<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'> It's becoming harder and harder to get a read on the Pistons. Ever since they upset the LA Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals they have been on a steady decline each subsequent year. In 2005 they reached the Finals but lost in seven games to the San Antonio Spurs. In 2006 they reached the Conference Finals but were eliminated by the eventual Champion Miami Heat. Then, last season, the team once again reached the Conference Finals, but lost to a team generally considered inferior - the Cleveland Cavaliers -who then got swept in the Finals by the Champion Spurs. </p> Despite the increasing setbacks, the Pistons are still considered one of the best, if not the best, teams in the East. There is no denying that their core is effective during the regular season, and likewise during the early parts of the playoffs, but they've appeared increasingly vulnerable to teams employing attacking wing players like LeBron James or Dwyane Wade late in the spring. There is no real explanation to be offered here except that, perhaps, the Pistons were never quite as good as everyone was led to believe. </p> Now, that isn't to say that they aren't a good team, as they have been mainstays in the Conference Finals for the last five years and that is nothing to sneeze at. But each year that goes by seems to crack at the myth that the Pistons truly are title contenders entering each season. At first many believed that complacency might have set it, or that an aging roster is a factor, or that the team simply needs people to doubt them to stoke their competitive juices. Whatever the explanation, the Pistons haven't looked this vulnerable going into a season since Jerry Stackhouse wore the red, white and blue.</div></p> http://www.tsn.ca/nba/news_story/?ID=217838&hubname=nba</p>
