We keep waiting to see the champion Pistons, and waiting and waiting. Detroit looked invincible through the first seven quarters of the playoffs, but ever since it has been ordinary . . . hit or miss. The Pistons were so frustrated, so out of answers Saturday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals they went to Hack-a-Shaq with more than four minutes to play, and it backfired comically. Halfway to elimination after a 98-83 loss to Miami, the champions once removed apparently have been reduced to desperation.
This funk the Pistons are in for the second straight series isn't just uncharacteristic; it's a downright stunner. Yes, this group of Pistons has come back so many times on the road in the playoffs, as recently as last week, that it would be silly to presume too much about Miami's 2-1 series lead. The Pistons, after all, specialize in being down and coming back to win.
Still, it at least seems possible that the Pistons aren't as good as they were two years ago when they won the NBA championship, or as good as they were last year when they lost in the NBA Finals, or as good as we thought they were throughout the regular season when they won 64 games. Most important, it's entirely possible the Pistons aren't as good as they seem to think they are, that they're no better than the other three teams that remain in the NBA's final four.
The Mavericks have played better, as has Miami lately despite the Heat's unsightly offense. And when Miami took Game 1 in Detroit to rip home-court advantage away, the Pistons no longer looked like the presumptive champions as the series moved to Miami for Games 3 and 4.
It's not like Miami had everything working in Game 3. But what they did have working was Shaq and Dwyane Wade, who hit 75 percent of their shots, scored 27 and 35 points, respectively, and dominated.
The Pistons were both beaten and perhaps embarrassed. After Detroit went to its Hack-a-Shaq strategy, Pat Riley answered by playing Hack-a-Ben, which worked beautifully. Wallace missed 8 of 10 free throws and was such a liability during Detroit's comeback attempt he had to be removed in the final 2 1/2 minutes when Detroit was on offense.
The Pistons did cut a 13-point deficit to 74-73 with approximately seven minutes to play. But Wade made three the hard way for a 77-73 lead, and Miami was energized for another burst that put the game away. Miami also shut down Tayshaun Prince, who had 24 points in Detroit's Game 2 victory, but was held to 1-for-7 shooting, three points, two rebounds and no free throws in 46 minutes. Rasheed Wallace missed 7 of 11 shots and Richard Hamilton missed 9 of 15 as the Pistons struggled to score.
Maybe all this waiting for the real Pistons to show up is going to be in vain.
You can trip all over yourself running down the theories as to what has happened to Detroit in this postseason. The Pistons looked like overwhelming favorites through Game 1 and three quarters of Game 2 in Round 2 against the Cavaliers before a precipitous drop off. It was understandable that the Pistons fell asleep and handed back most of a big lead in the fourth quarter of Game 2. But then, Cleveland popped around the Pistons for three straight games to take a 3-2 lead, stunningly, and the Pistons have since been unable to get their groove back.
Detroit has now lost two of three to Miami, meaning the Pistons have now lost five of their last eight playoff games.
The Pistons don't want to start any basketball discussion with offense, but how could you not? In the first seven games of this postseason, the Pistons averaged 106.6 points per game. They went 109, 104, 122 and 113 in succession. But in the last eight games the Pistons have dropped off to 82 points per game, and without losing a player from the lineup.
While you could argue all day over who is the Pistons best player, there' s no doubt through the last three seasons that Chauncey Billups is their most clutch player. But through the last five games, Billups had made only 36 percent of his shots before breaking out with a huge shooting performance in Game 3 (11-for-17 and 31 points). Unfortunately for Detroit, Billups was all the Pistons had going Saturday.
Ben Wallace, the defensive player of the year for the fourth time in five seasons, is particularly effective at guarding opponent's screen-and-roll game better than any front-court player in the league. But in this series, locked in hand-to-hand, thigh-to-thigh, elbow-to-jaw combat with Shaq in the paint, Wallace has been unable to get out and guard forwards and even guards. Detroit Coach Flip Saunders even admitted before the game, "He's our best defender as far as [being] on Shaq, but we also would like to have our best defender on pick-and-rolls. Unfortunately, we can't clone him and have him do both."
The Pistons blasted through the regular season without being challenged very much. It was late in the regular season that Ben Wallace had a hissy fit about the way the team was playing. And it appears that was a bit of foreshadowing. Big Ben didn't like the blasé attitude he thought was creeping in and challenged Saunders, who is now being second-guessed aggressively in Detroit as to what adjustments he should be making. Maybe following Larry Brown and coaching a ready-made championship ballclub isn't the sugar and spice it appeared to be during the regular season.
In past years when Rasheed Wallace guaranteed victory the Pistons responded with ferocious performances. When Wallace opened his mouth before Game 4 of the Pistons-Cavaliers series, the Pistons failed to win and very suddenly, almost out of nowhere, the Pistons looked more than disinterested; they looked vulnerable, like they wanted to turn it on but couldn't.
Or perhaps the Pistons located the switch, clicked it, and found no power. Either way, the champs once removed have a sizeable problem as the series moves to Game 4 on Monday night. Shaq, after winning the first game of a series, is 25-0, with a very sharp sense of his basketball history.
And the Pistons look like they're playing in quicksand, slowly sinking from view to everybody's surprise . . . certainly their own.