Blue Collar Blueprint

The message is clear

So, the Pistons are 22-3, on pace to tie the Bulls all time regular season record of 72-10. In beating San Antonio handily yesterday, as Bill Laimbeer predicted they would on our WB 20 postgame show after the victory over Golden State on Friday, the Pistons have perhaps created the highest expectations in franchise history.

Here's why. Even in 1989 when they won 63 games to set the still standing franchise record, there was still a sense of uncertainty that they could overcome being snakebit again by the mighty forces that opposed them -- like the Celtics who stole Isiah's pass and their hearts in '87 and the Lakers who stole game 6 in of the '88 Finals despite Isiah's 25 point 3rd quarter on a sprained ankle.

There were certainly high expectations for a repeat in 1990, but after 25 games, the Pistons were only 15-10. And last year, after winning a championship, the Pistons were just 13-12 after 25 games. Now, at 22-3, the Pistons symbolic statement is that every game matters -- right through to the NBA Finals.

The more you win, the more the expectation of victory grows, as the additional pressure is naturally created that you will follow through with a championship. One must dig real deep to even find an area of concern regarding this team. They are deep, skilled, stable, unselfish and completely focused on winning a championship. There are no personal agendas, no arguments over minutes, no interferences or internal angst. Its as if Joe Dumars went out and found 12 Joe Dumars types in his image to behave like choir boys with killer instincts.

Last year, the Phoenix Suns started 22-3 and finished 62-20 with the best record in the NBA. But San Antonio blew 'em out in 5 games in the Western Finals. The Suns regular season record had so predisposed their fans to expect a championship, that the disappiontment was overwhelming.

Fortunately, it won't play out this way for the Pistons who are further developed as a playoff team than Phoenix was and at this point in their development, have no interest at all in what people expect of them.

All that matters to them, is what they expect of themselves, and in busting up the Spurs yesterday, their actions spoke quite clearly.

Next time, I want to talk about a phenomena I pointed out on one of our recent telecasts, when I talked about what can happen when a player is repeatedly cited as being underrated and underappreciated. It's playing out with remarkable predictibilty for one of ther Pistons stars.

Soaring Expectations

At 20-3, the Pistons are expected to win every night out and have been coming through with five wins in a row since their hiccup in Utah last week. The more they win, the more the expectations are raised that they will continue to win. When lowly Portland nearly upset them Wednesday, I remember thinking how terribly let down and disappointed that sellout Palace crowd would have been.

Fans invest emotionally in a team, which means that if they allow themselves to get excited over wins, they must also pay an emotional price for the losses. The players can't be concerned with building expectations -- their job is to win ballgames and not be concerned with building soaring expectations -- and running the risk of disappointing people in the end.

At this point, you have to dig deep to find fault with this team. They need to rebound a bit better and need to find a way to score more in the paint. There is also a perception that Flip Saunders needs to utilize his bench more. NBA coaches are so desperate to win every game that they can't force themselves to pull their starters if it at all diminishes their chances of winning. There's just too big a drop off from Chauncey Billups to Carlos Arroyo, and from Tayshaun Prince to Maurice Evans, that Flip will never go to them when a game is even remotely on the line.

Meanwhile, it's hard to blame him. His starting unit is a thing of beauty. In fact, unlike every other team throughout history, this one may not have a singular star. It used to be Ben Wallace, who is still a fabulous player, but the growth of Billups, Prince, Rip Hamilton and the more recent presence of Rasheed Wallace makes this an equally outstanding 5-headed beast unlike any other.

I'm going to ask Warriors coach Mike Montgomery tonight who he perceives is the Pistons #1 star and see how he dodges it. My thought is that its Billups, who may be ready to flip from underrated to receiving an avalanche of accolades. Portland coach Nate McMillan told me before the Portland game that Billups is in the class of Tracy McGrady and Michael Jordan in his ability to hit big shots in the last few minutes of games. He is as complete at his position as anyone in the league right now.

