The Pistons Aren’t Ready to Abdicate

Isiah Thomas is recovering from a broken wrist; he winces every time it’s slapped, which could be a problem for a penetrating point guard in the mayhem of the playoffs. James Edwards, the 7-foot-1 center-forward who is the team’s only low-post scoring threat, hasn’t played in three weeks because of an aching back. Mark Aguirre, the third-leading scorer, also has a strained back. William Bedford, the backup center, wears a heavy bandage to protect against an injured hamstring. Gerald Henderson, the team’s insurance while Thomas was out, is in street clothes himself with a heel contusion. Joe Dumars just stopped limping from a hyperextended toe.

Nothing’s wrong with Bill Laimbeer except that he’s almost 34 years old and has played more than 300 games the last three years. Nothing’s wrong with Vinnie Johnson except he’s going on 35 years old, or Tree Rollins except that he’s older than dirt. The 50 victories this season constitute the club’s lowest total since 1985-86.

This is the state of the Detroit Pistons, two-time defending NBA champions as the playoffs begin Thursday night: injured, old and probably tired.

It’s a setup.

Don’t believe Thomas when he says, as he did Sunday: “Chicago’s the team to beat. They’ve got the best record” in the Eastern Conference. “They’ve got the best talent. They’ve got the best team.”

Don’t believe Isiah because he doesn’t believe it, nor do his teammates, and neither, to be honest, do the Bulls. The road to the NBA title still runs through Detroit, and this crystal ball says the Pistons are about to come out of a seasonlong rope-a-dope with some serious double-fisted fury.

Yes, the Pistons are vulnerable. What team wouldn’t be after two straight championships, three straight trips to the NBA Finals. “What teams go to a championship four years in a row, whether it’s the Super Bowl, World Series or Stanley Cup?” Coach Chuck Daly asked. “It’s going to be a very difficult task to take it back (to the Finals). Both the spirit and the flesh have to be willing.”

The Pistons, to a man, have no doubt about the spirit. Even though they lost a meaningless regular season finale Sunday in Chicago, they began playing playoff mind games with the Bulls, the team they’ve beaten the last three years in the playoffs. During timeouts, the Pistons would subtly bump Scotty Pippen, the Bulls player the Pistons know they have psyched out, when he walked back to the bench. After Pippen had scorched the Pistons for 28 points, Detroit’s defensive ace Dennis Rodman said, with attitude, “In the playoffs, I’m still not going to allow him to breathe.”

Late in the game, Thomas without provocation shoved John Paxson in the chin and neck. When the Bulls got even by smacking Thomas’s not yet fully recovered wrist and knocking him out for the game, Daly said he “suspected they would try to do that,” already suggesting to his team that it better be ready for a grind.

For a team that had, by its own admission, a difficult season, the Pistons are an awfully chippy bunch, and probably will play like it once the postseason begins tonight, at home against Atlanta. “We’ve got the spirit,” John Salley said. “Pistons spirit: Don’t come to play, come to win. ... We got the trophy at our house.”

Daly said: “Everybody’s wondering where we are. They’re calling other people the favorites. We’re the X factor. We’re a tough-minded club. If we’re reasonably healthy, we have a fair chance to get back.”

The Pistons swear they will be healthy, even though Bedford, who’s never started a playoff game, gets the call Thursday night against the Hawks in place of Edwards. Thomas will play, so will Aguirre. Failure of the flesh can manifest itself in other ways, however. Johnson, having shot 43 percent in the

regular season, is now more like a bun warmer than The Microwave.

It’s tough to imagine him taking over a big, big game at this stage. Same goes for Edwards.

So why will Detroit be so tough to beat again? Isiah and Dumars are still the best backcourt in the league. Rodman is still the best defender. Salley, who does virtually nothing for long stretches in the regular season, is Gargantuan, a dunking/swatting monster. Aguirre, a 25-point scorer for his career, is certainly capable of filling Johnson’s old role. And there’s always Laimbeer.

“Not only that, but it’s playoff time now,” Dumars said, “and we focus as well as anybody in the league on one opponent. There’s no more back-to-back games or four opponents in six days. We’re confident that we do as good a job breaking down a single opponent, zeroing in on what we have to do against one team, as anybody.”