Prince: I Was Misunderstood When It Came To "Chemistry" Concerns

In the Pistons' chemistry lab, all is well. It never was that out of whack to begin with.

So says Tayshaun Prince, who told me that he was taken out of context when it was written that he had called into question the team's chemistry last month.

"I was just saying that our focus wasn't where it needed to be," Prince said into a telephone, for next month's interview for MCS Magazine. "We weren't focused like we were last year, or in the playoffs when we went to the Finals."




But then the team signed Chris Webber, and whatever concerns Prince had vanished almost as soon as Webber joined the club.

"He's such a good passer ... he gives us easier scoring opportunities. And before he got here, our opportunities weren't that easy. Now, we go to our third and fourth options more."

And just like that, the winning returned. End of "chemistry" issues.

But when the conversation turned to the Pistons' flameout in last year's playoffs, Prince acknowledged that the burdensome regular season, when the team flirted with 70 wins, took its toll.

"We were playing 41, 42 minutes (a game)," he said of the regular season, "and when you've been to two Finals and looking forward to going to a third, playing that much could definitely hamper you."

Was it a fair critique, I asked, to say that the Cleveland Cavaliers, in Round Two, made coaching adjustments midway thru their series with the Pistons, which weren't countered properly by Flip Saunders?

"Well, as far as adjustments, we made them, but when you have a great player like LeBron James, he can make adjustments back. And we were slow to respond. Before you knew it, we were going seven games."

So, is it on the coaches, or the players? Prince didn't throw Flip under the bus.

"I always say that in a playoff series, the players have a better understanding than the coaches as far as what needs to be done on the court," he said. "The coaches can watch film and everything, but the players should know what to do."

With the All-Star game being played in Las Vegas Sunday, I put Prince on the spot.

Play oddsmaker, I said, and give me the odds of another Pistons championship.

"Five to one," he said after some hemming and hawwing.

"That's not very good," I said.

"Well, we're the underdogs. We didn't win it last year."

True.

The interview, in its entirety -- including Prince's version of The Block on Reggie Miller in the 2004 conference finals -- will be published in the March issue of MCS Magazine.