i'd say both are true. after all, chicago just missed being the two seed in the east as a result of their play over 82 games. that's not a fluke. and miami may be weak, but they still swept themm with ease. they are young and quick, have some good shooters, and play pretty well within their limitations for the most part.

at the same time, the pistons clearly have not put in the effort (at least, in my view, not the mental effort) in the past two games except for brief periods and have not played to their strengths.

the heartbreaking thing for me is that their 7-0 run to start the playoffs made me kind of forget how the typical pistons playoff run goes. i don't remmeber my prediction now in theh playoff bracket, but i'd probably have said, before the playoffs, that we'd be 3-2 against chicago at this point and i'd have been fine with it. but i'm not fine with it now and it's cause those jerks got my hopes up that they were gonna make the playoffs easy on me this year. so much for that.

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