The Detroit Pistons updated Charlie Villanueva’s status in a medical-lingo-heavy press release Friday, which essentially indicated he has tendinitis and bone spurs in his ailing right ankle and that he will be partially immobilized for “a few weeks.”

Here’s the “lingo-heavy” release Mayo referred to:

Following repeated imaging studies as well as multiple consultations from foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons, it has been determined that Charlie Villanueva’s right ankle soreness can be attributed to a resolving posterior tibial tenosynovitis with small talotibal spurs.

A few weeks of partial ankle immobilization have been recommended in an attempt to alleviate the soreness and discomfort.

That fits with what a team spokesman said the course of action would be with Villanueva, despite Villanueva possibly saying that he needs surgery.

• Teams: Milwaukee Bucks at Detroit Pistons
• Date: Feb. 3, 2012
• Time: 7:30 p.m.
• Television: Fox Sports Detroit

Records

• Pistons: 4-20
• Bucks: 10-11

Probable starters

Pistons:

• Brandon Knight
• Rodney Stuckey
• Tayshaun Prince
• Ben Wallace
• Greg Monroe

Bucks:

• Brandon Jennings
• Shaun Livingston
• Carlos Delfino
• Luc Mbah a Moute
• Drew Gooden

Las Vegas projection

Spread: Pistons +4.5

Over/under: 182.5

Score: Bucks win, 93.5-89

Read about the Bucks

Bucksketball.com

Game notes

• Lawrence Frank said Will Bynum is day-to-day, but Bynum said he’s about a week, according to David Mayo of MLive.com.
• Ben Gordon participated in today’s shootaround, but he’s out tonight, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.
• Charlie Villanueva still cares. But he’s also out again, according to Eric Lacy of The Detroit News.

I have not yet verified the Instagram account belongs to Villanueva, but accounts purporting to belong to Austin Daye and Vernon Macklin also follow him. If this is a hoax, it’s an elaborate one.

Villanueva mysteriously injured his ankle at some mysterious point, and this surgery would be a crushing blow to his season.

UPDATE: Pistons spokesman Kevin Grigg: “The current course of action regarding Charlie’s sore ankle is rest and rehab.”

Still though, despite all the struggles, the Pistons hold out hope that Villanueva will get healthy and contribute despite the evidence that he’s too inconsistent and too much of a defensive liability to be a key rotation player. Beckley Mason of Hoop Speak gets at why that might be, using Ryan Anderson as an example:

The goal for NBA offenses–to make hay in the paint–hasn’t changed. But more than ever, the best offenses are adept at going away from the space they want to use, at using multiple credible shooters to unclog the lane.

It wasn’t so long ago that big men whose primary value was as a shooter were regarded as a curiosity, something to be brought of the bench and examined for 20 minutes a game. If a player over 6-8 didn’t trade primarily in toughness, it was a problem, notable exceptions like Robert Horry not withstanding.

Today, that’s simply not the case. In order to thrive after the environmental shift brought by defensive rule changes, the position descriptions of the NBA’s tallest players has mutated. Players like Ryan Anderson, the prototypical stretch big-man, are no longer exotic or a luxury, but a necessity.

Now, Anderson is a much, much more better player than Villanueva at this point. He not only contributes with his shooting, he’s also a solid rebounder and passable defensive player. Those are two things Villanueva is not, so when his shot hasn’t been falling in his Pistons career, there has been nothing else he does well enough to justify having him on the court.

Villanueva does have that 3-point range though. He shot 39 percent from three last season, which is the same percentage Anderson shoots for his career. The Pistons have slashers in the backcourt in Brandon Knight and Rodney Stuckey who have the ability to get in the paint and force the defense to adjust. They have a big man in Greg Monroe who has made himself into a viable option on offense who commands defensive attention. The Pistons could clearly benefit from having players on the floor whose range can create space for their other offensive threats. Villanueva should be one of those players, which is why he’ll get another chance to prove it if he ever gets healthy enough and in shape enough to get on the court this season. It remains to be seen if that will ever materialize.

CV will not travel with the Pistons on the road trip to Houston and Minnesota, will rehab here…Bynum didn’t practice, is day to day

Hopefully this off day along with staying behind on the road trip is productive healing time for Villanueva. We are all familiar with his limits on the court, but much like Ben Gordon, the Pistons need him healthy to at least attempt to rebuild his value and they could certainly use a warm body in the under-manned frontcourt too.

What’s more, he doesn’t know where or how he injured his right ankle. It bothered him before training camp began but didn’t prevent him from practicing or playing in the first exhibition game.

He said he called strength-and-conditioning coach Arnie Kander one morning in pain.

"It’s crazy because it’s not like I sprained my ankle, I just woke up with my ankle hurting," Villanueva said. "It started from there."

Strange.

