Paging Doctor Webbie

Arnie Kander's task: Get Chauncey Billups ready for Saturday's game
BY KRISTA JAHNKE • FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER • May 9, 2008


ORLANDO -- As his teammates strapped on basketball shoes and took the
floor at Amway Arena for Thursday's practice, Pistons point guard
Chauncey Billups sat barefoot along the sideline, awaiting word from
strength-and-conditioning coach Arnie Kander about what to do next.

"I trust in him," Billups said, "and listen to everything he says."

With his strained right hamstring, there would be no running or
cutting or playing Thursday. There would, however, be plenty of work.

"He's going to have stuff he's never seen before," Kander said. "He's
going to have a lot of things because he's never had a hamstring
(injury) before. He's going to do a lot of stuff he won't even be able
to spell."

Kander planned an "around-the-clock" treatment plan of electronic
stimulation, massaging, stretching, strengthening, and, as Billups
called it, "Arnie stuff."

"Everything you can imagine, to be honest with you," Billups said. "I
was in there for a while last night. I've been there all day today.
You just do everything you can do."

Kander's optimistic -- and, he says, realistic -- goal is to have
Billups ready for Game 4 against the Magic on Saturday. The team will
clear him to play only if he's ready.

"We never push anybody back -- never push anybody to get in there and
play," coach Flip Saunders said. "When he's got a comfort level, then
he'll be ready to go. If not, we'll go with other people."

The team's brain trust won't know whether he has found that comfort
level until today, at the earliest, when Billups could start testing
the muscle on the court.

"When he can run, sprint, cut, jump, play basketball," he'll be back,
Kander said. "Basically, we really base it on him being able to do
everything. We don't give numbers like 85 or 90% because there really
is no way to classify that. When he can do what Chauncey Billups does
.... then we'll give him the go."

Billups didn't have an MRI exam because Kander said it wouldn't tell
him much. He said he learns more simply by feeling the injury. And he
liked what he felt on Billups.

"The fibers felt great," Kander said. "They were together. He was
walking normal as he left the arena. This morning, he was looking
good. If he feels as good in the morning as he did last night, to me,
that's tremendous. Usually, in the morning, you feel like doo-doo."