SKOLNICK: Forget the Pistons - they're done
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Ethan J. Skolnick
Sports columnist
May 30, 2006
MIAMI -- They're not fine.
Let's say that now, and clearly, before Chauncey Billups argues otherwise.
The Pistons are a four-letter word for sure, but fine isn't the first, second, or 40th that comes to mind.
Try this one: Done.
Done in this Eastern Conference finals. Done as a force to be feared. Done as a dynasty, if that's what some considered them to be. Done as we knew them.
When did it end for the Detroit Pistons?
There's always a defining moment, isn't there? It happens in most every relationship, doesn't it? When you know everything is changed.
Sometimes, it's subtle, as it was Monday.
It was 17-12, first quarter. There was still time to set a tone. Dwyane Wade had the ball. He was shooting nearly 70 percent in the series, getting whatever he wants.
Knocked down seven, get up eight?
The Bad Boy Pistons of the late 1980s would have tested that advertising slogan.
The champion Pistons of 2003-04, too.
Wade dribbled right around Richard Hamilton.
Too quick.
Still, nearly 170 inches and 500 pounds of menacing Wallaces, Ben and Rasheed, waited near the rim. Neither man even jumped, let alone shoved.
They had each been tougher on their coach during the previous day's media availability than they were on that play.
Wade dunked. Too easy.
So, yes, the Pistons hung around. They even pulled ahead, by as much as 57-53 on Rasheed Wallace's three, after he chose to show something more than a scowl after halftime.
But the Heat put them down without too much difficulty.
Now the Heat figures to do the same in this series, if not Wednesday, then Friday.
Thus, those of us who have consistently picked the Pistons to represent the East in the Finals will be absolutely wrong. We certainly underrated the Heat. We badly overrated these Pistons.
Some insist on continuing to do it, almost irrationally. Everyone talking endlessly about the Pistons' resilience has refused to realize these aren't the same Pistons they're talking about, even while staring at six losses in the past nine games.
"I'll take these five over any five in the world," Rasheed Wallace said of his lineup.
Those five starters have been the same for Detroit's past 64 playoff contests, but their collective demeanor isn't. Their passion isn't. Their cohesiveness isn't.
They spent their postgame interview period whining about the officiating. That's what losers do. The free-throw disparity was 47-22. The foul difference was 30-19.
"You know that's some B.S.," Rasheed Wallace said.
"I thought it hurt us a lot," Billups said.
"Breathe on him, it's a foul," Antonio McDyess said of Wade. "Get away from him, he'll make the shot."
But the Pistons made it easier on the officials than they did on themselves.
They committed thoughtless fouls. Rasheed Wallace reaching in near half-court with 6:11 left in the second quarter, for his third foul. Billups touching Wade on a turnaround, fallaway jump shot from the corner with 1.5 seconds left in the third quarter, allowing the Heat to enter the fourth with a lead.
"You can't really play physical," McDyess said.
It's not easy in the modern NBA.
Maybe if the Pistons weren't simply shooting jumpers they would have more foul shots.
Maybe if the Pistons used one of their 30 fouls to truly give Wade pause, it would stop his procession to the stripe.
Another of Billups' sayings: "If it ain't rough, it ain't right."
Monday, the Pistons weren't rough in the right way.
So, now, they're not fine.