Detroit Pistons: Under the Radar and Loving It

Old, not motivated, no star player.

That's just the way the Pistons like people to talk about them.

After their Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. everybody wrote them off as being serious contenders for a championship, and started to believe that this was surley the start of a down fall of a team that has ruled the East and the NBA for the past seven years.

Many witnessed LeBron take over the series and the Pistons giving up and loosing their championship pose. That was well documented when Rasheed Wallace threw Anderson Varjao (yes he didn't flop this time) down to the ground and got a technical foul and thrown out of the game during the final minutes of Game Six. 

When the game was done, the Cavs prevailed and overcame an 0-2 seires deficit to beat the Pistons and move on to the NBA Finals, where they got swept. After that game, Rasheed said that next year will be different. The Pistons made huge changes to their bench, adding a pure shooter in Jarvis Hayes, drafting Rodney Stuckey and Aaron Afflalo, and the imergence of Jason Maxiell.

As the 2007-2008 season started, many people had the Pistons as the third or fourth best team in the East, behind the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Chicago Bulls, but that didn't bother them, they just went to work.

Rasheed entered the season 15 lbs lighter and with an "all for the team" attitude. Chanucey "Mr. Big Shot" Billups, is coming off a nice six year, 60 million contract.

Their record stands at 37-13, and they're on an eight game win streak. The Bulls are in a complete mess, the Cavs can't seem to win without LeBron, and the Celtics are 39-9, but have lost to the Pistons once already.

The bench has come up huge, and Rasheed is domainting the post on defense and offense, also making his forth all-star apperence. Billups and Hamilton are like chocolate milk, just go to together so nicely, also making the all-star game.

People still just talk about how the Celtics are the team in the East, and the Pistons will make it to the Eastern Conference Finals again, but will fall to the Celtics. That's just the way they like it, under the radar.

As other teams fight throw injury and battling other teams, the Pistons are quietly putting on their best season since 2004.