Early Christmas?

It is difficult to explain how excited I am about this years Pistons. All year the team has appeared reinvigorated and excited to be playing basketball. After the letdowns of a Spurs series we let slip away, the Miami series that I can't talk about to this day, and the almost expected letdown of the Cleveland series last year it is safe to say that I was over this team. Hell, I was so frustrated with the way that the games were being called(see Wade and James getting foul calls every time they were defended) that I was pretty much disinterested with basketball as a sport.

We all witnessed what was almost the death of professional basketball. While the talking heads would have you believe that the rise of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were rescuing basketball from the clutches of grind-line-team-oriented-defensive-slow basketball, which had risen to success thanks to teams like the Spurs and the Carlisle and Brown-era Pistons, what was inadvertantly happening was that the game was moving toward an unwatchable and sloppy form. The game was being reduced to having one big star on the court, having him drive at the rim, have somebody breathe on him resulting in a foul and free-throws.

I understand the strategy in this form. It makes sense to use this advantage if it is available to you. If I was coach of the Cavs, I would call every play like this "get the ball to LeBron, and LeBron you charge at the rim and get the foul." However, this is disgusting to watch. I can't deal with it as a fan of the game. Luckily, I don't have to.

Thanks to the Pistons and Celtics the East has a legitimate rivalry that has transcended the ugliness of the Cavs and Heat, led by their respective mega-stars. Both teams, Pistons and Celtics, are playing inspired basketball right now. Each of these teams is not only playing at a superior level to everyone else in basketball, but they are having fun doing it.

I will continue this later but i am going to go eat tacos now! tacos are good!