But for non-tax teams, it’s a victory for the players. An amnestied player is still guaranteed his salary, and if he clears amnesty waivers, he can earn even more. So, from a strictly financial standpoint, a player actually has short-term incentive to be amnestied.

Charlie Villanueva has more at stake, though. Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press:

Villanueva isn’t just paying lip service when he says he loves the Detroit area for "its friendly people" — he considers it home now — and it keeps him close to his son in Toronto.

Just interesting to know what motivates Villanueva, who probably must improve his production to avoid getting amnestied.

Lawrence Frank immediately called timeout, turned bright red and stormed away from Detroit’s bench in disgust.

The play obviously wasn’t a significant one in the game, but it represented the most stark contrast between this year’s team and last year’s. How many times last season did we see lazy defensive plays like that in games the Pistons were losing by double figures in? How many times after those plays did cameras pan to an apathetic John Kuester blankly staring off into space?

I’m sure Kuester was upset in those instances. I’m sure any coach who cares about players respecting the game would be upset. I’m under no illusion that Frank is some type of miracle worker. His task is a daunting one. Like his predecessors, Kuester and Michael Curry, his rhetoric before the season was good. Unlike his predecessors, he at the very least seems to be delivering a message of what is acceptable basketball and what isn’t.

The Pistons lost big to Chicago and were never really in the game. The Bulls didn’t play their best, particularly early on when Joakim Noah was inexplicably waving teammates away to that he could take his man off the dribble and air-balling 18-footers. But the Pistons combined a poor effort shooting from the perimeter with difficulty converting some of the clean looks around the basket Chicago gave early, sprinkled in some poor shot selection and quickly stalled a couple late mini-runs with sloppy passing and turnovers. Detroit has proven early in the season they will play hard and are capable of competing with good teams. They have to be near flawless to do it though, and the Pistons were far from it.

The team has been blown out by good teams plenty over the last two seasons. There wasn’t much positive to take away from this game, but I still can’t deny that I feel much more positive about the direction the team is heading than I did after the first two games of the season.

Moose out-plays Noah

There are still a few areas where Greg Monroe struggles, but those are becoming less noticeable by the game. Monroe finished with 19 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists and a block against Chicago. He would’ve been near a triple double if his teammates didn’t shoot 41 percent (including 16 percent from 3-point range). He was solid on defense early, starting the game on Carlos Boozer and holding him to 2-for-6 shooting in the first quarter. Boozer got it going later and led all scorers with 19, but by then, the entire defense had been broken down to account for Derrick Rose’s slashing and others were guarding Boozer.

Offensively, he scored out of the post. He faced up and put the ball on the floor — including one really nice blow-by and layup with Noah, a good one-on-one defender, guarding him. He looked for cutters, he found open shooters on the perimeter and he still did what he always does, crashed the offensive glass, collecting five offensive rebounds.

He matched the activity of the notoriously active Noah, who finished with 9 points and 11 rebounds (but also turned it over five times because Noah was a little too active on offense). After a rookie season where Monroe showed remarkable improvement on a game-to-game basis, I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s continued that upward trend this year. I keep expecting him to plateau at some point and he keeps getting better.

Brandon Knight is overmatched

Knight got his first look as the top point guard at the start of the second half. Rodney Stuckey injured his groin late in the first half, so Knight started the third quarter. His performance wasn’t pretty.

There was a great sequence in that third with Rose guarding Knight and Knight trying to get into the lane to try and get off his floater. Rose wouldn’t let him get where he wanted and forced Knight into an awkward 16-foot or so floater that ended up about two feet short of the rim. I think anyone watching would look at a floater — a notoriously hard shot to perfect outside of close range — from that far out as a crazy shot that no one should work on adding to their repertoire. Then a couple possessions later, we saw why Knight, and presumably a lot of young guards of all ages, work on that shot: Rose launched a floater from about the same spot on floor, only his was on target. So thanks, Derrick Rose, for teaching a generation of guards to take a shot that only a once-in-a-lifetime type athlete can hit.

Knight is a 20-year-old rookie and was matched up against the league MVP and one of the strongest guards in the league, so no one should’ve been expecting him to get the best of that matchup. He finished with 4 points on 2-for-9 shooting with 1 assist and 1 turnover. He had a couple of nice possessions where he got in the lane and got himself good shots that he was comfortable with. He also missed two open 3-pointers, shots that will presumably be more consistent for him as time goes on. Knight is an exciting, talented young player, but the Pistons still need Stuckey in the lineup.

