All losses aren't created equal

For Joe Dumars, the easy way out would have been to stand pat after a training camp and preseason that exhibited largely positive signs, never mind the 2-0 start to the regular season, before he pulled the trigger on the Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade.

For Michael Curry, the easy way out would have been to stay conventional with his starting lineup, bringing Rodney Stuckey off of the bench and keeping Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince in their comfort zones at shooting guard and small forward.

I don't know what the Pistons' record would be if the trade hadn't been executed or the lineup switch enacted, but chances are it would be somewhere north of the 14-11 they woke up with Monday after two tough losses to two good teams over the weekend, the double-overtime game with Utah on Friday and the derailed comeback at Atlanta on Sunday.

The hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing currently common among Pistons Nation isn't unexpected. This is a fan base now conditioned to 50-win seasons and playoff runs that don't conclude until the kids have been let out of school for the summer.

And that's the point behind the moves - Joe D's trade and Michael Curry's lineup switch. They'd very much like to continue those traditions. If that means taking a step back in November and December to better prepare for the running start they'll need to make a charge at Boston and Cleveland come spring, so be it.

As Dumars told me a few weeks ago, losing games he thinks the Pistons should still be winning - adjustments or not - disappoints him, but it's hypocrisy to pass judgment on this team for wins and losses in December when the standard for judging them during all those other 50-win seasons was the final chapter, not all the beautifully constructed ones that came before it.

In that light, you can look at the Utah and Atlanta losses and say "step back" - in fact, Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton called it that Monday - but many of the components that made up those losses counted as steps forward.

"The Utah game was a tough game to lose," Hamilton said. "They played great; we played great, but they ended up getting the win. Atlanta, we slipped a little bit. We took a couple of steps back."

"Definitely some positives out of the games," Prince said, "but we did take a step back."

These losses are frustrating for them, too, probably to a greater degree than they are for Dumars and Curry. Players aren't conditioned to look at the big picture. For so long, the Pistons' familiar starters have had well-defined roles and knew not only what was expected of them, but what they could expect out of the guy next to them. All that's been changed. It's as if these players who know the game so well are relearning it on the fly. And that's disorienting, and frustrating, in itself.

But wins help them see the legitimacy of the logic behind the change. The bursts of offensive potency they've often exhibited over the last few weeks can be galvanzing. Even those last two tough losses, I'd argue, are going to be seen in retrospect as positive steps in that regard. Hamilton wasn't exaggerating when he said both teams played great in the double-OT thriller. The Pistons came out of that game bitterly disappointed, of course, and flat-out exhausted and set up for the thankless task of playing another hot team on the road barely 36 hours later, but also a little exhilirated to see the possibilities their revamped roster allow them.

"We had some good moments in those games," Curry said after Monday's practice. "The Utah game ... one shot and we win it. It was a game Stuckey didn't play really well. Stuckey bounced back against Atlanta, a team that's only lost twice at home, 10-2 going into that game. Stuckey had a great bounce-back game and we held them to 42 percent shooting. I thought it was a really good game for us other than the fact we didn't defend Mike Bibby very well."

That's the way it is with struggling teams, of course, or teams, as Dumars characterized the Pistons, that are trying to find themselves: There's usually one thing that trips losing - and it's almost always something different than it was the game before. That's where the Pistons are at right now: plug one hole in the dike, another one pops open.

But the leaks aren't gushing any more, only trickling. And they're getting repaired with more dispatch every time.

"We're getting better," Curry said. "That's the positive thing. As we look at the tape, we're getting better and we've shown signs. But we're not there yet."

Which is OK when the finish line hangs over June.

• The Pistons see another old friend when Chicago comes to town: Lindsey Hunter.

"Very weird. Strange," Hamilton said of the thought of seeing Hunter in Bulls red. "We've been having a lot of battles with Chicago, and now to see him on the other side of the fence. To see him in a Chicago uniform is going to feel very odd."

• The Pistons' small lineup won't be in much danger of being overpowered by the Bulls, who lack a dominant post presence and could be without both Drew Gooden (sprained ankle) and Tyrus Thomas (concussion). In Chicago's win on Saturday over Utah - the Jazz, too, felt the effects of the double-overtime game - the Bulls often went with four perimeter players around second-year 7-footer Aaron Gray, and sometimes with five perimeter players.
• Since going to the small lineup six games ago, the Pistons have been outrebounded by almost seven per game. That's a fairly alarming number if it continues, and Curry isn't conceding the rebounding battle, but he hopes to close the gap and expects to make up for it in other areas.

"That's one of the things we knew going small we'd give up," he said. "They're probably going to beat us on the boards a little more because of that. But we've started games better. We've been efficient scoring with that small group. We've just got to get better defensively with that group and I think we'll be OK. We definitely still want to use our bigs more. In a perfect world, I woud love to play 16 to 20 minutes small" - the first eight to 10 minutes of each half - "and play the other minutes big."

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