Pistons Stuck in the 70s

SAN ANTONIO —  Where were these guys last spring?

Laker history might have been a lot different if they had played this spring’s Pistons instead of last spring’s. This spring’s Pistons melted down in the fourth quarter of Game 1 Thursday, then came back Sunday, let the Spurs run a layup line through the first half, lost, 97-76, and are now down, 2-0, in the NBA Finals.

The Spurs shot 59% in the first half. Of their 20 field goals, an astonishing 13 were layups, dunks or tip-ins.

The Pistons haven’t even scored 80 points yet. So far, the combined score is 181-145.

On the bright side for the Pistons, they get to go home. That’s about the extent of their bright side at the moment.

“I hope so,” said Detroit Coach Larry Brown, asked whether going home would make a difference. “But the way [the Spurs] are playing, the way they’re executing, the contributions they’re getting from a lot of people, they just dominated two ballgames.”

The Pistons flew here from Miami by way of Detroit, coming off an exhausting seven-game series, and said they felt it in Game 1. Sunday, however, they were well-rested after two off-days.

“That game [the opener] was a really difficult game for us under any circumstances,” Brown said before Sunday’s game, “after the Miami series and what winning Game 6 and Game 7 meant to us and how much energy and effort we put forth in that.

“And then all of a sudden to turn right around and play the best team away from home, that was a huge task. Even if we had been well-rested and had time to prepare.

“So we watched the films, we saw the things that they did great [and] we need to do better and we’re going to move on.”

So much for the rest theory.

Sunday’s game was so one-sided, the Spurs barely bothered to go to their top two options, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Duncan took only 10 shots (making five and scoring 18 points). Ginobili took only eight (making six and scoring 27).

The Spurs spread the Pistons out, cut them to pieces with drives and, when the Pistons tried to help out, bombed them over the top, making 11 of 24 three-point tries (to the Pistons 0 for 6).

“They were beautiful to watch in terms of their execution,” said Brown. “... You know 11 of 24 is pretty tough, but I think a lot of their shots were open shots as a result of good ball movement.”

The Pistons had more problems than the Spurs. Led by volatile Rasheed Wallace, the league leader, they were No. 1 in the NBA in technical fouls and got three more Sunday night (Brown, Richard Hamilton, Chauncey Billups). Things got so bad, Wallace had to be the peacemaker, restraining the normally inoffensive Hamilton from going after referee Dan Crawford.

The Pistons have been going at the officials all postseason and sensed the old disrespect once more Sunday when both Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince got in early foul trouble, picking up two apiece in the first quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Pistons cut San Antonio’s 20-point lead to 81-73 but then Ginobili started driving, getting calls, going to the foul line and making free throws. The Spurs finished the game on a 26-13 run and the rout was back on.

“You know, it was free throw after free throw, free throw after free throw,” complained Billups.

“You know,” said Brown, “when you take 24 threes out of 62 shots and you shoot 34 free throws [as the Spurs did], I haven’t been in a lot of games like that.”

Brown was also asked if the Pistons weren’t getting too involved with the referees.

“Next question,” he said.

Last spring in Auburn Hills, the Pistons ran the Lakers over in three consecutive wins. Of course, the Lakers had lost Karl Malone and Horace Grant. The Spurs are healthy and on fire.

Before Sunday’s game, Commissioner David Stern announced the league was delighted with this matchup, “contrary to what may have been written. ... It’s great to have a defending champion defending its championship on the floor.”

Appearances notwithstanding, the Pistons are the defending champions Stern is talking about.

So far, this is a Finals only a commissioner could love.