By Rich Levine
Thursday, January 23rd, 2003
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A quick look at the Detroit Pistons roster won't necessarily create
much excitement. Chauncey Billups? Decent guard, but a journeyman
who doesn't quite fit in anywhere. Michael Curry? Wasn't he in
Hangin' With Mr. Cooper? (No, that was Mark Curry.)
Jon Barry? Not quite Brent and not even close to Rick
(netter than Drew, though). Zeljko Rebraca? God bless
him...
While some of the worst teams in the NBA, such as the Knicks (Allan
Houston and Latrell Sprewell), the Bucks (Sam Cassell
and Ray Allen), and the Hawks (Glenn Robinson, Shareef
Abdur-Rahim, and Jason Terry) have rosters with two or more all-stars,
the Pistons have a group of no-names that are putting these teams to shame.
I, for one, thought last year was a fluke, but man, was I wrong. The loss
of Jerry Stackhouse this past offseason seemed like it would put an
end to the Pistons' sudden return to the upper echelon of the NBA. Where
was the scoring going to come from? Sure, they picked up Rip Hamilton,
but after never quite clicking with His Airness in Washington,
was he really going to be the Pistons' go-to guy?
So who, you might ask, is doing the scoring for the team with the Eastern
Conference's third-best record? The answer is no one. In the entire NBA,
the Piston rank only in front of the pitiful Cavs, disgraceful
Raptors, boring Heat, and sorry Nuggets, with a 90.2
ppg scoring average. Still, they win.
Why do they win? The answer is simple. The answer is Ben Wallace.
Watching this guy run up and down the court is a thing of beauty. He is one
of the most dominating players in the league, despite having the offensive
skills of a third-grader, and he is the centerpiece of a team that has once
again risen to the top of the league.
Despite only scoring 90 points a game, the Pistons only give up 86 (best
in the league), and you can be sure that Wallace's 15 boards and almost 3
blocks a game are the main reason. And that doesn't even count the number
of shots that he doesn't quite block, but surely alters as a result of his
beastly presence.
When's the last time an NBA all-star averaged less than 10 points a game?
Has it ever happened? Well, Big Ben is going to be starting at center for
the Eastern Conference this season and he is averaging a whopping 6.5 point
a game. (Just for the record: this is still a full point more a game than
everyone's favorite fat slob, Vin Baker, is posting). If that isn't
a testament of how unbelievably dominating this guy is away from the ball,
then I don't know what is.
If you have yet to catch a Pistons' game on TV this year as a result of their
rather boring style of play and lack of superstar appeal, I beg you to give
them a shot. But if you can't, don't worry, because come May, they'll still
be around in the playoffs, mixing it up for the Eastern Conference title.
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