"Nobody's Perfect"

My old media pal Denny McLain titled his first book, "Nobody's Perfect" and it applies often to life and sports. The Pistons finally hit the wall in Utah last night, losing by 14 in Utah after leading by 13 at the half. They came in with an almost unreal 10-1 road record after easily handling the Clippers the night before. LA had been a league best 9-1 at home and were clearly not even in the Pistons class. To have swept a West Coast trip ending on back-to-back nights was obviously even too much to ask of this team.

It's interesting to compare the Pistons remarkable steadiness and stability to what's happening around them with their fellow Eastern Conference contenders. In a single day, Pat Riley replaced Stan Van Gundy as Heat coach and Ron Artest asked the Pacers to trade him, a month after he and President Larry Bird professed their undying love for each other in the Sports Illustrated NBA preview issue.

When TNT introduced Reggie Miller as its new studio analyst joing Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith back on opening night, Miller predicted the Pistons to win the east, saying that his Pacers needed to show togetherness, maturity and to stop the bickering, and until they did, they'd never reach their potential. Nice call. Jermaine O'Neal also called on management this week to trade anybody who isn't putting out.

This must all be quite humorous to the Pistons, who play with a chemistry and unselfishness so fundamental to success in sports, yet so difficult to ever make happen.

Finally, it would have been nice to see the Pistons continue to chip away at the team's all time best road record, 26-15, with a win in Utah last night. But it's all moot. They not only will easily break it, I predict, but they are 15-3 and playing in their own world -- furthering their familarity as a starting unit and developing the bench beyond McDyess, Arroyo and Evans. The other teams can deal with their internal strife as they must -- and keep on trying to figure out how to -- or if they ever can -- get to the point where they can play like Pistons.

“Breezin’ in the Windy City”

Dec. 3 @Chicago

92-79 Pistons

Record: 13-2

Geez, they made that look easy. The Pistons trailed the Bulls 31-16 in the second quarter and collectively said, “C’mon, let’s wake up. They tied it at 44 by the half and then did to the Bulls what they had done to the Knicks the night before – crushed ‘em 27-10 in the 3^rd quarter, nearly as devastating as the 24-8 third quarter they dropped on the Knicks.

Flip Saunders said, “We don't get down. We keep chipping away and when the third quarter comes we really start executing."

Rasheed Wallace drove Andres Nocioni of the Bulls to the point of distraction in leading with 26 points. Nocioni was a member of the gold medal winning team from Argentina at the 2004 Olympics and after schooling him on a few shots, Rasheed called bank on a turnaround and when it fell, he ran back down court laughing out loud.

The Bulls missed 11 free throws while making only 15, and when they’d miss, Rasheed would yell, “Ball don’t lie.”

Coaches tell their teams to have fun and this is what the Pistons do. They have fun on the plane; they have fun going out to eat together and they’ve had fun racing to a 13-2 record.

The night before it was Rip Hamilton with 40 points and tonight it was Wallace with 26. They are unselfish and happy to ride the hot hand. This is one of those rare cases in sports where players feel appreciated and secure and not obsessed with stats.

The season is just 1/5 old, but after seeing a start like this, no one associated with this team will be happy with anything less than a championship in 2006.

“You can’t go home again – or can you?”

Dec. 2 N.Y. Knicks

106-98 Pistons

Record: 12-2

The age-old proverb that says, “You can’t go home again” really is true. Oh, you can try to go home again, but as Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas found out, you can also get your ass kicked. The brain trust of the Knicks both came back to the Palace last night and except for the fans who heavily booed Larry during his pre game introduction, it was a night to take the high road. All of Larry’s comments were respectful about the organization that paid him off and sent him packing, and his players all showed ample appreciation for the substantial contributions he made to their success. The Pistons even sleep walked through three of the four quarters, but held on for an 8-point win after routing the Knicks 24-8 in the third quarter.

Larry’s done a nice job taking a team that has 9 new players and many of them young. The Knicks started 0-5 and Larry sniped with his players in public, particularly his dour star point guard, Stephon Marbury. But even after last night, the Knicks had split their last ten games, and that’s progress. Rookie Channing Frye certainly looks like a star in the making.

