Lazy Sunday

Deeeetroit....Basketballlllllll!!!!
So I'm sitting at home this afternoon taking in the Pistons/Pacers game with my wife before Master's coverage starts. She's from Indiana and thusly a Pacers fan. Myself, I've always been a Wizards fan...and still am. But a three years ago, I put some money on the Pistons to win the championship and followed and cheered for them in depth throughout the playoffs when they went on to eventually beat the Lakers for the championship. So my motivations were a little selfish, but I learned to really like this team.

So the Pistons, with six games left and with an 11 game lead over the Heat have already comfortably earned home court advantage for the playoffs. The Pacers, meanwhile are in a struggle for 7th place meaning they're looking at at the Nets if they finish strong, the Heat if they finish mediocre, or even worse, these same Pistons. (Ignoring the potential Heat/Nets swap at the top).

We all know about the Pistons starters - about how there was debate that at least three and mabye four or even five deserved all star honors this year. But what about that bench? In their current position, they can easily rest their starters and I'm noticing that they're doing just that today. And through much of the game, I never see more than one Pistons starter on the floor until the last two minutes of the game. Good to see Flip making sure they close strong.

So I'm looking at the guys on the floor and we've got Antonio McDyess, Tony Delk, Lindsay Hunter, Maurice Evans. Still on the bench you've got Dale Davis and Kelvin Cato. I mean, not All Stars by any means, and most of whom are in the twilight of their NBA careers....but a very serviceable collection of formerly decent to good NBA players and some All Stars (Davis, Dice). And they're dominating the Pacers. The Bench. First with Ben on the floor, then Sheed, then Prince. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the Pistons bench could earn the #8 seed in the East.

Okay, maybe if these guys had to play 40mpg over 82 games, McDyess' knee would blow out, and all their lungs' would explode...but still....impressive. And last year, they did it with Dice and Arroyo. The year before, Campbell and Memo were key off the bench. And let's not forget Darko! I think it's cool to see that they've kept their starting five intact for three years, rotated key guys off the bench and are still a dominant force in the league. Kudos to Joe D for running this show and to Flip for keeping it going after LB's departure. Now if only all former Pistons champion guards got this whole GM thing right....