Blue Collar Blueprint

Did the future just happen?

Perhaps a bit of irony, Piston fans, but the last 4 games may have provided your perfect playoff preview, wrapped in a neat holiday bow.

Let me explain.

If the season ended today, the Eastern conference would have this playoff order:

1. Detroit; 2. Miami; 3. Nets; 4. Cleveland; 5. Milwaukee; 6. Indiana; 7. Philadelphia; 8. Orlando

Starting Christmas Day, the Pistons played San Antonio, followed by Miami, Cleveland and they will play Orlando tonight.

If the playoffs began today, the Pistons would face #8 Orlando in round one; #4 Cleveland in round two, #2 Miami in round three and the Western leading Spurs in the Finals.

Hmmm -- same four teams, all in a row. What did you think?

I think that the Cleveland and Miami series will be brutal battles. Cleveland is fascinating prospect. LeBron James is 21 going on 30, and Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall, (finally with a good team), and Drew Gooden scare me a little. The Pistons may never shoot that poorly again all year, but Cleveland likes the way they match up with Detroit and certainly isn't intimidated, especially after Saturday's 97-84 pounding.

Many are still doubting the wisdom of Pat Riley's off-season acquisitions of Antoine Walker, Jason Williams and James Posey, but it's given them impressive depth. I like the Pistons starting 5 better than Miami's, but Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O'Neal are both amazing, and what do you think about playoff depth on the bench in numbers 5-8? Its McDyess, Arroyo and Evans for the Pistons vs Walker, Mourning and Payton. Riley played 3 guards much of the night with Payton, Wade and Williams and that forced major minutes out of Arroyo, maybe more than Flip Saunders wanted to give him. Come playoff time, the soon-to-return Lindsey Hunter needs to be in top form again if they go up against the Heat.

The Pistons easily handled the Spurs Christmas day, but everyone realized that it's too early to project that San Antonio will be any less formidible than they were last year, should they make it out the West yet again.

And now that Grant Hill is back, you'll want to look closely at this game tonight also. Grant against the Pistons in the playoffs would be terrific. Orlando could turn out to be the first domino to stand up to the Pistons -- another team that wants to say, "A 24-4 start -- we don't care. We'll take our chances this spring."

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.

Who Are These Guys?

84-81 Pistons

Record: 6-0

Portland hadn’t lost at home; shot 55% in the first half and got 23 and 21 points from Darius Miles and Zach Randolph. But those two got only two points between them in the fourth quarter when the Pistons calmly took over the game. Rasheed Wallace was the main man tonight, hitting a pair of three-pointers, blocking a shot and taking a charge as the Pistons pulled away at the end.

All five Pistons starters were in double figures and again showed what they’re all about. Don’t forget, when they won 63 games in 1989, not a single Pistons averaged 20 points or finished anywhere near the top in any scoring category.

If they were the “Bad Boys” then what do we call these guys? Any suggestions? Let’s use this blog to name ‘em before anybody else does, and let’s make it stick. Here’s another comparison between then and now:

87  E Conf Finals    52 Wins

88  NBA Finals     54 Wins

89  Championship   63 Wins

90  Championship   59 Wins

03  E Conf Finals  50 Wins

04  Championship    54 Wins

05  NBA Finals        54 Wins

06    ?????

Those first three years look pretty similar, and if they win this year – they are just as “Bad!”