The Knicks shaved a 19-point deficit to 5 in the 4^th quarter behind Frye and two other babies, Jackie Butler and Trevor Ariza.  "I admire my team," Brown said. "Did you see those young kids we had out on the floor at the end? Pretty neat. And to get to watch them play against a special team, I think it'll help our growth a little bit."

Rip Hamilton scored 40 and the Knicks took too many low percentage shots to prevail against a top-tier veteran team like the Pistons.

Isiah had his named emblazoned on the floor at halftime and was cheered all night, appearing often on the scoreboard screen as he sat and as his many career highlights were shown. It was a massive effort by everyone to simply laud him for his great career and leadership while trying to block out all the bad memories of his bizarre fall from grace with owner Bill Davidson about a decade ago.

The Pistons are 12-2, tying the best start in their history. Isiah led that team, back in ’89, and all 5 starters were in the building – Isiah and Joe who run the 2 teams, Laimbeer and Mahorn who broadcast and Mark Aguirre who’s a Knick assistant. Having a championship sure opens doors, doesn’t it?

“It’s how you finish”

Nov. 30 @ New Jersey

93-83 Pistons

Record 11-2

I don’t always agree with the adage, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” because when you get off to a lousy start, sometimes you don’t get a chance to finish. But the Pistons showed the Nets why they are a championship caliber team: when it comes time to win the damn game, they know how to get it done. Nothing validates that further than a 7-1 road record, and they did it to New Jersey in the fourth quarter, just like they had to the Bucks last Saturday.

Whether its hitting a clutch shot, making your free throws or forcing the Nets to take a poor shot, they did it and earned a 93-83 victory despite the hot hand of Vince Carter, who had 27 on the night. You can see how proud and pleased Flip Saunders is. He was excited in the hallway talking about his team’s late game grit. He said,

"My take on this team is that it needs challenges. Sometimes it seems like they get into games and get bored. But when they do lock in, it's like a curtain goes up and you can see it in their faces as they go from fifth gear to sixth gear."

There were great matchups: Hamilton vs. Carter and Prince vs. Richard Jefferson, not to mention Billups vs. Jason Kidd, and Billups held him to eight points while scoring 20 of his own.

For now, the Pistons are ahead of the ’89 title team’s 63 win pace. It doesn’t mean much, but I do see in them that same determination to win every game. They don’t bring their best every night, but who can? You start to expect perfection, but there will be losses and nights where the collective consciousness just doesn’t click.

Next up, Larry Brown and the Knicks at the Palace on Friday night. Now that’s a regular season game to look forward to.

“Character win”

Nov. 26 Bucks

85-76 Pistons

Record: 10-2

What a drag it was getting off the ground. For the first time, Roundball One didn’t just take off. We sat in it for almost 2 hours while the Wizards plane got de-iced and didn’t get into the beautiful Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee until 4 am Detroit time.

Despite the energy and time sapping previous evening, the Pistons sucked it up and held off the Bucks 85-76. Twice Milwaukee battled back to get within a point or two, but the Pistons pushed back. Prince played nearly 40 more minutes and Rasheed played well over 30. When Michael Redd got hot and brought the Bucks from 11 down to within a point it was time for me to do a little on-court insert. I did the obvious – compared it to a fight, where it’s the last few rounds and you’ve gotta find it from within. The Pistons had three days off and needed to just keep on sluggin.’ I noted Prince’s accumulated minutes over the two game stretch, but held back the sexual allusion: “Oh to be 25 again, and able to go all night.”

Darko had a good game, although Saunders didn’t give the bench as much playing time as he had said he would. He made 4 blocks on one possession but was only given credit for two. We all wish he could get more playing time. He’s a quiet kid. I’d like to get to know him better, but I’ll wait until he’s seen me more and I can better gain his trust.

Not having covered many road games, I felt for the Milwaukee crowd. 19,000 people spend big money and make it a night and just want a victory. But here we are, out of town guests who swoop in and spoil the party.

Afterward, Billups said, "We wanted to come out and validate that we should have won last night. We didn't take over the tough part of the game like we always do against Washington.” Saunders said, "Championship teams have to win these grind-it-out type games."

