<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">AUBURN HILLS -- History is a great teaching tool, and Pistons coach Larry Brown is certainly a very interested student. He's given some thought to last year's championship team, as well as how this year's edition seems to be shaping up for the playoff run. The Pistons have five games remaining in the regular season. "We were by far the best team in the league last year when the playoffs started," Brown said. "People had a hard time scoring against us. Every time we walked out on the court, I think we all felt that we were going to win the game. And we were deep, because Mike James, Corliss (Williamson) and Memo (Okur) and Elden (Campbell) gave us an unbelievable bench. "This year, I don't know if our bench has established itself like last year. (Antonio) McDyess certainly has, and we still have Elden, but maybe that's my fault. Maybe we have not given them enough opportunity." Despite the unusually strange up-and-down ride of this regular season, Brown still is very optimistic about the coming playoffs. "Confidence is a huge thing, and our guys had it last year," Brown said. "And yeah, I think they have it now. We've been playing better. We're a team that has a mark on its back, and that's not an easy thing to do, to be up there every game. Last year, that was something we were pretty special at. We're getting back to that. "The most important thing is to play the best basketball when the playoffs start, and we were doing that last year. Hopefully that will be something we can all recognize when we play the playoffs this year." </div> Source
