NBA PLAYOFFS : Pistons Start Engines and Even Series : Detroit Does Not Leave Home Without a Victory, 100-91

The big picture, as some would put it, for the Detroit Pistons was that they defeated the Chicago Bulls, 100-91, Tuesday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills, overcoming the ejection of center Bill Laimbeer, riding Isiah Thomas’ 33 points and tying the National Basketball Assn.’s Eastern Conference championship series at 1-1.

The Pistons--as their coach, Chuck Daly, put it--were in “intensive care,” but checked themselves out.

Daly was breathing easy, happy to have kept from getting swept at home, and happy to have caught the Bulls on a night when Michael Jordan and Bill Cartwright were weakened by flu and a night when Scottie Pippen had to miss the game’s final 13 minutes with an injured foot.

With the exception of drawing four technical fouls and doing nothing to stop Chicago forward Horace Grant from getting 20 rebounds, Daly seemed satisfied with the Pistons’ play. Winning was the important thing. Another loss would have made their care even more intensive.

So, this was the headline story for Detroit--getting even.

However, there was a subplot.

A small picture, if you will.

Thomas, the team captain, said he thinks the Pistons are playing lousy. He does not know why. He wants to know why. He called a team meeting, No Coaches Allowed, immediately after Tuesday’s game, to try to find out why.

When the meeting ended, there was a look on his face as though Detroit had just been beaten by, oh, Miami.

“I do not like the way we’re playing,” Thomas said, first thing. No smile of celebration. No sigh of relief over nailing down a necessary victory. No compliments for a job well done.

There was not one word from Isiah about the way he took the play to Jordan, beating the taller defender to the basket time after time, outscoring the Chicago megastar, 33-27.

Not a word about the way he and fellow Detroit guards Joe Dumars and Vinnie Johnson joined forces for 69 points, after donating a measly 27 in Sunday’s 94-88 Game 1 defeat.

Not a word about the way the Pistons, clinging to an 83-82 lead in the fourth quarter, pulled away with an 11-1 run to finally get these ever-hustling Bulls out of their hair.

Not until he got that other stuff off his chest, at least.

“We’re not executing. We’re not playing smart basketball. We’re not moving the basketball. We’re not setting screens,” Thomas began, rattling off some of the things that persuaded him to call the team meeting.

“Defensively, we’re having a lot of lapses. We don’t screen out. We don’t attack the boards like we usually do. We’re not even catching the ball very well.

“I do not like the way we’re playing right now.”

Asked if he thought the Pistons could correct the trouble before Saturday’s Game 3 at Chicago, Thomas, without a hint of humor in his voice, said:

“We damn sure well better.”

With the Pistons generally favored to be the people who will keep the Lakers from winning championships back to back to back, this is no time for the team to go into a funk. Thomas knows these opportunities don’t knock often. He knows how close Detroit came last season, how they had the Lakers on the ropes in both Game 6 and Game 7.

Daly, too, was jumpy, describing Tuesday’s game as “our biggest game of the season--no, biggest in two years, I’d say. Losing to the Lakers was tough, but hardly an upset. Losing this game would have been Katie bar the door, devastating, man.”

While everyone, including those in the capacity crowd of 21,454, continued waiting for the Bulls to go away and stop bothering them, Coach Doug Collins’ club kept playing as though a championship series would not be beyond their wildest dreams.

The Bulls led after one period, were tied at halftime, and fought back even when the Pistons peeled away to a nine-point lead late in the third quarter.

Not until Detroit finally went in front by 94-83 with 3:45 to play did the home team gain a double-figure lead on Chicago in this series.

“I don’t think anybody’s doing any heavy oddsmaking on us in Las Vegas,” Collins said. “But don’t bet too much against us.”

One factor for games to come will be Pippen’s bruised arch, which will be X-rayed today. Chicago can hardly afford to lose its shooting forward, the team’s No. 2 scorer this season.

The Bulls lost Pippen at precisely the time the Pistons lost Laimbeer, but not because of an altercation they got into beneath the Chicago basket.

On a breakaway, with 1:12 remaining in the third period and Detroit ahead by seven, Pippen tried to sky over Laimbeer for a lay-in, but missed it. After recovering the ball, Pippen had it roughly stripped from his hands by Laimbeer, and responded with a slap. Laimbeer pushed back.

During the scrape, Pippen’s foot was stepped on--by Dennis Rodman, he thinks. Pippen left, never to return. Two seconds later, Laimbeer threw an elbow at Chicago guard John Paxson, who is nine inches shorter than he is. Being his second technical foul of the evening for elbowing, Laimbeer was pointed to the dressing room by referee Earl Strom, cited for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“I think it was because I stiff-armed Pippen,” Laimbeer said. “They gave me one chance (by not ejecting him for that) and I didn’t use it.”

Daly thought Laimbeer guiltless, and said everything “Bad Boys” Rick Mahorn and Laimbeer do is “looked at with a magnifying glass.”

No one from Detroit’s starting front line scored in double figures, but it scarcely mattered, what with Thomas scoring 33, Dumars 20 and Johnson 16. Once again, however, the Pistons shot far below their usual standard, shooting less than 42%.

Jordan, who is only 19 of 49 for the series, was stricken with the flu early in the day, and said he “had the chills and was aching all over my body.” Cartwright, Chicago’s center, had missed Monday’s practice for the same reason, and scored only nine points.

After bringing the Bulls to within 83-82 with a swish from the key, Jordan missed twice and Detroit went on an 11-1 blitz, led by Dumars’ six points and a Mark Aguirre dunk. The dunk made it 94-83 with 3:51 remaining--and even though that was the Pistons’ last basket, they were home free.

Typical of Chicago’s bad luck during these last minutes, the instant Grant got his 20th rebound, he tripped over two fallen Pistons and was called for traveling.

“It was a bad day at the office for us,” Grant said. “But they’re thinking about us. They’re not underestimating us anymore, if they ever did. I think people realize we’ve got a shot at this thing.”

Isiah Thomas among them.

Eastern Conference Notes

Games 3 and 4 both will be matinees, Saturday’s at 11 a.m., PDT, and Monday’s holiday game at noon. . . . The 1969 Lakers were the only NBA team to win a playoff series after dropping the first two games at home. They swept San Francisco the next four. . . . Scottie Pippen of the Bulls was fined $3,000 and New York’s Kenny Walker $1,500 for fighting in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.

“You’re not going to see a pretty game throughout this series,” Detroit Coach Chuck Daly predicted. “I think it’s knockdown, drag out from here on in.” . . . In games this season in which they have held the opponent to fewer than 100 points, the Pistons are 44-3. . . . Taxi fare from Detroit’s airport to the Piston arena is $55, plus tip. Air fare on Southwest Airlines from Detroit to Chicago is $29.