Pistons' First Round Filled With "Regular Season Intensity"

"The Conference Finals are THAT way"


Maybe the Pistons' playoff slogan should be "Bring It!" instead.

As in, "Bring on the competition."

Bring on the Wizards. Or the Cavs.

Bring on the Heat. Or the Nets.

Bring on the Spurs. Or the Mavericks.

But for now, it should just be this: Bring on the second round. And as soon as possible.

It's fun to watch the Milwaukee Bucks play around at being a playoff team, but their first-round series with the Pistons is beginning to resemble a Harlem Globetrotters-Washington Generals matchup. The only things missing have been a Meadowlark Lemon half-court hook shot, and the confetti-as-water bucket skit.

If you commissioned a political cartoonist to create an image for this series so far, it would be of a large, Pistons bully with his arm outstretched, his hand firmly on the forehead of a young Buck child, whose arms are flailing wildly -- except his reach is about three feet too short.

Occasionally the Pistons have relaxed their arms, allowing the Bucks to creep close, only to once again extend their appendages in full, leaving their outmanned opponents to again swing at air.

These #1 vs. #8 NBA playoff matchups often go like this. This isn't the NHL, where #8 is eighth in seeding only. In pro basketball, you're #8 for a reason. Usually, that reason is that you stink -- comparatively speaking.

The Bucks could make mincemeat in a seven-game series of the Atlanta Hawks, or Toronto Raptors, or the New York Knicks. But against the Pistons, who suddenly look even deeper than I thought, they're reduced to Washington General status.

Having said that, there may still be a Game 5 at the Palace. The Pistons, for all their glory lately, haven't swept a series since brooming the Indiana Pacers way back in 1990. So they could yet drop a game in Milwaukee; the young Bucks might be able to muster enough adrenalin and energy to play out of their minds against a bored Pistons squad and steal a win.

Here's the difference between watching a first round series with the Pistons and watching the same with the Red Wings: Because of the makeup of the two leagues, I casually watched Game 2 last night while doing other things, occasionally glancing at the scoreboard. Maybe I actually stopped and watched intently for 10, 15 minutes here and there. Sometimes the pundits talk of a "playoff atmosphere" in a game played in February. But what about a playoff game in April that has "regular season intensity"?

That was last night's Game 2 to a "T" -- and I don't mean the ones given to Rasheed Wallace.

But with the Red Wings, who play in a league where #8 seeds could make it all the way to the Finals, a first round game is like Game 7 of the Conference Finals. The magic dust of playoff hockey gets sprinkled on the underdogs, and suddenly your 58-16-8 team looks like it's playing one of those great Montreal (or Detroit) teams from the 1950's. It's kind of annoying, frankly. The Red Wings haven't gone into a postseason as one of those lower seeds since 1991, when they gave the heavily-favored St. Louis Blues a scare -- seizing a 3-1 lead -- before succumbing in seven games. Ever since then -- 14 playoffs and counting now -- the Red Wings have gone into at least the first round as prohibitive favorites, and sometimes even beyond that. They've even been the overwhelming choice in the Stanley Cup Finals. I predicted a sweep in 1998, and that's exactly what I got. Nobody gave the Hurricanes a chance against them in 2002, and they were right on.

And they've lost a few first-rounders, as you know, so this opening round struggle is old hat around here. Even the Cup year of '02 was fraught with first round horror. Remember the Canucks winning the first two games in Detroit? It wasn't until a Nick Lidstrom slapper from around center ice slipped through Dan Cloutier in Vancouver in Game 3 did that series turn around.

I still think our hockey team will right itself in time to make it to Round 2. But they'll have to play like a President's Trophy team to do it.

The Pistons, on the other hand, don't seem to need to "Bring It" until the Conference Finals. LeBron or Arenas be damned.