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How will Allen Iverson adjust to coming off the bench for Detroit? We'll have to wait at least another two weeks to find out. After twisting his back in a game last week, Iverson was held to just eight minutes against the Hornets last Wednesday before missing the next three games completely. An MRI came back negative, but when soreness persisted he sought another opinion this morning from doctors at Georgetown University, who advised him to "suspend basketball-related activities" for at least two weeks, at which point he'll be re-evaluated.
The exact nature of his injury isn't clear -- right now, the team is simply calling it a "sore back" -- but it could be something he's been dealing with longer than a week. According to the Detroit News, Iverson complained about numbness in his legs two weeks ago, though he didn't miss any time. His most recent soreness has been attributed to a hard fall he took in Miami last week, and it seems entirely plausible that he could have aggravated the previous ailment.
Fairly or not, though, the timing of the injury as well as the vague diagnosis will lead some to wonder if his absence is actually a passive aggressive protest to his recent demotion to the bench. At this point, though, it doesn't really matter. He won't be traveling with the team to prevent stress on his back, so there's little chance that he'll become a distraction.
Without him, the Pistons have gone back to their familiar brand of basketball, winning three straight by playing tough defense with a lot of ball movement on offense -- in Thursday's game, all five starters scored at least 16 points. If this trend continues over the next two weeks and the Pistons are able to climb back into the race for home court advantage in the first round (they're currently three and a half games behind the Hawks for the No. 4 seed), it seems likely that Iverson's role upon returning will be limited to 20-25 a minutes a game.
Assuming Iverson is re-evaluated two weeks from today and cleared for action, his first game back would likely be on March 20 at home against the Clippers. There would be 15 games left in the season. If his timetable was pushed back any longer, you have to wonder if the Pistons would decide to shut him down rather than risk disrupting their chemistry so close to the playoffs. At this point that's purely hypothetical, but it wouldn't be all that surprising.
Update: Allen Iverson finally released a statement.
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