Within a Few Hours, the Detroit Pistons Become Contenders Again

It appeared for a few weeks that the 2009 season was going to be one to forget for the Detroit Pistons. They were coming off getting swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers, losing each game by double digits, had their first losing season since 2000 and missed the eastern conference finals for the first time since 2002. The trade to acquire Allen Iverson from the Denver Nuggets and letting go of their leader in Chauncey Billups backfired as Billups was thriving with his new team and Iverson was not fitting in with the Pistons and missed the last few weeks of the season, while experiencing career lows. To the dismay of the Detroit fanbase, Richard Hamilton was forced to ride the bench to allow Iverson to start with the team fairing 4-12 in Iverson's first 16 games. It appeared the whole team was failing, a side of Rasheed Wallace was seen that has never been seen before by Detroit. He missed 16 games and experienced his lowest output in points since his rookie season 13 years ago. Not to mention, ... (link)