Concerned? Ha! No, sir. No need to be concerned. The Pistons never are concerned, because they know that if they “play the way we can play,” nobody can stop them, except for Miami last year, and San Antonio the year before, but who counts them? I mean, besides the NBA.
This is why the Pistons all say, “It’s about what we do,” except for Chauncey Billups, who says, “It’s about what we do, man.”
Billups is partially right. It is about what they do. But it is largely about what he does.
After the Pistons beat the Bulls in Games 1 through 3, Bulls coach Scott Skiles said Billups was easily the MVP of the series. It was obvious, and so is this: For the Pistons to finish off the Bulls, they need the best of Billups — and they need to show they can play without him.
With two minutes left in the third quarter Tuesday, the Bulls led 90-67. At that point, it was easy to chalk this up as a team failure to “do what we do,” if I may coin a phrase.
How bad was it? In the huddle at the start of the fourth quarter, Rasheed Wallace exhorted his teammates to cut the Bulls’ lead to 12, which is never a good sign — and that wasn’t even the most frightening thing he said. No, what really scared me was when Wallace said this:
“We gotta go to work.”
Rasheed Wallace, master linguist, is now parroting slogans that have been around for years. That is beyond wrong. It is felonious.
The Pistons never cut the deficit to 12, and I’m not sure they really went to work. But there is a bigger problem here, lurking below the surface.
When Billups went to the bench with his fourth foul midway through the third quarter, the Bulls led only 70-62. They then went on a 20-5 run before Flip Saunders sent Billups back in, via FedEx.
When Billups was on the bench in the second quarter, for his normal first-half breather, the Bulls went on a 9-3 run.
In other words through three quarters, the Bulls outscored the Pistons 61-59 when Billups was in the game … and 29-8 when he was watching it.
On the one hand, Kirk Hinrich is doing an excellent job of badgering Billups. On the other hand, if Kirk Hinrich’s defense is enough to derail the Pistons’ title train, it isn’t much of a train.
Everybody thought this series was over after three games, and when I say “everybody,” I mean “me.” I think we can safely say it is not over. Game 6 will be the biggest game of this Pistons season. Time for the Pistons to play like the champions they claim to be, and for Mr. Big Shot to be Mr. Everything once again.
