Francis Lightened Up Atkins at the Expense of Rocket

Atkins & Co. foil Francis


AUBURN HILLS — Steve Francis made a big mistake Wednesday night.

He started talking junk to the wrong guy at the wrong time, and, by making it personal, contributed greatly to the Rockets’ ugly 85-66 loss to the Pistons.

It was late in the first quarter when Francis made a quick move on Chucky Atkins. The move was so quick that Atkins lost his balance and fell. Francis hit the shot.

“From then on, that started Chucky’s engine,” Chauncey Billups said. “Steve started talking and Chucky stepped up to the challenge.”

Did he ever.

“Me and him got to jawing at each other a little bit,” Atkins said. “He made a statement that he was going to start lighting me up. I made a statement back to him that I wasn’t going nowhere and whatever he wanted to do, we can do it.

“He started playing a one-on-one game and I knew I had help. So it became one-on-five, and that’s to our advantage.”

With Atkins goading him, Francis started to dominate the Rockets’ offense. After he scored six points in the first quarter, he had four errant shots and one assist in the second.

While Francis was trying to make a point to Atkins, his team’s offense went dry. It went 5:52 without a point.

Yao Ming, who got the Rockets’ first two baskets of the game, did not touch the ball in eight minutes in the second quarter, and he didn’t get another point in the game.

The Pistons, meanwhile, extended a two-point lead to 14 by the end of the quarter.

“I was sitting there with about four minutes left, and Coach wanted to put me back in,” Billups said. “I said, ‘No, let Chucky finish it out.’ ” He was giving us what we need. Steve was taking bad shots and Chucky drew a couple of fouls. He did a great job.”

Atkins, by the way, got eight of his 11 points in that second quarter.

“It was a personal thing,” he said. “He got mad and I was already mad, so it happened like that.”

Francis finished with 15 points, missing 10 of 16 shots.

Holiday style

Wednesday was Christmas for Pistons Zeljko Rebraca and Darko Milicic, who are Greek Orthodox.

Milicic celebrated by dying his hair blond. He also got to play six minutes and sent the crowd into a frenzy, getting six points, four rebounds and a blocked shot.

“Maybe it was the blond hair,” Coach Larry Brown joked. “He was terrific, but I think he was tired when he took his warm-ups off. On the second trip down the court, I thought he was going to die.”

Brown was half-joking, but all in all, he was pleased with Milicic’s performance.

“I was really proud of him,” Brown said. “I am happy for Darko because you can really see there is a lot there.”

Milicic admitted he was quickly fatigued after not playing more than 18 seconds in the last eight games. But he was still pleased with his outing.

“Coach Brown gave me a chance to show that I can help out, too,” Milicic said. “I am feeling a lot more comfortable.”

Best back

Two outstanding collegiate running backs were at The Palace on Wednesday: Michigan’s Chris Perry and USC’s LenDale White. White is Billups’ cousin.

But Atkins wasn’t impressed. When told both were in the house, he said, “And I’m still the best running back in the building.”

Briefly

The Bulls signed former Pistons camp invitee Ronald Dupree to a 10-day contract. Dupree, a 6-foot-7 small forward, was the last player cut by the Pistons in October. He was averaging 16.9 points for Huntsville of the National Basketball Development League and scored 18 in his Bulls debut Wednesday.

... Brown, on Joe Gibbs’ coming back to coaching at age 63: “Well, Hubie Brown did it. You don’t forget just because you’ve been out of it.”

 

The same comment appears on Chron:

Francis had gotten off to a good start, scoring six points with four assists in the first quarter and even dropping Atkins to his backside with one move.

"Me and him got to jawing at each other a little bit," Atkins said. "He made a statement that he was going to start lighting me up. I made a statement to him: `I'm not going anywhere.' Whatever he wants to do, we can do it. He started playing a one-on-one game, and I knew I had help. So it was one-on-five, so that was to our advantage."

Francis missed all four of his second-quarter shots. And while Francis' offense disappeared, all 7-6 of Yao Ming was missing. Yao did not take a shot in eight second-quarter minutes. He played just five minutes in the second half, finishing with four points.


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/rox/2341929

 

Haha. He lost the direction after several cross-overs.