I’m reading Bill Simmons latest ESPN Page 2 article on a list of NBA what ifs, being mildly entertained, when I come to the following passage on What if Ron Artest hadn’t gone into the Palace crowd:

In the span of five minutes, everything went down the drain. And if you remember the shoddy ‘05 Finals when the Spurs beat the Pistons in seven, it’s right up there with the ‘94 Finals on the “Wait, Are We Sure These Were the Best Two Teams?” Scale.

A Finals that goes to game 7 is shoddy?? That was a highly competitive Finals that needed all of those seven games to decide the better team. Do I even need to defend a Detroit / San Antonio ‘05 Finals match? Did he mean to say 2007 when the Cavs had no business being on the same court as the Spurs? That was shoddy.

I’m not saying the Pacers wouldn’t have been a formidable opponent but they still would have had to go through the defending Champion Pistons. I believe the two best teams were in the Finals.

And 1994, that was another excellent 7 game series. I’ve never thought that the Knicks and Rockets weren’t the best two teams in the league that year.

Is it possible that Simmons, a noted Boston slappy, has a Detroit ax to grind?

[Box score] So it seems the secret to the Pistons getting the dub over the Bulls is to hit the glass. After being badly out-rebounded in the first three meetings the Pistons got to work on the boards using a 42-28 rebounding advantage to hold Chicago off last night.

Watching this game it seemed to me that the Pistons were winning handily until I’d check the score and the Bulls kept hanging around until the closing minutes when the Pistons were able to make the key plays to secure the victory over the Bulls, in turn leaving the ‘Stonz owning a win over every Eastern Conference team.

Despite the high score this game seemed like one of those Detroit/Chicago Central Division grind-it-out type of games. That was probably due to the fact that there were a total of 49 personal fouls called resulting in 69 combined free throw attempts.

Chauncey led all scoring with a season high tying 34 points (4 asts). Twenty of Chauncey’s points were scored by halftime as CB was abusing Ben Gordon. It’s a good thing he did because Gordon had the touch last night. Ben Gordon scored a very efficient 27 points going 10/12 from the floor (3/4 3pt) and 4/4 from the free throw line. Gordon was limited to 29 minutes because of foul trouble and eventually fouled out of the game. If you think about it Ben Gordon is the opposite of Ben Wallace. Gordon can light up a scoreboard but he’s a defensive liability and that’s why he doesn’t start for Chicago because he can’t handle other team’s starting guards.

Tayshaun followed up his 28 performance vs. New York with a 21 point (6 reb, 6 ast) game against Chicago. Prince gave the Palace crowd a scare in the 3rd quarter when he went down clutching his elbow, an injury that turned out to be a funny bone stinger that left Tay’s arm numb. The ironic thing is he played his best basketball of the game after that happened.

“I couldn’t feel my hand, and I knew that wasn’t good,” said Prince, who was injured on a third-quarter foul by Larry Hughes. “I thought I was going to have to shoot my free throws one-handed, but I got enough feeling back to make the shots, and then I hit a 3, so I figured I would keep going. (ESPN)”

Theo Ratliff is proving to be a sweet pick up. Again filling in for Rasheed, Theo scored 10 (4/6 FG), blocked 3, and grabbed 8 boards. I’m a sucker for a sweet jump-hook and the Rattler has a sweet one. He’s not really here for his offense, but he’s good for a few buckets if we need it.

NOTES:

The Pistons connected on 87.9% of their freebies, 50.6% from the field and 41.7% from three-point land…Chirs Duhon was benched for sleeping through the team shoot around…This win clinched a playoff birth for the Pistons…Joakim Noah thinks the 25-38 Bulls are a better team than Detroit: “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have beat that team, I think Detroit is a great team, but I still feel like we’re better than them, really.“…Pistons’ greats John “Spider” Salley and James “Buddah” Edwards (also former Bulls) were in attendance at the Palace for the taping of a 50 seasons special…

Allen Einstein / Getty