Lil Red Machine

Wow, what a sudden reversal of roles.

In the recent playoff history between these two franchises, it was always the Pistons who were the heavy favorites, and the Cavs who were trying to pull off the upset. Now, the Cavs have achieved elite status, and the Pistons are barely hanging on by a thread. This Detroit team has no real leadership. Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince are fine players, but have always been complimentary pieces. They can’t take over games. Outside of the obvious thing that people talk about with Rasheed Wallace (his legendary temper), even if he manages to stay out of trouble with the refs, he will probably jack up too many three-pointers.

Those are the remaining pieces left from that 2004 championship team. The true heart and soul, Ben Wallace, left in 2006. He made them intimidating. Teams feared the Pistons. I felt like he was the true glue to that team. Billups was a close second. Trading him was a necessary move. He was a fan favorite, and a great clutch player (though slightly overrated in that category in recent years). It was clear that the core was never going to get beyond the eastern conference finals, and the standard that they had set for themselves made that an unacceptable goal. Plus, they were getting Allen Iverson, who could sell tickets, and had a contract coming off the books. They knew that they were losing a lot of veteran leadership and moxie, but they couldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams that the season would go in the downward spiral that it did. Michael Curry doesn’t appear to have a real grasp on this team. A group with enigmatic guys such as Iverson and Wallace need a coach that has a proven track record. Otherwise, there will be issues. The decision to start Iverson over Hamilton was dumb. I can only imagine how angry Hamilton was over that. he didn’t deserve to lose that spot. Plus, him and Rodney Stuckey need as much time as possible to get their games to mesh. They are the future backcourt. for the Detroit Pistons.

It’s been a long season in Detroit. The Palace of Auburn Hills is a tough place to play, so the Pistons may very well get a game on their court, but this series won’t go any longer than five games. There aren’t too many positions on the court where the Cavaliers don’t have a clear and decisive advantage at.

I don’t worry about Cleveland overlooking them. The Cavs have been an extremely focused team this season, rarely losing games to lesser opponent. I don’t see that trend reversing itself in the playoffs.