So far, the defining moment of the playoffs for the Detroit Pistons came late in Game 1 of the first-round series with the Philadelphia 76ers.
In the final minutes of a tight game, the Philadelphia players huddled near the foul line as play was about to resume following a timeout. Rasheed Wallace of the Pistons walked over and leaned into the huddle for a few seconds, smiling broadly as things broke up with the five Sixers shooting him puzzled looks.
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| Rasheed Wallace lightened up -- but a playoff loss wasn't the right time to do it. (Getty Images) |
"I never toyed with anybody I played against in the playoffs," Johnson said on the TNT studio show following the game. "I had a chip on my shoulder, I was moody, cranky, I was crazy. You wouldn't see me playing around with anyone. I dislike (my opponents). My concentration was on the next play and the next play.
"If (Detroit) doesn't realize what happened to Dallas last year (vs. Golden State), it can happen to Detroit. Detroit has not only got to play good, they have to play hard."
Wallace's focus rightly was questioned because he missed a point-blank shot on the play following his prank and the Pistons suffered a surprising home-court loss in a game they led by double digits at halftime.
The second-seeded Pistons won Game 2 at home, lost Game 3 on the road and finally took control of the series by winning Game 4 on the road and Game 5 at home.
The Pistons should prevail in the series -- either in Game 6 Thursday night in Philadelphia or in Game 7 at home over the weekend -- because they clearly are the better team. But the lack of focus against a team they consider inferior is a troubling sign that they might suffer the same playoff fate as a year ago.
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After winning the first two games at home in last year's Eastern Conference finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pistons sleepwalked though Games 3 and 4 in Cleveland and then couldn't rally to win the series after the Cavaliers gained control.
The Sixers don't have a player as talented as LeBron James, so the Pistons have been able to get away with not bringing their best effort in every game this series.
"At some points, we've been lackadaisical," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. "That's not taking anything away from the Sixers because they play hard all the time. Sometimes, we match their challenge and sometimes we don't."
The Pistons certainly did in Game 5 Tuesday night. That much was obvious about an hour before the game in the Detroit locker room. Instead of music playing as in previous games, the room was quiet and the players were focused on a replay of an earlier game playing on the big screen.
"We knew Game 6 was going to be an elimination game either way it went," guard Chauncey Billups said after Game 5. "We wanted to be on the upper hand of that."
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