AUBURN HILLS – It’s time for Rasheed Wallace to stop fighting with the referees and start fighting through the pain.
Hampered by plantar fasciitis in his left foot, the 6-11 Piston savior has been invisible the past two games against the Nets, except for his yapping to officials. On Tuesday, he reaggravated his arch in the second quarter and labeled himself “60 percent” going into tonight’s pivotal Game 5 at the Palace.
“It’s something you have to fight through,” Wallace said. “Even if I have a bad wheel, I still have to come physical with it. It feels like walking outside with a rock in your shoe. It’s a sharp pain in the bottom of your foot. I wish I can just grab that knot in my muscle and throw it in the trash.”
Trash was a good way to describe Wallace’s play in Jersey. Wallace, a summer free agent, totaled just eight rebounds and 16 points in the two blowouts. And this is the guy Knicks president Isiah Thomas, who may show up tonight, wants to give up his left lung for?
“In my heart, I want to be out there because everyone else is going hard,” Wallace said. “Sometimes I feel I get down on myself because with this injury, I’m not 100 percent, so it’s like I’m not giving everything I can for the team. It’s more on offense. Once we get a defensive rebound. I might be the last one coming down court.”
Wallace knows he has to play through the agony tonight.
“A couple of guys are playing hurt,” said Wallace, referring to sore-backed Chauncey Billups. “You go ahead and get that ring, in the summer, you’re sitting back on your deck doing some barbecuing. You can look at that ring and say to yourself, all the pain, sweat and blood you went through was in this ring.”
Pistons coach Larry Brown is in a quandary. He only wants Wallace to concentrate on hustle plays, not scoring. With Wallace limping and wincing during Game 4, Brown held him to 25 minutes.
“He’s been taking shots maybe we don’t need him to take,” Brown said. “Maybe he can focus on other things. If he’s dragging out there, unless it’s like Kirk Gibson, I don’t think I can do that.”
Wallace said he’s battled the problem since mid-February, when he came to Detroit in a trade with Atlanta. “Before the relapse, I was about 80 to 85 percent,” he said. “With this relapse, that pushes me down to about 60.”
