowances for Yao when he’s playing for the national team. They run long and relentless training camps and Yao sits out nothing. He would never be inclined to ask for a drill off – never mind a day – and they’d never be inclined to offer it.
The Rockets doctor insisted on Tuesday that Yao should be recovered for Beijing. Here’s the scariest question for Houston management: Will that even matter to the Chinese basketball federation? This isn’t just any Olympics for China, but its ultimate stage. Publicly, they insist that they can medal in these Games. That’s doubtful, but it will still be their best team ever. And do you think China would hesitate to play Yao at 70 percent, or 80, or anything below complete recovery?

Whatever the circumstances, Yao will play in Beijing and beyond. As always, the Rockets will have little to no say in it.

When reached Tuesday, a high-ranking international basketball official sounded unoptimistic about Yao’s chances of ever catching a break with the Chinese basketball federation.

“They will continue to pressure him,” the official said. “The one thing they do with all of their athletes is drive them into the ground with training. The strongest survive. If you don’t, they’ll find another to come and do it.

“I mean, they don’t do little things like block out good airline seats for them when they travel. They can all be in middle seats in coach for all they care, and that’s how Yao travels with them. Whatever happens with his injuries, they’re going to insist that he keeps playing for them.”

Morey, the Rockets GM, was respectful and realistic Tuesday. He knows the drill: Yao Ming is his franchise player, but he belongs to China. And always will. This was the deal when they drafted him and that’ll be the way it goes without negotiation.
That’s Yao Ming. That’s his identity, his life, his burden. Until he can no longer run on the floor, he’s China’s basketball star. For his own good, his own survival, this has to end with the Beijing Olympics. For once in his dutiful life, Yao Ming has to be the bad guy.