Before the NBA season began in November, this was the consensus:
*The defending champion was a fluke, and the Bulls showed it by beating Miami by 42 points on opening night.
*There was no truly great team.
*There were few real stars, which has become clear in the playoffs with Dirk Nowitzki and leading scorer Kobe Bryant out in the first round along with Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal, Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert Arenas, Chris Bosh, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming.
So much for much of your All-NBA teams.
Heck, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Elton Brand, Jermaine O’Neal, Pau Gasol, Chris Paul, Joe Johnson, Michael Redd and Zach Randolph didn’t even make the playoffs, which accounts for most of the other top scorers in the NBA.
So it was generally agreed that anything could happen, that just about any team could make a serious playoff run and get to the Finals.
And now that it’s happening, now that we’ve had some of the greatest playoff upsets in NBA history with more possible within the next few days, why is anyone surprised?
Anyone have Bulls-Jazz in their Finals pool?
OK, it’s a long way away, but the Bulls are suddenly really close to the unthinkable, the first comeback from 0-3 in an NBA playoff series. This comes one series after the previous most unthinkable: a bottom seed knocking off the top seed in a seven-game series, which we’re told the better team always wins. And not just any top seed but the 67-win Dallas Mavericks, with most valuable player Nowitzki.
So what’s knocking off an aging Detroit Pistons team four straight after that?
“There has to be a sense of urgency,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said after his team’s loss Tuesday night in Game 5 cut its lead to 3-2 in the Eastern Conference semifinal with the Bulls. It was the second consecutive game in which the Pistons trailed by 23 points. They trailed by 19 in Game 3 but managed to win it.
Going into Game 6 Thursday night at the United Center, this is hardly looking like an aberration anymore.
“Chicago has proved they can beat us here,” Saunders said of playing in Auburn Hills, Mich. “They’ve beaten us during the year here, and we beat them at their place. They won four games against Miami.
“[Does] anyone think they’ll roll over? I don’t think anyone with knowledge thought that would happen. We’ve got to have a sense of urgency and not rely on the ability to win Game 7 at home.”
Because they might not.
The Pistons are a team that tends to coast or play with some disinterest.
Oops! There goes a long three by Rasheed Wallace. Clank! The Pistons have seen that a lot this series. And without foul-prone Chauncey Billups to calm them down and run their sets, the Pistons have been one of those old wild-bunch cowboy movies with everyone shooting in every direction hoping to hit something.
They seem to take great delight in turning victory into near miss, and this time they may well suffer the embarrassment of all time, blowing a 3-0 series lead.
“Looking at the last two games, I can’t say we [relaxed] intentionally,” Billups said. “It’s human nature when you have that kind of cushion to let up a little bit. Our team is not that good with cushions. We’ve done this time and again.”
The most recent time was last year, also in the conference semifinals. They dominated Cleveland two straight, then lost three and were just a few offensive rebounds away from losing a fourth straight before winning Game 7 at home.
“I think about that Cleveland series,” Billups acknowledged. “It made for a very long series, and I thought it hurt us in the next series.”
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That was in losing the conference finals to Miami.
So now the debate is: Who’s under the most pressure? The Pistons says it’s the Bulls; the Bulls say it’s the Pistons.
“The last two games, the Bulls were just playing free and whatever happens, happens,” Billups said after practice Wednesday. “But now they aren’t going to play as loose because it’s a series again. It’s not whatever happens, happens now. Once you win a couple of games, people start expecting things out of you, and shots become a little different.
“There’s definitely pressure on them. They played great, and now they will be expected to play that way again. Hopefully they don’t shoot the ball that well again. That’s the only way they can really hurt us.
“I can’t say the tide has turned. They do have the momentum right now. But momentum is a funny thing. It can be broken in two or three plays, either way. You saw how we had it, and they broke our momentum.
“They still need to win [Game 6] and then another back in our place. We’ve got to impose our will and play harder than we played the last two games. Right now they are playing a lot tougher and lot harder than we are.”
And knowing the Pistons, there is one more stage to come if things continue to deteriorate: the finger-pointing.
Who didn’t make the right adjustments? Who didn’t stop Wallace from tearing the head off a live chicken?
Everyone said this could happen. Why don’t we ever listen to ourselves?
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