When the Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 90-78 Wednesday night - clinching a playoff berth, taking the season series from Detroit 2-1, and earning an advantage in the race for homecourt advantage in the playoffs - the defending Eastern Conference finalists from Detroit took exception to how the boys in green celebrated. I can't blame them, either. The Celtics carried on as though they'd won the NBA title.
"It was a huge game for us and we knew that from Day One," Kevin Garnett said.
The Pistons dismissed the hyperbole and mocked the Celtics for getting ahead of themselves.
"Yeah, they did, they did," Pistons guard Rip Hamilton said at Madison Square Garden Friday. "We've been there before and we know what it feels like to actually win a lot of games."
The Boston-Detroit regular season series was extremely physical, a prelude to what would be a compelling Eastern Conference Finals. As long as Boston can hold onto its four-game lead over Detroit for the No. 1 seed, there's no reason to doubt that the Celtics will be there.
There's only one problem for the Pistons: The Cavs still have LeBron James, and once they adapt to the addition of Ben Wallace, Delonte West, and Wally Szczerbiak, they'll be a better team than they were last year when James single-handedly knocked the Pistons out of the conference finals.
The LBJ-KG matchup notwithstanding, a Cavs-Pistons conference final would be more compelling due to the obvious dislike festering between the teams.
UPDATE: These teams typically struggle after facing each other, but not so far after the regular season finale. Both are 2-0 since last Wednesday's tilt, with the Pistons beating the Knicks and Bulls and the Celtics beating the Bulls and Grizzlies.