Let’s slow it down, Will Bynum

As Frank said earlier this week, the Bynum is a nice insurance policy on the bench. With Stuckey hurt, the Pistons needed an extra point guard. But as was the case so many times the last two seasons with Bynum’s role/minutes fluctuating so drastically, he came off the bench like a bat out of hell in only the third game he’s made it into this season. Bynum’s biggest problem was a familiar one: his passing. Twice in the fourth quarter, he was running pick and roll plays with Jonas Jerebko. Bynum used the screen, Jerebko slid to the top of the key where he had an open jumper and Bynum delivered bounce passes back to Jerebko … about three feet wider than where Jerebko was spotting up. Those plays didn’t result in turnovers, but they also took away any chance for the Pistons to score as Jerebko had to scramble to coral the ball. Bynum also turned it over three times, two of which resulted in him getting caught in the air with no one to pass to.

The thing is, though, Bynum actually scored the ball efficiently, something the Pistons could really use off their bench. Stuckey, Knight and Ben Gordon all struggled with their shots. None had much success taking the ball straight at the defense. Bynum, always fearless in that regard, scored 10 quick points on 5-for-9 shooting and, despite a huge height difference between he and Rose, didn’t do too badly defensively. Maybe the problem is the Pistons need to simply stop thinking about Bynum as the third point guard. He’s probably not a player who there is a use for in every game, but there certainly has to be instances when his main skills, getting the basket and speeding up the game, can come in handy. The Pistons don’t have anyone else on their bench giving any kind of offensive punch, so it might come to that at some point.

Gordon was too small

Gordon’s final stats were ugly, and the Gordon detractors, I’m sure, will be out en masse after this performance. He was bad, and I wouldn’t say otherwise, but it’s somewhat understandable given his limitations as a player.

First, he always has pressed against Chicago, his former team. But more importantly, he’s just way too small compared to Chicago’s guards. He was guarded at different times by tall SGs Rip Hamilton and Ronnie Brewer. When he tried to create off the dribble, another lanky defender, Luol Deng, or a big point guard, Rose, were there to give help.

Gordon is a wildly streaky player and has been throughout his career. I expect that he’ll have more games like this during the season, but I also expect him to have more great offensive performances as well. He’s not a difficult player for good defensive teams to stop, so that will pose a problem for the Pistons all season.

Damien Wilkins cementing his spot in the rotation

Other than Monroe, the best Piston on the floor was Wilkins. Since moving into the rotation as a backup wing in place of the ineffective Austin Daye, Wilkins has made hustle plays and been solid defensively. Against Chicago, he added some offense, scoring 10 points (5-for-7 shooting) with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Daye’s biggest asset to get back into the rotation is the fact that his skillset is shooting and the second unit has had virtually no offense. If Wilkins gives some hustle points along with his superior defense, it’s going to be even harder to for Daye to get his spot back.

Thankfully for Daye, Charlie Villanueva played five more horrible minutes. Beating out Villanueva might be Daye’s best chance to earn back some minutes.

But then another Ben asserted himself with an even more improbable performance and now Gordon will have to share the intro with Ben Wallace. I have no idea how Wallace, at 37-years-old, is still capable of confounding Howard, a freak of an athlete and the best center in basketball. With Greg Monroe in early foul trouble and his replacement, Jason Maxiell, picking up two early fouls as well, Wallace came into the game and gave Howard and the Magic a variety of looks defensively. He fronted the post, he fought as Howard tried to establish post position, he shifted between bodying up Howard and pulling his weight away to get Howard off balance. Most importantly, he terrorized the Magic by getting in passing lanes. Wallace had five steals and several deflections while making it really difficult for Orlando’s guards to get the ball to Howard.

Monroe had asserted himself as Detroit’s best player so far in the season with his play over the last three games. With Monroe a non-factor due to foul trouble, it was a huge lift for the Pistons to take their most important player out of the game and not lose much.

As for offense? Gordon handled that, scoring 26 points on 8-for-15 shooting. He’s notoriously streaky, so I’m not ready to declare the old Chicago version of Gordon coming back alive. I am really excited about his early-season performance, though, and not because of his scoring. Gordon has become a much more efficient passer. He had six more assists against Orlando and is averaging more than four per game so far this season. He still takes bad, contested shots sometimes — that was a staple of his game even in Chicago — but he’s reeled them in some compared to his first two Detroit seasons (perhaps with more minutes and a large role secured, he doesn’t feel as much pressure to jack bad shots when he gets on the court). He’s turning it over a bit less and not over-dribbling.

Plus, against the Magic, he and Rodney Stuckey played pretty good defense. Orlando’s starting guards, Jason Richardson and Jameer Nelson, shot a combined 2-for-10 and their top guard off the bench, J.J. Redick, was 3-for-10. Now, defending that trio isn’t exactly defending Derrick Rose, but Gordon and Stuckey both contested jumpers all night, a positive sign for both players.

The Pistons had a handful of two-game winning streaks last season, but I daresay none were impressive as the two wins they just notched, largely because the team has an identity. Monroe-Jonas Jerebko are an undersized, but hard-working frontcourt. They have a trio of guards in Gordon, Stuckey and Brandon Knight who relentlessly push the pace and attack. And they have stabilizing veterans like Wallace, Jason Maxiell and Tayshaun Prince who have all made important contributions in limited roles this season.

