The Detroit Pistons are one loss away from joining a dubious group and having a label slapped on them that won’t be easy to rip off.Â
If the Pistons lose game five and the series, we will spend the next few weeks talking about how they were a fraud and a fluke. I don’t think that is true, as flukes don’t win 60 games, but I think it’s fair to say that Trajan Langdon will go into the offseason with a different agenda if his team gets bounced in the first round again.Â
We’ll also be talking about whether the Pistons are the worst number one seed of all time, and if they lose in five, they will have an argument.Â
Pistons could be only the 7th top seed to lose in the first roundÂ
An eight seed has upset the first seed just six times in NBA history, and if the Pistons become the 7th, there is a chance they’ll be called the worst.Â
The first time it happened shouldn’t even count, as it was the Nuggets beating the Supersonics back when the first round was only five games. That one has an asterisk next to it, shout out to my man Dikembe. That goes for the other series (Knicks over Heat) that was best of five.Â
Two of the others came in shortened seasons, so the seeding really wasn’t accurate, and two of them were aided by unfortunate injuries to stars on the one seed (Bulls with Derrick Rose).Â
Two of the eight seeds went on to make the Finals after their first-round upset and were probably only eight seeds in name only after having copious injuries throughout the season.Â
This monicker certainly fits the Magic, who struggled all season with injuries and didn’t really get healthy and start playing well until the very end. Had they been healthy all season, the Pistons probably wouldn’t be playing them in the first round.Â
But Detroit has no excuses to fall back on. They are healthy, they have all of their guys, and they are simply getting their butts kicked. There is no shortened season or wonky context to blame, they are just losing.Â
If this continues, it will be easy to point at Detroit and say they are the worst number one seed of all time, especially if they are beaten in only five games and fail to score 100 points in most of them. All but one of the seven games series in the upsets went at least six games, so it may come down to the 2026 Pistons and the 2023 Bucks for which number one seed choked harder.Â
This is not the narrative I expected from this series, though I knew it would be a tough matchup, but Detroit only has one way to change it, and that’s to win three in a row, starting with defending the home court and finding some dignity in game five.Â
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