It took a while to figure out and even longer to finish, but the Detroit Pistons learned a few things clawing their way back from a 3-1 hole against the “underdog” Orlando Magic.
They learned that No. 8 seeds aren’t always 8-seeds, and that the regular season doesn’t mean squat once the second season − the NBA playoffs − begins.
Mostly, they learned a few things about themselves, like how easy it is to get to thinking you’re all that.
The Pistons got their comeuppance good and quick. Hubris got em’ in Game 1. Looking back, the result was predictable.
As Ausar Thompson said Sunday, May 3, at Little Caesars Arena, after the Pistons escaped their first-round series in seven tough games:
“We came in like we’d done something the first 82 games. Orlando came in like they had something to prove.”
They’re young; that was part of it. Inexperienced, too, at least in the ways of playoff mind-game warfare. It’s not that they didn’t take Orlando seriously, or that they didn’t try, or that they thought they’d show up and casually broom the Magic back to Florida.
Casual, it turns out, was the word that helped turn the series. It came from the lips of Tobias Harris, the vet who vowed he’d never again be part of a team where issues weren’t discussed. And so, he sat in the interview room at the Kia Center after the Game 4 loss, and the Pistons had fallen behind, 3-1, and laid it bare.
“We’re a little too casual,” he said, “Everybody knows that in our locker room.”
Yeah, because he made sure they knew it. He also made sure they knew this:
“We’ve just got to be in the moment of what this is. This is playoff basketball. We’ve got to be more … more ready to just go out and there and scrap like we need it.”
Tobias Harris’ message: Received
Scrap like they need it? How about scrap like they wanted it − and had to earn it. They hadn’t shown near enough of that through the first four games.
That was a lesson, too.
They bought Harris’ message and played the next game like they’d been liberated. Cade Cunningham said they played more freely. He certainly did and scored 45 to drag them over the finish line.
And though they weren’t ready – yet again – to start Game 6, they found something at halftime and ripped off one of the best comebacks in NBA playoff history. They didn’t wait until halftime of Game 7. They were flying around from the start.
Finally, they looked like themselves for an entire game, the team we saw for most of the winter. And from the coach to the superstar to the sage to the otherworldly defender, the lesson learned was the same:
Be who you are and not anything else. And don’t conflate what you’ve done with what’s ahead.
Harris kept the youngsters grounded and accountable, telling them what they needed to hear every day.
“Super-proud of this team,” he said.
Just as his coach is more than proud of him.
“Nobody can say [expletive] to me about Tobias,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
Now they know
He wasn’t grinning. He was making a point. And reminding … what Harris means to the team, yes, but also what this team can still be.
Bickerstaff didn’t mind that his squad had to go through it to get to the second round, with the 4-seed Cleveland Cavaliers up next. He believes they will be better for it.
“I know a lot of people would have liked it to just be easier,” he said, “but I think it was great for our guys. To go through what they went through, to understand what it looks like and where they have to be in order to get it done, we understand that now and we take that with us to the second round.”
Oh, there will be plenty to learn as the journey continues, and as the intensity and stakes pile up. Though you can bet the Pistons won’t be getting ahead of themselves anytime soon.
Matchups and stylistic differences matter, of course, and sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in. But the Pistons lost three of the first four to Orlando because they weren’t ready to compete. Not consistently.
Not as they had for so much of the season.
Fortunately, they know that now. And get the chance to prove they do with another round in the postseason.
“We were pushed to the limit,” said Cunningham, “and it made us really reflect on how we were playing, what got us to this position and what made us win as many games as we did in the regular season.”
It’s easy to forget who you are when you’re young, and easy to look too far over the horizon. The Pistons got humbled early in this series. Then used humility to regain what had made them … well, them.
Self-awareness is the first step to righteousness. These Pistons deserve credit for chatting about their lack of it.
Now they know.
As Cunningham said, the journey “got us back to playing the basketball that we knew we were capable of … [and back to thinking] we can do anything.”
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pistons know what went wrong vs Magic. They won’t do it again vs Cavs
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
