Pistons Could Be On Road to Repeating

Maybe these really are the Portland Trail Blazers we have known and ignored for most of this season. Maybe this is the best they can do and should be commended. And maybe these veteran Detroit Pistons are a team of the ages, not the aged, after all.

Although trailing, 3-1, in the NBA finals going into Game 5 tonight, the Trail Blazers have made a good showing. Two of their three losses were in close games, and they have traded shots and shoves with the Pistons throughout.

At the very least, people in Portland, Me., as well as Portland, Ore., now can name the Trail Blazers’ starting lineup.

Well, maybe three of the five.

But the Trail Blazers are not satisfied with merely improving their national approval-rating and name recognition.

“It’s nice that people have seen us now and think we’re a good team,” Trail Blazer guard Clyde Drexler said. “But that’s not what it’s about. And America hasn’t seen us at our best. We’re a much better team than we’ve shown.”

The Trail Blazers still believe they can win this series, even though no team has ever recovered from a 3-1 deficit in the finals. Should they win in cozy Memorial Coliseum tonight, the the Trail Blazers still would have to win Games 6 and 7 at Auburn Hills, Mich., Sunday and Tuesday.

“If any team can do it, we can,” Drexler said. “We won 59 games in the regular season. If we win Game 5, that changes the whole series.”

If the Pistons win tonight, though, they would earn their second consecutive NBA title. They would be the third team--and second in four seasons--to win consecutive championships. More impressively, perhaps, Detroit would be the first team to sweep all three road games in the finals since the NBA went to the 2-3-2 format in 1985.

Piston players, unwavering in their confidence, said they are certain they will win the series.

“It would be nice to win it on the road,” Piston forward Bill Laimbeer said. “We won it in L.A. last year and had a helluva time. But the important thing is we’ll win it.

“Being down, 3-1, they are going to come out emotional. But emotion only carries you so far. And we’re the best team, so we’ll win.”

Chuck Daly, the Pistons’ coach, said another road victory tonight will be difficult, since he expects Portland to use the half-court trap defense that erased a 16-point third-quarter deficit in Game 4.

“That worked for them,” Daly said. “I think we’ll see it a lot. We have to be careful with the basketball.”

As expected, the Trail Blazers did their share of posturing, as well. Kevin Duckworth, predictably, said he already has packed his bags for a weekend in suburban Michigan.

And Drexler said he was heartened by the knowledge that “if you look at it realistically, three games could’ve gone either way, and we lost two of them. It’s the little things we haven’t done.”

A few big things went wrong, too. Such as:

--Portland Coach Rick Adelman’s use and seeming misuse of his bench.

The Trail Blazers led, 32-22, after the first quarter Tuesday. Adelman started the second quarter with four reserves--Wayne Cooper, Drazen Petrovic, Danny Young and Cliff Robinson--along with starting forward Jerome Kersey.

Of course, the starters must rest sometime, but Adelman’s regular practice of mass substitutions at the start of the quarter proved deflating. Detroit outscored the Trail Blazers, 9-0, in the first 4:12 before Adelman hurried Drexler and Terry Porter back into the game.

All of Portland’s starters eventually returned and briefly regained the lead, but they never regained the rhythm and flow of their sparkling first quarter.

Questioned repeatedly about his substitution pattern Wednesday, Adelman became defensive.

“That nine-man rotation has worked for three playoff series,” he said. “I have a problem with people who have dwelled on that all night and all this morning. If I have to play my five starters 48 minutes, we (have a) problem.

“Our people have to perform. We somehow have to get something off the bench. We got ourselves in a tremendous hole. It was the turning point in the game. I’m not sure we’ll play nine again. But you almost have to play eight. You have to give guys (rests). If we can’t rest a guy for three or four minutes, there’s nothing we can do.”

The Pistons’ reserves outscored the Trail Blazers’ reserves, 26-8, and out-rebounded them, 12-5.

“But if you ask me, I’m sorry, but I don’t think (Detroit’s) bench did that great a job last night,” Adelman said. “Vinnie Johnson was the only reserve of theirs I saw scoring.”

--Portland’s rebounding, which has been eclipsed by the Pistons.

Detroit, somewhat shockingly, holds a 173-162 rebounding edge. The Pistons also have 13 more offensive rebounds than the Trail Blazers, the NBA’s top rebounding team during the regular season.

“Our rebounding has been a key,” Daly said. “We have to keep doing that, or we’ll be in trouble.”

--The Trail Blazers’ inability to control the Pistons’ prolific guard trio of Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Vinnie Johnson.

The three have accounted for an average of 52.4 of Detroit’s 107.9 points in the four games. In the last two games, Piston guards have outscored Trail Blazer guards, 156-100.

To compensate for the inherent matchup problem when Daly plays the three guards together, Adelman has used Young with Drexler and Porter. They have been no match.

“Detroit’s guards take the majority of their shots,” Drexler said. “They create, shoot, do it all. That’s why they’re such a good team. They cause a lot of problems for our defense. We have to make them miss their shots.”

That’s no easy task, since the three have combined to make 50% of their shots.

“We try to get the guy who’s hot the ball,” Thomas said. “It’s just common sense. A lot of people think big men dominate a game. That’s why people can’t understand how a team like us, with all these little guys, can dominate.”