On the eve of April in the D, "the headline right now is the Pistons," says Jim Costa. "A team that was an afterthought a year ago is taking no prisoners. The Pistons are fighting for home court in the NBA playoffs. This is the best team playing right now in the city."
The Pistons have tripled their win total from last season, just the second team in NBA history to accomplish that feat -- and the first to do it over the course of two 82-game seasons. They're also re-establishing their identity as Bad Boys, as they showed again Sunday night against the Timberwolves when a fight between Ron Holland and Donte DiVincenzo that spilled into the stands led to four Pistons getting ejected, including head coach J.B. Bickertstaff.
"They are literally fighting for their spot in the NBA right now," says Costa. "I like what happened yesterday. I’m not going to like it if it happens in the NBA playoffs where they’re getting three guys and the head coach thrown out of the game, but I like that this team has taken no prisoners, that they have each other’s back. It’s a non-negotiable, J.B. Bickerstaff’s words. They lost the game. I’m not sweating it. I think they win that game if those guys don't get tossed."
Jansen says the reaction from DiVincenzo and the Timberwolves after Holland laid a hand on Naz Reid as Reid was driving to the basket was "really weak. It was a very common foul. Ron Holland is just trying to prevent a guy from getting an easy lay-up and then all of a sudden they’re going to turn around and say, 'I had a clear path to the basket, what are you doing touching me? How dare you play defense?'"
If the Pistons find a way to win a playoff series for the first time in 17 years, "it's going to be because this team understands what it’s going to take for them to win," Jansen adds. "Some teams don’t have to play great defense because they’re just that great offensively, but for the Pistons to win, they have to play an aggressive style of defense.
"So you’re not going to get gimme lay-ups. You’re just not. That’s not in the Pistons DNA."
With seven games to go, the Pistons are fifth in the East and 1.5 games behind the Pacers for the fourth seed and home-court advantage in the first round. The main story in Detroit as we head into April is the Pistons' "march back to relevance," says Costa, "and they're doing it in a familiar way, a way that everybody loves."
"When Isaiah Stewart gets tossed, he's holding up the 'Detroit' on his jersey on the way out -- this is who we are, we're not going anywhere. If you're going to play us, we're going to defend, we're going to foul and if you want to push us, we're going to push right back."
"And it's not about the name on the back, it's the one on the front," says Jansen. "That's a rarity in professional sports, but especially in the NBA."