Piston Focus Is on Victory

What distractions?

As their coach angrily tried to discredit media reports of his postseason departure, the Detroit Pistons did one better, showing a little fire of their own and debunking reports of their demise by taking Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat, 106-96.

Buried somewhere amid Brown’s denials was an appealing plot line of defending champions who prevailed after facing yet another series deficit: Richard Hamilton had 28 points, Rasheed Wallace had 20 and the Pistons tied the series at 2-2 in front of an announced 22,076 Tuesday at the Palace.

But the national sports eye was on Brown, who was beyond surly in attacking media reports that he would leave the Pistons at season’s end to become the Cleveland Cavaliers’ president.

“Why should I ever be thinking about that?” he said. “I want to coach here. I want to coach. This is what I’ve done my whole life. I love this team. I think I’ve said that 100 times. No one wants to write that.

“Don’t just come out and throw things. That’s not fair. I’m coaching here. Why should I think about alternatives? I don’t even want to think about alternatives.”

Brown has three years left on a five-year contract with the Pistons, but the Cavaliers reportedly reached an agreement with him after receiving permission from the Pistons to talk to him.

Piston officials and Brown have been at odds on occasion, starting with Brown’s refusal to play second-year center Darko Milicic and Brown’s midseason musing that his dream job was to coach the New York Knicks.

Piston players shrugged their shoulders at it all.

“Y’all are talking about that and whoever else, we’ve got bigger things at hand,” guard Chauncey Billups said.

“We’re worried about the Miami Heat, not what coach is doing or whatever. They have been talking about different teams all season long with Coach, and who knows what’s going to happen, but at this point nobody really cares.”

As the story started to break Monday, Heat center Shaquille O’Neal stood in the other camp, for once not on the team at the center of the drama downpour.

“It’s been a drama-less year for me,” he said. “I’m not used to that coming from where I come from. It’s fun and it’s quiet, and we intend to keep it that way.”

Only, there wasn’t so much fun and quiet Tuesday.

Just when it looked as if O’Neal had overcome thigh problems with a 24-point effort Saturday, he scored 12 points Tuesday and was dogged by foul trouble, playing only 25 minutes. He did not speak to reporters.

He picked up his second foul with 5:46 left in the first quarter, and Alonzo Mourning picked up his second foul with 1:25 left in the quarter, leaving the Heat with Michael Doleac and Udonis Haslem in the post.

O’Neal returned for two minutes, picked up his third foul as Hamilton drove to the basket, and exited with 7:27 left in the second quarter.

Without O’Neal clogging the middle, the Pistons were nearly flawless, collecting 17 assists on 22 baskets and not committing a turnover on the way to a 60-46 halftime lead.

“We went though a period of time where we had an awful lot of assists,” Brown said. “I think when we play our best is when we share the ball and it goes side to side. We had five guys take double-figure shots, and that’s always a good thing.”

Experience also helps.

The Pistons have been here before, down 2-1 in their last series against the Indiana Pacers and, more memorably, down 3-2 to the New Jersey Nets in last season’s conference semifinals. They rallied to win both, the latter keeping them alive on a path that ended with a five-game Finals victory over the Lakers.

The Pistons were seemingly stunned when they lost Game 3 and blamed a distorted amount of foul calls. Heat Coach Stan Van Gundy fired back with sarcasm in assessing Game 4.

“I know you’re not supposed to say that the other team had anything to do with it -- I noticed that in this series,” Van Gundy said, “but I will say that they did have a lot to do with [our loss] tonight.”