Pistons fans: Come down from that ledge!

If there's one truth I've come to learn about the athletes held up as the fiercest competitors, it's this: It's not so much the spoils of winning that drive them as their contempt for losing.

Perhaps the same applies to fans, because in the three seasons that I've been interacting with Pistons fans, I've come to understand this: While wins over the Lakers or Celtics cause the few to extrapolate NBA titles in the Pistons' immediate future, losses to the Bobcats and Pacers - as the Pistons have endured on successive nights - cause the many to predict the utter collapse of the franchise.

Those losses, of course, just happened to coincide with the return of Rip Hamilton after eight games missed with a groin injury - during which the Pistons ran off the last five of a seven-game win streak - and, more noteworthy, a return to the small-ball lineup that has drawn the wrath of Pistons fans out of all proportion to its relevancy.

At the risk of being accused of applying lipstick to the proverbial pig, things just aren't that bad, people.

Let's start with the small-ball mushroom cloud. Small ball had almost nothing to do with the Charlotte and Indiana losses the past two nights. The Pistons lost both games due to offensive sputtering in the final minutes - and the Pistons were big exclusively down the stretch against Indiana and for all but one possession against Charlotte.

The execution wasn't very good against the Bobcats - the Pistons had four turnovers down the stretch in addition to missing their final eight shots - but it really wasn't an execution issue against Indiana.

If you want to quibble about the Indiana game, you could question who took the shots. Rasheed Wallace knocked down two 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the game, then didn't hit another one in 11 tries until his final attempt of the night, a meaningless triple after the outcome had been sealed in overtime. Yet Wallace took not one but two triples on the first possession of overtime. He's made enough big ones in his career - and even this year - that you live with it and trust his confidence.

My only issue with the Indiana loss was why Rodney Stuckey, who was pretty much unguardable all night, wasn't in attack mode in the final minutes of regulation.

But let's think about that one, too. Stuckey has been a starter for a month. On his wings he has two of the most prolific scorers of their generation, Allen Iverson and Rip Hamilton. His other options aren't bad either - Wallace, Tayshaun Prince and Antonio McDyess.

And he's supposed to take over tight games? You don't think it's prudent for a 22-year-old to sort of ease into the "I'm the guy with the ball in his hands on every possession with the game on the line" mode?

The Pistons have enough chemistry issues now - and by "chemistry issues" I'm not implying conflict or ego clashing, but the natural shaking-out process that occurs when players long set in roles are suddenly confronted with changing circumstances around them that force those roles to change. The last thing they need is Stuckey forcing his way to the front of a pack that's already pretty crowded at the front.

It'll happen on its own terms. Rodney Stuckey is destined to be that guy, but one month into his promotion to the starting lineup amid a cast of 30-something All-Stars is a little much.

Hamilton's status is another thing. He's shot 8 of 25 in his two games back, most of them the kind of shots I start recording as two points (or three) when I've seen enough to know it's a shot he likes. With Hamilton, 9 times out of 10 you can safely predict the outcome of a shot before it's begun its downward arc.

He's missed those shots consistently the past two nights. No better example than the one he missed after taking the inbounds pass with 3.9 seconds to play at Indiana. Hamilton's probably an 80 percent career shooter from that spot, 15 feet out on the left baseline.

You think that shot had anything to do with the fact the Pistons had their small-ball lineup on the floor? Or do you think it's more likely that it had something to do with missing eight games with a groin strain and, because he was 4 of 12 after three quarters and not quite right yet, hadn't played a second of the fourth quarter until that moment?

The Hamilton injury was a setback to the Pistons from this standpoint: It cost them eight games of getting-to-know-you time for him, Iverson, Stuckey and Prince as they figure out their perimeter mojo.

I don't know how it'll all shake out. I don't know if there are enough touches in a 48-minute game, especially at the pace the Pistons prefer to play, to get all those high-level perimeter players the amount of shots they require to get to their comfort zone.

There's an argument out there that either Hamilton or Iverson should come off the bench. I won't dismiss it as baseless. It does make some sense. But there is this to ponder. Hamilton, Iverson, Prince and Stuckey are no worse than four of the Pistons' six best players. They're going to have to share the court at times. Does it matter that much if it's the first six to eight minutes of the first and third quarters or the last six to eight of the second and fourth?

Those eight games Hamilton missed cost Michael Curry 10 percent of the season to figure it out. But the good news is there's still better than 50 percent of the season to go and the Pistons are doing better than treading water. Even with three straight losses, they're sitting one-half game out of the No. 4 playoff seed, which would mean home-court advantage in the first round. Given everything they've endured this season, plus the top-to-bottom improvement of the Eastern Conference, that's not so bad.

As Michael Curry said the other day, wondering how to make the pieces fit, there are worse problems to have than figuring out what to do with two All-Star shooting guards.

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