Something to think about with your Monday morning coffee:

The Pistons have 2 games left against Toronto and lets assume they win both. The Heat are 2 games behind Toronto but have a tie breaker over them. The Heat's remaining schedule could allow them to win their last 5 games. That scenario would move the Heat to the 3 spot and the Pistons, in theory, would not play the Heat until the conference finals.

With the home seed locked up, I think health and rest are more important.

With the sketchy refereeing in the NBA, facing the Heat on a bigger stage might allow too many league variables to come into play.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

yeah i'd rather face the heat while wade is still 'recovering'

That is a great point. To insure this, we should definitely let Toronto win.

Starting lineup:

Will Blalock
Lindsey Hunter
Ronald Dupree
Amir Johnson
Nazr Mohammed

^ That's actually not a bad lineup - hustle, high energy, speed. We might win anyway.

Are you kidding me?

If Amir starts vs Toronto with Nazr no way Toronto gets any points in the paint. Lindsey and Will will shut them down on the outside and Dupree will go for 40.

With that lineup you are proposing Flip would look like a genius and we would get stuck with him getting a contract extension without having to win a NBA Finals first.

I would rather see the Heat stay where they are so either Clev or Chic get them in the 1st round. That would setup an interesting scenerio of one of those 3 getting bounced in the 1st round. TOR has a 2 game lead which is huge at this point even if the Pistons do beat them.

At some point the Pistons will have a tough series and may have to play the Heat again. Nothing to shy away from. If they can't beat the Heat then they will not be able to do much against the West in the Finals.

I agree. I'd like to avoid them if at all possible.

I think we beat them, but I see an emotionally/physically draining series. I don't think the Pistons/Flip can win a series after beating the Heat unless it goes by quick and I think championship teams generally do not go down easily.

To me it would just be fun knowing that one of those 3 Heat, Chic or Clev are guranteed to lose in the 1st round.

It could also work to our advantage if say the Heat get Chic and that goes 7 while the Pistons put away Orlando or NJ in 4 or 5 games. Being able to jump on a tired team for games 1 and 2 would make a huge difference in a series with the Heat or Chic. Especially with the Heat with Wade kind of ailing.

What would the ECF be then? Det vs Clev or Tor? That would also workout as the Pistons would win in 5 or 6 and get some rest before the Finals.

Another way to look at it is that if they stay where they are, they could take down Cleveland or Chicago for us... preferably Chicago.

I'm more afraid of the Bulls and Mr. Big Benjamin Wallace than the Miami Heat with Snaq and Dwanye Wade.

The Bulls don't have that true center, so maybe Miami presents a tough mismatch for them and takes down a better team.


I guess there are a lot of factors and the bottom line is that we just gotta take care of our Eastern Conference business so that we can shut up all the experts once again on the grand stage.

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"Will was rolling, wasn't he? I roll with the guy that's hot." MC