The Detroit Pistons dropped the first game of their best-of-seven series against the Orlando Magic, and the sky is now falling.
The pundits were out taking their victory laps, dropping their “I told you so’s” about how the Pistons need a second star and don’t have enough shooting.
The Pistons were already the trendy pick to be upset in round one, and even though they won 60 games and led the Eastern Conference for the entire season, no one picked them to go to the Finals, and few picked them to get out of the second round.
Meanwhile, the Celtics and Knicks have both lost to their first-round opponent since and haven’t faced near the backlash the Pistons did. I barely heard a peep (outside of the Knicks psychos on X) about the Knicks blowing a 4th-quarter lead and how that proves they were a fluke all along.
Will we get a thousand articles and Tweets about how the darling Celtics are not real contenders after they got their butts kicked at home by a Philly team that didn’t even have Joel Embiid, or are the Pistons the only one under this negative microscope?
Detroit doesn’t get the same runway that these teams get, but they can change that.
The Pistons need to get the 800 lb. gorilla off their backs
The first thing the Pistons need to do is win a freaking playoff game at home, which they haven’t done since Barack Obama was president.
It’s something that does appear to be weighing on them, and the Pistons play with a nervous energy at home that they don’t have on the road.
Then, they need to win a first-round series to show that they can actually do it. Until then, no one is going to believe in the Pistons in the same way they do the Knicks and Celtics, teams that have made deep playoff runs recently.
The Eastern Conference is better than people think
This first round has also shown that the East is far better than people give it credit for. All season we’ve heard about the “Leastern” Conference (HILARIOUS pun by the way, HILARIOUS!) and how the mighty West is so much better. Really?
All of the top 10 in the East had winning records, while the 10th seed Warriors were eight games under .500. You can say it’s because of better competition in the West or fewer tankers, but there were an equal number of crap teams in both conferences.
With all of the injuries they’ve had, the Magic are not a bog-standard 8th seed, and many had them picked to be at or near the top of the East this season. The Hawks are better-than-advertised, and even Philly has now shown they can win on a given night, even without Embiid.
The NBA has true parity, which is great, but for some reason, that doesn’t apply or even get mentioned when the Pistons lose. We’ll see if Boston and New York get the same treatment after their losses or if it’s just the Pistons who are a fluke.
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