Will the Pistons win the championship? (part 1)

At this point , no one knows. What we should discuss is whether the Pistons will play as well as they have shown they can this season. And I got to say, I didn´t like much what I saw this week in the two games against Boston and the Knicks. Both these games showed some troublesome patterns that the Pistons have been carrying with them for a while, now.

First of all, I thought the youngsters´s emergence this season was supposed to take care of the no-energy problem. And indeed, Maxiell, Johnson and the other guys are always bouncing up and down the court with determination. But both against Boston and New York, after taking some rest on the bench, the starters came in and looked flat. At times, and it has been said a lot, Detroit´s level actually dips a little in the first minutes after starters return on the court, and the only reason this has never been made obvious is because with so few turnovers, the starters´s deficiencies aren´t made flagrant in short spurts.

Doesn´t mean they aren´t there, though, and it especially doesn´t mean these deficiencies won´t cause serious harm in the long run. It´s a very real possibility, because this week´s games are not the first ones where I notice this.

Second, Detroit has a chance to be incredibly good this year in the playoffs, but they still have to execute. Games won´t all be blowouts, and the Pistons seriously need to begin taking care of those free throws. 2 missed technical free throws in the playoffs will take its toll, I promise you that. Having a FT shooting percentage of 70% for the last 5 or 6 games has probably cost the Pistons a game or two, you know. Momentum is everything in sports, and against Boston in particular, if the Pistons had actually tied the game during the second quarter by sinking their FT, there would have been no need to play catch up for the entire game, and I think the mental toll it took can help explain the mini-meltdown that happened in the fourth quarter.

The most problematic aspect of this isn´t the loss of 1 or 2 games, though. I´m more worried about the fact that it has been happening for some time, now (and it´s not like there´s one player who just can´t sink FT that´s lowering the FT%), and that it still hasn´t been adressed. That indicates a problem with coaching. It´s part of the basics for every coach, you know? You get an uncontested layup, it´s in, period. You go to the line, it´s in. And if it´s not, then you practice again and again and again, because there´s no excuse not to make them.

It´s the players´s responsibility to sink them, but it´s damn sure the coaching staff´s responsibility to notice if they haven´t been as efficient and focused as they should, and to raise the issue accordingly. I haven´t seen that. I haven´t seen anyone pointing that out on and off the court, and I haven´t seen anyone seriously bothered and demanding focus from the Pistons on the FT line. It´s not that I want Flip to blow a gasket, but it sure looks like missed FT are not a big deal for him or any of them. And as I said, who on the team is supposed to miss FT? Maxiell has progressed a lot, Amir has a soft touch, Dyess and Rasheed are actually good FT shooters. It´s just a matter of focus.

(continued..)