| Dominant Detroit Authored by Curtis A. Clark - December 23, 2005 - 3:11 am
So far the Pistons season has warranted some alarming statistics. A 20 and 3 record, 12 and 2 on the road, a point margin of 8.3 points, league leading assist to turnover ratio of 2.08, league low in turnovers at 11.4 per, and a 5th overall team field goal percentage of 46.15. They are off to a franchise best start, on pace for a 70 win season, and still they play in the toughest division in basketball.
The fact that as of December 22nd the 4 best records in the east come from the Central is astounding. Detroit, Indiana, Cleveland, and Milwaukee all have better records than the Atlantic and Southeast division leaders Miami and Philadelphia. Let’s also not forget Chicago, who is currently sitting in the 8th spot, making it a clean playoff sweep for the Central. This makes the Pistons league best record look ever better.
The Motown Machine has been running though teams ever which way to victory. They have outscored teams by 30, hit game winners, won in overtime, shut teams down for quarters at a time, ran teams out of buildings, and done it all while playing most of their games on the road. In fact they did it all while playing what the team called their toughest stretch all season.
Recently they just ran off 4 wins in 5 nights with travel in between every game. They even responded to an exhausting, last second, double overtime, road victory in Memphis, with a victory the next night at home, on tired legs, against a spry Portland team. 2 of Detroit’s loses, Utah and Washington, were games they were in complete control of, if you ask the players they should be 22 and 1. But they will live with 20 and 3.
The catalyst for this dominance has been Chauncey Billups. Both he and head coach Flip Saunders are in agreement, Billups is playing the best ball of his career. He has career bests in points at 19 per, assists at 8.8, field goal, free throw, and three point percentages, to go along with his lead leading assist to turnover ratio. These numbers have pushed Billups into talks as the leads best point man. He is a lock to make his first All Star team and if he keeps it up MVP and All NBA talk with soon follow.
The rest of the Pistons starters haven’t been too shabby either. Rasheed Wallace is at career marks in 3 point percent and steals. Richard Hamilton is at a career best in field goal and 3 point percentages, along with a career high in points per at 21.7. Tayshaun Prince continues to improve after signing a new 5 year deal, he is at a career best 15.8 points a game, good for third on the team. Ben Wallace, despite his own criticism of his play, is still averaging 11.8 rebounds a game and deterring opponents from driving the lane.
First year head coach Flip Saunders is flirting with a gaudy record, possible the best ever for a new coach over a complete season. His free flowing flex system has allowed the once boring and mulish Pistons offense to create and take advantage what they see on the court. He has also made the correct decision to stick with the tough man to man defense the Pistons prefer over his zone scheme. Flip hasn’t put the team on cruise control though, he has been critical of the team when needed and pushes the bench to improve.
The bench has been the one spot critics have put under the microscope, the one chink in the Pistons otherwise impeccable armor. Detroit’s bench is still yet to find its identity. After a solid preseason backup point guard Carlos Arroyo and back up center Darko Milicic have struggled as of late. While it is hard to ever justify taking the Piston’s starters out, Arroyo and Milicic have played themselves out of the small amounts of time they were getting. Arroyo has over dribbled the offense out of any semblance of chemistry they could have. Milicic’s lack of effort and aggression has earned him a place on Flip’s bench. After leading the league in blocks during the preseason, Milicic has not shown enough improvement in his offense, and more importantly rebounding, to earn meaningful minutes from Flip.
The Piston’s win total has also been accused of being misleading. They are still yet to play eastern powerhouses Miami, Indiana, or Cleveland this season. The 3 teams most experts consider Detroit’s biggest obstacles to a return finals engagement. Detroit was hammered by 30 in their only other test against another title contender in Dallas. Still though they can only wins the games they play. This speculation will be moved to the forefront as Detroit begins its first games against these teams on the 29th and 31st with Miami and Cleveland.
Despite a few cracks, cracks that can only be found with the microscope the leagues best team is always under, the Pistons are very scary. They flat out make their opponents feel like they have no chance to win. Laughing their way to victory, like Rasheed in Chicago, they know why they play. They play to have game 7 on their court this year. The team still burns from their game 7 finals loss last year in San Antonio.
And the team still feels they can get better. Ben Wallace has been injured, the offense is still new, and the bench will get a needed boost from Lindsey Hunter in a few weeks. Plus they always have Joe Dumars, who is never one to shy away from a deadline trade. The Pistons may be in the Market for one more solid bench player come deadline time.
70 wins? I don’t see why not. If this team stays healthy and the bench can give them more production, they could challenge some all time records. For now they won’t be satisfied till they lock up the East and get back to finals to win their belts back.
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