Thomas Awakes Into 5-Minute Dream : Pistons: After timeout--and dose of smelling salts--he takes control with Detroit trailing, 90-80.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. —  It was the five minutes every player has ever hoped for, the stretch when it’s forever a warm Saturday afternoon on the playground, you’re on your game and the slow kid is playing defense.

“It’s almost like you’re two steps ahead of every player,” Isiah Thomas said. “It’s almost like slow motion. You get to see everything.”

You are everything.

“You just want to get him the ball,” said Mark Aguirre, a teammate in five minutes of basketball nirvana and real life, which Tuesday night became one and the same. “You want to get him the ball, get back on defense, rebound and get him the ball again. After you have the chance to think about it, it’s like, geez.”

Not long after the Detroit Pistons knocked off the Portland Trail Blazers, 105-99, in Game 1 of the NBA finals at the Palace of Auburn Hills, that was the general reaction. Isiah Thomas had finished with 33 points, seven rebounds and six assists, but no one will remember anything about his 12-point first half, or anything that happened in 90% of the rest of the game, for that matter.

This was about a stretch that started with the Trail Blazers leading, 90-80, with 7:05 to play and ended with the Pistons up, 99-94, with 1:50 showing. It was about hitting five of seven attempts--two three-pointers--and scoring 14 points, including 10 in a row for Detroit, and, more, about every player’s dream.

“It just happens,” Thomas said, not even trying to analyze the mechanics of his success. “It’s like your total game comes together in those four or five minutes.”

It happened at such an unexpected time, though. Not merely trailing by 10 when Coach Chuck Daly called timeout, the Pistons were dragging, perhaps from having played a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals. As if they were in a fog, Thomas said.

Mike Abdenour, the trainer, broke open some smelling salts. Thomas inhaled deeply and got a jolt as if he had been hit straight in the nose. In other words, just the reaction he wanted. The home crowd helped, too.

After the timeout, Thomas hit a short jumper in the lane. The next time down, he connected from 15 feet out on the left side. He didn’t sense anything yet.

“Not really,” Thomas said. “It just kind of happened. We were struggling, emotional-wise. I’ve always felt that in these situations, in Game 1, the visiting team has the advantage. We didn’t know what to expect from Portland, so I think we were very cautious, just kind of feeling our way around.”

A firm grip came soon enough. And when it did . . .

“I got an energy burst somewhere,” Thomas said. “A lot of energy. The crowd was into it. I was trying to get over the hump.

“It just happened. It’s like your total game comes together in those four or five minutes. That’s why you practice so hard, for that.

“Right then, at that moment, you’re not even thinking. Just feeling. Just feeling. Feeling real good.

“A lot of basketball players get it. A lot of times, it’ll happen to me in practice. I’ll hit eight or nine shots in a row like that in practice and I will feel like I’ve wasted it.”

He didn’t this time.

“You can’t really feel it. It just happens. Boom, it’s there. You just kind of smile.”