This Might Be a Good Time for Daly to Put Panic Button in Pocket

CHICAGO —  The Detroit Pistons appear to have confused the idea of following the bouncing ball with playing like one. Yet only Isiah Thomas appears concerned.

Coach Chuck Daly knows only too well the gruesome details of this nosedive, anticipates only too cleverly the doomsday questions and shoves both out of the way with a generous sweep of his arm.

After a 13-2 start (the best in club history), after eight losses in the last 10 games, after four straight losses on the road, after getting hammered 98-86 by archrival Chicago on Christmas Day, the two-time defending NBA titleists are 16-11.

Daly’s what-me-worry? grin says . . . so what? His demeanor suggests that he hasn’t reached for the panic button in so long that he probably forgot where he flung it after the last time.

After 27 games last season, Daly reminds us, the Pistons were 17-10. He seems secure in the knowledge that the players, without much interference from himself (or anyone else for that matter), will take care of the big problems themselves. Maybe early in the season is the time to be cavalier.

Not so the doubting Thomas.

“I keep telling people this is a little bit different. Last year, when we were losing, we were playing hard. We don’t have the same type of attitude to win,” he said. “We don’t have the right, proper frame of mind. Until we get that, we’ll be bouncing up and down all season.”

“We have the talent,” Thomas added, his voice trailing off ominously, “but if you don’t make full use of it. . . .”

You get beat. The comfortable world the champions have known these last few seasons has changed dramatically.

Forget for the moment that whichever Western Conference opponent winds up standing in the way of a three-peat, most likely the rugged, much more versatile Trail Blazers, it will put up more resistance than the swinging gate they have proven in recent years. The Pistons still have to get there.

And closer to home, in the Eastern Conference, Boston has proven it is back in a big way, Philadelphia is deeper and more dangerous, Milwaukee no longer guarantees Holiday Inn-type visits (“No surprises”) and after Tuesday night, even the Bulls, three straight years the Pistons’ playoff foil, the last two in the conference finals, will not be so quick to back down.

Daly is surely right when he notes that Detroit is still in the forefront of the league’s most dangerous teams, that when the Pistons are on--playing with alertness and intensity--”we’re some kind of basketball team.”

But Thomas is surely just as right when he cautions that NBA championship rings are not the result of getting up for some games and not others. And that simply paying attention is not the same as paying the price.

Thomas is not so pessimistic that he rules out a return to form in the near term if the Pistons start paying attention to the task at hand. But based on what he is seeing in opponents’ eyes, Thomas is considerably gloomier about a return to championship form.

Asked what it would require, he was straightforward. “A different attitude,” Thomas said. “Or different people.”

Just before leaving Chicago Stadium, teammate Joe Dumars confided that, despite nearly identical records, he too felt the Pistons were not playing as well as last year, adding, “It’s not time to panic with so many games to go.”

Maybe not. But this might be a good time for Daly to start rummaging around for the button--just in case it comes in handy.