Pistons' Manhandling Of Spurs Seals Everyone Else's Fate

"We want to get back what's ours"
-- Rasheed Wallace


Plan the parade, make sure Woodward Avenue is cleaned up after the Super Bowl, book Hart Plaza, make sure the big video screens are working for that day. Clear the mayor's schedule, find a XXXXXL jersey for him to wear, and be sure Mason has plenty of throat lozenges.

First there will be those annoying two months of playoffs, preliminaries to the inevitable. Maybe there will be a loss or two along the way, just to keep the players' edge, but not enough to create any hand-wringing in Motown.

The Pistons will win the NBA title in June.

I suppose the identity of the Finals MVP is the only thing we have to look forward to, the only uncertainty. Maybe we should run an Internet poll. I might even toss one into MCS Magazine and give away some prizes.

The rest of this NBA season officially became something you have to complete, a task that needs to be done, a journey that you have to finish, but nothing more, in the wake of the Pistons' systematic destruction of the San Antonio Spurs, 83-68 last night in Texas.

Normally I don't put a whole lot of stock into regular season games, especially between two teams who will only meet twice in a season. But the Pistons spanked the defending champion Spurs by 15 each time they played, then sent them to bed without any dinner. Manu Ginobili even played this time -- he missed the Christmas Day beating -- and the Spurs still lost by those 15 points. Guess he wasn't worth a single point of difference to his team. So even though these were regular season games, they were far from meaningless. In fact, you could even make the argument that because the Pistons and Spurs only tangle twice, each game takes on that much more meaning and can be that much more of a barometer of things to come.

Well, here's what's to come: a second Pistons championship in three seasons, exactly what the Spurs accomplished by taking the crown from the Pistons last June. Now I am even more convinced, after watching these two Pistons-Spurs games, that had Rasheed Wallace not had cerebral flatulence -- that would be a brain fart to you lay people -- at the end of Game 5, leaving Robert Horry alone to drain a game-winning triple, the Pistons would have won their second straight championship. And maybe they wouldn't be on the mission they are on today.

Oh, their will to win would certainly be there, gunning for a third straight Larry O'Brien trophy, but I have the feeling the Pistons have a tad more vinegar to go along with their vim this season. As Sheed said after last night's victory, "We want to get back what's ours." He did his part in the win, scoring 27 points and snagging 10 rebounds.

The current defending NBA champions, if you ask the Pistons, are wearing rings that should be on the fingers of men such as Billups, Hamilton, Prince and the rest -- not Parker, Duncan and Ginobili and that ilk. So they have set out this season to terrorize the rest of the league, being shot out of the start like a cannon ball. They are 28-5 and show absolutely no signs of being slowed down, let alone stopped. The Spurs were 17-1 on their home floor prior to last night's tussle. And the Pistons handled them -- easily.

What's even more mind-numbing is there are many folks who follow the league -- Internet writers and even some real journalists -- who believe the Pistons, amazingly, have not yet hit their stride. Even now, after 33 games played, there is doubt whether the players are 100% in tune with new coach Flip Saunders' offense. Even Billups, the point guard who plays in a sphere of his own nowadays and is a sure fire league MVP candidate, has said recently that he feels the Pistons can get even better, become even more efficient on offense. And that's what's so impressive about these Pistons. The "Goin' to Work" slogan is not just a marketing campaign. They truly are taking this season, more than any other, as business as usual and they are completely unified in one common theme: We're not satisfied until we win back our rings. They don't get caught up in their glittering won/lost record. They become steely and unrattled in close games down the stretch. They put their boots on your throat and asphyxiate you, almost at will.

The Pistons have five losses this season, and two of those came in overtime, when their fatigue and the opponent's energy may have come into play. They play at an .848 clip, the pace of thoroughbreds. They cannot, frankly, be caught. The rest of the league's teams are lengths and lengths behind the leaders.

Having fun in the Palace, Larry Brown -- wish you could be here.