“There will be days like this”

Nov. 25 Wizards

120-114 Washington (2 ot)

Record: 9-2

This was not supposed to happen. The proud Pistons, who pride themselves in bringing it every night, are not supposed to get out-hustled and lose at home to a team that’s lost five in a row. The Wizards beat them 26-13 in the first period and the Pistons seemed to be fighting uphill all night. There had been all that talk about Chauncey Billups not getting his proper due in the All Star voting, and Gilbert Arenas, the guy who took his All Star spot last year, was beating him all over the court tonight.

His backup at point guard, Chucky Atkins, hit four straight three-pointers in the fourth quarter to erase an eight point Piston lead. Arenas had 39, but he got a break when they called a foul on Billups with 2.3 seconds left that looked a lot like an Arena charge. He made both free throws and sent it to overtime. The Pistons had numerous opportunities to win. Ben Wallace drew a foul on a put back with .6 seconds left in the first overtime that tied it at 104, but he clanged the free throw that would have won it.

Caron Butler went 8-8 from the line in the second OT and the crowd shuffled out. Great drama, but no victory for 22,000 who badly wanted one on a snowy Friday night.

Rasheed had 33 points and 11 rebounds, all for naught and played 56 minutes. Prince played 55 minutes and there’s a game in Milwaukee tomorrow night. That’ll be a test. But this one won’t sit easily. The players weren’t feeling very chatty in the locker room afterward and you can’t blame them for not wanting to rehash this stuff with the media. I wanted some material for the game tomorrow, but didn’t push. Let’s just get on the plane and put this behind us.

“Back to reality – this is Piston basketball”

Nov. 23 Nuggets

Detroit 114, Denver 89

Record: 9-1

I talked to Denver coach George Karl before the game, one of the NBA’s most celebrated coaches. The Nuggets had won four in a row and had Kenyon Martin returning from a knee problem. It was Denver’s only trip here this season and Karl said, “This is a team you aspire to be like. They’ve been to the Finals two years in a row and our guys should want to show off a little.”

The Pistons then proceeded to tear ‘em up, blocking 12 shots and holding Carmelo Anthony to 4-15 shooting. Tayshaun Prince guarded him and every time Anthony managed to get past Prince, Rasheed Wallace was all over him. Seven Pistons were in double figures and Denver was never in the game. The Pistons led by 17 at the half and then went on a 16-3 run to start the third and led by 76-46. Wow. The Pistons had certainly put the Dallas debacle well behind them.

Meanwhile, Flip Saunders has it all figured out. He’s gotten complete and total respect from his players by being exactly what he is – a seasoned, proven NBA coach who gives his players every chance to act like grown-ups. He knew he had a mature, proven team, and didn’t come in here with any airs about who he was, nor did he grope or grovel to be accepted.  He gave them what they wanted – a new, more freewheeling plan as well as some respect and trust. Joe Dumars sure knows how to find coaches, doesn’t he?

“First round knockout, NBA style”

Nov. 19 @Dallas

119-82 Mavericks

Record: 8-1

Not only did the 8-gamer end, but it ended in about five minutes. The Pistons came out flat and Dallas smoked ’em in stunning fashion. The Pistons looked shell shocked and were incapable of defending anyone. At our production meeting in the afternoon, Laimbeer had warned me not to discount Dallas, because I thought that the Pistons had an edge in every match up except possibly Rasheed and Nowitzki. I’m glad I didn’t throw that out in the pre-game show.

At halftime I interview the assistant coach and Sid Lowe put it best – “One team came out aggressively and one team didn’t play.” I later pointed out in my 4^th quarter sideline pop that just two nights earlier Dallas scored only 11 first quarter points to fall well behind against 0-8 Atlanta and now they go off for 40 in the first. I said, “You’re right, it makes no sense. Except that this is the NBA and stuff happens.”

The flight home also blew my mind. We leave the arena at 11:50 Detroit time and I walk in my front door at 2:10. When we had landed I said to trainer Mike Abdenour, “I can’t believe we’re back already.” He looked at me and said, “Welcome to the NBA.”