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No Chauncey Billups, no Rasheed Wallace, no Tayshaun Prince. And no Rip Hamilton, Coatesville's finest, who missed the whole game with a sore hip. The Pistons' backups and bench-enders finished up against Philly's starters (and it's a testament to their talent that they cut a double-digit deficit to five at one point). Did that matter, or was it more important for the Sixers to keep pace with Washington in the battle for fifth place in the Eastern Conference?
It didn't bother the Sixers, who played their regular rotation down the stretch.
"Our focus was more on us," said coach Maurice Cheeks, who had to focus on keeping dinner down after leaving the bench in the third quarter with flulike symptoms and staying in the locker room for the rest of the night.
It didn't bother the Pistons, who are locked into second place in the East, unable to catch first-place Boston, unable to be caught by third-place Orlando.
"If we were really trying to win the game, the starters would have been in there," Billups said afterward.
But it bothered Bryson Young.
"I am kind of upset about the fact that they didn't play," Young, clad in a Pistons jersey, said in Section 114 as the game dwindled down. "It seems like they're saving themselves for the playoffs. I thought that this was going to be a precursor for the playoffs. That's what I was expecting. But it seems like for some reason they think they need to save themselves, and I thought that they were a strong enough team to play a game like this and do what they had to do."
The 27-year-old Montgomery County resident sat next to Jennifer Woy, who had shelled out $125 apiece for two tickets - a postponed Valentine's Day present for Young.
"It's a difficult turn of events, no doubt about it," said Woy, also in Pistons colors.
The fans don't understand. The coach will try to explain.
"Our starters have gone to the conference finals five straight years," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said before tip-off. "Tayshaun's played more games than anyone over the last five years, anyone in the league. These guys have logged a lot of minutes. So they need [rest]. We made a decision earlier in the year, knowing that it might cost us some games by giving them rest sometimes. But that was the decision that was made."
But the fan and the coach might as well be speaking Sanskrit and Urdu to each other. It's what every coach in every sport does: When you can, you rest your stars, keep them fresh. It's what Tony Dungy did with Peyton Manning the last couple of seasons; it's what Andy Reid frequently did once the Eagles had their spot in the postseason secure; it's what the Penguins did with Sidney Crosby on Sunday, keeping him out of the regular-season finale with the Flyers. (That was the reason, right? Just askin'.)
But it doesn't make sense to people who work all day and save all week to get a chance - maybe one chance - to see their favorite players and teams and who don't get discounts when those players sit.
The Sixers get some complaints from season-ticket holders when other teams don't come with their best, but there's not much the home team can do about it. Nor is this something you hang on a coach, whose livelihood depends on having his team ready to roll when the second season begins. If Boston's Kevin Garnett badly turns an ankle Friday night in a meaningless blowout win over Milwaukee, to whom do you think the criticism will flow - Garnett or his coach, Doc Rivers?
This is a league matter, actionable only by people like commissioner David Stern, who has popped teams in years past that were cavalier about treating the end of the regular season like the preseason.
Stern can't mandate specific minute counts for players, but he should make it plain to teams that are playing out the string, at one end of the standings or the other: Unless a player is injured, like Hamilton, teams have to make every effort to play the starters at least a few minutes every quarter. Coaches can still get their stars the rest they need; fans can get what they've paid for.
"The whole season is the playoffs," Young said. "The playoffs are supposed to be after you play your heart out for the full season."
Yeah, he had a beer in his hand. It still sort of made sense.
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