Background: The Pistons won the NBA title in 2004, then fell shy last season after losing to the San Antonio Spurs in a dramatic series that lasted the full seven games. Detroit, which did not have home-court advantage in the past two NBA Finals, learned how valuable it was when San Antonio had four games at home last year. The Pistons are going to win the Eastern Conference easily, but will still have to fight to land home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
“We have not had home court for the last two seasons and we were able to overcome it, but it would be nice to have home court for a change,” Pistons president Joe Dumars said last week. “But it’s not life or death for us.”
What’s up: The Pistons have the best record in the NBA at 55-13 after Friday’s win over Indiana. The Western Conference’s Spurs (54-15) and Dallas Mavericks (53-16) are right on the Pistons’ heels. Dumars said he wanted to see better play from his team last week, and the Pistons responded with a statement win against Miami last Wednesday.
“You’re not going to play your best ball all 82 games,” Dumars said. “We’ve played OK lately, but not our best.”
What’s next: The Pistons are still playing great defense and better offense under first-year coach Flip Saunders. The knock on the Pistons entering the season was that they didn’t have enough depth. But Dumars has answered that question by bringing in shooting guard Maurice Evans and adding sharpshooting guard Tony Delk and centers Dale Davis and Kelvin Cato. Rookie forward Jason Maxiell has impressed the Pistons enough to be higher on the depth chart than Cato but behind reserve forward Antonio McDyess. Veterans Lindsey Hunter and Delk will fight for playing time behind all-star point guard Chauncey Billups. However, the Pistons aren’t as deep as they were in 2004 with backups Mike James, Mehmet Okur and Elden Campbell.
“We really like our depth, and we think they’re capable of helping us get back to championship level,” Dumars said. “We’ll have to wait to see how it unfolds.”
Spears’ take: The Pistons are a step ahead of the Spurs and will win their second title in three years. The Pistons have four all-stars in their lineup, a chip on their shoulder, respectable depth and health on their side. The keys for Detroit are getting Billups and forward Rasheed Wallace some rest before the lengthy postseason and getting home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
