January 1, 2006 in Sports

Pistons mum about pursuit of win record

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PHILADELPHIA – At 24-4 after Saturday’s 97-84 loss to Cleveland, the Detroit Pistons have left the rest of the Eastern Conference in the dust. Unless they have a catastrophic collapse, they’ll have home-court advantage through the conference finals. They’ve already opened up a sizable lead on the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and everybody else in the West for home-court edge in a possible Finals matchup.

So what’s left for them to accomplish, but … 70 victories in the regular season? Maybe even 72 wins, which would tie the Chicago Bulls of 1995-96 for the best mark in league history?

“I don’t think that that’s on no one’s mind on this ball club,” Rasheed Wallace said after the Pistons dispatched Miami on Thursday night, their ninth win in a row.

“Come see me in March,” Chauncey Billups said.

“It’s too early,” coach Flip Saunders said. “There’s so many things that can happen. I always say, you’re one injury away from being pretty average.”

To be sure, challenging the Bulls’ record is a long shot. As Saunders noted, the Pistons haven’t had one significant injury yet to their core group, and even the best teams hit a rough patch or two during a long, long season – like the San Antonio Spurs, whom many in the preseason thought could challenge 70 wins, but who dropped three games in the last two weeks after starting 18-4.

Well, they’re 24-4 now. Sure, it’s a stretch. But isn’t a run at 72 at least plausible?

“After Game 82,” Saunders said.

“Seventy is possible,” Ben Wallace said.

Aha!

“I believe anything is possible,” Wallace said. “If you work hard enough, good things will happen to you. When I watch film, watch the games, break down the tapes, and see how guys are out there and feeding off of each other, and showing by their body actions that they’re not really caring who takes the shot and who makes the shot, and just continue to play hard, it’s a little bit scary for me when I sit there and watch it on tape. By that, that’s what I say: Anything’s possible.”

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