Southeast Michigan Holds Its Collective Breath

With the economy in Michigan in horrid shape and no signs of a comeback imminent, sports have taken on a larger role in a state that was already crazy about its teams. So understandably, there is much fretting taking place on the state of the NBA and NHL playoffs. Let's start with the Pistons, shall we?

Here's Mitch Albom's column from this morning's Free Press. Basic gist: the Pistons were one Donyell Marshall shot away from a loss. And LeBron James didn't play that well. And furthermore, LeBron is pretty much the team. Zydrunas Ilgauskas (who is apparently only 32?!? Maybe I'm getting him confused with Sabonis?) is a rickety mess. Donyell Marshall is a stereotypical Timberwolves first round pick. Look at that list for a minute. Felton Spencer? Laettner? J.R. Rider? Paul Grant? William Avery? Ndudi Ebi? And Garnett just sticks out. It's crazy. But the Cavs. Does anyone other than LeBron have the talent of the top 8 in the Pistons rotation? They should be winning these games by 15-30 points.

What I like about this is that everyone's freaking out about LeBron's decision to pass to Marshall with 10 seconds left. Please, national news media, continue to ignore the Pistons and the fact that they are nearly blowing games to teams that are in danger of demotion to the NBDL.

And now, your Detroit Red Wings. The team that apparently could outshoot the 90-91 Québec
Nordiques 75-12 and lose because Ron Tugnutt made some amazing saves. Every year. "Well, they just ran into a hot goalie." Every year. When will a Wings goalie be "hot"? Why weren't these excuses made for Glen Hanlon? Or Cheveldae? Or Vernon or Osgood or Hasek the first time? We know Giguere is great. But you can't get 2 out of 50 shots past him and Hasek can't face more than 20 without giving up 3? Here's the plan, guys: SCORE. Get Hasek 3 goals. 3. And you'll win.

Wings in 7. Pistons in 5. The Tigers better keep chuggin.' I'm predicting 98 wins and a division title there.