The Pistons were lucky to catch an Orlando team at home on the second half of a back-to-back. That probably reflected why Orlando’s shooting percentage plummeted in the second half. But credit the Pistons for taking care of their homecourt and getting a win over a quality opponent for the second straight game.

Death of the third quarter collapse?

The Pistons not only won the game, they also won the third quarter against the Magic, 24-17. On Saturday, they won it 30-20 against the Pacers. They won it against Cleveland. That’s three of five games the Pistons have played well out of halftime. It’s still too early to predict that it’s a trend, but it’s a nice change of pace over the last two years, when the Pistons were routinely run off the floor during third quarters.

Stuckey doing what Stuckey does best

Rodney Stuckey didn’t shoot the ball well and sometimes made poor decisions. But he relentlessly created contact and got to the line 13 times and drew Howard’s sixth foul in the fourth quarter. Stuckey’s defense was solid. If he plays defense and gets to the line consistently, he’s a valuable player for Detroit.

Not just jumpshooters

* Laser, this one’s for you my friend.

I have noticed a few pessimistic comments that basically insinuate the Pistons are a team of streaky jump-shooters, so there will certainly be games they get hot and look good, but in the games they don’t, things will get ugly. I don’t entirely disagree with the premise, but in the two Pistons wins this season, it hasn’t been just the jumper propelling them. They have been attacking and scoring in the paint.

One of Frank’s tenets he’s preached to the team has been protecting the paint on defense and owning it on offense. Against Orlando, they out-scored Orlando 34-30 in the paint. They out-scored Indiana 48-40 in the paint. They out-scored Boston 38-32 in the paint. The Pistons don’t have a traditional back-to-the-basket scorer, but they’ve been compensating with guards who have been attacking and big men who are active and crash the offensive glass.

Speaking of the frontcourt …

Monroe only played 22 minutes because he got in early foul trouble and he still finished with 10 points and nine rebounds. Jerebko wasn’t the offensive force he was against Indiana, but he still had 8 points, 10 rebounds and was robbed when a clean block of a Ryan Anderson breakaway dunk in the first half was inexplicably called a foul. Dwight Howard finished with 19 points, but he only had seven rebounds and blocked only one shot.

Jerebko drew an offensive follow late in the game by taking one of Howard’s huge elbows to the chest. Both Monroe and Jerebko grabbed tough defensive rebounds late as the Magic launched jumpers and sent Howard (before he fouled out) and others crashing at the offensive glass to try and trim the deficit.

With more performances like this, people will stop talking about the Pistons’ frontcourt being undersized.

• Teams: Orlando Magic at Detroit Pistons
• Date: Jan. 2,  2012
• Time: 7:30 p.m.
• Television: Fox Sports Detroit, NBA League Pass

Records

• Pistons: 1-3
• Magic: 4-1

Probable starters

Pistons:

• Rodney Stuckey
• Ben Gordon
• Tayshaun Prince
• Jonas Jerebko
• Greg Monroe

Magic:

• Jameer Nelson
• Jason Richardson
• Hedo Turkoglu
• Ryan Anderson
• Dwight Howard

Las Vegas projection

Spread: Pistons +4

Over/under: 179.5

Score: Magic win, 91.75-87.75

Three things to watch

1. Guarding the 3-point line

In its last four games (all wins), Orlando has shot the following percentages from 3-point range: 44 percent, 43 percent, 43 percent, 41 percent. The Pistons have given up the following percentages to opponents in their three losses: 47 percent, 58 percent, 44 percent. The Magic are not a team to trifle with from distance. Most times, four of the five players on the court will be above average 3-point shooters, and they aren’t shy about launching. If the Pistons have trouble closing out on shooters again, this game could get out of hand quickly.

2. Can the inside presence continue?

No frontcourt in the league is equipped to handle Dwight Howard, and that includes Jonas Jerebko and Greg Monroe. But, fresh off their double double-doubles against Indiana, if both once again play with activity and energy on both ends of the court, they should be able to have some success against the Magic. Although they give up significant size to Howard, Orlando’s other frontcourt options are actually pretty decent matchups as Orlando starts a stretch four in Ryan Anderson and undersized players Earl Clark and Glen Davis also see minutes up front. Howard will be a mismatch at both ends, but the Pistons should be able to capitalize on some mismatches of their own depending on who Orlando has in the game next to Howard.

3. A Villanueva sighting?

Charlie Villanueva was eligible to play against Indiana but since he’s still working himself into game shape, he was held out. His offense, however, could prove useful against the Magic. Orlando has scored 100 or more points in three of five games — no small feat considering some of the ugly finals being put up across the league these days. Some bench scoring from Villanueva would go a long way towards making this game more competitive.