Nets and Pistons -- One game for the future

Game 7. It's what every series should come down to. The Pistons will take on the Nets Thursday night, but there is so much more on the line than "Win or go home."

It's not about getting closer to the finals or earning the right to go up against the Indiana Pacers for Eastern Conference supremacy. This is about Detroit and New Jersey, one night. It's about legitimacy, bad blood, pain, and conflict. The loser will suffer more than winner will gain, because whoever advances still has to face Indiana.

What we have here are two teams that do not have the option of losing, or else their seasons will have been in futility and their future questionable.

First, let's look at the Pistons.

These two teams played for the right to represent the East in the Finals last year and the Nets swept the Pistons.

Fallout from the series was strange to say the least. Detroit fired their head coach Rick Carlisle, who had done an amazing job getting his team to overachieve that season. His emphasis on defense became the identity of his team, creating a superstar in Big Ben Wallace. However, Carlisle was not liked as a person by many.

In came Larry Brown, the coaching legend known for rejuvenating teams out of the dumpster, taking them almost to their peak and then walking out to find his next challenge. This time the coach was taking over a team that was not only one step away from the NBA Finals, but also through a shrewd trade and blind luck, was sitting on the No. 2 overall pick in an NBA Draft that would give them the opportunity to select Carmelo Anthony.

In his one season of college basketball, Anthony was perhaps the greatest freshman of all time. He was the primary scorer and dominant force that won that helped his team win the National Championship.

However, instead of taking Anthony, the Pistons looked to a distant future, and picked Darko Milicic, a 17-year-old, seven footer, who they decided would not be ready to play in the NBA this season, maybe not even within the next few years.

Detroit looked to the future, even though they were right at the doorstep of the NBA Finals. Thursday they face possible elimination and Darko will not play, while Carmelo, who took a team on his back and carried them to the playoffs in the loaded Western Conference, can not contribute with his 20 points per game average.

Rasheed Wallace, the gifted but sometimes out of control forward was acquired around the trade deadline. He was supposed to solve Detroit's main problem, being that they did not have enough scoring or a player that could come up with big baskets with the game on the line.

The back court of Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton has had their moments, but are both primarily jump shooters. Detroit wanted someone that could deliver the goods even if he is having an off night with his jump shot. What they got with Rasheed was something totally different and unexpectedly pleasant.

Their ferocious defense became even tougher. Wallace was apparently overlooked on the defensive end, and he would combine with Big Ben Wallace to solidify a defense that began shutting down their enemies at a record pace.

In today's NBA, it is an accomplishment to hold the other team to less than 85 to 90 points. The Pistons held five straight teams under 70! After that fifth game, they took on the Nets in New Jersey.

That night the bad blood between these teams boiled.

Detroit played their smothering defense. The Nets were held to just 69 points, and the streak would have continued, but while they trailed by 20 with time running out at the end of the game, New Jersey chose to foul a Pistons player, ensuring that the Nets would have one more chance with the ball to reach 70 points.

It worked out, and the streak ended, but the Nets were still losers in a blowout. Detroit players laughed at New Jersey's lame strategy that ended their fun. The Nets players were defensive and even angry. Even the typically cool headed and politically correct Jason Kidd was enraged, claiming that the Pistons have no right to gloat, since they were swept last year.

To understand this argument, one has to understand the psyche of the Kidd-era New Jersey Nets.

For the past two seasons leading into this one, the beast of the East has unquestionably been the New Jersey Nets. Kidd arrived in a trade and made this his team from day one. Their game is to get the ball to their star point guard, and go 100 miles an hour at the other team with two of the league's best high flying acrobatic and earth-shaking powerful dunkers -- Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson.

The rest of their game feeds off of this, but they can also get tough on the defensive end. Kidd to Kenyon and RJ should be the greatest show on hardwood. They should be on national TV constantly, and promoted as the most exciting brand of ball going today, but they are not.

Their home arena regularly does not fill up. Two straight trips to the finals, where the Nets obliterated their competition in the East, and showed remarkable mental toughness at the rare bumps in the road were not enough to draw the fans to them.

Their home arena is literally in a swamp, and the perception that they are not appreciated gives the New Jersey players a gargantuan chip on their shoulder. Though they won the East twice in a row, people don't respect that accomplishment because of the inferior competition they faced in those playoff runs. This results in the Nets constantly reminding the world that they are champions of the East.

The '03-'04 season saw a different Nets team. They were sloppy and Kidd seemed bored. Head coach Byron Scott was fired. It is extremely rare that a coach who brought his team to the finals twice in two years could be viewed as the problem, but it was true. His players lost respect for him, never understanding his wacky player substitutions or lack of intricate knowledge and preparation.

Enter Lawrence Frank, Scott's obsessive hard-driving assistant, all of 33 years old. He had never been a head coach, even on the college level, and here he was inheriting a pro team that had been to the Finals for two straight years. That's a tough act to follow, but Frank's promotion sparked the players, who have tremendous respect for his all-day all-night work ethic. The Nets won 13 in a row, with Kidd leading the way looking like the Hall of Famer that he is.

Detroit led this playoff series 2-0 heading to New Jersey. Brown, a man who has been coaching for decades, opened his mouth and said that, basically, by giving Frank the job, the Nets were saying that anyone can be a professional coach.

So the Nets evened the series up with two wins at home, sending it back out to Detroit for a game that will live on forever as a classic -- triple overtime. Frank was a better coach than Brown on that night.

Brown came back to Jersey and perhaps taught Frank a few things in Game 6, and the state had been set for Game 7.

So, it has come down to this. The winner gets to exhale a deep breath and then focus on Indiana, while the loser ... well, it could get ugly for them.

If Detroit loses, then Brown did a poorer coaching job than the man he was brought in to replace, who just so happens to be coaching those Indiana Pacers right now. Another question also will linger forever -- should they have chosen Anthony instead of Darko?

If New Jersey loses, then their previous two trips to the finals would be invalidated somewhat. Sure, they made it to the finals against lousy teams, but they couldn't get past their first major challenge -- the Wallaces. If Frank couldn't even make it to the East Final, let alone the championship round, maybe they were better off with Scott coaching all along. Brown would be vindicated in his criticism, and Frank would seem like that "any man" he was called out for being. In addition, who knows what the Nets roster would look like next season?

One team will win, one team has to lose in Game 7 on Thursday night. The pressure will be tremendous on both teams because this one's for the future.