Chauncey Billups returning to Palace tomorrow for 1st time since trade..
Written by The Go-To-Man Mattie T. on March 2, 2009
Mr. Big Shot is coming back to town.
After spending 6 full seasons in Detroit that included 3 All-Star appearences, 2 NBA All-Defense second team selections, 1 All-NBA second team selection, 1 all-NBA third team selection & winning the 2004 NBA Finals MVP award, Chauncey Billups will return to the Palace of Auburn Hills on Tuesday for the visiting Denver Nuggets.
For Billups, it will be the first game that he will play at the Palace as a visitor since January 23rd, 2002. (Billups was a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves)
In that game, Billups scored 19 points on 8 of 10 shooting (highest shooting percentage of season with 10 or more shots taken), but did commit 5 fouls during Minnesota’s 104-83 loss.
Chauncey has had a resurgent season with his hometown Nuggets (is a native of Denver, attended George Washington High School & went to Colorado University), as he is averaging career-highs in made field goals per game (5.5), field goal attemps per game (13.0), and points per game (18.7).
Several reasons point to Billups having a big game tomorrow night against his former team. Career-wise, Chauncey has a higher field goal percentage against Detroit (51.6% in 9 games) then any other NBA team.
Nuggets’ forward Carmelo Anthony could miss tomorrow’s game due to an undisclosed personal matter. In the 13 games this season that Anthony has missed, Billups has averaged 21.4 points per game & Denver has gone 8-5 in that stretch.
Billups is also shooting better on the road from the field (44.8% in 27 road games compared to 40.0% in 30 home games) & from three-point distance (44.3% on the road compared to 34.6% at home).
To make matters even worse for Detroit, guard Allen Iverson has already been ruled out of Tuesday’s game.
Iverson is averaging a career-low 18.0 points per game in his 14th NBA season.
The Pistons have not beaten a plus .500 team from the Western Conference all season, while their 2 previous wins (against Oklahoma City & Sacramento) are against teams that are a combined SIXTY-EIGHT games under the .500 mark.
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